How to Create a Custom URL Shortener
If you're a Twitter addict like myself, then you probably see URL shorteners all the time. For those not aware, a URL shortener does exactly what it sounds like. It shortens a long URL into something that's much easier on the eyes. Some of the more popular shortener services are bit.ly, TinyURL and especially t.co, which is officially owned by Twitter. What if you want to take it a step further and use your own custom domain? Luckily, it's incredibly easy to do. Follow the two steps below and you'll be snipping URLs in no time.
1. Purchase a domain
Without a domain, this isn't going to work very well. I recommend Go Daddy for domain purchases. I've been using them for a few years now and I highly recommend their services. Not only are they great, but I'm also going to save you a few dollars. I encourage you to use any of my discount codes at checkout. When choosing a domain, try to use something that is short and simple to understand. I was fortunate enough to grab the domain difran.co, which is working perfectly.
2. Register a bit.ly Pro account
In order to map your custom domain, you need to first sign up for a bit.ly Pro account, which is completely free. After doing so, bit.ly will walk you through how to make the magic happen. Once the process is complete, try it out for yourself to make sure everything was configured correctly. Sometimes it may take a couple minutes to become active.
And just like that, you're up and running! Now that you have a bit.ly account, don't forget to check out the analytics tools in your Pro Dashboard. This allows you to monitor real-time traffic, including how many clicks your shortened URLs receive, as seen on the right. Monitoring traffic is a great way to gain an understanding of who is viewing your website and where they're coming from.
If you have any questions regarding this process, feel free to ask. I realize mapping a domain may be new to some users, so I am always happy to help. Snip away!
Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 12:41PM 
Reader Comments (8)
Great article, David! Helps a lot!
Thanks, David! I've been looking for information on how to create a URL shortner; this is just what I was looking for!
You have my inspired to do this! Now to figure out a domain...
Nice article! of course, for those of us who have websites, the alternative is to use a php script with a mysql database. However, for those who don't have a web hosting account, or who don't want to use such a script, this is a fantastic alternative!
No offense, but I think this is a pretty bad way to start a URL shortener. It would be just as easy, and have shorter URLs if you installed something like yours. Then you could own your own data and have a full range of custom URLs at your disposal.
Tough this is just my opinion. I guess I could see where this bit.ly solution would work if you did now know much about websites or did not have (or want to pay for) webhosting.
Josh, this doesn't have to do with how much someone knows about websites. bit.ly Pro is simply my preferred method for this sort of thing. It works perfectly fine for my needs.
I have also looked at awe.sm, but they charge :) What if I want to shorten a custom URL (so that I can track down to the user level) e.g. difran.co/adrian456?
My problem is in generating the unique URL ... do you know if there's a tool that can do that?
I can't seem to get this to work. bit.ly tells me to change/set an A Record to a given ip address but godaddy wants a host name in addition to the ip. Is my host name my url? a nameserver? bit.ly? what?