Okay, I know … Digg recently had a full revolt on their hands when they released the DiggBar … but trust me, there are plenty of uses for a Digg-Like bar on redirect links for those of us running WordPress based websites. Before you start make sure that you learn ‘how to create a website‘.?In the most recent release of PrettyLink I created a new feature that I think is AWESOME — the “PrettyBar” … This is an optional bar that you can place at the top of the page you redirect your users to. This bar can have your look & feel, links to your site and encourages users to tweet/retweet your link to others! Here are just a few of the uses I came up with for the PrettyBar (off the top of my head):
- Viral Twitter Campaigns — Use Pretty Links in your Twitter posts instead of bit.ly or tinyurl.com and use the Pretty Bar. Not only will you be able to accurately track these links in Pretty Link but you'll have a built in way for your link to be re-tweeted.
- Website Promotion — If you send out a lot of links, just think of the impact of giving the end viewer of the link a way to get back to your website! You're effectively posting ads out on the internet that have a built in way for users to get back to your site. Even if only a small percentage click the link to your blog, it is better than nothing :).
- SEO Link Building — Imagine the possibilities of every URL you post to Twitter, Facebook, or wherever having an automatic link back to you! I mean you can link to news stories, youtube videos, whatever — and get some links back to you.
- Sandbox User Comments — okay I haven't gotten this feature fully completed yet 🙂 … but soon, you'll be able to replace all links in your user comments with Pretty Links with (or without) the PrettyBar. This will keep users tethered to your site for a while in a non-threatening way.
Here are some links I've already created with it:
I'm really excited about this feature for my own marketing efforts… Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this feature!
I love this tool Blair. Thank you!
Sorry, doesn’t show well in IE… 🙁 and not with non-English chars.
Amit — Okay, I put in a fix for UTF-8 (international) characters and for IE in release 1.3.27 — let me know how it works for you once you’ve installed the update.
OK works both with non-English chars and with IE, THANKS!!
Since your wish list is getting shorter this is my private wish list 🙂 :
1. Bulk edit – very useful, this will require adding a checkbox in the main list. In would be great to be able to bulk change the use of prettybar (with all the options) instead of going 1 by 1 tens or hundreds of existing links:)
2. More chars in the blogs name when using PrettyBar.
3. PrettyBar support for Right to Left languages, i.e. mirror view – the blog name on the upper right side etc.
4. Rotatable link – allowing to create a single short link that redirect to several links (one at the time).
Blair, you are one of the most creative people I have found in years. Excellent idea, phenomenal implementation.
Thanks man!
Amazing! I clicked on those two sample links you made above and I was floored! Whew, can’t wait to use this on my blog. I’m newbie in this business but this tool you made will take away all the newbie-ness in my site…(until of course they read the posts). 🙂
What can I say? Thanks again, Blair!
There’s one major problem I anticipate. I’ll use ClickBank as an example. Their TOS say they won’t pay affiliate commissions if using an “illegal” link such as an iframe, and both Pretty Bar and Ultra Cloak use iframes.
So, while I think Pretty Bar is useful, it’s also dangerous, isn’t it?
You’re right — any kind of framed redirection like this can be dangerous … if used incorrectly it can violate terms of service (as with clickbank), it can give you a bad reputation with users (your users can become suspicious thinking that you are hiding something) and can cause all kinds of bookmarking, ssl and other issues. With that said, I have added these features to Pretty Link because there is a legitimate place for all of these tools in a website owner’s arsenal — when they are used properly.
I really love Pretty Link. My question involves the above comment regarding iframe links. Are Pretty Links in general in violation of Click Bank terms or are you referring primarily to the use of Pretty Bar?
Thx
You will have to ask CB that. Some merchants don’t care, others are very strict.
Bliar,it’s awesome plugin ,i wonder is there any way to download the pretty bar plugin???
Great idea. Do you have updates for it and is it still as usefull with current version of WP ?