This is a guest post by Guillaume Duhan, a YouTuber who shares his passion for coding and web development. In this article, Guillaume explains how he uses Dub.co to promote his videos and track analytics data.
In 2022, I launched my YouTube channel Codewithguillaume to share my passion for coding and teach everything I knew about web development. That same year, I came across Steven on Twitter, who was working on Dub.co, a next-generation link shortener.
I was immediately drawn to Steven's idea of entering this market and offering a tool that was simpler, smoother, and more powerful than existing incumbents in the space. So, I took the plunge and became one of the earliest adopters of the product. Since then, I've been using Dub daily in my marketing strategy for promoting my videos, as well as in my SEO and analytics tracking for affiliate links.
In this article, I'll explain how I use Dub every day and why it's an incredibly effective tool.
My Distribution Strategy Using Dub.co
As a YouTuber, I create around 3 to 4 videos per week and share these new videos across my various social media platforms. For each of my videos, I create a Dub link that allows me to customize numerous aspects of the destination URL.
Firstly, I set a custom dub.sh short link (e.g. dub.sh/codewithg). This may seem trivial to some, but Steven and his team have placed this option among the first, and rightly so. The idea of being able to customize your URL gives your link an air of exclusivity and enhances customer trust.
Next, I use Canva to add a specific visual: this is also an option offered, and I find it to be the most useful. It allows me to override the default graphic and add my own visual. It's so addictive that I even create visuals for links that I know in advance will only be viewed by 5-6 people.
Dub's custom social media cards feature is especially useful when producing content with external partners. Often, the OG image may be low-quality or not relevant to the content. By using Dub, you can easily replace the OG image with a high-quality one that is more relevant to the content – increasing click-through rates.
Finally, I can add a personal touch to my links through a multitude of options offered (UTM Builder, Link Expiration).
Once my link is created, I can begin distributing my links on a large scale. A few days later, I revisit these links and analyze the collected data to see what worked and what didn't.
Analytics at the Core of My Daily Improvement
YouTube provides feedback on each of my productions through views, likes, and comments. YouTube Studio is also a game-changer when it comes to managing a YouTube channel. However, what I was missing was a link tracker that traced back views and visitors effectively.
When broadcasting links on a large scale and across various platforms—or even when sending an offer to a prospect, for example—I believe it's essential to track analytics data. It's a highly effective way to distinguish what worked from what didn't, and it's with this data that we can continuously improve.
Managing Dub.co allows us to have a quick view of the number of clicks on our links. The UI/UX facilitates rapid identification (with its system of icons and tags), and it's very pleasant to navigate the platform throughout the day to track the progress of our links.
A very recent example: I launched my Discord server, and naturally, I decided to create a link on Dub. Not only does the analytics page load instantly, it is also very intuitive to navigate, which adds to the overall experience.
"Dub is one of those tools that are very easy to get the hang of, where no time is wasted, and over time, they become addictive because of how effective and enjoyable they are to use."
Guillaume Duhan
YouTuber
An indispensable tool (especially for affiliate marketing)
As you can see below, I also use Dub to track my affiliate links on my Youtube videos:
It's in this specific case that Dub unleashes its full power: not only does Dub provide me with world-class analytics for all these links, it also gives you a backdoor edit button to any platform – be it YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram. Need to edit the destination URL of a short link after it's been shared? No problem. Dub allows you to do this without any hassle.
On par with Stripe, Plausible, and Vercel – Dub.co is now in my bookmarks bar. I recently upgraded to the Pro plan – without any hesitation because the tool is fantastic – and I access it daily. I'm truly excited to see what Steven and his team have in store for us in the future.
