For those of you that follow me on Twitter and / or subscribe to my newsletters, you’ve probably noticed that I use a URL shortener for links to my articles. Since the URL for this website is fairly long (http://www.prodigyproductionsllc.com), shortening the full URL is a must. Not only does this make the URLs easier to post on websites and Twitter, it also makes the URLs easier to remember, pass along via word of mouth, and for sending via text messaging. But, how did I start my own URL shortening website? Good question. That’s what I’m going to teach you to do now.
The first thing you need for creating your own URL shortening website is a place to host it. Since I own a website design and hosting company, feel free to contact me about hosting your URL shortening website for you. Or, you can pick from any of the millions of website hosts out there on the internet. Just be sure that whoever you choose to host your site provides PHP & MySQL support. Most web hosting companies do provide PHP & MySQL support, but I have seen quite a few that do not. If you’re already running a WordPress blog, then you are good to go.
The next thing you’ll need for creating your own URL shortening website is of course a short URL of your own. This is what will make or break your URL shortening service. So, be sure to pick something that is relatively small: the smaller the better. The URL for my URL shortening service is http://prodi.us. It sticks to the whole PRODigy PRODuctions motif, but still provides a nice, short URL that’s easy to remember and use. You can choose from any of the TLDs (Top Level Domains) such as .ly, .us, etc… Be creative.
After you have a place to host your website and have registered a nice, short URL, it’s time for the software that makes the magic happen. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you “YOURLS“. Yourls is a PHP framework that allows you to create short URLs from longer URLs. It comes complete with an admin console that allows you to add, edit, and delete URLs from your database. The admin console also provides you with statistics for each of your shortened URLs. It shows you exactly how many times each URL has been redirected. Heck, it even shows you your traffic locations and sources!
Yourls is extremely easy to setup and even easier to use. Yourls even comes equipped with a WordPress plugin that can make your life even simpler. To install Yourls, all you have to do is copy a folder that they provide onto your webserver, click a button or two, and you’re finished. It’s way too easy, but that’s a good thing! I’m not going to go into details of how to install or setup the Yourls framework. The Yourls creators have already done a terrific job of explaining that here.
So, if you’re looking to have your own URL shortening service, I STRONGLY recommend that you checkout http://yourls.org. I’m not sure there’s anything better out there. If there is, I won’t be looking for it since I’ve already found Yourls! I love it and so will you!
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[...] When posting to Twitter, I would recommend that you use any of the free URL shortening services out there so that you can be sure to get your full URL in there and still have room to include some good text that pertains to the article you just posted. I have my own URL shortening website that I use to do this. In fact, I even have a WordPress plugin that I wrote that automagically shortens the URLs for any new articles I post. This saves me a lot of time and provides me with a ready to use shortened URL for tweeting. Be sure to checkout my article about creating your own URL shortening webservice by clicking here. [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by PRO Legal and PRO Law, Lucus Darnell. Lucus Darnell said: I just finished an article showing how to start your own URL shortening website using PHP and MySQL. Check it out at http://prodi.us/978 [...]
[...] Behind URL Shorteners by LuCuS under General, SEO In a previous article, I showed you how to create your own URL shortening website and service. But, have you stopped to [...]