Shorten Medium Links

Medium is one of the most popular platforms for writers, bloggers, and thought leaders to publish long-form content. It offers a clean reading experience and a built-in audience, making it an attractive choice for anyone who wants to share ideas without maintaining their own website. But Medium article URLs leave a lot to be desired.

Every Medium article URL ends with a long hexadecimal suffix — something like medium.com/@username/my-article-title-a1b2c3d4e5f6. If the article is published under a publication, the URL gets even longer. These hex strings serve as unique identifiers for Medium's internal system, but they make the URL look cluttered and are completely meaningless to readers. When you are promoting your articles on social media, in email newsletters, or in your professional bio, that trailing hash undermines the clean presentation you are aiming for.

With a URL shortener, you can replace that noisy Medium link with something memorable and on-brand. A link like iu.pe/latest-article is easy to share, easy to remember, and immediately tells people what they are clicking on.

Why Shorten Medium Links?

Branded author links for consistent promotion. As a writer, your personal brand matters. Every time you promote a new article on Twitter, LinkedIn, or in your email signature, the URL you share is part of that brand. A custom shortcode like iu.pe/latest-post or iu.pe/ai-essay looks intentional and professional, while a raw Medium URL with a hex suffix looks like something was broken. You can create a memorable shortcode for each article and reuse a consistent pattern — such as iu.pe/ followed by a short topic keyword — to build recognition over time.

Track which promotion channels drive readers. When you publish a new Medium article, you probably share it in several places at once: Twitter, LinkedIn, a Slack community, your newsletter, maybe a Reddit thread. Medium's own stats tell you total views and reads, but they do not break down where those readers came from with the granularity you need. LinkDisguiser tracks every click with referrer data, so you can see exactly which channel drove the most traffic to your article. Over time, this data reveals your most effective promotion strategy and helps you stop spending time on channels that do not convert.

Cleaner sharing in bios and email signatures. Your Twitter bio, LinkedIn headline, and email signature have limited space. A full Medium URL — especially one with a publication prefix and hex suffix — takes up too much room and looks messy. A short link fits neatly in any constrained space and can even serve as a dynamic link: point iu.pe/my-writing at your latest article, and when you publish something new, just update the destination. Everyone who clicks the link always sees your most recent work, without you needing to update your bio on every platform.

Referrer analytics for publication growth. If you run a Medium publication and want to understand how external promotion affects subscriber growth, link-level analytics are essential. By creating a unique short link for each promotion effort — one for Twitter, one for LinkedIn, one for your newsletter — you can measure exactly how many clicks each channel generates and compare performance across campaigns. This data-driven approach to content promotion is far more effective than guessing.

How to Shorten a Medium Link

Step 1: Copy your Medium article URL. Navigate to the published article on Medium and copy the full URL from your browser's address bar. You will see the article slug followed by a hex identifier. If you are using a "friend link" to bypass the paywall, copy that URL instead — it will work just the same.

Step 2: Paste it into LinkDisguiser. Go to LinkDisguiser and paste the Medium URL into the input field. For a custom shortcode — something like iu.pe/startup-guide — sign in with Google and enter your preferred code.

Step 3: Share your short link everywhere. Copy the generated short URL and use it in your social media posts, email newsletters, bio sections, and anywhere else you promote your writing. Each click is tracked with referrer data, so you can monitor which channels are actually sending readers to your article.

Step 4: Monitor and iterate. Check your LinkDisguiser dashboard to see click counts and referrer breakdowns for each article link. Use this data to refine your promotion strategy for your next piece. If LinkedIn drives three times more readers than Twitter, you know where to focus your effort.

Creating a basic short link is free and instant — no account required. Sign in with Google to unlock custom shortcodes, detailed analytics, and the ability to update link destinations over time.