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Your URL is too long!?! © 2001 by Michelle Lee, http://www.UltimateResourceBarn.com ----------------------------------------------------------- Did it ever hit on your that your website URL may be TOO long? Think about the few internet programs you are currently promoting ... the URL typically consist of the main website part, a cgi-bin directory, plus your member userid. It is no wonder some URL can easily go beyond 60 characters or more. Having a long URL can make or break a sale. This is not an exaggeration. Consider the following points. WHY DO YOU NEED SHORTER URL? 1) Long URLs are very difficult to remember People simply can't remember long URL!! It is that simple. If you post to FFA sites, Classified Ad Sites or advertise in ezines, having a long url is going to turn people off. If your actual website URL is 'clickable' in the ad, that is not too bad - people can still click through to your website. If it is not 'clickable', what would a person typically do? He or she would either copy down the URL on a piece of paper, or type the URL in the browser's address bar in another window. Do you think your potential customer will bother to copy down the entire URL? Or type in the entire URL? (Of course, copy and paste the URL will work perfectly. However, that is beside the point.) Your potential customer will probably just copy or type till the main website URL and stop there! Now, what is happening here? You are losing signup or potential customer! The main corporate website (whose URL is typically just http://www.???.com ) are getting the new signups or customer instead of you! Do not take any chance! Why lose signups or customer just because your website URL is too long? It is almost a sin to let things happen this way. Imagine how easy it is for your potential customer if your website URL is short ... you will eliminate the problem we have just discussed. 2) There might have a length limit for the website URL field when you advertise on the internet When you put up an ad, be it in classified ad sites, ffa sites, or in ezines, there may be a limit on the number of characters you can type per line. Typically, you will not have such problem when posting your ads to classified ad sites or ffa sites. But what if there is a limitation? Your long URL will either be truncated or worst your ad will not be published! This is even more so for ezine advertising. Most ezines have a maximum length on the number of characters per line. If your ad doesnt meet the ezine ad format, your ad wont get published. If your URL is longer than what is allow per line, you will not get anywhere with ezine advertising. -------- OK, so you are stuck with a long website URL for a internet program you are promoting because that is what you are given. Now that you know the importance of a short website URL, what can you do? SOLUTION TO LONG URL Get a auto-redirect URL!! How auto-redirect URL works? Auto-redirect URL are usually very short. When someone type your auto-redirect URL in the browser's address bar, he/she will simply be redirected to your actual member's website. Like the name implies, an auto-redirect URL simply redirect to you to another website. That's all that is to it! There are several website that provide such services. Basically, you will go to these auto-redirect websites, register with them, fill in a form to obtain a auto- redirect URL for your long website URL. Some of these website that provide auto-redirect services are chargable, some are not. Some will include their own pop-up advertisement that will show up when anybody surf to your auto-redirect URL. Some will add a top or bottom navigation frame such that other advertisements will be served along side your member's website that you are promoting. There are many other variations how other unrelated ad is 'squeeze' into your auto-redirect URL. You bounce to get other advertisements especially when the service is not free. Evaluate carefully what each auto-redirect website has to offer. There are usually "strings attached" to their services. Once you know what is the "strings attached", you have to ask yourself, can you live with such "strings". Would the pop-up actually take away traffic from your member's website that you are promoting, for example. Would that top or bottom advertisement frame distract visitors to your website such that visitors will not surf your website, but click to go somewhere in the other advertisements frame? Given this usually unavoidable situation, choose to get a service from a website that offers least "harm". Remember, having a short URL with a little small pop-up window is still BETTER OFF compare to a long website URL. Once you know which websites offer the best solutions to meet your needs, you have to choose a auto-redirect URL. Typically, you can choose part of the URL. Let's use http://www.goto.com as an example. At www.goto.com, there are several choices for an auto-redirect URL. Taking http://surf.to/ have any word after the "/". Now, obviously you will want to choose a catchy word. A flashy auto-redirect URL will certainly catch the attention of the readers. It also makes it easy for people to remember your auto-redirect URL. This is exactly when you want a shorter URL to your member's website in the first place! Think about it. Isn't http://surf.to/freedom or http://surf.to/gold a much better URL compare to http://www.???.com/members/cgi/???/ Auto redirect URLs are also good for submitting to search engines. Some of these auto redirect URL services let you associate keywords as well as meta tags with the short URL you have chosen. Suppose you are promoting an internet program together with many other members that belong to the same program ... when too many of the similar URLs are submitted to the search engine, i.e. URL in the form of http://www.???.com/members/cgi/???/ with just the member userid part being different, the search engine may view this as an abuse and may reject all URLs from that domain. Using your short auto redirect URL, you will not have this problem, because each auto redirect URL is unique. Now that you understand the URL dynamics, get your auto-redirect URL for your websites today! To aid you in your quest, a list of websites that provide such website URL auto-redirect services is available at http://www.UltimateResourceBarn.com/redirect.html. © 2001 by Michelle Lee ----------------------------------------------------------- Michelle Lee is the owner of the website http://www.UltimateResourceBarn.com and publisher of the @UltimateResourceBarn Newsletter, a FREE weekly publication. Both the website and newsletter are jam packed with Articles, Tips, Tricks on Internet Marketing, affiliate programs, mlm, work at home opportunities & more. Get all these, plus FREE eBooks and 1 FREE ad space! To subscribe, mailto:subscribe@UltimateResourceBarn.com ----------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to publish this article in your own ezine or newsletter, you are most welcome to do so. However, please publish this article as it is. No modification, alternation should be made to the content of this article, including the resource box.
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