Ive produced a number of short video demonstrations 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 convenient tool for developing short URLs to share in place of long URLs. Some individuals utilize Bitly to try to mask URLs to try to get you to click on nefarious links.
The technique is to simply include a “+” to the end of any Bitly URL. When you add the “+” the URL will redirect to Bitly instead 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 original 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 try the very same link however include “+” to the end of it so it reads like this.
bit.ly/ 2ZZnuP2+ you will go to the Bitly page where I reduced my initial URL.