Guide: Auto Faucets & Shortlinks

(This is a repost of my original guide located here - which has pictures!)

Firstly, we are advocates of the "don't risk doing 'Shortlinks' if you don't need to" philosophy, however, for most Satoshi hunters the rewards outweigh the risks. I'd even go as far as to say that without a good understanding (and ability) to solve Shortlinks, your sat stacking will suffer. They are much safer than they appear and armed with some knowledge they can be lucrative.

So, how do they work?

You'll notice they pay much higher than PTC's and often five minutes spent clicking through Shortlinks can equal a jackpot on a site's Manual faucet. The reason they pay so highly for completion, is the sheer bombardment of advertisements you're required to navigate in order to reach the prize.

These come in various forms; popups, redirections, window overlays and many more. These advertisements are also often NSFW, so don't do them at work or in public unless you want to be 'that' person.

They can be confusing, annoying and alarming all at once but have no fear, they are for the most part all bark and no bite. So let's continue with an open mind and I'll show you how to navigate through the Ad-storm towards that juicy reward.

Below is an example of what you will see upon clicking a link - I've chosen Dutchy as our model as they are often one of the more 'forgiving' adversaries:

Most Shortlinks follow a similar formula, requiring you to navigate a series of "Clicks" and pages to reach the end 'Link'. Seems easy right: find the link, click the link?

Generally, once a link has finished generating on the page (if it is easily visible) it will have been overlayed with a popup link or redirection link. Naturally your first thought would be to use an Ad blocker, or even the Brave browser. Faucet owners don't like that, as it tends to be their primary income source as well as a method of supplying the Faucet with coins.

Don't risk your account being banned/blocked from whatever site you're Shortlink surfing on. Most owners have scripts on their sites that can recognise adblocking software so don't try and bend the rules either.

Our Top Tips for navigating these Di*%$:

1. Don't be alarmed, remain calm - like in a fire. If you get redirected, hit the back button. If a popup opens, close it quickly. Simple.

2. You aren't going to get a virus if you don't fall for bait, no matter how brightly displayed the words "UPDATE YOUR MACHINE OR IT'S GONNA' BLOW!" are. Don't click anything other than the 'Link' you're looking for - there are in-depth guides on how to navigate individual site's shorties found on Youtube and google, example below.

3. Sometimes you need to re-do the Shortlink, or 'back-button and recaptcha' a few times. This shouldn't be too often and if you notice a particular site that never lets you finish or requires many attempts, make a note and avoid it in future. There are normally a lot of Shortlinks to choose from on any given faucet site so you aren't exactly limited for choice. However it is to be expected that some of them will be more difficult than other to complete. That's where the appeal to advertisers comes in and in turn, your high reward for making it through the gauntlet.

4. Try to complete these as fast as possible to maximise the returns on your time investment but also to prevent some of the popups or redirects from fully affecting the browser. Some you are able to finish in the same time or sooner than it would take a PTC timer to run.

5. You will get better over time. There is a pattern to all of the Shortlinks, even within the amount of redirects, or popups opened before you can click the 'Link'. After completing them for a few days, you'll pick up on the differences between sites, which ones are easiest and fastest to complete. As above, we recommend Dutchy as they tend to be the most predictable with their link positioning and popups.

6. Do your Shortlinks on a separate window to the rest of your Autofaucets running - some of the redirects can 'infect' other tabs and redirect them also. This can be frustrating if you're running several Auto's whilst completing Shortlinks that close them off.

The Conclusion

In short (pun intended), they are as safe as PTC's but require a bit more brainpower and focus to complete. The reward for doing so is fair and becoming savvy with these is actually a requirement to run some Autofaucets, as the only way to earn 'Minutes' for the Auto is via these 'Shorties'.