Short URLs
My friend Beegee asked me why her YouTube links look so long, while her friends’ URLs are so short. URL Shortening services are the answer.
A URL like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AxwaszFbDw can be shortened to: http://tinyurl.com/7u72nb
The most popular URL shortener is probably TinyURL. In 2009, Twitter replaced TinyURL with Bit.ly as its default shortener of links longer than 26 characters. There are dozens of services to choose from. A 2008 Mashable article collected over 90 URL shortening services. By the way, WordPress even offers its own “Get Shortlink” feature for your blog posts.
There are a few ways to shorten a long URL:
- Visit an online site, like TinyURL; enter your long URL to receive a shortened version
- Install a browser add-on, like the Shorten URL for Firefox (up to version 3.5), or Tiny’s toolbar
- Install short URL software on your machine
Problems
Due to spam and other concerns, some websites (including Craigslist, MySpace and Yahoo) ban the use of certain shortened URLs. Another problem with sending short URLs is that the recipient (if they are not familiar with the short URL service) may consider the link a phishing attempt and not visit your link. Personally, I like to know the site I’m visiting. So unless I really trust the sender, to protect myself, I won’t click on an abbreviated URL from a third-party service.
Solutions
When pasting a long URL in an email, sometimes the URL breaks on to 2 lines. When the recipient clicks on the link, the URL may be cutoff – resulting in an error page. You can often prevent this by wrapping long URLs in angle brackets, like <http://www.marketingbymarlow.com/messenger/index.php/2010/06/short-urls/>.
Short URL services
Resources
Pawstruck
Pawstruck (paw-struck) adjective: an immediate intense affection for a cat or dog.
noun: 1. a pet publication; 2. an animal welfare fundraising event; 3. an animal-related advertising campaign.
Jen and I found this affectionate cat climbing around our house. We were immediately pawstruck. We fed her for a few nights, considering pet adoption.
Our neighbor Kirsten suggested posting a Found Pet notice on the West Seattle Blog. Within a day, the cat and her owner were joyfully reunited.
So, I purchased the domain, www.PawStruck.com in memory of our favorite temporary guest. I’m not certain where I’ll find a home for this one yet, but I’m sure it’ll be love at first bite.
Creating Updates That Save Time
Another nonprofit client converted from a WordPress.com standard theme to a self-hosted WordPress theme skinned to match their existing brand ID.
StopDaddy: GoDaddy Alternative
My clients and I successfully registered dozens of domain names, including my own, through GoDaddy. This domain registrar is affordable, provides great customer service, and has become the go-to source to register a domain.
Unfortunately, GoDaddy’s navigation and site usability is a nightmare. And I grow tired of the constant ‘would-you-like-fries-with-that’ sales approach. Plus, I’m not a big fan of corporations with politically conservative leanings.
In 2009, the Go Daddy Group spent $538,000 on lobbying. In 2008, the Group contributed $37,200 to the Republican Party (vs. $250 to the Democratic Party). Source: OpenSecrets.org.
While I’m all for individuals making their own political choices, I do not like paying vendors to use my money to further their personal agendas.
I’ll keep looking for a truly neutral domain registrar (where’s the Working Assets progressive registrar that donates to nonprofits?). Meanwhile, clients can register new domain names at my Registry Rocket account (a service of eNom, based locally in Bellevue, Washington).
I recommend purchasing/renewing domains for two years to help with search engine optimization.
The Digital Eve listserv recently compiled some other recommended domain registrars – including: Dotster and Hover.
For information about GoDaddy’s poor customer service, visit nodaddy.com.
Claim Your Blog at Technorati
Technorati is a blog-specific search engine that indexes 112 million blogs. To add your blog to Technorat:
- Create an account at technorati.com
- Verify your account by clicking on the link that Technorati emails you
- Check your Claim Status
- Create a blog post that includes your unique token, like MF2B68NAKRS2
- Verify Claim Token at Technorati
Why do you have to add your blog to a search engine? I don’t really know since Google’s blog search already indexes my blog content. In fact, that same content also exists in Google’s regular search index.
And Bing.com? Yeah, they index my blog content too. No registration. No claiming. No verifying.
Time for a ReOrg
Below are some excerpts from New Economy Superstar, an abbreviated version of Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation, with takes from Seth Godin’s Small Is the New Big.
…most work in the future is organized as temporary combinations of very small companies, even individual contractors. This is already common in the movie industry. Imagine an AT&T that breaks up not into two or three different companies, but two or three hundred thousand different
companies.
—Thomas Malone, Re-Organization Man
In a highly volatile, hyper-innovative economy in which the means of production, distribution, and marketing are relatively inexpensive and available to anyone, the race goes to the fleetest of foot, not the biggest of bulk.
—Richard Hooker, The Post-Employment Economy, Part 1
… under pressure from an uncertain economy, bosses are discovering that there are a lot of reasons not to pay you to drive to a central location or even to pay you at all. And when work gets auctioned off to the lowest bidder, your job gets a lot more stressful.
—Seth Godin, The Last Days of Cubicle Life
Part of the economic failure we’re seeing right now comes to this hard truth – big companies have let all of us down. We’ve been let down as citizens, consumers, investors and employees. Companies wasted resources and lined the pockets of executives. As I watched the economy start to sink and I realized that some profitable companies were starting to use the poor economy as a way to cut costs, I knew it was time to get real and stop counting on the Corporate American Dream.
—Lee Stranahan, Why I Quit My Job And Bet On My Own Creativity
Everywhere you look, you might notice a new kind of flexible, smart small business. They serve a relatively small number of people. Big businesses drool over their profit margins and adaptability. Their customers are knocked out by what they do and how they do it. Oh, and one more thing. They’re taking over the world.
—Sonia Simone, Finding Your Village of Customers
Involuntary entrepreneurship” is now creating tens of thousands of small businesses and a huge market of contract and freelance labor. Many will take full-time jobs again once they become available, but many others will choose not to. The crisis may have turned our economy into small pieces, loosely joined, but it will be the collective action of millions of workers hungry for change that keeps it that way.
—Chris Anderson, The New New Economy: More Startups, Fewer Giants,
Infinite Opportunity
For the future, the trend to bet on seems to be networks of small, autonomous groups whose performance is measured individually. And the societies that win will be the ones with the least impedance.
—Paul Graham, The High-Res Society
Traditional employment will still be how most people pursue a career. That’s where most people are comfortable, so I don’t think it will change for the majority. The difference is that traditional employment can no longer be considered the “safe” option. For years, entrepreneurs have been viewed as risk-takers, but personally I think it’s far riskier to depend on someone else for your well-being. Ironically, I view entrepreneurship as a much safer option.
—Chris Guillebeau, The Art of Nonconformity
More from Corbett Barr:
On average, the 500 companies in the S&P 500 index make nearly $500,000 in revenue per employee… Regular non-executive employees at those companies earn anywhere from minimum wage (about $14,500 in the U.S.) to a max of maybe $200,000. Meanwhile, CEOs at those companies were paid $10.4 million dollars in total compensation on average last year…
When you work for yourself, you throw a little stone at the corporate power structure that is destroying the American middle class. That may be the best chance society has of returning to greater economic equality.
Real wages haven’t increased for the average American worker for over 40 years, and yet during the same time, incomes of the top 1% of Americans more than doubled. CEO pay grew over that period 39 times.