From the site, a short description follows describing Bitly (sometimes Bit.ly):
About bitly
bitly is the easiest and most fun way to save, share and discover links from around the web. bitly is available via our website, browser extensions, mobile web, and numerous third-party tools integrated with our open public API. bitly also powers more than 10,000 custom short URLs and offers an enterprise analytics platform that helps web publishers and brands grow their social media traffic.
It took all of ten minutes to sign up, copy six Amazon links separately into the Bitly shorten box, then rename the numeric link to a more reader-friendly alpha title (the trick is NOT to use spaces), paste each link on my clipboard and drop into my Word doc serving as my docking point for my internet signature. See its debut online usage below.
Tomorrow, when I receive my email copy of this newest post, I hope to see the signature links have survived.
I am dancingly happy. This was almost as big of a glitch as my earlier B&N formatting issues for my novel, yet took one-twelfth of the time allocation.
Now I'll proceed to do the B&N links via Bitly. This is so much fun . . . .
Hope this helps maybe that other individual out there in cyberland who has yet to implement the Bitly boon.
P.S. Once my initial Bitly conversions were done, I found adding in my B&N e-books hid the Customize button, where you transform your alpha-numeric shortened link to a reader-friendly alpha link.
Here's how I found Customize again. Go to Bitly Tools and copy then paste the "bitly Sidebar" link onto your toolbar header. It comes up as a javascript for me but just remember it's Bitly.
Then go to B&N, pull up your book. If you click on the Bitly/javascript button now resident on your toolbar, a sidebar pops up with your direct link already filled in to shorten.
Once a Bitly link is created (by clicking "Shorten"), then find the yellow-highlighted box with your new shorter link. Beside it is a blue link Customize to the right. Click it, type in your more title-oriented tag.
Click on another "Customize" button which appears below. Done!
Repeat. Just be sure to be on your product's page, not the search page, as ALL Bitly links are PERMANENT.
NOTE: SHUT DOWN ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS THAT MAY BE OPEN ON YOUR COMPUTER--like your bank account page, your social security benefits page, anything of the like. Bitly is pretty much a one-button process, so just close those windows of any private and personal pages you do not want public. In fact, I've deleted my Bitly button on my tool bar to prevent those accidental clicks from even happening. It's easy to reinstall as I put up other e-books. FYI.
One more thing re B&N books--no "Barnes & Noble" designation is added to the Bitly name, like with Amazon selections. So, to make it clear, I preceded all my e-book titles with a "BN."
Just like with my Amazon tips (NO spaces), for B&N my tip is this: NO divider between "BN" and your title. Like my novel link to B&N shows up below as "http://bit.ly/BNGoodOleBoys."
If you try to put spaces in Amazon-customized Bitly links or try to put dividers (periods, slashes, etc.) in B&N-customized Bitly links, they both come back as "invalid." FYI.
P.P.S. You can do this for your blog spot and Pinterest account, as well.
Denise Barker, author + freelance copy editor + blogger
Good Ole Boys, a love story at http://amzn.to/GoodOleBoys
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