FAQs on Tiny CC Branded Custom Domain URL Shortener

Sub-users are not able to edit folders and tags. This option is only available to master accounts.
From Manage URLs page, the left side has a tag & folder navigation pane.
• Tags are link labels.
• A link can have one or multiple tags applied to it.
• Folders are holders for tags or other folders (nesting).
• Tags can be moved or renamed.
• Folders can be moved or renamed.
• Retargeting tags show up as underlined.
• Retargeting tags work exactly the same as other tags, except they contain special codes.
Tag and folder management has much in common with the old familiar file and folder management system. Structures can be as simple or as complex as needed. Organize by campaign, date, name, etc. If links are not assigned to a folder they automatically go into "All URLs" container.

Assigning tags to links puts them into corresponding folders at the same time
1. Create the folders you will be working with.
2. Create new tags from tag & folder navigation pane. Then, still in navigation pane, click pencil icon next to the tag to edit it. The box that opens will show your pre-existing folders to pick from. Think of this as choosing and placing a tag into a folder. NOTE: As you click to open/close folders the tags will appear inside.
3. Assign by selecting (check mark) the URL or multiple URLs to be tagged (select a page at time with check box at the top). After selecting URLs, clicking tag icon in actions bar at the top brings up a list of your pre-existing tags to pick from.

How navigation pane "Filters" work
These are default or special folders.
• Send Stats links marked with this option means you will receive an email once a day with the updated click data.
• Monitor Links links marked with this option means we monitor the destination URL and if downtime is detected will notify you with an email.
• Zero Clicks these are all your short links that have never been visited or zero clicks.
• Archived when links are archived they disappear from your Manage page but can be retrieved in the Archived folder.

- Youtube tutorial that shows basics of using tags and folders

URL interstitials, landing pages and banner ads.
An Interstitial is a midway stopping points in the URL redirect (short URL > interstitial landing page > destination URL)
Typically an interstitial page is used for marketing purposes. Various branding or banner ads can be placed on this page and visitor cannot click to continue until count down timer has finished. It can also be used to send any kind of message or notification to your short link users, as the interstitial will have their undivided attention during the timer count down.
• If "redirect delay" is set to 0 - URLs will immediately redirect and not display interstitial pages.
• Content of any landing pages are hosted off-site and called through the URL (many platforms and options are available for hosting single webpages).
• "Interstitial URL" setting takes the URL of your off-site webpage and loads the content into the center of our interstitial page.
• The header portion of our interstial pages are reserved for directly placing banner ads.
• Tinycc users who have subscribed to a plan that includes Retargeting will be able to add custom html code to tags. If codes for banners, the ads will display in center of interstitial page header, just left of count down "Continue" button.

- Youtube tutorial about using interstitials

Compatibility of Redirect Features
Interstitial pages (delay>0)
Landing pages (interstitial URL)
Custom html code (pixels, banner ads)
Use of Override referer
Custom HTTP codes (301, 302, etc.)
All of these redirect features can be used in any combination and at the same time except for Custom HTTP status codes which can not be used concurrently with any of the other features.

Landing page failing to appear, even though you correctly setup an Interstitial URL (google.com for example)?
For security reasons, many sites instruct browsers, to not display their site in an iframe and use HTTP headers to achieve this: x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN or X-Frame-Options: DENY

Only used for special notes or reminders and are not related to tagging. Tags have a different function. A note icon is located next to each link on Manage URLs page. Click to edit. When a sticky note contains data this icon turns black and a mouse over can display content.
There is a 255 character limit for any single note.

Smart links are short links that have custom redirect rules. One short link can point to different destinations, depending on parameters you set and responsive depending on who is clicking. Rule parameters include: operating system, browser, language, location, date window, time window, total clicks, unique visits. And you can update any destination URL at any time.

• A Smart link is created by selecting and modifying any regular short link on Manage URLs page.
• Select a link from your list then click compass icon at the top of page.
• Stacking of multiple rules are allowed which means complex routing trees are also possible.

Device Example
starting with a baseline link to iPhone landing page. Under routing criterion pick platform > Android > click on "http://example.com" and enter the long URL to your Android landing page, then "Add rule." All visitors (including iOS) are then routed to iPhone baseline destination. Android visitors are routed to Android destination.

Country-Browser Example
Root entry: http://custom.com/root
USA users redirected to http://custom.com/usa_node
India users redirected to http://other-site.com
China users redirected to http://custom.com/notfound
/usa_node may have it's own routing (configured separately): Windows users redirected to http://newapp-soft.com/win/
Mac users redirected to http://newap-soft.com/mac/

• Having trouble deciphering the 2-letter geocodes found in routing filter setup? Try this geocode decode

- Youtube tutorial for setting up smart links based on Country
- Youtube tutorial for setting up smart links based on Click Count

From Manage URLs page check mark the link you want to edit then click Edit icon at the top of page.

Either side (short or long URL) can be changed as needed. NOTE: if your domain has been set for 301 Permanent Redirects and you tested an edited URL and destination appears unchanged it is due to your browser's cache. Browsers take shortcuts to perform faster. Rather than check the TINY site to verify if anything with the link has changed since its last use - the browser assumes it has not... grabs a previously written copy and redirects using your computer's local storage - bypassing TINY servers (and incidentally bypassing stats collection). In other words the link works fine for others who click it, but appears unchanged for you, until you clear your cache. Try clearing your browser cache and cookies 307 is a temporary redirect and will not trigger caching. 302 and 303 will not trigger caching either. Redirect settings can be found under Settings > Account.

QR Codes (mobile barcodes) are links that a mobile phone can recognize and automatically click on. Tinycc QR Codes are dynamic, meaning you can change the QR landing page anytime after the QR Code has been printed or distributed simply by editing of the destination URL from your Tinycc account.
• The default QR is 150px. Need a larger one? Click the "Print QR" button to get 500px. It will print out at 500 px or cancel the print and Save Image As...
• You can also switch the error correction level between L (7%), Q (25%), H (30%). L is default and lowest dots per inch (DPI). For business cards and most other situations L will work fine. For customizing you will need a higher level of error correction such as Q or H.

QR Codes from Manage URLs page
A QR Code icon will display in the corner next to every link. Click icon to get QR.

QR Codes from API
QR codes can be retrieved through our API. See API documentation on Develper page.

QR codes in file form
1. Select group of links on Manage URLs page using one of existing methods (select tag or check links individually).
2. QR-code action icon at top of Manage URLs page becomes active - click QR icon.
3. Dialog box appears allowing you to pick QR code quality.
4. After confirmation, export operation begins.
5. We generate QR-code images and add them to a ZIP archive.
6. A link to download resulting ZIP file is emailed to you.

You can permanently remove URLs: individually, one page of links at a time, all URLs under a domain or all URLs in your account.

• From your links list. Select a single URL using check mark on left side. Then click Delete icon at the top of page.
• From your links list. Check mark the mass action box in top left corner. This selects all URLs on page. Then click Delete icon.
• From navigation pane click a domain then "Select all in..." then click Delete icon.
• From Settings > Account > Account Settings > Purge URLs to delete all URLs in your account.

Don't keep old links floating out there in perpetuity. Recycle them after their useful lifespans.
Links can be automatically removed in two ways. By dates or by clicks. Through the API or from Manage URLs page.

• From your links list. Select single URL using check mark on left side. Then click Calendar icon at the top of page. Pick date this single link should be deleted. Or pick maximum number of clicks it should receive before deletion.
• From your links list. Check mark the mass action box in top left corner. This selects all URLs on page. Then click Calendar icon at the top of page. Pick date or max clicks to trigger deletion.
• From navigation pane click a domain then "Select all in..." then click Calendar icon at the top of page. Pick date or max clicks to trigger deletion of all.

Export/Import URLs is a download/upload tool that works in two format options - CSV or XML.
1. Login to your account and click Manage URLs button.
2. Click Export or Import button in upper right corner of link list.
3. Note* Export and Import is not available in free trials. These buttons are visible only for normal subscribers.

Export Function
• Applies globally to all URLs in the account.
• The data in exported file can include: "Long Url";"Short Url"; (and 7 other optional parameters)
• Should easily be able to download all URLs in your account.

Import Function
• There is no file size limit, but all URLs account limits apply. Contact us if you need to exceed your monthly limit using an import.
• Import operation can be relatively slow (if number of URLs > 100) and includes a timeout element. After 30s of waiting, browser may show a "Server Not Responding" message. The server is still working on import, you just need to give it more time.
The number of URLs are displayed after each successful import.

Other details about the import procedure
1. Supported file formats: CSV and XML (format recognized by mime-type sent by browser, not by file extension).
2. Supported import fields: long URL; short URL (short URL parsed and only hash is used, other parts ignored).
3. Short URLs with duplicate or invalid hash are skipped.
4. Long URLs are validated according to our normal validation procedure. If it is not valid, the URL is skipped.
5. Requires semicolon delimiter instead of comma.
6. If using quotation marks around URLs, a misplaced mark can trigger an error. Quotations are not mandatory, but highly recommended if URLs contain unusual symbols or spaces.
7. Import looks for long URL then short URL. Required column order: "long URL";"short URL"
8. First line is always used for column headers.
9. If you need a clean slate in preparation for a new import, a quick way to do this is Settings > Account > Account Settings > Purge URLs

Import format examples
CSV file examples

User-space specific error messages
XML parsing error: "Error reading XML file"
XML errors: [description of syntax error]

Error messages that mean unable to recognize format
File upload error: "Unknown file type"
CSV parsing errors: "Error reading CSV file"
Data format requirements not met: "0 URLs imported"
"Empty URL"
XML error "Not well-formed (invalid token)" at line 1, column 1

- Youtube tutorial on preparing CSV-file to Import Links data
- Youtube tutorial on Exporting Links data
- Youtube tutorial covering usage of Tag Queries for link export
- Youtube tutorial covering Complex Tag Queries for link export

When an account expires - after a free trial or an expired subscription - your links can still be clicked, but won't take visitors directly to the destination URL. The redirect stops first at an interstitial (Preview) page, requiring a second click to reach the final destination. Expired accounts can not edit links or create new ones.

Google Analytics is one of the industry's most popular and best tools for website, audience and campaign insights. Our reporting engine was designed more to supplement or fill gaps in the Google Analytics performance metrics rather than re-invention of the wheel.
Set up a Google Analytics "property" for your custom domain then save short link pageview events to your Google Analytics account.
To make this integration work we just need to know your tracking ID. Tracking ID can be found in your Google Analytics account under "Property Settings" and will be in this format
(UA-XXXXXXXX-Y).
Youtube tutorial on Google Analytics integration

Satellite accounts are multiple users tied to a single master account. Functions and privileges of individual satellite logins have one of three levels.

PERMISSION LEVELS
• Client can only see and edit their own URLs and assigned domains.
• Company can see all URLs and domains, but only edit own URLs.
• Admin can see and edit all URLs, domains and settings.

Client and Company users are not allowed to view or edit any settings or overall account limits. They have partial navigation access and displays only a restricted Manage URLs page, Dashboard, Profile, Broken links page and URL limits. Both Master and Admin can add, edit or delete satellite accounts. Admin can see and do everything Master can, except Admin doesn't have access to Billing page or Cancel Account buttons.

Colors are randomly assigned to satellite accounts for organizing purposes (on Manage URLs page). These colors can be edited as needed.

Either Master or Admin create the initial credentials for new users. After gaining access, all individual accounts can manage their own profiles. If Private label feature is enabled, satellite users will see your company logo displayed in place of Tinycc logo.

DEDICATED LOGIN PAGE
http://cycsch.me/tiny/account
Have your clients and employees bookmark this page. It lets satellite users access their accounts directly while Tinycc graphics and identifiers are bypassed - giving your customers and employees a more consistent private label experience.

- Youtube tutorial for satellite accounts

Redirect codes are a type of HTTP Status Code. Redirect code options are 301, 302, 303, 307. If your domain has been set for 301 Permanent Redirects, you edited a URL then tested and destination appears unchanged it is due to your browser's cache. Browsers take shortcuts to perform faster. Rather than check the Tinycc site to verify if anything with the link has changed since its last use - the browser assumes it has not... grabs a previously written copy and redirects using your computer's local storage - bypassing Tinycc servers (and incidentally bypassing stats collection). In other words the link works fine for others who click it, but appears unchanged for you, until you clear your cache. Clearing your browser cache and cookies 307 is a temporary redirect and will not trigger caching. 302 and 303 will not trigger caching either.

Even in situations where you think short links will be bulletproof, such as sending via email or text messages, some users still do unexpected things like navigate to the root domain of the link instead of clicking. Or transcribe it to another browser instead of simply clicking it directly. A few will even try to transcribe the link to a search engine. It is inevitable that a percentage of your visits will result in error, but root domain redirect and 404 page redirect are features designed to reduce the impact of user errors (see also the next help topic below on setting up a custom 404 page).

Short URLs = custom domain + short hash (myshortdomain.com/obza4). If a visitor enters your custom domain (minus the short hash) into a browser, by default it will go to TINY/. Root page redirect option means that a separate "homepage" can be configured for the root of your custom domain (basic domain with no short hash). To set up a custom homepage, login to your account and go to: Domains > Domain Settings > Root domain redirect. Enter you custom "homepage" URL into box: "Custom root domain redirect URL" (such as http://mysite.com/faq/landingpage.html ). NOTE: Custom root domain redirect URL can't be the same as your custom domain name. Don't use your custom domain name for this setting or it will result in an endless loop error.

Short URLs = custom domain + short hash (myshortdomain.com/obza4). If a visitor makes a mistake in the short hash, by default it will go to a TINY/not found (404 error page). 404 page redirect option means that a separate "error" page can be configured so that link mistakes (instance of any short hash error) will go to the page of your choice . To set up a custom 404 page, login to your account and go to: Domains > Domain Settings > 404 page redirect. Enter the custom 404 URL into box: "404 page redirect URL" (such as http://mysite.com/faq/landingpage.html ). NOTE: The destination of 404 page redirect URL can't be the same as your custom domain. Don't use your custom domain for this setting or it will result in an endless loop error.

404 means a page arrived at by error, such as when a visitor attempts to follow a short link that doesn't exist. 404 is "Not Found" reporting of all short links in your account. It is useful for finding specific click errors made by your users. Reasons that 404s are generated can include typos involving case sensitive short hashes or situations where users enter the link manually. Other errors might be from expired links or related to URL edits - you updated a link but users are still trying to follow the old one. Bots sometimes fish for pages by trying various non-existant link names that also leads to errors. Error reporting covers last 90 days. Login to your account and go to: Click Errors.

This is an IP address filter designed to prevent your own traffic from skewing the click metrics. Simply put, it allows you to filter out clicks that come from your home or work IP addresses. You can make test clicks and otherwise visit the link, but from a stats reporting viewpoint, all short link traffic coming from your organization's network will not exist. The visit is ignored if it takes place from a given IP.

- Youtube tutorial for Exclusion Filter

SSL (secure sockets layer) is an encrypted link between web server and browser. Before using HTTPS:// protocol with your short links, an SSL certificate for your shortening domain needs to be created and installed on our servers.

• 1. Go to your Manage Domains page.
  2. Click to edit your domain (pencil icon).
  3. From the popup box, click "Get SSL-certificate" button.
  After SSL is successfully enabled a green padalock icon will appear next to your domain.

You will also have the option to switch between displaying all of your links with either http or https. Domain redirect settings (check or un uncheck the box next to "Use HTTPS for short URLs")
It is global and affects not only shortening form, but Manage URLs page and also URL sharing and QR-code generation. This setting doesn't affect API responses because short URLs in responses are given without protocol prefix.

All URLs data can be cleared from your account by going to Settings > Account > Account Settings > Purge URLs.
Purge URLs is an irreversible action so consider downloading a backup of your URLs first.
- Youtube tutorial about Purging URLs

login to your account and go to: Manage URLs. The search box is located at the top of the page and includes URLs and notes. If you can remember something about the link, just type it into the box. Notes field are also queried at the same time, but Tags are not included in search.

Free trial period begins as soon as you register an account. Credit card information is not needed for the free trial. Billing only starts when you initiate a subscription from your account dashboard. *Note* only Basic plan features are available in trial mode. Payments can be made using:

Gateways:   PayPal, Stripe
Methods:   VISA, Mastercard, American Express Discover, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Android Pay

You can easily change plans, switch between monthly/annual billing, upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time from your dashboard. Simply navigate to Billing in the account sidebar.

Please note that Pro accounts use a separate login. There is no one-click upgrade to Pro. Upgrading to Pro requires a couple of steps:
1. Use the dashboard export tool to export your links.
2. Import your links into the new Pro account.

Monthly plans are billed once per month on your subscription signup day, and are not discounted. Annual plans are billed as a single payment once per year at a discount of 8.33% (equivalent to 1 free month of service).

All plans include Custom Short URL features where you use your own domain name. As long as this domain name is not already in-use with your website it will work fine.

Don't have one, or don't want to use your own domain name?
We provide some generic domain name options free with your account.

NOTE: To get a Custom Short URL (with a personal shortening domain) that fits your brand, you will need to buy it separately. Tinycc doesn't offer any domain registration services. Your dashboard has more details about the domain name setup. It is easy to do and we provide a number of tools to assist and troubleshoot the process.

When redirect limits are hit, or if an account expires - after the free trial or an expired subscription - links can still be clicked, but won't take visitors directly to the destination URL. The redirect stops first at an interstitial page, requiring a second click to reach the final destination.
Or looked at in another way, it only means that if a particular link exceeds < plan limit clicks on a given day - any visitors over that limit will see an interstitial page and need to click an additional time to be redirected to the destination.

Individual plans specify the maximum number of clicks per day allowed for any single link. Plans also specifies URL limits and API limits.

All limits are hard limits except for redirects, which continue to function (but with interstitials). Expired accounts can not edit links or create new ones.

To update your credit card or billing source on file with Stripe:
1. Go to your Tinycc Billing page.
2. Click the "Change Stripe subscription" button (do this without selecting a plan).

Follow instructions in the popup box. This form can be used to update the billing info for next Stripe transaction. Just enter your new payment details. Your billing details will be edited but your card won't be charged until the end of current billing cycle or next subscription anniversary date. Also note that this only works for Stripe. If you subscribed through PayPal you must login to your PayPal account and update billing source from your PayPal account

Our feature set is all about providing flexibility and options. We want to assist your company in every way we can and that starts with personalized service. Next comes pricing that is rock bottom for a USA based company. See Tinycc in a side by side comparison with the industry's big guys.

If you aren't interested in branding aspects and need a custom domain for a high volume project or even just to use the features in our premium service, about having one set up for free.

Otherwise, if you want to score the perfect domain here is a good starting point:
• How the TLD affects SEO (You don't need a dot com domain to be successful on Google)
• List of top level domains (Wikipedia lists)
• Domain hack utility (not up-to-date with latest TLDs)

Domain Registrars
• iwantmyname (Very comprehensive, will check all possible TLDs. Also has 1-click DNS setup for your TINY branded account!)
• domainr (Good search function, also includes domain hack suggestions)
• Sedo (largest secondary and auction market for domains)

Point your personal domain or subdomain to IP-address:   167.71.5.66

This involves creating or editing an A-record from your domain registrar dashboard. The Domain Name System (DNS) is what connects a domain to a website. Your custom domain needs to connect to Tinycc services at 167.71.5.66
The exact procedure for updating host records varies from registrar to registrar, but here is a general outline:

1. Login to your domain registrar account and pick domain to modify.
2. Find registrar's method for managing DNS entries. The terminology will be like: "Host Record," "DNS Record," "Advanced DNS," "DNS Configuration," "Total DNS," "DNS Zone."
3. Add a new record if none exists or edit an existing record.

The completed DNS modification form might include this info
Record Type: A Record
Host: @
IP Address: 167.71.5.66
TTL: 30 minutes

• And final step is a little patience.
Your shortening domain will usually be ready to use within an hour, but understand that there is a DNS "propagation delay" that depends on various factors. It could take 12 hrs or even up to 48 hrs. Servers around the world cache a copy of DNS records for a period of time. You can Check DNS for traffic shift after making host changes. Enter your domain on that site and confirm that all servers are resolving to IP-address:   167.71.5.66

- Youtube tutorial for Namecheap DNS
- Youtube tutorial for GoDaddy DNS
- Youtube tutorial for Freenom DNS

IDN is supported and special characters represent an excellent opportunity to register either a very short or nicely branded domain, but before you register this kind of domain take note of the pros and cons .
• Because special characters were not originally allowed in regular domain names, IDN domains won't work in very old browsers and some email clients. Modern ones support IDNs
• IDNs are not recommended if any users need to type-in the short URLs. Special characters can lead to mistakes, but are fine in use cases where you know that users will only be clicking links.
• Domain names containing special characters, are called IDN (Internationalized Domain Names). Here is a list of Top Level Domains that allow international characters. More details about shortening IDN URLs.
• Example of standard encoding for international domain names: árt.com will display inside your TINYCC account as árt.com. Punycode is a common way to represent special characters when using standard alphanumeric keyboard characters. Punycode version of árt.com is xn--rt-lia.com
• Note: when telling us your domain at signup, do not use punycode. Enter it directly, using the special characters e.g. árt.com

SSL requires installation of certificates on our server.
1. Go to your Manage Domains page.
2. Click to edit your domain (pencil icon).
3. From the popup box, click "Get SSL-certificate" button.
After SSL is successfully enabled a green padalock icon will appear next to your domain.

This feature is intended for mobile app developers.

Taking the example of a YouTube link - your mobile operating system will suggest an option to open that resource inside of the YouTube mobile app. This is called Mobile App Deep Linking and it is possible to implement this same behavior for your own mobile app. Details could be found here:

• Universal Links in iOS
• Android App Links

If you successfully implemented the above solution then you will have OS-specific association files hosted on your site:

• https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association - for iOS
• https://example.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json - for Android

(Use of HTTPS protocol for these files is important!)

Mobile App Deep Linking with short URLs

At this point you will have Mobile App Deep Linking behavior for long URLs on your domain (like https://www.example.com/watch?v=_n5eE8jCuCY). The final task is getting the same behavior from branded short links hosted on the Tinycc service (https://examp.le/cool).

The remaining steps to take:

1. Configure a copy of association file for your short domain
2. Add your short domain as trusted to your mobile application
3. Implement automatic sync between association file on main domain and association file on short domain

1. Configure a copy of association file on your short domain

Go to your Domain management page. Open "Redirect" settings for your custom shortening domain. Tell us the links to your main domain association files.

• OS app-site assoc - fill with link https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association
• Digital Asset Links JSON - fill with link https://example.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json

Save your domain config.
Now when mobile OS requests an association file on short domain (https://examp.le/.well-known/apple-app-site-association), our server will serve a copy of the original association file (https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association).

2. Add your short domain as trusted to your mobile application

iOS (version 9 and above)

Add “Associated Domains”capability to your app in Xcode and include an entry to associated domains list and your short domain name prefixed with “applinks:” (for example, applinks:examp.le).

Because your association file is only fetched once when the user first installs or upgrades the app, short domain setup must be complete before your app is released. This also means that you can’t add new deep linking url patterns to your app until you push out a new app update to force users to refresh the file.

Android (version 6 and above)

Edit your app manifest file and include your short domain in a list of linked hosts. Details of linking to multiple hosts are found here.

3. Implement automatic sync between association file on main domain and association file on short domain

Our system will handle this part.
A copy of your main association file https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association is stored on our server for 24 hours. And automatically updated after that.

All click stats details are 100% private and require login to view
• Our system subtracts known crawler bots.
• "total clicks / unique visits" is real time, raw data - regardless of source.
• Total clicks = all visitors, unless bots, which are ignored.
• Unique clicks = all unique visitors.
• Return clicks = total visits minus uniques.
• The ratio of unique to return visitors helps you figure out interest level or stickiness of your page content.
• Referrers is a metric that tells you how they got there, or which website they last came from. "Direct" referrers can include email clients, Instant messages and direct submissions.

Short link pageview events can be saved to your Google Analytics account (data saved to a Google Analytics property, setup for your custom domain). To start this, login to your TINY account and go to: Settings > Account Settings > Google Analytics. Enter your tracking ID. Tracking ID can be found in your Google Analytics account under "Property Settings" and will be in this format (UA-XXXXXXXX-Y).
- Youtube tutorial on Google Analytics integration

Google Analytics is the standard in traffic analytics, but it also has some limitations to be aware of. Typically, questions raised involve the accuracy or precision of Google Analytics.

Here is a quick summary of how Google Analytics works, what it does and doesn't do:
• Only tracks visitors that: are not Bots, have JavaScript enabled, allow Cookies, and stay at least until page fully loads.
• A reporting delay = usually about 5 min, but can be up to 24 hrs.
• Links with < 1000 clicks will have lower accuracy.
• Uses data sampling techniques which are statistical estimates and not precise visitor numbers.
Data sampling rarely has an impact on the insights you get from the analytics. For example, if charts are indicating conversion rates are lower for Android users than iOS users. Then the basic results (conversion rates are significantly lower on Android) hold true regardless of any data imprecision.
• Most ad blockers blacklist google-analytics.com as well as attempts by Google Analytics JavaScript client to send or retrieve the data.

Most traffic stat services quit at the country level. Our click geolocation can drill down to the level of cities. login to your account and go to: Manage > Tiny link > Get Stats > City View . The default has an accuracy level of 50% to 75%.
Custom upgrades can provide 99.8% accurate on a country level, 90% accurate on a state level, 81% accurate on a city level.

New clicks is similar to inbox "new mail." Indicating which URLs had traffic since yesterday. Refreshing page will show most recent accumulated in New clicks category. New clicks is also an option in (Sort by: drop down box) at the top of Links page. login to your account and go to: Manage page.

Bots are often programmed to hit links as soon as they post to certain sites. What you are experiencing in this case are twitter bot and various other social media analysis engines in a competition to collect data on all posted links.

This report is designed to open directly in Excel and be ready for processing.

Clicks data for particular dates are organized in a standard row x column matrix.
• The cells are labeled at the top.
• Each parameter is located in a separate column.
• Every row represents a new date.

More on how to use Excel Reports

Excel clicks report includes: date, short URL, long URL, note, total clicks, unique clicks and is limited to a maximum of 10,000 rows of URLs - chosen using date range or tag query. Data in this report can extend out to a maximum of 90 days (clicks/date default is last 90 days).
Data is organized in a standard row x column matrix.
• The cells are labeled at the top.
• Each parameter is located in a separate column.
• Every row represents a new date.


1. Login to your account and click Manage button.
2. Click Reports button in upper right corner of link list.
3. Generate report by setting Start and End dates then click Export. Or
4. Generate report by entering tag(s) query then click Export.

Presence or absence of tags indicated with prefix "+" and "~" respectively.
Examples below are not encoded (for readability):
+banana&+boxed - query all URLs, that have both "banana" and "boxed" tags attached.
+banana&~boxed - query all URLs, that have "banana" tag and doesn't have "boxed" tag attached.
+banana|+boxed - query all URLs, that have "banana" tag or "boxed" tag attached.
(+banana|+boxed)&(+fresh|~premium) - query all URLs, that have: 1) "banana" tag or "boxed" tag attached; and also have 2) "fresh" tag attached or doesn't have "premium" tag.
"+" prefix may be omitted (it is considered by default)
For AND operator you can use different symbols: &, comma, semicolon.
For XOR operator you can use: ^

At the bottom of stats page it says: "Export clicks in CSV format for this short link?" This is a CSV file that includes:
• Total clicks. total monthly clicks for each of the last 12 months.
• Clicks for each of the last 12 months.

Send Stats is an option to have short link clicks data emailed to you once a day. The report is sent to email addresses specified in Settings > Account > Notifications and includes Short URL, Total clicks, New clicks, and your Sticky notes (if you had attached a note to the link). From Manage URLs page. A square icon is located at the corner of each link container. Click to add that link to daily report list. When link is included on report list the icon turns black. Click again to toggle report off for that link. There is a Send Stats filter in navigation pane to display your list of all links that have stats monitoring turned on.

Plan limits specify the maximum number of clicks per day allowed for any single link. If redirect limits are hit, visitors can still reach destination URL by clicking through an interstitial page. The interstitial is same as our URL Preview page.

Other limits include URLs in one month, total URLs and API requests.

If notifications are enabled, you will receive an alert when any account limit reaches 90%.
Alerts are sent to email addresses you list in Settings > Account > Notifications
Youtube tutorial for setting your notifications

Send Stats is an option to have short link clicks data emailed to you once a day. The report is sent to email addresse(s) you specify in
Settings > Account > Notifications
Youtube tutorial for setting your notifications
The report can include Short URL, Total clicks, New clicks, and Sticky notes (if notes used).
From Manage URLs page. A square icon is located at the corner the link list. Click to add that link to daily report list. When link is included on report list the icon turns black. Click again to toggle report off for that link. There is a Send Stats filter in navigation pane to display your list of all links that have stats monitoring turned on.

Link health is uptime monitoring of destination URLs. The destination resource is pinged periodically and failure to respond triggers an alert. Reason for failure is also logged.
Youtube tutorial for setting your alerts and notifications

With brand monitoring events (mentions) You will receive alert if a 25% change has taken place during the last 24 hours.
Youtube tutorial for setting your alerts and notifications

Don't get too far ahead of yourself. Start out with something like RESTED browser extension for Google Chrome. Or Postman.
After learning to make successful API calls through the browser extension, move on and attempt writing your own code. An extension can also help you troubleshoot by separating client-code bugs from network issues.

• Always check HTTP error codes and also check our internal API error codes (described in API docs). If you get no HTTP response at all, something is wrong on client-side.
• Play with our Testing Console (launched from API docs page). It can provide a rich amount of examples on what is working and what is not working. Console shows how actual header would look.
• Observe correct formatting for JSON encoding and "urlencoded" encoding of "long_url". Also, don't forget to encode "user:password" part of the header with base64 encoding. See description of HTTP Basic authentication.
• "long_url" should be part of POST payload. And not simply attached to URL.

Use PHP exception handling to see actual error messages, like this:
try{
$surl = $client->shorten($url, $data);
}catch(\Exception $e){
print $e->getMessage();
}

Set Content-Type header for HTTP requests. So headers part would look like this:
headers: {
'Authorization': 'Basic XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'Content-Length': message.length
}

Application Programming Interface (API) enables developers to interact with Tinycc programmatically. It is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software and applications. Our structure conforms to the REST API concept. Tinycc v3 API documentation can be found here.

It is a method for encoding URLs when they are sent through our API. GET-parameters should be percent-encoded.

• www.urlencoder.io has a good summary of the process.

• URL-encoded query strings using PHP.
• URL-encoded query strings using online form.

When URLs are submitted through the shortening form, they are also processed and stored in an encoded format on our end.
• Path part of URL (including file name) is encoded according to RFC 3986 - using %20 for spaces.
• Query string (only if additional query params used) is encoded according to RFC 1738 - using + for spaces.

API limits are determined by the service plan. To see your account limits go to: Settings > Account. URLs limits are specified in URLs/month and Max URLs/account. API limits are specified in requests/day. When limits are exceeded it results in the following error codes:
1220 -- 'URLs limit has been reached'   (Total account size limit reached or URLs/month limit reached)
1303 -- 'API call limit reached'   (API requests/day limit reached)

In addition there is a limit on multiple execution parameters sent in a single call. 100/batch is the default.
1221 -- 'Exceeded limit of batch operation'

Minimum URL length - 4
Maximum URL length - 2048
1216 -- 'Invalid URL length'

When using batch operations multiple parameters can be passed in a single GET or PUT request e.g. shortening multiple URLs in a single API call.

100/batch is the default. When batch limits are exceeded it results in the following error code:
1221 -- 'Exceeded limit of batch operation'

• The total number of batch operations can be customized in any of our Enterprise solutions.

The Tinycc client libraries give building block examples of how to use our API.

• Multiple users or sub-accounts are supported. We call them Satellite accounts and they are found in Settings > Manage Users. The functions and privileges of individual satellite accounts revolve around one master account and can have three possible permission levels.
- Youtube tutorial that covers managing users

Short URLs = custom domain + short hash (myshortdomain.com/obza4). Short hashes can be random or custom. A custom URL contains a custom short hash. If nothing is entered into customurl box, the default short URL will be generated with random characters. But you have the option of entering chosen characters or a keyword into this box to give the URL an alias or nickname (alpha-numeric characters, underscores, and dashes are allowed). Example, you are shortening a news article link and to make it easy to remember you enter "BBCnews" into the customurl box after pasting the long news article address into the box next to it. The URL that results is http://tiny.cc/BBCnews. The short hash in this example is "BBCnews"
• Custom URLs are case-sensitive - if you make it with capital letters it must be used with capitals. The exception to this is when your account is configured to use non-case sensitive URLs (Settings > Account Settings > Redirects). The setting differences (case sensitive vs non-case sensitive) is what is meant by case sensitive switching If you duplicate a custom URL (using same characters, but with case differences only) and it doesn't work; it may be due to earlier link testing that you did with your browser. See browser cache details under Edit Links.
• Short hashes are private with all of our premium services. This means you never need to worry about hash availability in custom URLs! Custom URLs on the tiny.cc (free) site are on a first come basis. That means you can use a short hash only if it has not already been taken by another user.

The system supports subdirectory forwarding. This means previously made short links can be re-pointed to any page on a website by appending slash and filename - making one short link able to serve multiple purposes. For example your home page:  mynewwebsite.com --is--> sho.rt/mws2  and you sometimes need links for mynewwebsite.com/about and mynewwebsite.com/info.html. Instead of creating two other links you can just append the basic one: sho.rt/mws2/info.html or sho.rt/mws2/about (or to any other page on your site). NOTE this only works for the 1st level. You can't use two slashes and forward to a 2nd level such as sho.rt/mws2/fr/contact.

- Youtube tutorial on subdirectory forwarding

URL query strings can be passed through short links.
Pass Parameters With Slash
Example Long URL: http://longexample.com/path?page=1   
Example Short URL: http://myshortdomain.com/x
http://myshortdomain.com/x/file.html?user=32
redirects to:
http://longexample.com/path/file.html?page=1&user=32
- Youtube tutorial on Query String Parameters

Pass Parameters Without Slash
• Add a tilde symbol (~) at the end of the original, long URL.
• Tilde will indicate that parameter have to be spliced without a slash.
Example Long URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal%3A~
Example Short URL: http://short.2.vu/6f

http://short.2.vu/6f/Arts
redirects to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal%3AArts

http://short.2.vu/6f/Biography
redirects to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal%3ABiography

- Youtube tutorial on URL Concatenation

You can also pass Parameters with Smart Link regular expressions path matching.

Concerned about blindly clicking a Tinycc URL due to chance of it hiding a virus, spyware or otherwise offensive material? Just add an equal sign to the end of any Tinycc URL (or branded domain URL)... as in this example: http://tinycc.com/tw=  A preview page lets you safely see the address of that destination in its full, expanded form before actually visiting the site. Still unsure? Click "scan this link for malware first" button to see real-time results of nine different types of possible threats.

Special characters country/language native characters can be used with our system. Neither the long URL or your personal domain is limited to standard alphanumerics. The story about forms of encoding such as UTF strings, ASCII strings and how browsers handle it, is long and technical, but there are just a couple of details that need to be pointed out here.

Special characters in the long URL
This example URL, https://www.google.com/webhp?=1&espv=üniversite contains ü (Latin Small Letter U with diaeresis) and can be shortened without issue through our system. But note that we will automatically display the character in encoded form. So instead of ü after the URL is shortened you will see %C3%BC in its place.

Using IDN domains in your branded URLs

Questions about link privacy and short links appearing in search results. See Search Engines and Link Indexing for details.

Time-outs on some networks but not others, such as failing at work, but successfully connecting via VPN, or a cell network?
Typical Causes
Some local networks use overly aggressive policing or filtering - making the internet difficult to access and use.
Or it may be accidental and the local provider simply has a VPN/firewall misconfiguration.
If you use custom domains it is possible your particular DNS service doesn't play well with all internet providers.
Request help from the internet provider, who is failing to "provide" proper functionality of basic HTTP services.
Solving Network Issues
What value are you using for timeout? We advise using 15-30 seconds. 15s should be enough for almost all API responses. Otherwise, you should see our server respond with a 503 error code (30s is a worst-case scenario for severe networking lag).
One method of locating the problem network is by tracing the route. This traces the route of packets to a destination host.
Compare output of times with a "good" connection to tinycc.com and output of times when connection to tinycc.com breaks down or times out. Depending on your OS, there are different command-line tools to pick from:
tracert
traceroute
tracepath
Sometimes complex AWS setups can result in rather long routes to our servers and IP-packet losses.
To reduce the rate of IP-packet loss We suggest decreasing the MTU parameter of the network interface of your server. In many cases MTU=1500 by default. But for long routes it may be feasible to set it in the area of 1200-1400. Of course after this change, network connections should be re-tested. We expect it will give better reliability of access to tinycc.com. Possible negative effect - somewhat reduced bandwidth of network interface (because of increased IP-packet headers overhead).
A way of testing different MTU parameter values:
ping -M do tinycc.com -s
- should be set at 1500 initially (this is where you have experienced failure). Next values to try 1480, 1460 etc. Until ping succeeds. Basic Commands and Tools
Run this command on your server with bad connections:
mtr -w -c 1000 -s 1000 -r tinycc.com
It will work for about 17 minutes and provide a report about lost IP-packets. It lets you see which host in the route loses IP-packets.
Run cURL with "v" key to get more info, Like this:
curl -Iv --connect-timeout 10 https://tinycc.com
Where cURL fails run curl ifconfig.me

Tinycc was designed for use with modern compliant browsers. Internet Explorer 10 and 11 are partially supported. See this complete browser list for more details.

Have instant access to one-click link shortening anywhere you go on the internet! See Tools for details.

Facebook automatically adds a bit of code to links used with apps or for other postings: ( ?ref=... ) These are "referral tags" and have proven tricky with short URLs in the past. But no worries, TINY will handle them correctly.

One click to email or send to your favorite website. Click "Share" and a list of choices will pop-up, click the one you want or search if you don't see it (after that it remembers your favorites). One click will send the short link to your chosen site or email client. Note: Twitter forces re-writing and replacing of all URLs posted to use t.co (their own default shortener). Some or all of the original URL will be shown in the tweet, but the actual hyperlink will always go through t.co.

• From home page, after shortening a URL the QR Code icon will display below it. Click icon to bring up Share box.
• From your account links list. A Share icon will display in the right hand corner of every link container. Click icon to bring up Share box.

Trying to sign up but getting error message Wrong IP-address ? Your browser's IP-address changed before the form was submitted. Refresh the page and try it again.

Getting error message [object Object] ? Visit the home page from this link, then refresh and login again.

Other issues? Try clearing your browser cache and cookies Your computer's anti-virus/firewall can also stop login. If using Bitdefender make sure to whitelist tinycc.com.

All accounts are under our general Terms of Service
But if you are in a tightly regulated industry or need a special service level agreement we can provide that also.

Enterprise and Custom Plans
Questions about plans and feature customization can be expedited with this short questionnaire. All information submitted is confidential:
Submit a Service Inquiry Form Here

If you have a specific issue and can't find an answer in the FAQs,   here and typically get a response within 24 hours.