Blair Williams

Everything is an Experiment

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UPDATE: This video is out of date — please watch my new Pretty Link Intro Video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!

New Pretty Link Features Added

New Pretty Link Features Added

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Well, since the launch of my first public WordPress Plugin, Pretty Link a couple of weeks ago I've had an overwhelming and positive response. I've added several new features that the community has requested in my latest release. I really think that these changes are making Pretty Link the ultimate link shrinking / redirection / tracking method available (I'm using it in my own marketing efforts and love it). Here's a breakdown of what's new in the last few releases (up to the 1.2.5 release) of Pretty Link:

  • User Interface Enhancements — I just added some nice javascript enhancements to make things easier. I had a few people tell me that they couldn't see the calendar dropdown on the stats page (sometimes flash likes to stay above javascript pop overs) — this has now been fixed. I'll probably be making more of these types of enhancements in coming weeks.

    picture-39
    A shot of some of the new enhancements
  • Simple Link Sharing — Post your links to Twitter or share them via Email … these can be done from the new quick actions link list under each slug name on the main Pretty Link page:

    picture-41
    A shot of the new actions bar for each slug
  • Awesome Click Tracking — You can now see information about each individual click on your site including: Operating System, Browser, Browser Version, Referring URL, IP Address, and even the remote host name.

    picture-40
    A shot of the new click tracking details

What do you think?

I seriously want to make this plugin great and I have several ideas for features that I'd like to add soon. Here are some of the possible features I could add to Pretty Link in the near future:

  • Goal Tracking — say you have users going to a sign up page for your eNewsletter and you want to be able to see how effective it is. Wouldn't it be nice if you could do that easily in Pretty Link?
  • Pretty Links Widget — I'm thinking that you could put a sidebar widget on your blog that would show all, a selected group or a randomized group of your pretty links. This could be great for Affiliate marketers who promote several different products.
  • Download Click / Goal Data — I'm pretty sure this one will happen soon, I want to be able to download click data and stats to Excel so that I can analyze it more carefully.
  • Link Names and Notes — In an effort to keep the interface simple I haven't added a field for a name and description on the edit / new page of Pretty Link. I'm thinking that this may be important for the Widget feature and to generally keep track of links as users have increasing numbers of pretty links (especially if they're using the randomly generated slugs).
  • Link Filtering & Searching — This would allow users who have large lists of Pretty Links to manage them a little easier — they'd be able to search or filter them.
  • Optional iFrame Redirection — Okay, now I know that Digg and several other sites that redirect but keep users in their own iframe have been taking a lot of heat lately — but this may make sense for some of us — on some links. I'm thinking this would be a simple bar at the top of the site the user is redirected to that would have your Blog name & subhead and a way to close it. Of course, this would be an advanced option on each Pretty Link and not turned on by default.
  • Enhanced Reporting — Of course if goal tracking is added, there would have to be goal tracking (with calculated conversion rates) added to the stats page but I'm thinking about adding some other charts including a pie chart of Operating Systems and Browsers. If you have any other stats you'd like to see added to this plugin, please let me know.
  • Pretty Link Groups — I'm not sure how helpful this would be — or if it would just be confusing but for some users it may be very helpful to be able to group pretty links.
  • Click Geo Location — I'd love to do this one right now, unfortunately I haven't found a really good way to do it technically in a 100% open source application. If anyone out there knows of a good solution, let me know.

I'd like to thank all of you who have gone out and given me a good rating on Pretty Link's WordPress Plugin Page and have helped to promote this plugin — that kind of response is really fun to see. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or ideas on how I can make this plugin better … THANKS!