Although shortening links with Bit.ly and sharing them on Twitter is convenient, its not quite clear to me exactly how I benefit beyond the satisfaction I receive from knowing that I have shared interesting information with others over the web.
Yes, Bit.ly provides stats which allows me to track how my links are consumed.
Yet as far as I can tell, the links I post that are found through any other method or media are stripped of its source ie., the person who thought the information was Bit.ly worthy to begin with.
Bit.ly Branding
I realize Bit.ly provides “Private Label URL Shorteners” through its Pro Service Beta for medium to large size publishers.
Bit.ly sends traffic to these publishers sites via a url the publisher owns.
Bit.ly Pro Beta
However, I think the Bit.ly Pro services could go a step further.
I would like to have my own Bit.ly url shortener under one of any of the domains I own.
For example, I would like to have a Bit.ly URL shortener for myself @ TimothyCohn.com.
Bolting on a Bit.ly shortened url to the end of my brand would be highly attractive to me and possibly other marketers and businesses.
For instance – Bit.ly would shorten this post to something like – TimothyCohn.com/b4kst.
In offering this type of branded url shortener, Bit.ly would create a Win/Win/Win:
The audience wins.
Bit.ly wins.
The link poster (brand) wins.
As it stands now, Bit.ly is only a Win/Win.
The audience wins and Bit.ly wins.
Yet, link posters (brands) don’t win because their identity is masked by Bit.ly.
Search Marketing Communications 
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