Some of you may have noticed in the last week or so that my Twitter links have been somewhat cuter and shorter. Yep. They now show up as http://nrd.gr/. Cute, I know.
You may be thinking that you are slightly jealous of me and you really want your very own shortener. Not because you really need one, but mainly because you are a geek. You really don't have to explain to me because obviously I thought that it was cool enough that I went ahead and did it.
In the past you might have had to set up a script on your webserver to run your own shortening service. If you want to do that here is a good list of scripts: http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/7-open-source-and-free-url-shortener-scripts-to-create-your-own
But this is the easier way and you get all the fun tracking features of bit.ly.
STEP 1 – GET THE DOMAIN
You must first decide which domain you want to use. This is made really easy by the folks over at Domainr. I love this site. It makes searching for a domain actually FUN. Who knew?!? Enter the name you are looking for and it gives interesting suggestions. You might even be able to get your own name with the weird sub-type domains that are on offer (hence the nrd.gr).
Get the domain: http://domai.nr/
STEP 2 – POINT YOUR DNS TO BIT.LY
Set the DNS A Record for your custom short domain to point to 168.143.174.97 OR, if you are using a subdomain for your custom short domain, set a CNAME in your DNS record that points your subdomain to cname.bitly.com.
STEP 3 – REGISTER YOUR BIT.LY ACCOUNT AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR DOMAIN
Log into or register your bit.ly account and then go to settings and add your Custom Short Domain.
STEP 4 – ADD THE BIT.LY BROWSER EXTENSION
This makes shortening so much easier.
- Firefox – http://nrd.gr/pEeUXd
- Chrome – http://nrd.gr/pH67yS
Voila. You will be as cool as me.
