TL;DR version: I'm using an ad sponsored URL shortener in my tweets, called CoinURL that pass through a domain called cur.lv. Some people don't like having to see ads when they click links, and I understand that. But, you can't make money on Twitter, so I'm just experimenting with this as a way to try and monetize my Twitter account.
So, I know that not everyone is entirely comfortable with me using @coinurl to shorten URLs on here, and I tried to look to look for a browser solution, like a browser extension that will show you the long, full URL inside a short URL, but I didn't find any in the Google Chrome extension site. I assume if there's not one for Chrome, there probably isn't one for Microsoft's Edge browser, or Opera, or Firefox. However, there are websites that will show you the full URL to shrunk URLs:
* URL X-Ray - Find out where shortened URLs lead to without clicking: http://urlxray.com/ (This one does have a bookmarklet)
* CheckShortURL Your shortened URL expander: http://www.checkshorturl.com/
* Unfurlr - What's behind that short link?: http://unfurlr.com/
* GetlinkInfo - Preview tinyurl, bit.ly, goo.gl, is.gd, t.co or any other short URLs. Very useful for Twitter users. Works with ALL URL shortening services!: http://www.getlinkinfo.com/ (This one has a IE7+/Firefox extension)
Why no one has made a Chrome Extension out of any of these services, I don't know. All I found when I searched was extensions to shorten URLs. If you know of one for the browser you use, let me know!
So, coinurl is basically a URL shortener that shows a short ad in front of the link, which you can skip by clicking "Skip" in the upper right corner of the webpage. There is also a link below that will tell you where the shortened URL redirects to if you are concerned it might be some security vulnerability. This is very similar to how we used to have to post links on Twitter using tools like TinyURL or Bitly, before Twitter came out with it's own URL shorten which was supposed to do away with those t.co, but it really doesn't work that same way. Many people use shortener's like Goo.gl or Bitly, because it will show them detailed analytics on the URL, such as how many people clicked on them, what region they were from, what browser they were using, etc, etc. It's basically a marketing tool in addition to a URL shortener, so you can see if your links are getting clicked on or if you're wasting your time and should try something else. CoinURL also gives me those same statistics that not even Twitter Analytics will tell me.
The main reason I'm trying to use CoinURL is because it will pay me a very small amount of Bitcoin for each person that clicks on it and gets shown an ad. That's the same reason I'm using this web page you're reading off of, BitBin, which pays me an infinitesimal amount of Bitcoin for the amount of people who read it. Currently, I have earned 0.00000275 BTC, which in current conversion rates at the time of this post, is worth less than a penny, in fact, it's entirely worthless. So, this may be a complete waste of my time. But, it is better than posting on Medium, Pastebin, or Twitlonger, as those pay absolutely nothing. And when I want to say something longer than 140 characters, those are the other choices I have. Currently, there is no way to make any money using Twitter. Like how YouTube originally started, there was no way to place ads on your YouTube channel if you were a content creator, and so people were just making YouTube videos for free and for fun. That was all well and good, but it limited people to how many YouTube videos they could make, because they had to go out and work a real job to get paid real money so they could eat, pay the rent, etc.
Since I don't have a blog I'm promoting, no one is paying me to write articles anymore, and I don't have a YouTube channel or any other way to advertise anything, it's basically not worth my time to even post on Twitter. So, this is just an experiment basically. I know that CoinURL looks a little shady, there used to be a service called Adfly that essentially did the same thing, and it always looked shady to me, and was used by a lot of shady people to post very shady links. That's obviously not what I'm trying to do. I post legitimate content I think people would find interesting on Twitter, including news, or whatever I find interesting. But, because I can't put ads on my tweets, like I mentioned, it's practically worthless for me to be here doing this, because I'm broke and need to start making money, essentially.
So, if you don't like the CoinURLs and don't click on them, I'll quit using that service, and I appreciate it if you do let me know and vocally tell me how you feel. When I clicked on the link to CoinURL, I had to click the option in Ghostery to trust the site to even get anything to show up on the page, otherwise it was entirely blank. A lot of people run adblocker, me included, because a lot of ads are extremely annoying and very poorly thought out. But there has to be some way for content creators to make money, or they end up charging a subscription to access their service or go away entirely. On YouTube, I subscribe to YouTube Red, so I don't have to see ads, but I'm still supporting the creators of the videos I watch, as it gives a portion of my monthly subscription to them when I watch their videos.
Twitter is still trying to figure out how to turn it's first profit, and so right now, "microblogging" as Twitter was first described to me, obviously is not going to give it's users any kind of money sharing system, like the ability to show ads on your Twitter feed, and make money. There might be some kind of 3rd party service that you can sign up for to show someone elses promoted ads in your timeline, now that I think of it, but that may be against Twitter's ToS.
Anyway, as I said, this is just an experiment for the time being. Hopefully, I'll find another way to make a little money to buy a cheeseburger and a beer now and then, but for now, I'm going to give this a shot and see if it's viable. The Bitcoin market fluctuates up and down since it's such a new thing. I put $25 in my Bitcoin wallet last year, and now it's $50. So, we'll see. But, your feedback is appreciated. You can leave it to me on Twitter @pogue25, or there is a Disqus comment system below you can use.
