Cleaner and easier to remember

If you're like a lot of progressive organizations, lots of your activities online--from donations to event sign ups to video conferences--take place on sites you don't control directly. This can lead to web addresses like

https://secure.ngpvan.com/3rPhsRZx7kCPbWuWUQaYyA

or

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/your-candidate-for-congress-1

Shortlinks allow you to simplify this for your supporters by giving short simple names that are easy to remember, say out loud, or share on a flyer or other image.

https://secure.ngpvan.com/3rPhsRZx7kCPbWuWUQaYyA --> you.us/signup

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/your-candidate-for-congress-1 --> you.us/donate

(Where "you.us" will actually be a short domain you pick out and we set up for you.)

When a supporter types the shortlink into their browser, they are redirected to the desired location just like they had typed the unwieldy, long URL in themselves.

For a real example, you can see a sample of our ActBlue reporting template at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fv7-vu0n-F9htnNN88GXdoo5XBpnV2O7_lY4dXQUyJA/edit#gid=120971816
but I set up left4.us/sampledash in my shortlink system which is a lot easier to remember and share.

Shortlinks won't win you an election on their own (probably 😁) but can get you some quick wins. LeftApps is designed to make it as easy as possible to set up and manage your shortlinks.

Easy to change on the fly

Sometimes similar needs come up over and over again: you've got a new call list for your volunteers, or new event you want signups for. Since you can change where shortlinks point at any time, you can give your supporters one thing to remmeber and change where it leads them when you need it to. For example [your domain]/calls might lead to a different Google sheet every week, or take supporters to a Google Sheet now but a Virtual Phone Bank site later on if you've got one set up closer to the election.

A source of useful data

When your supporters enter a shortlink, we can record some high level information about them--are they on their laptop or on a phone? What browser are they using?--which can help shed light on how your supporters are engaging with you online.

Getting set up and managing your shortlinks takes about 30 seconds

When you sign up for LeftApps, we'll work with you to pick a short domain name that fits your candidate or organization. From that point, LeftApps handles domain setup and maintanance. You make and edit your shortlinks from a simple web interface: just say what you want the link to be called and where you want it to go.

It's easy to add colleagues to LeftApps to make and manage links using your same shortlink domain as well.