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T.LY
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 12 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →
T.LY logo

How T.LY Grew

URL shortener and link management tool.

How did T.LY grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

T.LY grew primarily through organic social media and the use of browser extensions, which helped it gain a significant user base and visibility. The service also benefited from viral growth as users shared short URLs on platforms like Twitter, increasing awareness and traffic. Additionally, backlinks generated by users posting short links on various websites contributed to its growth.

Channels

11 channels · grouped by how T.LY grows

  • Organic social media

    · 4 mentions · 4 sources
    “I got and got into, like, the Chrome Extension space and started building a few Chrome extensions, and then, it's kinda led me to where I'm at now to where, you know, I had a a weather extension that Grew to, like, 250,000 users. ...And then I built a link shortener extension, and that actually i...”
    high
    Show 3 more quotes
    “It was exciting to see T.LY’s short URLs being shared all over Twitter when the service launched. Since I was building a service to an already popular extension, growth was organic, and users started signing up accounts to manage their links.”
    high
    “since I've been doing extensions for, you know, since really 2015, whenever somebody installs one, I usually, you know, try to promote some of my other extensions. And so people find it that way. And then obviously just writing about it on my blog, which is timleeland.com.”
    high
    “Yeah, I started a weather extension just for my own use case I was in to building extensions and I wanted something like a little icon that shows the current weather in my browser So, you know, I just built it and put it out there”
    high

  • Side project marketing

    · 2 mentions
    “I used my existing browser extensions and knowledge of how to market extensions to quickly grow my extension into the top URL Shortener extension in the marketplace.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “I used my existing browser extensions and knowledge of how to market extensions to quickly grow my extension into the top URL Shortener extension in the marketplace.”
    high

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions
    “So every time somebody, you know, shares a t.ly URL, it's kind of like, you know, not necessarily a backlink, but it's definitely bringing awareness. So that's a positive. And then, you know, the more people that hear about it, the, you know, more awareness it brings”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “It was exciting to see T.LY’s short URLs being shared all over Twitter when the service launched. Since I was building a service to an already popular extension, growth was organic, and users started signing up accounts to manage their links.”
    high

  • SEO

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “Now I'm, you know, branching out To more of, like, okay, SEO, getting more people who just search URL shortener or URL URL shortener with custom domain, Those type of things, more advanced features, trying to get those users to subscribe and, sign up to, you know, unlock some of those, features.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “And then when you do Google search for like URL shortener, it's in the top few results for the extension. And then if you go to the Chrome web store and search, it's also there in the top.”
    high

  • Viral growth

    · 1 mention
    “Being a link shortener, T.LY advertises itself every time a user shares a short URL. As more users create short URLs, we continue to see month over month increase in traffic to the site.”
    high

  • Twitter

    · 1 mention
    “It was exciting to see T.LY’s short URLs being shared all over Twitter when the service launched.”
    high

  • Video Ads

    · 1 mention
    “Yeah. I'm I've, You know, experimented maybe a year ago, and then recently, I've started it back. Google Ads, just try. It it hasn't really converted well... But Yeah. Yeah. I've been experimenting with it, I guess, trying to, you know, drive more awareness, get more sign ups, and then see if I c...”
    high

  • Backlinks

    · 1 mention
    “by nature, they get a lot of backlinks because people will create a short link, Post it on a website, post it somewhere. And through all that, I guess, you get, you know, some credit. So that's that's helped to where, you know, you have millions of backlinks.”
    high

  • Press

    · 1 mention
    “I made a blog Tim Leland calm and I put a post out and I guess I was just it was just pure luck but the post blew up and got shared on like some big news sites and an Overnight I woke up and it was like, you know made several hundred dollars off of affiliate Revenue from like Amazon and stuff and...”
    high

  • Leveraging existing platforms

    · 1 mention
    “The extensions are a great way because they kind of market themselves. There's a store, kind of like an app store. So people can discover them and, you know, installing them is pretty straightforward.”
    high

  • Customer Reviews

    · 1 mention
    “And so the last three years, really, it's been, I've been trying to get people to leave reviews. So really I almost give it, give it away to pro for free. If somebody is willing to leave a review just to, you know, try to build those reviews back so that, you know, it could keep growing...”
    high

How 2,695 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — T.LY’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    68% ◀
  • Social media
    58% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    57% ◀
  • Email
    47%
  • Community
    34%
  • Content/Inbound
    32% ◀
  • Partnerships
    30%
  • Paid ads
    24%
  • Events
    24%
  • Press/PR
    17% ◀
  • Outbound/Sales
    16%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    8% ◀
  • Brand Authenticity
    2%
  • Product expansion
    2%
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