For this exact reason I registered my own 1-letter URL shortener domain and use it to create my own custom redirects whenever I want without submitting to someone's BS TOS.
It's better to promote your own brand than someone else's.
I tried to build business on it (didn't have time/resources to push it) then sell it in the past, but it didn't happen. Then I started seeing more and more value having your own, really short and easy to type URL shortener - for exact reason author wrote this post.
I plan to set it up like my personal "tiny.cc" allowing for vanity urls for easy navigations
I have the same thing on pkn.me. That just resolves to my normal blog which redirects to the canonical URL. So I can have, for example, http://pkn.me/r for my resume and http://pkn.me/mmp for my book landing page.
I used to give random 5 letter strings to my posts as their ID but now I actually put some thought into it so I can have good, rememberable short URLs.
I wanted to find a 1-letter domain that was the easiest to type on a keyboard (with my 2-finger typing habit).
I think that was back in 2006-ish days.
So i found that typing keys C + . + GG requires an absolutely minimal amount of physical finger effort as hands are almost perfectly positioned above these keys.
So I registered these.
In fact back then there were a plenty of other 1-letter domain available up for a grabs.
I used to do professional photo business and registered GO.GL - as my first name is Gleb (still have business cards laying around with this address).
At the same time i thought that registering GOO.GL would be cool too - but back then the greenland (owner of this TLD) charged $50/yr + the only way you can register is by sending them a FAX. So I didn't bother.
I am actually good at picking decent domain names even today.
It's better to promote your own brand than someone else's.
Send me email at: g@c.gg :)