Ive created a couple of brief video presentations of how this technique works. This is the Instagram video that I made about it. This is the YouTube video that I made about it.

Bitly is a practical tool for creating short URLs to share in place of long URLs. Some individuals use Bitly to try to mask URLs to attempt to get you to click on nefarious links.
The trick is to simply add a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will reroute to Bitly rather of to whatever the original URL was. That will then show you the Bitly page on which the shortened URL is hosted and will show you what the initial link was..

You can attempt this with my Bitly link of.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2 which will take you to the registration page for my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter (.
https://practicaledtech.com/weekly-newsletter/). If you attempt the same link but add “+” to the end of it so it reads like this.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2+ you will go to the Bitly page where I shortened my original URL.