Blair Williams

Everything is an Experiment

Plugins

Create Short URLs on the fly with the Pretty Link Bookmarklet

Create Short URLs on the fly with the Pretty Link Bookmarklet

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bookmarkletThe Pretty Link Bookmarklet is finally available! My #1 request from users for a while has been to make it easy to create Pretty Links outside of the WordPress admin — and now you can.

If you aren't familiar with what a bookmarklet is, it's basically a button that you can add to your browser's toolbar that will do some action–in this case it's creating Pretty Links. Bookmarklets are great because they are very simple, javascript based buttons that work in practically every browser.

The Pretty Link Bookmarklet is available starting in Pretty Link version 1.4.11. Here's how you'll go about installing it in your browser once you have version 1.4.11 or greater installed in WordPress:

  1. When inside your WordPress admin, click the menu item: “Pretty Link” -> “Tools”
  2. You'll see a link named “Get PrettyLink” under the Bookmarklet section … you'll want to drag that link to your Browser's bookmark bar

That's all you have to do to install it. Now let's look at how you'd use the Pretty Link bookmarklet:

  1. When you're browsing the web and you find a page that you'd like to create a Pretty Link for, just click “Get PrettyLink” in your toolbar while on that page.
  2. Pretty Link will automatically create the link for you and redirect you to a page where you can copy your newly created Pretty Link.

Here are a few screenshots of the bookmarklet in action (in Safari — but the same steps go for FireFox, IE, etc):

I'm currently working on some other ways to easily create Pretty Links soon — so it's only going to get easier to manage your entire link portfolio from Pretty Link!

Customizing Pretty Link Options – Part 2

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This is the third tutorial on how to use the Pretty Link plugin for WordPress. In this one I go over the Ultra-Cloak, Nofollow and Redirect-Type options. Next week I'll finish up the link option tutorial series by showing you the pretty link tracking options and parameter forwarding.

Sweet — now we're getting somewhere! If you still have issues, just drop a comment on this page.

Customizing Pretty Link Options – Part 1

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This is the second tutorial on how to use the Pretty Link plugin for WordPress. In this one I go over the most customizable link option — the PrettyBar. Next week I'll cover some more of the Link Options, what they are, how they work and how they can help you extend your online presence.

If you'd like to see me do a Tutorial on a certain topic or you have any questions or comments feel free to comment on this post.

Announcing the Pretty Link API

Announcing the Pretty Link API

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The Pretty Link Plugin for WordPress now has an API (as of version 1.3.28) that Developers can connect with to shorten links using a user's WordPress website.

Are you a WordPress plugin developer? Or are you developing a killer app for Twitter, Facebook or other Social media? It is now possible to give your users the ability to create short links with their own domain name (in addition to offering them with the options of Bit.ly, TinyURL, etc).

There are 2 ways that the Pretty Link API can be accessed:

  1. As a Local WordPress API — there are a set of Pretty Link functions that have been defined and are usable by mock api, WordPress plugin developers.
  2. As a Remote XML-RPC API — there are a set of XML-RPC based functions that can be used by any other application that is Internet enabled. It doesn't matter what language your App is written in, if it is Internet-based or a client app running on the desktop — you can now offer your users the ability to create short links on their own domains.

For more details about the Pretty Link API, please visit the Pretty Link API page here:

https://blairwilliams.com/pretty-link/api/

How to Get Started Using Pretty Link

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UPDATE: This video is out of date — please watch my new Pretty Link Intro Video
I've had a ton of requests to put some tutorials up on the site — here's the first one. I'm planning on releasing 1 of these every week for a while. This one will show you how to install Pretty Link, create your first links and post them to Twitter.

Next week I'll go a little more in depth about the awesome options you can set for your links in Pretty Link. Seriously, Pretty Link has many options that will help you build your SEO efforts, mask your links and create buzz for your brand.

Feel free to leave a comment about this video, if you have any questions about pretty link in general or if there's a Tutorial you'd like to see. Later.

Introducing PrettyBar

Introducing PrettyBar

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pretty_bar_exampleOkay, 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):

  1. 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.
  2. 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 :).
  3. 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.
  4. 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:

https://blairwilliams.com/x0z

https://blairwilliams.com/j8u

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!