The Internet Marketing Glossary Part One

Internet Marketing Terminology can be very confusing and there’s so much to learn especially when you’re first starting out.  I hope this Internet Marketing Glossary will help you as much as it’s helped me.  It will help to clarify some of the Internet Jargon that we all come across on a regular basis.  I’ve broken down my Internet Marketing Glossary into several posts in order to keep the post from getting to lengthy.  I hope these Internet Marketing Term descriptions will help you.  Book mark this page so you can refer to it when necessary.

Here is the first section:

A to D

A

Adsense - Google runs this ad serving programs that allows website owners to gain revenue by displaying ads on their websites. Google provides text, image and video advertisements that appear on participating websites. These ads appear based on the keywords and content present on the website.

Adsense has become one of the most popular methods to gain revenue from a website through advertising space. Adsense ads are less intrusive than traditional ads. Since the ads are picked based on the content of the website, the ads are also more relevant than traditional banners.

Web masters are paid when an Internet user clicks on an ad on their web page. Depending on the ad, the revenue may be a few cents up to a dollar per click. The ads used in Adsense are gathered from participants in Google’s Adwords advertising program.

Since web masters are paid regardless of whether anything is purchased at the advertiser’s site, it may be tempting for the web master to click on all of the ads on his or her site. However, Google watches for this type of activity, which is called “click fraud.” If a web page is showing signs of click fraud, a web master may lose their access to Google Adsense permanently.

Web masters can discreetly encourage clicks on their website by using three main techniques:

They can use a wide range of traffic generating techniques to get more visits to their website.

They can add valuable content to their site, to attract Adsense ads that pay higher per click.

They use copy on their website to encourage visitors to click on the ads. Some of the most common phrases are “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements.” It is against Google Adsense policy to post statements like “Please click on my Adsense links.”

Adwords- Google’s advertising product and main source of revenue. Adwords offers pay-per-click advertising for text and banner ads. When advertisers use Adwords to promote their product or service, their ads appear on any related website that is using Adsense.

Adwords advertisements are short, and consist of a title and two content lines. Advertisers pick keywords that relate to that their ad, and then bid on these keywords. They pay each time someone clicks on their ad. The advertisement will take the clicker to the merchant’s website.

Keywords cost more when they are more popular. If a lot of people are bidding on the word “internet marketing” the cost per click will be much higher. Depending on the keyword, a click may cost anywhere from $0.10 to several dollars.

Mastering the use of Google Adwords and effective pay-per-click campaign management is one of the keys to success in online business.

Affiliate- When you become an affiliate with a specific company, or affiliate program, you are awarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer that you provide to the company. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of business on the web, and an effective way to promote businesses and products.

The basic set up, from the affiliate’s side, goes as follows: You (the Affiliate) find a company or product that you would like to promote. You join the “affiliate program” of the company and receive the tools by which you can send customers to the company’s website. This most often includes a special URL link, which will let the company know that the customer has come from you. You will get credit when people visit the companies website. Details can vary, but in most cases you receive a percentage of the revenue from sales that customers make from following your link.

AIM- This is an anagram of AOL Instant Messenger. You do not actually have to use AOL as your Internet Service Provider in order to use AIM. The program is downloadable by any Internet user. AIM is available as a free download at www.aim.com.

Applet- A small program or application, which is usually written in Java, and runs on a Web browser. An applet powers some of the fancier features of Internet pages, such as animation. They download quickly and are used both online and offline.

Attachment-A file of group of files that is included with an e-mail message. You can attach files through most e-mail programs. To attach a file to an e-mail, simply click the “attach file” button (or similar button). This will open a menu that will allow you to browse through your computer to find the file or image that you’d like to attach. Never open any attachment you receive from someone your do not know: it may contain a harmful virus.

Autoresponders- Autoresponders are automatic e-mail response programs. They have become one of the most essential tools for Internet marketers, affiliate marketers and other who do a large amount of business on the web. The autoresponder program will send pre-entered e-mail messages instantly to people who request information from a website, newsletter or online merchant. One of the most common uses for autoresponders is to create a learning course to inform and educate potential customers about the benefits of a business or product. Autoresponders also allow Internet business people to effortlessly follow up with their clients from time to time.

Avatar- An icon that represents you on message boards, chat rooms, IM programs, 3-D chat rooms and virtual worlds. Your avatar can be whatever you want it to be. There are graphic elements, animals, cartoons and pictures used as avatars on the Internet.

B

B2B, B2C- Acronyms for business-to-business or business-to-consumer activities. Many websites focus on business-to-business relationships and services (like wholesale suppliers), while others focus on providing services and products to consumers.

Back Button- One of the buttons on the top of a Web browser. It allows you to “go back” to the previous web page that you were browsing.

Banner ad- An online ad on a web page that links to another website or landing page. Banner ads are one of the first methods of advertising on the web. They have different costs depending on how much traffic and page views the website gets, and can cost up to $150,000 per month. Banner ads get their name because they are placed at the top or bottom of a web page, however, they can also be placed on the sides of the website content.

Banner exchange- A group of web sites that display each other’s ad banners in exchange for credits. The more impressions you display, the more credits you receive. The credits are converted into ad spaces for you to display your ad banner on participating websites. This can be an effective way to drive traffic to a website.

Blog- Blog is a shortened term for “weblog.” Either term refers to a website where entries are made similar to a journal or diary. The entries are presented in reverse chronological order, with the newest entry on top. Although blogs were originally used like a personal journal on everyday events, they have evolved into a multipurpose tool. There are blogs on every topic imaginable, from food to politics to celebrity gossip. Generally, blogs combine the text entries with images, links to other blogs and other related media.

A blog entry consists of five basic components:

The Title: The main headline of the blog post.

The Body: The main content of the blog post, which can consist of text and/or photos and video.

Permalink: This is the URL of the individual post.

Post Date: The date and time the post was published to the blog website.

A blog entry can also include comments from readers, categories (commonly called tags) that label the blog entry by subject, and trackback links, which are links to other sites that refer to the blog entry.

Bloggers- Bloggers is the blanket term for anyone that uses a blog to post information on topics that are of interest to them. Becoming a blogger is actually simpler than it might seem. As blogging has grown in popularity, many website offer platforms to quickly and easily create a blog.

Some of the most popular blogging software platforms are Blogger, Livejournal, Typepad, Wordpress and Xanga. These websites will host your blog, generally for free, and provide you with the tools to create blog posts without having to know a lot about software.

BMP or bmp- A Microsoft Windows image format. It stands for bitmap. The images you see when Windows starts up and closes, and the wallpaper that cover the desktop, are all in BMP format.

Brick and mortar- The name for traditional retail businesses with actual buildings. Used in contrast to dot com businesses, which exist mainly online.

Bookmark- With so many interesting web pages out there, it’s hard to keep track of sites that you want to revisit again and again. Using bookmarks can help you keep tabs on the sites you liked and want to look at in the future. Your Internet Browser will have a tab at the top that says “Bookmarks” or “Favorites.” When you are on a website that you want to bookmark, you can select “Bookmark this page” (or a similar phrase) and your web browser will save the URL information for that site.

Your bookmarks will be stored in the browser in your “Bookmarks” or “Favorites” menu. Normally the bookmarks are stored in chronological order, with the oldest bookmarks at the top of your list. Most browsers offer the option to organize the bookmarks in folders. This makes your bookmarks easily accessible and you can group them together based on topics.

Branding- In marketing, and especially Internet marketing, branding is important to establishing the company identity. Branding is the result of an accumulation of experiences that consumers have with a particular company or product.

A brand creates associations and expectations among the products made by a company. The brand is a symbol for all of the information that is connection a company, a product or a service. Branding can include a logo, font selection, color schemes and symbols that work together to create an impression of the values, ideas and personality of the company.

Branding has significant importance in Internet marketing where the competition is huge. Having a noteworthy and unique branding strategy can help companies stand out in the vast online marketplace.

Individuals can also develop a form of personal branding, which can help establish credibility with their online customers and target a specific niche of people.

C

Cache- This is the action of storing Web files for later reuse so that they can be easily accessed at a later date. When you are browsing the Internet, your Internet browser will store a HTML page code, graphics and multimedia elements in the cache. This way when you return to that particular Web page, the information doesn’t have to be downloaded all over again.

The cache is actually a form of high-speed memory. Your computer sets it aside to store frequently accessed data. The data can then be accessed directly from the hard drive, instead of the Internet server. Accessing the hard drive is a much faster process than accessing a server, so essentially the cache increases the time it takes to view frequently visited pages.

Keep in mind that the cache can build up over time and actually slow down your hard drive. It is advisable to clean out your cache from time to time.

Chat rooms- These are one of the most popular ways to make connections with real people over the Internet. A chat room is basically an interactive message board that allows live, online conversation for two or more users. When you use a chat room, whatever you type appears in the main screen next to your login name or handle. Other users will appear in the main screen with their messages next to their handles.

Most chat rooms have a specific topic that everyone will discuss. However, other chat rooms are simply for meeting other people. There are some chat rooms that are designed as intricate 3-D environments, where you select an avatar that will represent you in the virtual meeting place.

Copywriting- The process of writing words to promote a business, person, opinion or idea. Copywriting can include plain text messages and a variety of other online media. The main purpose of copywriting is to persuade the reader to act somehow, whether that is buying a product, signing up for an e-course or clicking on a link.

Copywriting can also refer to the SEO methods that are used to achieve higher rankings in search engines. This type of copywriting is often referred to as content writing. Copywriting for website placement involves the strategic repetition of keywords phrases within articles.

Crawler- A crawler (also called a spider) is a program that searches the Internet and locates new public resources. These resources can include web documents and other types of files. Crawlers report their finds to an Internet database (called indexing). Each search engine has its own crawler program that crawls the Internet for new material to list on the search engine. Spider technology is necessary because the amount of information being added to the Internet on a daily basis is more than any human team can index.

D

del.icio.us- del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) is referred to as a social book marking site. It is for storing and sharing web bookmarks with other users. The service is completely free and relatively new. del.icio.us first came online in late 2003.

Everything that is posted on del.icio.us is viewable by the public, although you can choose to make specific bookmarks private. Bookmarks are publicly viewable for a purpose. Many people use del.icio.us to publish links to their personal or business blogs. You can use the del.icio.us interface to keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music etc. You can also share your favorites with anyone who has an e-mail address. del.icio.us also has a search function that allows you to explore what others are book marking, and find other websites that are related to your interests.

Domain Name-This is the address or URL of a particular website. For example www.Google.com is the domain name for the Google search engine. The domain name is the text name that covers up the numeric IP address of a computer that is hooked up to the Internet.

Domain names make the World Wide Web more user friendly. Instead of having to remember a string of numbers, we can remember the name of the website.

Registering a domain name for an online venture can cost as little as $8. Website domain names are registered to prevent people from using the same name for their website. There are several different companies that allow you to register a website and many of these companies offer hosting packages as well.

Download- The act of transferring file or files from one computer to another using the Internet. There are a few basic methods of downloading from the Internet. You can download directly from a website or an ftp site. You can also download from e-mail attachments (although it is highly recommended that you do not download e-mail attachments from unknown sources).

Downloading is one of the most highly used functions of the Internet. Many programs, files and documents are available for downloading from the Internet.

Double Opt-In- A technique used in opt-in or permission based marketing. It ensures that a potential customer actually wants to receive the marketing materials and is a way to prevent unwanted spam. The basic process is as follows:

• A potential customer requests information from a website and is asked to confirm that they want the information to come to their e-mail address.
• The potential customer then receives a confirmation e-mail in their inbox. This e-mail requires them to click on a verification link to receive further information.
• Once the potential customer receives verification, they will receive the future messages from the mailing list, e-course or autoresponder series.

The Internet Marketing Glossary Part 1

The Internet Marketing Glossary Part 2

The Internet Marketing Glossary Part 3

The Internet Marketing Glossary Part 4

The Internet Marketing Glossary Part 5