Contents
What features are included in the free bitly.Pro?
What do I need to set up bitly.Pro?
To sign up for either version of bitly.Pro, you need three things:
If you’re interested in reselling or distributing bitly.Pro, please contact bizdev@bit.ly.
What is the Custom Short Domain?
The Custom Short Domain is the domain that takes the place of "bit.ly" in a shortened URL (e.g., "http://bit.ly/bOm09G" would become "http://your-short-domain.com/bOm09G"). You should have full ownership and control of this domain, since you will need to make a DNS change to complete this step.
Examples:
In order to complete this step of the setup process, you will need to make one of the following DNS changes:
Your Custom Short Domain is automatically tracked within the real-time bitly.Pro Dashboard.
Need to register a new domain? For ideas & suggestions for a short domain based on your brand, try the domain name suggestion service, domai.nr. You can also consult the list of top-level domains (TLDs) on Wikipedia for ideas.
What is the Dashboard Tracking Domain?
The Dashboard Tracking Domain is the "long domain," owned and controlled by you that will be used for tracking when end users are shortening links for your site. This is generally the root domain of your main site.
The bitly.Pro dashboard returns analytics for how content from
your tracking domain is being circulated across the social web, across
the universe of all bit.ly usage.
If you own the domain longexample.com and set
it as your dashboard tracking domain, all of the bit.ly redirected traffic to
longexample.com would be aggregated into the realtime
window in the bitly.Pro Dashboard.
Examples:
IMPORTANT: The tracking domain cannot be the same as your short domain; however, the short domain can be a subdomain of your tracking domain.
This is ok:
This is NOT ok:
Can I use an IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) for my Custom Domain Name?
Yes, you can use an IDN for your Custom Domain Name.
bitly.Pro is a free product. bit.ly will not charge for the custom domain service or the basic dashboard. Free means free. But it also means that we can’t provide a lot, if any, support service (i.e. phone support, etc.) under the free plan.
What is the difference between the dashboard and existing bit.ly URL statistics that I get to when I add a “+” to a bit.ly URL?
bit.ly tracks the real time social distribution of any given URL. That’s the data you see when you add a “+” to a bit.ly URL. The Pro dashboard rolls up that data for your domain and provides aggregate real-time statistics from the past 24 hours.
Why doesn't the Dashboard let me see further back than 24 hours?
Aside from the Dashboard Tracking Domain information which is limited in the free version of bitly.Pro, all of the statistics shown in the Dashboard are available to you in multiple forms:
In addition to this, if you've set your history privacy to public in the bit.ly Account page http://bit.ly/account/, you can follow all of your link history via RSS here:
Can we have multiple users on each account?
There is a one-to-one mapping for bit.ly usernames and custom domains for bitly.Pro. If you wish to have multiple custom domains for each of your brands/web properties, you will need to register a different username for each.
Will my custom domain work with 3rd-party tools?
Once a custom domain has been configured for your bitly.Pro account, all 3rd-party tools that allow you to enter your bit.ly username and API key will now shorten URLs with your custom domain.
Are there any changes to the API for bitly.Pro?
Once a custom domain has been configured for your bitly.Pro account, domains shortened under the associated username and API key will now shorten URLs with your custom domain. You do not need to change your API key.
What about my existing short URLs created under bit.ly or j.mp?
All of the statistics associated with your bit.ly or j.mp username will be
preserved under your bitly.Pro account. Once you have a custom domain setup
under bitly.Pro, those hashes migrate seamlessly to your custom domain (i.e.
if you created the URL http://bit.ly/c57f0i under your existing
username, under bitly.Pro, the URL http://mycustom.domain/c57f0i
would redirect to the same destination with the same statistics when you look
at the associated info page).
Can I import hashes from another URL shortening service?
The free version of bitly.Pro and bit.ly share the same hash space (the hash is the alphanumeric id at the end of every bit.ly shortened URL). This means that many of the imported hashes you'd like to import may have already been accounted for in the bit.ly hash space. We may offer a custom hash space in our Enterprise service in the future.
Why can't I use a certain custom keyword with my Custom Short Domain?
The free version of bitly.Pro and bit.ly share the same hash space (the hash is the alphanumeric id at the end of every bit.ly shortened URL). This means that many of the custom names you'd like to use may have already been accounted for in the bit.ly hash space. We are considering offering a custom hash space in our forthcoming premium bitly.Pro Enterprise service.
How can I make sure bitly.Pro is available/active?
First, note that DNS changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate. Also make sure that you are logging in with your bitly.Pro credentials, if they are not the same as your regular bit.ly login.
Can I redirect the root domain for my Custom Short Domain to my own site?
Redirecting the root domain (for instance, examp.le, with no
hash at the end) to a user defined URL is not a feature available in the free
version of bitly.Pro at this time. We wanted to give web users seeing a short
URL for the first time a way to figure out that it is powered by bit.ly,
having the same spam protections and analytics tools. Redirecting the root
domain URL to a user defined location will be a service available in our
forthcoming premium bitly.Pro Enterprise service.
Do you have any guidance on how/where to select/research/obtain short domains?
The most important decision for bitly.Pro is choosing and purchasing a good short domain to match your branding. We strongly suggest the domain name be kept to 5-6 characters. Check out this list on Wikipedia of all of the top-level domains and get creative. Click on the desired TLD on the page to find out the restrictions and available domain registrars. Few people will ever type these domains - instead they will be created via the API, shared, and clicked. Hence, the branding of your short domain should focus on being visibly recognizable - abbreviations and msspllngs lk remvng vwls wrk prtty wll. There’s a scarcity of characters in Tweets and SMS, so every character saved grants you more ability to annotate your message. We do not acquire domains for users.
What features are included in bitly.Pro Enterprise edition?
The paid service includes the following:
Won’t some end-to-end publisher domains be longer than bit.ly?
Yes, though we recommend that publishers use very short domains. Note end-to-end branding will not be a feature of j.mp. So if users want to ensure the shortest possible URL and are indifferent to exposing underlying brand, then they can use j.mp either by navigating to the j.mp website or by selecting that option in most Twitter clients.
