Advertising on URL shorteners - LEGIT or NOT?

[woyejax]

Hey guys!

I want to use URL shorteners as a place to promote my blog.
The rates of some URL shorteners seem pretty low to me.
However, I have several concerns:

1. Is traffic from URL shorteners real? I do not want Google to penalize me. <-- This is my main concern
2. The URL shortener I want to use is ~6 months old, with Alexa ranking better than 100k. Can that URL shortener be getting legit traffic or is it bought traffic, what do you think about Instant Payouts at Cuty.io?
3. Maybe it's an awful idea altogether and I should instead advertise in some other way?

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. The traffic from the URL shortener should be relevant to my niche, according to the URL shortener support.