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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/link-sharing/">Link sharing is something we’re all becoming accustomed to. Whenever I come across an interesting article on, say, MakeUseOf or a funny photo or
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/infographic/">infographic, one of my first instincts is to share it with others. Whether I think it will be helpful to the readers or the authors themselves, or if I just want to gauge interest, sharing links has become second nature to me.
When sharing content, we’ve found that shortening links is the most effective way to not only make the link fit on a site like
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter">Twitter, but for us to track activity around them via clicks, views, etc. But what if we could do even more with the links we share? I’m going to show you a service called BO.LT, which lets you “remix” the content you want to share before sending it out. If you’re into content sharing like I am, you should find this very useful.
What Is BO.LT?
href="https://bo.lt/">BO.LT is a page-sharing platform that lets anyone instantly curate, promote, and share content by copying, editing, commenting on, endorsing, sharing, and socializing on webpages.
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If you want to share a webpage, you can copy the page URL and give it a unique short URL that you can choose, similar to other URL-shortening services like
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bitlycom-shortens-urls-offers-wide-variety-free-tools/">Bitly. BO.LT however, allows you to upload and display an avatar to the page, along with an optional comment, which will stay with the page as it is shared with others in social channels. If others click on your picture, you can also link them to another page, such as your personal website or Twitter.
What sets BO.LT apart from other services is that it enables you to make pages more personal, which works to increase sharing, and helps the original publisher, as tracking metrics (page views and clicks) remain in place even with the copied page.
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Another cool customization that BO.LT lets you do is edit the page before sharing. You can add, delete, and edit text, images, and other page elements, which comes in handy if you would like to share a page without all the clutter that comes along with it, or if you just want to highlight a specific passage or paragraph. There are a lot of interesting things you can do with this feature, as I’m sure you can imagine.
If you’re a marketer, you can also use BO.LT to create
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tips-create-cool-personal-landing-page/">landing pages and do A/B testing, as well as integrate KISSmetrics and
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-analytics/">Google Analytics to view actions taken on your socially shared pages.
How Does BO.LT Work?
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Using BO.LT is pretty straight forward and almost surprisingly easy. All you do is head over to the
href="https://bo.lt/">homepage, enter your URL in the box, and click the Copy it button. BO.LT will then take a minute to examine your page and provide you with your unique shortened link.
From there, you can opt to Edit Page, Share, and view More Options.
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Editing a page is pretty cool, as BO.LT lets you select page elements as if you were editing it with a code-examining app like
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-hacker-software-tools-budding-coder/">Firebug. When you select an element, you can Block, Delete, Link to another page, or set a BG Image. You can undo anything you’ve changed and when you’re finished just select Done and your selections will save.
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When sharing, you can set your message and connect with Facebook or Twitter to send or tweet it out. Whenever someone clicks on your link, they’ll be taken to the page that you just “remixed”.
Conclusion
BO.LT exists to help users make the web more interesting through their creativity, which is exactly what I like about it. There are lots of apps out there that promote sharing links, but almost none of them act to give us a way to tailor that content to make it more relevant/interesting. Remixing links could be a new trend.
Can you think of any creative uses for BO.LT?
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