'Shorten your links for pay' - anyone tried? Scams? Legit?

DaveTheGeordie

I was clicking around frugal, make money online videos, click/cashback site review videos on youtube, as I do, and one of them mentioned something new to me. The concept in the title.

Apparently, you can use a 'link shortener' i.e. basically something which changes a link slightly so that it changes that link so that an advert appears for a few seconds before hand, or a pop up appears in addition to where the link would normally lead. That is the idea as I understand it. I may be wrong.

However, on googling the ...website/company/programme, however it works, I found thread results mentioning it was an adware programme. I really don't fancy getting another one of those and spending hours going deep into my computer files to remove it like I did with another programme a while back. And of course I would hate to be responsible for someone else being scammed.

Does anyone have experience with these and could you share any relevant information on them. Are there any legit ones, are any safe? Etc.

mark260311

Name the company and method of promotion for unique links. Ad.fly are good, so are link bucks. Few other methods for combing this though!

DaveTheGeordie

Ad.fly or !!!!!!! or adfly, is infact the malware/trojan programme people are talking about in threads when I googled. There are several threads or antivirus websites mentioning it - or them. I don't know if one is a copy or they are all the same thing or it's a generic term for a type of adware or what.

Terribly lost

I'm still confused and sceptical about it to be honest.

mark260311

What you need to understand is that these link shortening services that pay you 1) don't install software and 2) on average your looking at $1 per 433 unique link clicks.

So to be making $70 a week you need 30,310 unique link clicks. So that would mean you either have a massively popular website OR multiple popular niche sites. And if that is the case you would be better deploying and Absence campaign to your sites.

The sites your talking about effectively makes you a "publisher" of averts for other company's. You have no control over ad content. You can determine clean or 18+ but I have seen redirect ppc (pay per click) ad that shows an Asian !!!!!! site when trying to get to a Christian faith site! PM me for my blog details. It is still under construction but once complete will hold free resources and tutorials on online making.

But defo not a scam, just a long way to make a few bucks!

DaveTheGeordie

Thanks Mark. That's a bit more clear now. What if I did it just passively when I'm linking in forums anyway, as I would normally? Not with the aim of actively doing it all day but say for example I was making a societal topic on a debate board and linking a newspaper article, as I do from time to time. For a few extra quid a year. Do you think mods would frown on it? I don't want to upset anyone.

UnderPressure

Also may I add as someone who has clicked many of these link they are annoying as hell! People will recognise you as someone who uses this kind of service and in the end will ignore your links.

Just my 2 penneth

DaveTheGeordie

UnderPressure wrote: »

Also may I add as someone who has clicked many of these link they are annoying as hell! People will recognise you as someone who uses this kind of service and in the end will ignore your links.

Just my 2 penneth

Yeah. I think I'll leave it after thinking about it. Thanks for the feedback. Fair play. Glad I understand more about it now though.

Jenna_Appleseed

DaveTheGeordie wrote: »

Thanks Mark. That's a bit more clear now. What if I did it just passively when I'm linking in forums anyway, as I would normally? Not with the aim of actively doing it all day but say for example I was making a societal topic on a debate board and linking a newspaper article, as I do from time to time. For a few extra quid a year. Do you think mods would frown on it? I don't want to upset anyone.

if you were tricking people into viewing adverts every time you posted a link on her (for example) you'd probably get very quickly reported & banned as a spammer.

billsavings

DaveTheGeordie wrote: »

Do you think mods would frown on it? I don't want to upset anyone.

You would soon get the heave ho.:D

Site clearly says No spam/referral links at top right of site.

There is however a concessionary board where you can post referals subject to t&c see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/103393

and in any case all short links are normally barred to stop people hiding referral links.

whitelabel

pivo1 wrote: »

Webseit: ht tp://ad f.ly/SKPYc Information

Spam reported