[Apologies for the use of the "tw" lingo. I really didn't have a chance to use it before it became gauche!]

I got turned on to Tr.im the other day. It, and other sites like http://bit.ly are useful for shortening really long web addresses, which is almost a necessity if you plan to post the address on Twitter, or Tumblr, or Facebook, etc.

For example, my last blog title resulted in a URL that looked like this: http://writingbench.com/2009/05/22/why-twitter-is-great-for-busy-people-despite-what-you-might-think/, but with Tr.im I was able to tweet it as http://tr.im/mkCF…

Exactly. The first one would have only left me 39 characters. Have you met me? You know that I can’t write (or say) anything in 39 characters. Though “writing tight” is something I really should work on on a daily basis often practice.

Shortening addresses isn’t the best part, however. Often overlooked, Tr.im and Bit.ly have another feature that is even more powerful – they track clicks. And after posting a few shortened addresses, I found the trends interesting. Here are my latest shortened addresses:

Tr.im_URLs638x250Meaningless without the associated URLs (though you could paste the 4 characters shown into a browser window after http://tr.im and see for yourself, but really, that’s a lot of work for very little guaranteed payoff), but here’s what I found interesting – my top three visit counts? Posts about jobs. Job finding resources, freelance myths, and a local Tennessean article about former colleagues starting new businesses.

#1 http://heatherkrasna.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/fun-career-sites-ive-found-lately/

#2 http://www.elance.com/p/blog/2009/04/the_10_myths_of_freelancing_and_what_its_really_like.html?rid=1HN95

#3 http://tennessean.com/article/20090517/BUSINESS01/905170349

Looking at the way those display, you can see other benefits besides Twitter postings!

Now, it should be noted that some of these URLs were cross-posted to Linkedin or my personal Facebook account, which would increase the potential audience, thereby increasing the odds of a click. But interestingly, the cross-posting doesn’t seem to have affected the trend (except perhaps in th case of #3). Another potential “muddying” of the pool could be that some of these were RTs – retweets – the original link was previously posted on Twitter. Depending on the credibility of the resource, it may have already been read. Or avoided. I may have also written more excitedly about some links than others… but overall, the averages play out about the same in this sample.

This is consistent with what Jeremy Scott of Keystone Business Solutions teaches in his Internet Marketing 101 class. Keystone sends out an email blast to subscribers – a newsletter for customers, friends, and SEO types – and Mr. Scott has consistently found that the links that generate the most traffic are ones that point to tips for finding jobs, best jobs on the internet, top 10 most applied for jobs, local employment trends, etc.

Not trying to drive traffic this morning – just observing things that appear to be of interest to other web denizens.

Be free,

Jeff