Affiliate Marketing

Internet Marketing

Complete List

Coming Soon...

Coming Soon...

Coming Soon...

Also known as "spyware", a program hidden within free downloaded software that transmits user information via the Internet to advertisers.

When referring to Internet marketing, an affiliate is an independent party that promotes the products or services of a merchant in exchange for a commission. Affiliates can also be termed a partner, an associate, a publisher, or a reseller.

Terms that govern the relationship between a merchant and an affiliate

Revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model

An affiliate network is an organization that facilitates the relationship between merchants and affiliates, providing links, banners, program sign-up, sales tracking, and payment services

An affiliate program is any type of revenue sharing program where a webmaster or web site receives a portion of income for generating leads, traffic, or sales through a graphic or text link to a merchant web site. A potentially lucrative Internet marketing model for both parties

Information about a collection of affiliate programs. May also include information about commission rate, number of affiliates, and commission structure

The person responsible for administering an affiliate program. Duties should include maintaining regular contact with affiliates, program marketing and responding to queries about the program

Company that provides the software and services to administer an affiliate program

Special code in a graphic or text link that identifies a visitor as having arrived from a specific affiliate site

Synonym for 'affiliate'

An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an email message and then sends back a response to the sender of the email letting them know the email was received. Autoresponders are great because they provide feedback with no further action on your part after the initial set up

Inbound links pointing to a page are referred to as back links, or backward links. The Google toolbar can make it easy to view what back links your site has coming in, or pointing to your site

Advertising in the form of a graphic image

The latest and greatest online craze, Blogs, derived from Web Log, is a journal that is available on the web. Blogs are updated daily using simple software that allows users of all technical experience levels to add to, update and maintain the blog. One who uses a blog is called a blogger and the act of adding a post to the blog is called blogging. Bloggers usually arrange posts in chronological order and have the newest posts featured first

A program that allows you to access and read hypertext documents on the World Wide Web

Bulletin Board is an announcement and meeting system that allows users to upload and download files, make announcements and carry on discussions without the people being connected to the computer at the same time. Bulletin board cgi-scripts often come pre-installed with web hosting packages so set up is easy

Click fraud, also called pay-per-click fraud, is the practice of artificially generating traffic to advertisers' sites either manually or through the use of automated clicking programs (called hitbots). The advertiser pays for this traffic, which has no potential for generating revenue, however, the scammer receives a percentage of the pay-per-click fees paid by the advertiser

Service that provides independent monitoring of clicks from your PPC campaigns. If you notice fraudulent activity, Google or Yahoo!/Overture may provide a refund

Click-thru, Every time a visitor clicks on an advertising banner to access the advertiser's Web site, it is counted as a "click" or "click-through"

Popular online billing and marketing service for the development of affiliate programs, and the largest distributor of digital information products on the Internet. Clickbank is known for its ease-of-use

Every time a visitor clicks on an advertising banner to access the advertiser's Web site, it is counted as a "click" or "click-through"

Hiding of page content or affiliate linking code

Where affiliates are able include their own logo and/or colors on the merchant's site

Another name for the payment an affiliate receives for sending leads, traffic, or sales to merchant sites. Commissions can be figured on percentages, specific dollar amounts, second tier pay structures or other methods.

Affiliate Network leader acts as the trusted third party that tracks and reports each ad, sends a monthly payment to publishers (affiliates), and provides a suite of online tools to help publishers optimize their performance.

Contextual or content inventory is generated when listings are displayed on pages of Web sites (usually not search engines), where the written content on the page indicates to the ad-server that the page is a good match to specific keywords and phrases. Often this matching method is validated by measuring the number of times a viewer clicks on the displayed ad.

When one of your visitors makes a purchase on the merchant's site… i.e. converts from 'visitor' to 'buyer'.

Conversion Ratio for the specified time period, a Commission Junction term used in their stats and performance reports. A conversion is equal to a successful lead or sale, whatever the merchants goals are. To figure out Conversion rate you take sales/clicks, i.e. 1 (sale) / 100 (clicks) = .01 (or 1% conversion ratio).

A cookie is a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server. You may set your browser to either accept or not accept cookies. Cookies can contain user preferences, login or registration information, and/or "shopping cart" information. When a cookied browser sends a request to a Server, the Server uses the information to return customized information.

The cost an advertiser pays per lead. This is a very common method of selling advertising. A lead can be anything from an e-mail address for a newsletter to a complete survey that needs to be completely filled out and verified in order to get credit. CPA prices can range greatly depending on the program. It is very common for Cost per sale

CPM stands for "cost per thousand," since ad views are often sold in blocks of 1,000. The M in CPM is Latin for thousand.

Cost per Sale, also very often called CPA (cost per acquisition). This is the best type of rate to pay for affiliate relationships Advertisers (or merchants) only pay for the visitors who click on their banner and then sign up, fill out a form, or purchase something on their website. This is most common for Affiliate Programs.

The promotional tools advertisers use to draw in users. Examples are text links, towers, buttons, badges, email copy, pop-ups, etc.

Linking a group of domains, usually your own, to each other for the purpose of increasing its popularity with search engines. Excessive cross-linking may lead to your site being penalized by Google or Yahoo!

CTR is the click through ratio, How many times the ad is shown ("impression") to the number of clicks. to calculate: clicks/impressions, i.e. 1 (click) / 100 (impression) = .01 (or 1% CTR).

Linking to content buried deep within a website. These links are referred to as "deep" because they are often two or more directories deep within a website.

A disclaimer states the terms under which the site or work may be used and gives information relating to what the copyright owner believes to be a breach of his/her/their copyright. In some cases you may wish to permit certain activities, in others you may wish to withhold all rights, or require the user to apply for a license to carry out certain actions.

The unique name that identifies an Internet site.

Also known as bridge pages, gateway page, entry pages, portals or portal pages, these pages are used to improve search engine placement. Caution: some search engines will drop a site entirely if the existence of doorway/gateway pages is detected.

Transferring a file from another computer to your own.

Content that is updated frequently and is fresh and relevant for its appropriate audience. Dynamic content can include content served as a flat HTML page that is updated many times a day, content that includes sophisticated Javascript or Shockwave for an interactive experience, or content that is generated from either a file-system or a database using server-side includes, CGI scripts, Java servlets, or an application server.

The catchy name for online business. E-commerce is quickly becoming the way to do business. E-commerce includes buying and selling of goods and services via the Internet.

Electronic mail, a message sent to another Internet user across the Internet. An email address looks like this jimsmith@bubblee.com, whereas, "jimsmith" is your user name, your unique identifier; "@" stands for "at"; " bubblee.com" is the name of your Internet Service Provider.

An affiliate link to a merchant site contained in an email newsletter or signature file.

A brief message embedded at the end of every email that a person sends.

Also known as a "product review", an endorsement is a promotional statement outlining features and benefits for a particular product or service.

Average Earnings (in dollars) Per 100 Clicks for the specified time period.

A merchant that that stipulates 'exclusivity' in their affiliate agreement usually prohibits the affiliate from promoting competing products on their site. (I recommend against entering into exclusive agreements.)

Short for 'electronic magazine'

Online community where visitors may read and post topics of common interest.

Lists and answers the most common questions asked on a particular subject. Generally posted to avoid having to answer the same question repeatedly.

Google AdSense is for web publishers who want to make more revenue from advertising on their site while maintaining editorial quality. AdSense delivers Google ads that are relevant to what your readers see on your pages and Google pays you.

With Google AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to help match your ads to your audience and pay only when someone clicks on your ads. This is the advertiser side of Google Adsense.

An image file format, suitable for simple files. A JPEG is the preferred format for storing photographs.

A hit is a single request from for a single item on a web server. To load a page with 5 graphics would count as 6 'hits', 1 for the page plus 1 for each of the graphics. Hits therefore are not a very good measurement of traffic to a website.

Your primary HTML page, the first page anyone would see in your Web site. Also called a "landing page".

The primary "language" used to create World Wide Web documents (web pages).

The number of times a specific banner was shown on a specific website.

A hypertext link to a particular page from elsewhere, bringing traffic to that page.

Merchant that administers its own affiliate program.

The company you call from your computer to gain access to the Internet.

A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.115.245.2. Every machine on the Internet has a unique IP address.

A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Java requires a browser compatible with Java. Using small Java programs, Web pages can include animations, calculators, and other features.

A general partnership typically formed to undertake a particular business transaction or project rather than one intended to continue indefinitely.

A word that is entered into the search form or search "window" of an Internet search engine to search the Web for pages or sites about or including the keyword and information related to it. In SEO the placement of keywords on web sites is a growing science to discover what sites come up first for specific keywords.

The ratio between the keyword being searched for and the total number of words appearing on your web page. If your keyword only occurs, say, once, in a page that has twenty thousand words, then it has a density of 0.005 percent.

Displays how many times a certain keyword was searched for at Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing) during a given month.

affiliate program that pays a commission on EVERY product or service that the customer buys from the merchant, once you've sent the referral, i.e. the customer is yours 'for life'.

The total amount that a customer will spend with a particular company during his or her lifetime.

The number of other related Web sites that link to your site.

Process in which all applicants for an affiliate program are reviewed individually and manually approved.

A business that markets and sells goods or services.

Information placed in the header of an HTML page, which is not visible to site visitors.

Also known as Network Marketing, MLM involves the sale of products through a group of independent distributors who buy wholesale, sell retail, and sponsor other people to do the same.

Someone who is new to the Internet.

A newsgroup is a discussion that takes place online, devoted to a particular topic. The discussion takes the form of electronic messages called "postings" that anyone with a newsreader (standard with most browsers) can post or read.

Focused, targetable market segment.

The changes that are made to the content and code of a web site in order to increase it's rankings in the results pages of search engines and directories.

Overture, formerly known as GoTo, is the most widely used pay per click search engine. Overture supplies results for some of the most popular search engines and search portals, including AltaVista, GO, HotBot, iWon, Lycos, MSN Search and NBCi.

Technically, the accessing of a web page. Often used to determine the popularity of a site, it refers to the number of times a page has been accessed.

Pay per Click is a type of search marketing where advertisers pay a set amount every time their ad is clicked by a prospect (otherwise known as a click thru).

An affiliate program in which an affiliate receives a commission for each sales lead that they generate for a merchant web site. Examples include completed surveys, contest or sweepstakes entries, downloaded software demos, or free trials.

Programs in which the affiliate receives a commission for each sale of a product or service that they refer to a merchant's web site.

A small piece of software that adds features to a larger piece of software.

The less obtrusive form of the pop-up window, the pop-under advertisement shows up behind the browser window

A page or window, usually smaller than the regular window, that pops up either when a link or linked item is clicked, or by some automatic stimulus.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It's a distribution format developed by Adobe Corporation to allow electronic information to be transferred between various types of computers. The software that allows this transfer is called Acrobat.

A term used to describe a Web site that is intended to be used as a main "point of entry" to the Web. I.e. MSN.com is a portal site.

A privacy policy establishes how a company collects and uses information about its customers' accounts and transactions.

The amount of money you earn from your sales. For example, if you sell 10 videos at $47.00 each, and each costs $10 to produce and ship, your profit would be $37.00 per video or $370.00 total.

A term used to describe the position of a site in a search result done on a keyword phrase.

The process of exchanging links with other websites to increase search engine popularity.

Earn commissions both on the initial sale and subsequent purchases of the same product or service. Examples of affiliate programs that may pay recurring commissions are online dating services and web hosting services.

The URL a user came from to reach your site.

Programs that pay affiliates for each sale a shopper from their sites makes at the merchant's site over the life of the customer.

Total income for your sales. For example, if you sell 50 ebooks at $27.00 each, your revenue would be $1350.00.

Return On Investment. The amount of value received relative to the amount of money invested. ROI is a method of measuring the success of an ad campaign

RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, an XML format for distributing news headlines on the Web, also known as syndication.

Software that contains additional 'features' for the purpose of displaying advertisements. This software will modify web pages from their original content to put ads on the user's computer screen. Examples of scumware propagators included: Gator, Ezula, Surf+ and Imesh

Advertising a product or service on search engine results pages. These are usually listed as "sponsored links" or "advertisement" on the results pages of popular engines.

Search Engine Optimization is the constantly changing and very competitive practice of designing web sites and pages to rank as highly as possible in search results from search engines. When a search is done in a search engine the first web sites to appear on the list under sponsored links are the best search engine optimized sites for the keyword entered in.

Displays how many times a certain keyword was searched for at Overture during a given month.

A listing of all sections of a website. Usually, each listing is an active link, enabling a visitor to click on the link and move directly to a section from the site map.

The term "spam" is Internet slang that refers to unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) or unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Some people refer to this kind of communication as junk e-mail to equate it with the paper junk mail that comes through the US Mail. Unsolicited e-mail is e-mail that you did not request; it most often contains advertisements for services or products.

Also known as "adware": A program hidden within free downloaded software that transmits user information via the Internet to advertisers.

Typically known as a "domain within a domain", subdomains are individual Web addresses built upon a pre-existing domain name (such as clientname.yourhostingcompany.com).

The top 1 or 2% of affiliates that generate approximately 90% of any affiliate programs earnings.

The process of distinguishing the different groups that make up a market, and developing appropriate products and marketing mixes for each target market involved.

A link not accompanied by a graphical image.

Software located on a server other than your own, that tracks and records visits to your Web site.

The method by which an affiliate program tracks referred sales, leads or clicks.

A web site URL, http://www.awebsite.com, with your special code attached to it, i.e. ttp://www.awebsite.com/?myID. Visitors arriving at the side are tracked back to you through your special code,

Affiliate program structure whereby affiliates earn commissions on their conversions as well as conversions of webmasters they refer to the program.

The address of a site on the World Wide Web. Here's an example URL: http://www.byebye925.com/articles/index.html The "http" stands for "hypertext transfer protocol"; "://" signals the beginning of the address; "www.byebye925 .com" is the domain name; "/articles" is the directory; and "index.html" is the name of the HTML file.

A unique visitor to your Web site. Probably the best indicator of site traffic.

Transferring a file from your computer to another computer.

A marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users.

A computer virus is defined as a set of commands, created intentionally, that will do some level of damage to a computer. A computer virus does not float around in cyberspace, but is always attached to something. That 'something' could be a text file (MSWord document), an email, a photo, a music clip or a video clip. Your computer must receive one of these 'carriers' in order to get a computer virus.

A business that provide storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve website pages and files

A collection of HTML pages.

A section of the Internet containing "pages" of information, including text, photos, graphics, audio, and video. You can search for documents by using one of the many search databases. To access the Web, you must use a browser.

The most popular and (perhaps) the most comprehensive of all search index databases on the World Wide Web. Yahoo's URL is http://www.yahoo.com/