Did you know that you can make extra money by shortening URLs? If you love to share links to your favorite pics and videos to friends and family, then you have the opportunity to earn money from links by using URL shortening services. AdFly and Shorte.st are two such services that transform long unreadable links into shorter ones that you can easily share with others.
For example, if you wanted to share a link to my blog on some social media site, instead of sharing the link: https://steemit.com/@black-ice, you'd give out the much shorter link: festyy.com/wb827n. Quite handy if you're trying to avoid hitting the 140 character limit on Twitter!
How Does It Work?
When a user clicks on your shortened link, she's taken to a page that displays an ad for about 5 seconds. After the time is up, the user can then proceed to your shared link. You have control over the ad format that's displayed. At the time of this posting, one can earn about $15 for every 1,000 US visitors via AdFly! In addition to that, AdFly and Shorte.st allow you to earn 20% percent of the money that your friends earn if you refer them. And, Shorte.st allows you to earn $1 for the first 100 views that you get on your links. No matter which country you are from or what language you speak, you can get paid as soon as you earn $5!
These link shorteners provide quite useful statistics from the clicks that you receive. You have access to the number of clicks, the amount earned per click, a breakdown by country, and the sites that users are coming from. This data is valuable for increasing your click rate which will lead to higher income.
If, you're looking for ideas on where to promote your links, consider Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Google+, Tumblr, Twitch, 4chan, Whatsapp, and Craigslist to name a few. Just make sure to read through the terms of service to avoid breaking any rules that may get your account banned or flagged as a spammer.
Adult Links
If instead, you wish to promote adult links or monetize nsfw content, you cannot use most of these URL shorteners since the linking of mature content is against the terms of service and will result in the immediate termination of your account. You must use a shortening service that specializes in shrinking adult-oriented links, such as Adult.xyz. If you own an adult site or have a blog with adult download files, you will be able to promote your links without having to worry about getting banned for mature content.
Paid link shorteners are a good method for beginners who desire to start making money online. There's no risk of losing any money since they are free to join and use. Since your shortened links have no expiration date, you can be sure that you'll continually earn money through your links long after you've posted them.