Bit.ly is probably the most used URL shortener in the world right now. Recently they introduced bitly.pro, which is a service that lets you shorten links on a domain you own. It's still in closed beta, but thankfully I've managed to get an invite, and hence my own URL shortening domain was born, bvlad.net. You may see this (a lot) in the links I share on Twitter.
So that's the story, in short.
It's a really cool service and has some neat features, like whenever you're logged in to your Bit.ly account (even in third party clients like Seesmic, Tweetdeck, and so on), any link you shorten will be shortened with your domain by default. There are a few other niceties, like having all links shortened by anyone through bit.ly be shortened through your shortening domain for one domain you own. So, for example, if you try shortening any iRant posts with bit.ly, (not that that makes much sense given how short the URLs on iRant already are, but hey, I'm proving a point here), the short link you'll get won't be bit.ly/something but bvlad.net/something. Cool, as I said, go check it out at their very well chosen domain, bitly.pro.
Now, Darren McConachie asked me why I'd use my own domain for URL shortening on Twitter, saying that he'd be less inclined to click on my links if I did it.
This doesn't make any sense to me. If anything, you should be feeling better about clicking on short links (which are essentially unknown destinations to you) if you know whose domain it is.
Why?
Well it's simple. If anything goes wrong you know who to blame. Me. Whereas if you click on a generic URL shortener problem-link, what are you going to do? Tweet that you hate bit.ly? Like anyone will care.
In conclusion, I'm really happy I did this, and for all the social media gurus out there, this is a great way to improve your personal brand. Perhaps I should write an amazing ebook about it (a $3700 value which you can get for only $199 if you act now!).
P.S.: Don't ask me for invites to Bitly.pro, ask them. Seriously. That's what I did. Just go to the site and fill in the form. Then wait patiently. Your day will come.
