How to get a custom short URL to map to Bit.ly

16 Shares

So you want a trendy short URL? The following will show you how we went about setting up bluewi.re as our default Bit.ly URL.

Bonus: Download the 33 free templates from the book Web Marketing That Works.

Step 1

The first step is find and decide on a short domain. You want something short and memorable, the trouble is with the popularity of Twitter and URL shorteners these days, the limited pool of really short, quality domains is getting even smaller. Domainr is a handy little website that will come up with clever uses of TLDs (Top Level Domains – think .me, .com.au etc) based on your input.

Step 2

Once you’ve found an available domain, you’ll need to register it. Depending on the domain you choose, various restrictions apply to each TLD so you’ll need to make sure you can meet those requirements. iwantmyname is a great registrar for 100+ domain extensions and offer a great platform for domain management. Once registered, iwantmyname has a number of services/apps that make using your domain a piece of cake, under Setup – Apps & Services, select Bit.ly and attach to your new domain. This configures the A records needed by Bit.ly to use as a custom domain.

Step 3

The final step is setting up your Bit.ly account to use the new domain. Assuming you have an account, once logged in, you’ll need to find your Account Settings and navigate to the Advanced tab. Follow the steps to add your custom domain to your account and that’s it, you’re now one of the cool kids ;)