Years ago I read an interview of Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee where he said he was surprised people and business would promote URLs, displaying them in print, advertising, et. al. Not surprising as the idea of the Web is all about linking. Some URLs are better for this as they are short and easy to remember, and others are long and cumbersome.

It is the long URLs that are made easy with services that all you to create a unique, short URL that redirects to the long one. This presumably started to make them easy to type and handle, and they became exponentially popular with short messaging services like Twitter. And Twitter actually automatically rewrites short URLs using the original service, TinyURL.

But have you seen some of these URLs? Where in some cases you can pick a text string, most common ones are taken and the new URL is structured as a domain name followed by random characters. It is short but not memorable. And do you have control over it? Unfortunately no. That is, unless you manage your own.

This is exactly what I decided to do – create a Web application for creating and managing short URLs. I call it psURL.com. For example, the short URL to the Dunkirk Systems, LLC Web site is http://psurl.com/dk. You’re probably wondering why anyone would want to do this? Here’s a few compelling reasons:

• Control your own destiny – I have written on controlling your own destiny before and it something I firmly believe in, especially in turbulent economic times.
• Brand your short URLs – You can choose your own domain name to synchronize branding with your company and give further meaning to them.
• Choose the URL string – No need for random characters, as what goes after the domain name is under your control.
• They can be changed – Did the long URL itself go away, or do you want to redirect the short URL to something else? You have the ability to easily change the destination URL.
• They are measurable – From basic logging and reporting to third-party analytics tool integration, you can measure them like any Web page or Web site.
• You can monetize them – Where this is not in place right now, it is possible to add interstitial pages to display ads before redirection is complete to the final URL.

Dunkirk Systems, LLC has developed the first release of its short URL application and is offering this as a hosted service. Of course you would have to choose your own domain name, but many good names are still available. Whether you choose to manage your own short URLs or not, it is good to know this is an option that works to your advantage.

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Business • Domain Names • Technology • (7) Comments • Permalink

Near the corner of Madison Street and Michigan Avenue in Chicago was a Chicago-style hot dog shop I would go to on occasion. All of the sudden one day this spring it was closes, with no notice of why. Shortly afterwards work was being done on the store site along with the adjacent empty. When the hot dog shop’s sign was removed, it revealed a sign that it had been covering. As seen in the first accompanying photo, it read, “Katharyn Sheahan, Since 1920.” I did a Google search on the name, and nothing came up. Assuming it was some sort of store, it had been at this location at 81 East Madison Street at one point of its history, as seen in the photo below.

On closer inspection, the sign appears to be painted on glass. Well, it was painted on glass, as it is no longer there. At some point over the summer the sign was gone, and work was done to remove the entryway altogether to make way for a Bank of America branch which occupied 3 empty stores, as can be seen in the photo below.

I have no idea if the sign was removed and possibly donated to the Chicago History Museum or simply saved by the building owner, or the paint was scraped from it and the original remains without the sign. As well, the street number sign was also removed, and I hope its fate was like the former above.

As a devout capitalist I believe change must happen. However it is also important to document and remember how we got here, for reasons that range from historic to nostalgic. If you have any knowledge as to the history of the sign or its whereabouts, please comment on this post.

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Just a short walk from my home in downtown Chicago is the new Trump International Hotel and Tower. When it is completed, it will be the second tallest building in the Windy City. Along the Chicago River on the former site of the Chicago Sun-Times, it is gleaming tower with amazing views.

Throughout its construction, its owner and namesake, Donald Trump, has made many visits to Chicago. But has he called me? No. I don’t know why, as we go way back, as the following photo shows.

This photo appeared in the Hartford Courant back in May, 1989 following the launch of “Trump: The Game” by Milton Bradley. It was taken at Milton Bradley’s headquarters in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, my hometown. As a college student, I was a fan of Trump and his capitalistic quests. When the game was launched, I was able to get a press pass to Trump’s visit thanks to connections through my college radio station, WNEK-FM. In this photo I am directly to the right of him. We both had much, much more hair then as now.

Ok, so the Donald may not remember me. I did ask him what advice he had for college students, but I never recorded his response as there was a short in my microphone cable. I am sure he has been asked that question a few times since. But the next time you’re in town Mr. Trump, I am sure I can clear my schedule to meet you for coffee, entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur.

And did you know the Hartford Courant is a Connecticut institution since 1764?

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A while back I wrote on a Budweiser campaign for their Bud Light Brand and questioned the promotion of the 'drinkability' of the beer. Apparently I wasn’t alone in this query, as it has been one of the top-read posts on The Hot Iron! The other day I saw a commercial for Bud Light, which appears to have been created in response to queries like my own. You can view it here, or by clicking the screen shot of the video from the Bud Light Web site. Note you will have to enter a birth date to prove you are over 21.

According to the percentages they present, nearly two-thirds of people who responded to the ad said drinkability described the physical capability to drink the beer. The ad concludes by saying the brewer’s definition is about taste.

In other words, this is a commercial about commercials. The word drinkability already has a definition to most people and this fact was missed in the development of this ad campaign. I am sure Budweiser will continue to try to drive this point home, and good luck to them. In the meantime, my preferred brand will continue to be Harpoon, where the question of taste or drinkability has never come into question.

And the guy from Boston they refer to in the video, I am sure I know him.

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Recently I responded to a question about email newsletters through LinkedIn from Kathryn Neal Odell, the CEO and Founder of Sales-Onsite, LLC, a Chicago-area business development, sales lead and sales nurturing consulting firm. I was pleased to find out I was included with others in a white paper published on the topic. You can find and read the PDF white paper here.

You can find my thoughts at the top of the second page under the heading Content. For those who know me or read The Hot Iron, you would not be surprised I pulled the answer up to the 50,000 foot mark, ensuring to address the needs of your target audience, then execute appropriately. My statement reads:

It really depends on your target audience. Many people are just learning about blogs and RSS. Some have issues with Web 2.0 usability, especially those who are visually impaired. A happy medium is to have your newsletter be an aggregation of content posted on your Web site, blog, other Web sites, etc. Content is not "locked" in the newsletter, and is searchable on the Internet.

It is with this in mind I am planning on launching my own email newsletter in 2009 for Dunkirk Systems, LLC – watch for it!

Thanks to Kathryn and her team at Sales-Onsite for including me with this great group of thought-leaders.

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Business • Technology • (2) Comments • Permalink