uTag：通过缩短的URL赚钱

With over 100 startups launching over the next few days between TechCrunch50 and DEMO, and most of your favorite tech blogs inundated with reviews of those companies, we thought it would be fun to highlight a new startup that isn’t presenting at either. Last week, a couple of dozen developers got together in Sydney, Australia for what might have been the country’s first startup weekend (though it doesn’t seem to have been associated with StartupWeekend).

在接下来的几天里，随着TechCrunch50和DEMO之间启动了100多家初创公司，而且您最喜欢的技术博客中充斥着对这些公司的评论，我们认为重点介绍一个没有出现在这里的新初创公司会很有趣。 上周，数十名开发人员在澳大利亚悉尼聚在一起，这可能是该国第一个创业周末 (尽管似乎与StartupWeekend无关 )。

In small teams, the group of entrepreneurs developed three startups over the 48-hour get together. Those included a traffic map of Sydney using Google Maps and a visual representation of links shared on Twitter. But it is the third startup that reportedly was voted best of the weekend. uTag is a URL shortener similar to services like Snurl or TinyURL, with a twist: it adds advertisements in a top frame to all outgoing links allowing webmasters to monetize traffic as it leaves their site without resorting to popunders.

在小型团队中，一群企业家在48小时的聚会中发展了三个创业公司。 其中包括使用Google Maps 的悉尼交通地图以及Twitter上共享链接的可视化表示 。 但是据报道，这是第三家被评为周末最佳的初创公司。 uTag是URL缩短器，类似于Snurl或TinyURL之类的服务，但有一个变化：它在所有传出链接的顶部框架中添加广告，从而使网站管理员可以在离开站点的情况下利用流量获利，而无需借助弹出式窗口。

The founders say that their service is a way to reward top social media users who spend time finding quality content to share on sites like Twitter and del.icio.us. “On micro-blogging site Twitter, there are already 2 Billion abbreviated links clicked on per month. In addition to this there are over 120 Million blogs on the Internet that finally have a way to be rewarded for driving traffic across sites,” said co-founder Kim Heras.

创始人说，他们的服务是一种奖励顶级社交媒体用户的方式，他们花时间寻找高质量的内容，以便在Twitter和del.icio.us等网站上共享。 “在微博客网站Twitter上，每月已经有20亿个缩写链接被点击。 除此之外，互联网上超过1.2亿个博客最终因在网站间吸引访问量而获得回报。”联合创始人Kim Heras说道。

The service works basically like any other URL shortening service; you enter a URL and generate a uTag link. However, there is one additional step: enter your PayPal id. The site also offers an API that can automatically create uTag versions of all links on a web site. The result is a link like the two samples I generated below:

该服务的工作原理与其他任何URL缩短服务相同。 您输入一个URL并生成一个uTag链接。 但是，还有一个步骤：输入您的PayPal ID。 该网站还提供了API，该API可以自动创建网站上所有链接的uTag版本。 结果是一个链接，就像我在下面生成的两个样本一样：

http://ut.ag/00k7C which points to sitepoint.com/forums http://ut.ag/00k7D which points to yahoo.com

http://ut.ag/00k7C指向sitepoint.com/forums http://ut.ag/00k7D指向yahoo.com

After clicking, the user is sent to a site with an About.com-style top frame that includes a Google Adsense block (though presumably the site’s founders would prefer to sell higher quality ads against linked content in the future). The Adsense ads don’t really target well — I was getting ads for apartments in Salt Lake City, Utah and Atlanta, Georgia on a link to the SitePoint Forums, for example — and they seem to be served by Adsense in Germany for some reason. Even so, uTag says that so far it is seeing an average CPM of $6, which is well ahead of what they were expecting.

单击后，用户将被带到带有About.com样式的顶部框架的网站，该框架包括Google Adsense块(尽管该网站的创建者将来可能希望针对链接的内容出售质量更高的广告)。 Adsense广告的定位不太理想-例如，我在指向SitePoint论坛的链接上获得了位于犹他州盐湖城和佐治亚州亚特兰大的公寓的广告-由于某些原因，它们似乎是由Adsense在德国投放的。 即便如此，uTag表示，到目前为止，它的平均每千次展示费用为6美元，远远超出了他们的预期。

uTag estimates that there is a market of 3 billion shortened URLs created each month, and at a $5 CPM, they estimate potential revenues of up to $15 million per month. The site shares 70% with linkers, and plans to split the remaining third of the click revenue 50/50 with any Twitter clients that would want to partner with them. The company is apparently seeking $200,000 and is pitching investors right now.

uTag估计，每月创建的URL缩短的市场为30亿个，每千次展示费用为5美元，他们估计每月可能产生的收入高达1500万美元。 该网站与链接器共享70％的份额，并计划与希望与之合作的任何Twitter客户将点击收入的其余三分之一(50/50)分配给他们。 该公司显然正在寻求20万美元，并正在向投资者推销。

一些问题 (Some Issues)

uTag is not without some possible pitfalls. While there is certainly potential in the idea, there are some issues that might hold it back. The first is that the market for URL shorteners is already very crowded, and there’s not much to separate the competitors from one another. Market leaders TinyURL, Is.gd, and Snurl already have significant visibility, sending billions of clicks per month. And newcomer Bit.ly got a ton of positive press a couple of months ago. It wouldn’t take much for any of them to add framed ad monetization to their list of services. For uTag to succeed, they’re definitely going to have to sign some partnerships with Twitter/Friendfeed/instant messenger clients.

uTag并非没有陷阱。 虽然这个想法肯定有潜力，但仍有一些问题可能使它受阻。 首先是URL缩短器的市场已经非常拥挤，并且没有太多的竞争对手可以将它们分开。 市场领导者TinyURL，Is.gd和Snurl已经具有明显的可见性，每月发送数十亿次点击。 几个月前，新来的Bit.ly获得了很多正面报道。 他们中的任何一个都可以将框架式广告获利功能添加到他们的服务列表中。 为了使uTag成功，他们肯定必须与Twitter / Friendfeed /即时通讯客户端签署一些合作伙伴关系。

Second, uTag doesn’t provide anything right now in the way of stats on your links. If I’m going to put ads on my outgoing links, I definitely want to be able to track how much I’m making and how much uTag owes me.

其次，uTag现在不提供链接统计信息中的任何内容。 如果我要在我的传出链接上放置广告，我绝对希望能够跟踪自己的收入以及uTag欠我的收入。

Finally, framed ads aren’t popular. About.com has long caught flak for framing third-party content with their own ads (an example). Detractors of this practice see it as an unethical way to profit from other people’s hard work, and putting ads on outgoing links might also not sit well with social media sites like Twitter and Delicious.

最后，带框广告并不受欢迎。 About.com长期以来一直不愿使用自己的广告来构建第三方内容( 例如 )。 反对这种做法的人认为这是从他人的辛勤工作中获利的不道德方法，并且将广告放置在传出的链接上也可能与Twitter和Delicious之类的社交媒体网站不符。

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/utag-make-money-from-shortened-urls/