I saw this post last month for getting some analytics from shortened urls
https://steemit.com/howto/@future24/tutorial-how-to-shorten-and-track-your-steemit-links-english-german
EDIT: Saw you're experience on this url shortner. Definitely valid concerns. Thanks for letting us know how it went, even with it not being something you think is good to use. Sure there is some other option out there. :)