A paid URL shortener turns the links you already share into income. You shorten a long link, share the short version, and every time someone opens it they see a brief advertising page before landing on the destination. Advertisers pay for those views — and the shortener shares that money with you. This guide explains exactly how it works on Shortun, what a realistic income looks like, and how to get your first payout.
How the money flows
Three parties are involved. Advertisers pay to show their page to visitors. The platform (Shortun) runs the countdown page, filters out fake traffic and handles payments. You, the publisher, bring the visitors by sharing links. When a genuine visitor views the ad page, the visit is counted and your balance increases by your rate.
What you earn per view
Earnings are priced per 1,000 counted views, and the rate depends on the visitor's country, because advertisers pay more to reach some countries than others. On Shortun the published rates are $2.00 per 1,000 views for the United States and United Kingdom, $1.60 for Canada, and $0.40 for the rest of the world. You can see the full table on the Publisher Rates page and estimate your income with the earnings calculator.
Honest maths: 10,000 counted views a day from a mostly-US audience earns about $20 a day. The same traffic from a mixed worldwide audience earns closer to $11–12 a day at the blended rate. This is real money, but it scales with real traffic — anyone promising you thousands for a handful of clicks is not telling the truth.
What counts as a paid view
Not every open is a paid view, on any honest platform. A view is filtered (not paid) when it comes from a bot, a proxy or VPN, the same visitor refreshing repeatedly inside a short window, an ad-blocked browser, or you visiting your own link. Shortun shows this openly: every link's statistics page displays counted views, filtered views and the reason for each filter. That transparency protects advertisers, which is what keeps rates sustainable.
Getting started in three steps
- Create a free account. It takes a minute and no card is required.
- Shorten a link. Paste any long URL — a video, an article, a download, your own content — and copy your short link. Add a QR code, a custom alias, or even your own domain.
- Share it where your audience already is. Video descriptions, social posts, group chats, blogs and your link-in-bio page all work. The next guide in this series covers the 10 best places to share short links.
Your first payout
Shortun's minimum withdrawal is just $5, and you can withdraw via PayPal, bank transfer, Skrill, Payeer, Bitcoin or Perfect Money. Set your method in your profile before you request, and your completed payout joins the public payment proofs page (with your username masked).
Grow it with referrals
Every member gets a referral link. Anyone who joins through it earns you 20% of everything they make — for life, at no cost to them. For many publishers, referrals quietly become a second income stream that keeps paying even on days they share nothing.
Ready? Create your free Shortun account and shorten your first link.