With web URL shortening services in high demand these days, it’s no wonder adf.ly hadn’t come around sooner. Allowing you the same benefits of other free short URL services, adf.ly allows one big benefit – each pageview you get counts towards a small percentage of CPM costs for advertisers! Long story short, you get paid to use adf.ly’s services.
Although it does seem a bit too good to be true, realistically there is hope for the app. As of right now it appears on each short URL page the visitor is first displayed a content-relevant advertisement. This certainly hinders your quality of content and takes a lot of credibility away from the link poster. However if you’re only in it for the marketing, adf.ly is an interesting alternative to check out.
Seeming to grow faster each day online, adf.ly has one of the simplest goals and works very well. Connecting advertisers with link publishers, it’s easier than ever to earn a few bucks online these days. Based on adf.ly’s going rates per CPM(or cost per 1000 impressions), US publishers can earn $2.20/CPM by just sharing links around the web. That’s a decent amount of dough for little-to-no work!
How does adf.ly Stack Up?
Of course, when similar services such as bit.ly are free and easier to use than ever, why bother trying to make a few bucks and in return sacrificing the quality of your links for advertisement? Some may be for it, mostly internet marketers and entrepreneurs who have the audience willing to sit through everything, or even those who can push out links quickly throughout the web.
The service is also amazing for advertisers looking for traffic. Going on rates of $0.50/1,000 views, adf.ly makes it very simple to share specific websites or content with traffic related to your niche and in a StumbleUpon-esque way of marketing. You can check out their FAQ page for some further info on advertising, as it seems a viable route for those interested in gaining a slight bump in traffic ($5.00 will net you 10,000 pageviews guarenteed).
My thoughts are that adf.ly has a great business plan and a solid idea for a short URL service. They may need to review how the app works, but for now it seems to have a decent future ahead and I’m excited to see where it may go.