How does one gain money from URL shorteners?

[Grant]

I've used a fair share of URL shorteners over the years. But I tend to use the free ones, or the bit.ly style ones. I don't tend to use any of the paid for services where you get paid for using them. Can someone explain how you make money from URL shorteners? is it based on the amount of people who view the link? How many people click on it? Stay on it? Etc

 

[Nomad]

You make money from URL shortner by sending traffic to the link. People should not only click on the link but also wait for a few seconds for the timer to expire and then visit the actual webpage (the link you have shortened). You earn better rates if you send north American traffic compared to Asian traffic. However, it is very difficult to make money with this method because the bounce rate for url shortener is very high and despite having people to click on your links, you will not get any impression because people do not wait for the timer to expire.