Adf.ly

 Wouldn’t it be great if you could make some money from the current craze for URL shortening? Imagine if every time somebody clicked on one of your shortened URLs you made money? It would be great and it is possible thanks to the Adf.ly service, I’ve only just started using it but it looks like it could be a decent little service.

Adf.ly works in a way similar to that which many download websites have used over the years. When somebody clicks on their link to get the free download you are first taken to an ads page where a timer counts down before your download starts. Adf.ly has done the same for shortened URLs. When you use the Adf.ly service to shorten a URL, instead of the visitor going straight to the destination page there are taken to an in-between advert page and you get paid. If you want an example here is a shortened URL that will take you to the BBC home page:-
The BBC Website

Where Would You Use Adf.ly?

Lets not make any bones about it, being taken to an advert instead of straight to the end point is an inconvenience and is going to piss some people off. I would never recommend using these shortened links on websites where you have built a community or loyal following. It’s also clear from what I’ve seen that you are getting paid a fraction of a cent for each view so it’s not worth replacing proper affiliate links with them unless you’ve had a 0% converion rate for months on end! However Adfl.ly has plenty of practical uses.
1. Linking to pages that don’t have an affiliate program. For example you could rank high for keywords that relate to a brilliant Youtube video. When linking to the Youtube video use Adf.ly and you can get paid for that traffic.
2. Free e-books and downloads. Have you written an e-book that you’re giving away for free? Use Adf.ly to shorten the download URL and you’re at least getting something in return. Got a free piece of software that’s getting 5,000 free downloads a day…all of a sudden it’s not a bad little earner.
3. The News. Some of the biggest traffic spikes you’ll ever experience occur when people starting talking about current affairs and what’s new at news sites like the BBC and Yahoo. From celebrity gossip to the latest football scores, commenting with a link back to the source article can do very well. Of course Twitter and Face Book are prime for this as well and Adf.ly would help you make some money from all that traffic you’re pumping towards the news sites.

The Technical Bits

You are paid per impression with Adf.ly and the amounts vary depending on what advertisers are active on the system. When it comes time for you to be paid there are 2 options, Paypal and Alertpay. Full stats are provided although they appear to lag about an hour behind from my experience. The good news about payments are that they are allocated for payment automatically on the next available payment date (first Monday of the month) once you go over the $5 payment threshold. This means you don’t need to be constantly monitoring things and requesting payment. The system as a whole appears well written, responsive with a clean crisp layout. It is very easy to use.

Adf.ly Is For Lazy People

Like the difference between Adsense and running hand sourced affiliate links the more you put into something the greater the possible reward. Adf.ly is a very simple way of making “some” money online, it requires no technical knowledge, doesn’t need a website and the amount of time you have to put into it is the time it takes to shorten a URL and post it to Facebook, Twitter or whatever. It’s common sense then that the rewards are not going to be massive, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not worth while. A few years ago when I talked about Swag Bucks people moaned to me about how hard it was to make anything from it, I’m due to do an update soon showing just how much money Swag Bucks has made me – it’s not the sort of amount that 95%+ of people would sniff at for doing NO work. I see Adf.ly as similar, you’re not going to get rich but you might just surprise yourself…and it’s such little effort. Hell they even provide scripts for cenverting your whole website if you are that way inclined.
I’m still in early trials with Adf.ly but so far so good. It’s a very new service and one that I’m sure will prove to be popular amongst the MMO crowd. Get signed up early and get a few referrals under your belt and who knows what the future holds for Adf.ly
Sign Up With Adf.ly