Emoji Domains in Action: Emojify.tk
Case study: URL shortener
As part of our ongoing effort to shine a light on Emoji Domains, we’ve been surveying entrepreneurs and experimenters across the internet who use Emoji Domains are part of their project.
Joining us today for a quick interview is Tomasz Stefaniak, developer of emojify.tk.
So… what’s your story? Are you a Developer by trade?
Yeah, I’ve learned mobile development while at university and started web development shortly thereafter. Right now, I’m working on a startup called Bazzah in Rio de Janeiro and freelance with Toptal as a React developer.
How did you first come across Emoji Domains?
I’ve heard about them in a podcast about a year ago. I thought we could use it for Bazzah, marketing-wise, so we bought a bunch of domains for future use. We’re currently using 🐘.tk for our blog, check it out if you speak Portuguese!
What made you decide to build your own app?
I was looking for a side project to work on and had about thirty single-emoji domains that I registered a few months back. I didn’t have any idea what to do with them but didn’t want to just squat on them either. I liked the idea of seeing other people use these domains, so in the end, I’ve built a link shortener. That’s how Emojify was born.
What’s the stack? How long did it take?
It took about three weeks from start to finish, but most of the time was spent on design. You know, each domain has a unique page, with a different font and colour scheme. The backend is very simple — a Node app running Express with some cron jobs for link stats. On the frontend, it’s React with some custom scripts to build all website versions and deploy to all domains automatically.
How’s FreeNom to work with?
They’re a pain to use, there’s this flagging system and if you register too many domains in one go, your account will get blocked from further registrations. No human at Freenom can unblock your account, so you have to wait for their automatic system to kick in, which takes a really long time. On the other hand, it is a free service, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.
What are your future plans for the project?
I have twenty something domains that are not linked to Emojify yet, when I have some free time, I’m going to put them up. That would bring the domain count to a hundred. Long term, it would be cool to have every existing emoji on the Emojify, that would really make the service complete. If you have some emoji domains and would like to join, get in touch.