Getting people attention online is hard enough, with newsfeeds continuing to be slammed with content and trying to convince people to click on a long, jumbled link is not an easy sell. People spend very little time looking at posts in their feed, and if your post isn’t as clean and attention-grabbing as possible, you’ll miss out on clicks.
Long keyword-rich URLs might be great for search engines, and tracking might be great for your analytics, but from your audience’s perspective, a link that is too long is perceived to be spammy, and you’ll get shut down before you can make your case on why they should read your content and scroll past it.
To avoid being perceived as spammy, doing too much tracking, sloppy or eliminating mistakes on URL rendering in different platforms, link shorteners can help turn your links into clean, consistent, and clickable URLs.
What is a link shortener?
A URL shortener is a tool that takes any long URL and turns it into a shorter, easily readable and copyable URL you would like to use and share in your marketing efforts. Short URLs are not only great for branding but also for those of us who can’t copy and paste correctly and tend to break links; sharing a short link makes it easier for users to read, click on, copy and share in their networks.
To clarify a URL shortener is the same as a link shortener, link shrinker, a link compressor… a URL condenser or a vanity URL. So if you hear these terms thrown around you’ll know we’re speaking about the same thing.
Why would you want a link shortener?
As mentioned before you might use it for cleaner links that drive better click-through, to hide tracking that provides you with better traffic attribution data or as a way to identify certain links from others.
A custom, or branded URL shortener, is when you’ve connected a specific or custom domain to a URL shortener which acts as a base for all the short links you create. Instead of using a generic domain such as bit.ly or rebrand.ly, you can pick your own.
What can you do with Lnshort.it?
Unlike your traditional link shortening tools, which are only there to either create a vanity URL or hide marketing tracking LNshort.it offers you four different shortening options, namely:
URL redirect
Redirect your existing, long URL to a shorter one and attract visitors with your short and easy to understand URL like lnshort.it/[your-postfix] IE – lnshort.it/TBM
Lightning node
It’s always hard to remember your node pub key. Register your pubkey and use your Lnshort.it address for instant Lightning keysend payments.
QR Code
Need data in a QR code? Register any kind of data to our redirect and scan in using your QR code scanner on your mobile phone.
Lightning Invoice
Share your LN-URL invoice with others as a QR code. This QR code can, for example, short URLs can be used for donations at events.
What is the cost to use Lnshort.it?
Since LNshort.it uses Lightning, they can offer a granular payment structure, and their pricing model is based on the length of time you need the redirection. The longer periods, the cheaper price per day to maintain the redirect.
Lnshort.it only accepts bitcoin via Network, and you can purchase a shortened link for the following time periods.
- 1 week = 5 sats
- 1 month = 15 sats
- 1 year = 100 sats
The pricing structure is reasonable and offers value for money when compared to other service providers. I would encourage you to shop around and price compare before you make your decision, but a quick look at other providers will put this pricing into perspective rather quickly.
There are other companies offering URL shorteners for free, and this may work for some of you who don’t use it often. Still, if you’re creating shortened URLs for campaigns or want to track clicks and performance, you’ll probably use more than 50 URLs, which could easily cost you $100 a year or more to maintain.
The individual billing is refreshing, and I think it gives people more granular control over their link creation and budget. I would like to see further options like purchasing a custom shortened domain and offering to brand custom short links as a premium offer which I think would be more appealing to companies and individuals who heavily rely on social media for traffic.
Another feature I think would make this service a lot more helpful is a bulk upload. If you could copy and paste a spreadsheet and build and pay for multiple links in one batch, as we marketers tend to do, it would not only save time for users but increase the average order value for the service.
Get the app
There you have it, another tool you can use to improve your Lightning experience and make your life a little easier. If you’re new to the Lightning Network and you’re only getting started with your node and all the things you can and should do, it can be overwhelming but take your time to learn more about each app and why you would want it added to your Lightning stack.
Applications like Lnshort.it give you a reason to try out Lightning, spend your sats, distribute the coins, support bitcoin native businesses and get access to features you would have paid for with a fiat tech company.
Sources:
If you would like to learn more about Lnshort.it and dive down the rabbit hole, we recommend checking out the following resources.
Are you a bitcoin and lightning fan?
Have you been using Lightning to make micro-payments? Stream sats or engage with apps? Which app is your favourite? Have you tried all the forms of Lightning payments? Which one do you prefer? Let us know in the comments down below.
