A few weeks ago I started getting frustrated because I had to go into my apache config file every time I wanted to add a redirect link. I stopped using BudURL and TinyURL some time ago because my users have started to realize that they're being tracked whenever they see a link from one of these services. I've talked with several other Affiliate marketers and they've been saying the same thing, “don't put a tinyurl on your site.” Affiliates are always concerned with masking their URLs and with tracking so these link shrinking services seemed perfect for them… well, now users have caught on.
Last week, I started working on my own replacement for TinyURL, a WordPress plugin named “Pretty Link.” The thing that's great about this plugin is that I can now generate ultra small urls that redirect wherever I want and hang off of my domain name! I'm also able to track clicks on these URLs and in future releases of this plugin more stats than just clicks in future upgrades.
I just released this plugin tonight and can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory here:
Dood, this sounds AWESOME! Just what we need. Especially when everyone is becoming paranoid about being tracked on the internet or eating tainted peanut butter or being caught in some kind of evil twin storyline on their favorite television show.
WORD!
Oh gosh. I’m facing one problem right now. As in the link doesn’t redirect (I’m using it for the right sidebar’s image ad).
Can you tell me more about what your webhost is using to host wordpress? Do they have mod rewrite installed? Are you using custom permalinks (see my installation instructions)? We can narrow the issue down from there…
Daniel, Okay, I went to your site — it looks like redirect is working .. It looks like the tracking script is erroring out. Do you have access to your apache error log for this site? If so, we can see why it’s erroring and hopefully I can get a fix out there for it…
Hi – cool plugin you made, will come in real handy.
I am trying to get it up and working on a new site I am building but I keep getting an error when the link is tried of:
Warning: require(./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /****/******/public_html/wordpress/index.php on line 17
Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php’) in /****/******/public_html/wordpress/index.php on line 17
If I simply change the link to something like http://www.yahoo.com (no pretty link on image) a link works fine.
WordPress is installed in /wordpress versus the root directory. I think this is the issue where its having trouble even though I have recoded the index.php so it works properly. I have redone the permalink to not the default, and have tried deactivating then reactivating the plugin to see if that fixed the issue. I am on 2.7.1 WP version.
Thanks for any guidance you might give, this is my first time trying to use the plugin, so I am sure its something I have done wrong.
Chris
Chris, I’m actually not sure what your issue is. Are you saying that you had a pretty link setup that was not working properly (you got those error messages) but then changed the pretty link‘s target URL to http://www.yahoo.com and it worked fine? Give me some more details as to what you are doing so I can re-create the issue.
Sorry for the lack of clarity. I made a pretty link but when you click it you get that error. I messed around with the .htaccess (copied it from another directory) a bit and got it to not give that error, but then the pretty link does not work, it simply just redirects to an internal page. All normal links obviously work fine. I think the issue is wordpress is not in the root directory. The link actually shows up in the browser window (whatever the actual masking I created) – just the redirect was causing that error.
I have another blog I tried it on, http://www.credit-problems-gone.com. WP is 2.7.1 version, when I enable pretty links I go to add a pretty link, no matter what I do it never creates the link. It simply comes back to the configuration screen with nothing listed. I have changed the permalinks structure to not default etc.
This blog too is setup as http://www.credit-problems-gone/wordpress/
I am sure I am doing something wrong, if you have any insight I would appreciate the help.
Chris, Try to update pretty link to the latest version, manually rebuild your links and let me know how it goes for you.
Oh I forgot to add, all these I tried it on are on the same server, and the credit site is using an affiliate wordpress theme, the other site is not, perhaps that could that be interfering with pretty link (on the credit site)? If you need more details, email me and I will give exact, I would rather not post it in the forum.
I’ve added the pugin but I don’t see how to get it to work. My links are still like this http://woodstock-tell-a-vision.com/?p=1
Hi, I just tested your plugin. I was looking for this kind of plugin for a long time! But unfortunately it is not quite usable. This is especially the case when it comes to supporting multiple blogs on a single domain.
My main WordPress installation e.g. is not located in the root directory for security reasons but the blog itself is accesible directly via the domain name. However, “Pretty Link” does not understand that and adds the subdirectory WordPress is installed in to every pretty link – which is not really pretty at all.
And additionally the “Options” link on the link management page is wrong as well as it does not include the subdirectory WordPress is located in and thus leads to the 404 error page.
@Peter
You have to select a different Permalink structure other than “Default” for Pretty Link to work. I go into more detail in the Installation instructions on this page: https://blairwilliams.com/download
@Mea Culpa
You’re absolutely right about the Options button — that’s a definite bug. I’ll have that fixed in the next release — for now though, you can go to “Settings -> Pretty Link” in your WordPress admin. As for your other issue — there is really no way for Pretty Link to create links outside of your WordPress install’s root directory. About the only way you could fix this would be to add some Apache rewrite rules in an .htaccess folder in the root of your directory to redirect specific pretty links. This is a limitation with WordPress — not with the Plugin. One way around this would be to use WordPress MU to manage all of your blogs. Although I haven’t tested my plugin with WordPress MU yet, you could have multiple blogs on the same domain and create “Pretty Links” from the root of your domain. Another possibility would be to put a separate WordPress instance on the root of your domain that would be there specifically for setting up Pretty Links … just a few ideas. I hope that helps.
Great job, Blair – thanks for this excellent little tool – it works like a charm!
Super strona o spedycji i transporcie.
Nice work sure i will use it in my wordpress sites