Archive | Online Marketing

Internet Marketing Definitions

3G

A type of mobile network that offers increased speeds which is useful for downloading informational content. 3G is usually used by handheld mobile devices such as Smart Phones such as iPhones, Blackberries, Androids and other devices such as Apple’s iPad.

Adsense

An ad serving programme operated by Google that enables website owners to earn an income by displaying adverts on their website. Adverts placed on websites are known as being on the content network.

AdSwap

An arrange between two internet marketers (or internet marketing parties) where one internet marketer mails their email subscriber list with an offer in exchange for their AdSwap partner reciprocating by emailing their list with your offer. The same principles can be applied to leverage each other’s social networks in a similar arrangement. The objective is that both parties must benefit from the arrangement.

AdWords

Google’s advertising offering where advertisers can choose to advertise on Google’s search engine results (search network) or on participating websites (content network). See Adsense above.

Affiliate

Affiliate marketing is the most popular internet marketing activity. It is an attractive proposition for so many as it is promoting products that other people have created in exchange for a commission on each sale. A product owner only needs to pay the affiliate commission for each sale the affiliate makes.

Applet

A tiny program that is usually written in JavaScript (jScript) and runs within a web browser. Applets power some of the fancier features of internet pages such as various animation.

Article Directory

A website that contains a directory of article listings available to the general public. Articles are usually submitted by people as a means of cascading their content. The directory benefits from the large volume of content for its users. The marketer benefits because the article directory allow the marketer to include their name and a summary including a banklink to their site.

Author

The person that created the content. This is usually an article or a blog post but could also be an eBook, book or other written form of communication.

Autoresponder

An autoresponder is an automatic email response program. It can be either a desktop application that sits on your PC, or it can be a web based application. Autoresponders enable marketers to build their own email subscriber lists which they can follow up with again and again. Key features of the most popular autoresponders include followup messages, broadcast messages, blog broadcasts, social media propagation, parsing, list segmentation, web form creation and detailed metrics and reporting. Key players in the market for autoresponders are Aweber, GetResponse, Constant Contact and iContact. High end services such as InfusionSoft are often reserved for people that want a complete customer management solution.

Backlinks

Links on web pages that refer back to another web page. Backlinks form one of the three main elements that Google looks at in its search algorithm to determine the relevancy of the web page.

Banner Ad

A picture of an image graphic that appears on a website (most commonly at the top and right hand side) that contains special HTML or Javascript code that redirects the internet user to another location on the web. These graphics are often mainly encoded with affiliate links and tracking links, so the banner owner (usually the vednor) and traffic referrer (the affiliate) are credited with the sale should the visitor purchase.

Black Hat

Sneaky tactics that are considered covert and undesirable by key web authorities such as Google.

Blog

A blog is an abbreviated term for a web log. As blogs first came about on the Internet, people would use them to record their thoughts, lives and opinions. Blogs have become much more commercial in nature with some Internet Marketers making full time incomes and beyond. Blogs generally contain textual, audio and video content and now are presented in rich multi-media format.

Blogger

A blogger is someone that uses blogs to post information on topics that are of interest to them. There are many different platforms for hosting a blog. Some of these are hosted on the web and others are self hosted. Examples of web hosted blogs include Blogger (owned by Google), Tumblr and WordPress.com. The most common platform for professional bloggers are self hosted WordPress.org blogs which gives the blogger the advantage of control and ownership.

Branding

Branding is an activity undertaken by marketers to establish company identity in the marketplace. Branding is an intangible element that often adds massive value to a company and enables an Internet Marketer to charge significantly more for their products due to the increase in perceived value attached to the brand. Branding can include a logo, a certain format or presentation or even a person that is symbolic of the brand. Richard Branson of the Virgin companies is a perfect example of this.

Cache

Temporary internet files stored on the user’s hard drive. These often include the use of cookies and exist to enhance and speed up the user’s browsing experience.

Cookies

A tiny piece of software, which can be thought of as a token, contained within a web browser which records information about the user to improve the browsing experience of the user. Cookies are legitimately used to improve the experience of the user by retaining information about that user. Cookies can also be used illegitimately used to track keystrokes, movements and actions of the user and report them back to the cookie creator.

Chat Room

A chat room is an online area where people can talk to one another in real time. A chat room usually consists of more than two people where everyone can contribute to the discussion within the chat room at once. Chat rooms can be extremely fast moving when there are many people participating simultaneously.

Conversion

A person taking an action that is considered favourable by the Internet Marketer. A favourable action for an opt in page is the visitor subscribing to the email list. A favourable action on a blog is for the visitor to leave a comment, join the marketer’s list or share the post. A favourable action on a sales page is a sale. The process of conversions is a sophisticated science in the Internet Marketing world with many factors affecting conversion rates.

Conversion Rate

This is calculated as the number of favourable actions divided by the number of possible actions multiplied by 100. Internet Marketers are always trying to increase their conversion rates in order to make the optimum use of the traffic they generate.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the art and science of persuading people to take a desired action. Certain keywords are triggers for people to take action. Such words as “secrets”, “free”, “discover”, “secure”, “limited” all trigger a state within the reader which drives them to take a certain action. An Internet Marketer’s ability to write compelling copy can make or break their success.

CPA

A form of marketing where the marketer is rewarded when they drive traffic to a web page and a specific action set out by the publisher is fulfilled. Actions vary from subscribing to an email list to filling in an online survey. Many CPA networks now exist for marketers to join.

Domain Name

A domain name is an internet address where a website can be found. Laying behind the domain name is a less user friendly location called an IP address which consists of 4 constituent parts. Domain names essentially make the world wide web a more user friendly environment which everyone can use without having to remember a series of numbers for every website address.

Double Opt In

This is the process of asking a subscriber to confirm that they did request information from the marketer. This is done by clicking on a link immediately sent to them in an email after they submit their email address details onto an opt in form. Many marketers want to be sure they have the permission of the prospect to send mail to them, so that they are not accused of sending unsolicited mail to them. This is especially a concern for many marketers since the introduction of the CAN-SPAM act in 2003 and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) legislation which attempts to protect consumers against unsolicited mail.

Download

The process of moving information from another computer on the Internet (which is most often a server) to your computer. Downloads are mainly referred to as when a user is prompted if they would like to download the media. Strictly speaking, people are always unknowingly downloading files when they are browsing web pages that are not in the user’s cache.

E-book

An electronic book containing information. These are most commonly PDF (Portable Document Format) documents although they can also be held in executable file formats (.exe). E-books can be either free or paid products and the solutions contained within them can assist with a wide variety of challenges.

E-business

A business that earns the majority of its revenue using the Internet as the main distribution channel.

Email

Electronic mail that is used to transfer messages from one person to another using the Internet as the means of distribution. Email is still the most popular method of communicating over the web.

E-mail Client

Desktop software that synchronises with a mail server periodically (imap) or on demand (POP) to give a convenient way to access mail and administer email with an enhanced set of tools. The most common email clients are Microsoft Outlook, IBM Lotus Notes and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Encrypt

To encode a document with additional security making it difficult to access unless the decryption credentials are used.

Executable File

A filetype that is used on the Windows operating systems that can run a series of executable commands. Exe files are usually used as setup or installation files for Windows software. Exe files can contain malicious code which can cause serious harm to your computer. You should always check that you run .exe files from a trustworthy source.

Forum

A place on the Internet where people with a common interest can go to discuss things of common interest. Forums are often referred to as discussion boards, message boards or bulletin boards.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol which is a method of moving information from a local device (usually a hard drive) onto a server. If you want to create your own self hosted website, you will need to understand how to use FTP software.

Grey Hat

A term that is used to describe a process or practice that is borderline black hat. The practise pushes the terms and conditions of the authority to the extent of its boundaries.

Hosting

These are the services provided by hosting companies that allow people to store files on a server which everyone can access. Hosting companies are used to store files, install scripts, backup precious website data and serve users of a website with the files they need to browse. Services offered by hosting companies can be as simple as being a domain registrar or as complex as hosting a dedicated static IP solution. Dedicated servers are usually used by companies that attract extremely high volumes of traffic.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is one of many internet programming languages that encodes a web page in a specific format that a web browser can interpret. If you want to create your own web pages, understanding of HTML is an advantage although not an absolute necessity as there are many good WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors on the market which can help people to create web pages without knowing the coding.

Image Ads

A PPC option offered by many of the leading providers of pay per click advertising. This is where an image is presented to the searcher and a payment is made to the PPC provider by the advertiser when the user clicks on the image thus driven to a landing page of the advertiser’s choice. The landing page chosen by the marketer must usually meet the terms and conditions laid out by the advertiser.

Indexing

A process undertaken by search engines to assemble data on the Internet into a huge database. Users can then query the database with search terms so they can fetch the most relevant web pages for their search terms (keywords).

Internet

A mutlibillion dollar infrastructure which connects each computer as an individual node to one another. The Internet is often referred to as the net or the web. As a factual term, the Internet is the physical connection between computers. The World Wide Web refers to the connected documents that reside on the Internet. Internet is an abbreviated version of International Network.

Internet Marketer

A person or company that markets products or services over the Internet in exchange for monetary profits.

iPad

Mobile device invented and marketed by Apple Inc. approximately the size of a piece of A4 paper (US Letter 8.5″ × 11″). The device fits in the marketplace between an iPhone and a MacBook.

iPhone

Popular handheld mobile device invented and marketed by Apple Inc. which brings true computer functionality to its extremely portable and user friendly interface.

iPod

Popular handheld music device invented and marketed by Apple Inc. which allows its users to store and playback music usually. although certainly not exclusively, held as MP3 files.

IRT

An acronym that stands for In Real Time.

ISP

An acronym that stands for Internet Service Provider. These are the companies that provide the Internet connection for a house, business or mobile device.

JV

An acronym that stands for Joint Venture. Although this exists in all styles of business, Internet Marketers use this in many different ways. An example of this is where one party provides the product, the other provides the traffic. Another example is where one marketer hosts a webinar and the other one provides the expertise.

Keyword

A term (or a string of words) that can be typed into a search engine to begin an online search. An online search is an activity undertaken by a user to locate a specific resource or solve a specific problem using  the web.

Landing Page

The entry page for a user arriving at a website.

The term is also commonly used to describe a web page with the sole objective of capturing the visitor’s email address, so the marketer can follow up with them again and again. See also Opt In Page and Squeeze Page.

List Building

The process of accumulating and nurturing a list of qualified prospects within your permission marketing database to market to over and over again. List building is often achieved by offering something of a high perceived value with the sole objective of capturing the prospect’s email address.

MacBook

The name given to a laptop computer invented and marketed by Apple Inc. The name is derived from the MacIntosh operating system that the laptop uses.

Meta Tags

A list of keywords that are relevant for a specific web page which is recognised by search engines to decide upon the content of a specific web page. Meta tags are not visible to users and are only read by search engines when they index the page. Meta tags can however be viewed by examining the browser source code.

MSN

An acronym that stands for Microsoft Network which offers a variety of programs and features to Internet users. Most of these are free of charge.

Newbie

An Internet newcomer.

Online/Offline

The state of being either connected to or disconnected from the Internet.

Open Source

Source code that is contributed to by an open community of web developers. Open source software is often free. Open source software is often stored on .org sites. By no means an exhaustive list of open source software includes the Firefox web browser, the WordPress.org blogging platform, Linux operating system and OpenOffice.org office suite of documents.

Opt in

A form of marketing also referred to as Permission Marketing. This is most commonly email marketing where a user gives a marketer permission to email them. This is usually done by the visitor choosing a digital product of great enough perceived value for the user to submit their email address in exchange.

OSP

An acronym that stands for Online Service Provider. These are organisations that provide an information service delivered over the Internet. Examples include online backup services such as Amazon S3.

Outsourcing

The process of hiring and organising other people to do certain tasks on the marketer’s behalf. This is usually done to enable the marketer to be more productive on the things that encourages growth of their business.

Page Impressions

The number of times that a web page is requested from a server using web browsers. This is the preferred method for counting traffic. This is sometimes known as page requests or page views.

Parent/Child Theme Framework

A parent theme exists to provide the main theme functionality for a blog. The child theme inherits functions and appearance properties from the parent theme, however also serves customised functions and appearance settings to achieved extremely refined blog customisations without interrupting ot altering the main parent theme.

Permission Marketing

A form of marketing where the prospect has granted permission for the marketer to send them information on a regular basis. This is often through marketer initiated means such as email, or by subscriber controlled means such as RSS subscriptions.

PPC

An acronym that stands for Pay Per Click. This is an online advertising method where the advertiser pays the company who host their advertisement each time a visitor clicks on their advert. For search engines, the advert being showed is determined by the amount of money the advertiser is willing to pay for each click in relation to competitors that bid on the same keyword. Some search engines also determine ad placement based on a quality score.

PDF

An acronym that stands for Portable Document Format. This is a document that usually cannot be edited but can be universally viewed on computers as long as the computer has a PDF Reader installed on their machine. The most famous company offering PDF software is Adobe. Adobe Reader is usually pre-installed on most computers before an end user takes ownership.

Plugin

A small piece of software that simply “plugs in” to a larger piece of software to extend or change its functionality. Common examples of this are Firefox plugins, WordPress plugins, Shockwave Flash, Real Player, QuickTime Viewer, Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash.

Podcast

The term originates from a combination of “broadcasting” and “iPod”. Podcasting refers to the process of publishing audio and/or video files over the Internet. The files are referred to as “Podcasts” or “shows” and are usually similar to talk-radio programe or public access TV shows in their nature.

Publisher

The party that hires affiliates to send traffic to their offers in CPA marketing.

Quality Score

A score placed upon a certain page based upon its elements and their properties. Google likes pages that are content-rich and gives preference to them by giving them a higher quality score. A page with less content such as an opt in page (squeeze page) is given a significantly lower quality score. This invariably means that the page will appear lower in the organic search rankings and need to pay much more for the page to appear in the sponsored results.

Query

The process of requesting a definitive list of results from a database using specific selection criteria.

Reprint Rights

Permission that is granted to print a work that has been previously published.

Resale Rights

Permission that is granted to sell the work on to someone else at a profit.

RSS

An acronym that stands for either: Really Simple Syndication, Real-time Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS is a technology that allows web users to distribute new content to Internet users without the user having to revisit the website. Website users can subscribe to feeds using a variety of websites and other software applications such as web browsers and email clients.

Script

A series of executable commands in software that performs a certain task.

Search Engine

A website that acts like a catalog for the Internet. The search engine indexes web pages using spider programs and stores information regarding each of those web pages in a huge database. A user types in search terms for the content they are looking for which triggers a query from the database to list a series of search results to the user.

SEO

An acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimisation. SEO comprises of on-page factors such as the labelling of the content of the web page, image or video. SEO comprises of on-page factors.

Search Terms

Another expression for keywords.

Sidebar

The area on the left, or more commonly right hand side of a blog or website.

Signature File

This is sometimes referred to as a “sig file” or a “resource box”. This is used by marketers to identify the sender and provide additional information which often includes a link (or other action) for the user to click/take.

Site/Website

A collection of web pages that belong to any one domain. The site can contain a variety of content which is usually provided to the user as text, images, audio and video.

Slap

A web authority taking action against the marketer for practises considered against the terms and conditions of usage. Being “slapped” by a web authority could seriously damage your Internet Marketing business.

Spam

Unsolicited commercial mail. This is mail that the user never gave their consent to receive. Spam is characterised by its large volume. A spam filter is a piece of software usually provided by either the ISP, Webmail provider or email client.

Spider

A piece of sophisticated software that scans pages looking for its labelling properties such as title tags, description, meta tags, H1, H2, H3 tags and alt tags.

Split Testing

The process of comparing one variable against another with the objective of determing which of the two alternatives achieved the best results. This is often called A/B split testing because an ‘A’ variable is tested against a ‘B’ variable.

Spyware

Spyware is a piece of covert software that a user inadvertently downloads onto their computer which gathers information about the users browsing habits and preferences usually for the purpose of marketing. Spyware is generally not desired by Internet Marketers and there are plenty of free tools to help users remove spyware, adware and malware from their infected machines. These include AdAware, Spybot and AVG.

Social Media

Online media tools and networks that are social in their nature. Social media is a well established method of creating online traffic.

Social Networks

Places on the Internet where users congregate online to converse, exchange ideas and, in the Internet Marketing world, market products and drive traffic.

Software

A computer package that contains a set of executable instructions that tells the computer how to perform certain tasks. Software is usually written in a language that computer programmers can read but the computer compiles as binary code. Software exists to solve thousands of different problems.

Subdomain

A domain name that is part of a larger domain. If you’ve ever seen a website address that doesn’t begin with the name of the domain, you’ve probably encountered a subdomain. An example of this is: http://news.google.com which is a subdomain of the larger domain http://www.google.com

Tag

A descriptive term that is associated with a piece of information, sound clip, or video on the World Wide Web. Tags have become the Internet standard for classifying information.

Target Market

This refers to a segment of people to which a particular product is marketed. Members of a target market may have similar interests or a similar demographic profile that marks them out as unique from other people.

Tech Support

A service that offers advice to its clients. This is usually for products such as computing hardware, software and suchlike services.

Theme

A set of files which interact together to give a blog or website specific funtionality and appearance.

Thread

A topic of related posts within a forum, mailing list or newsgroup. Threads are often opened regarding a specific problem. When it is deemed that a satisfactory answer which concludes the thread’s query, the thread is usually closed.

Trackbacks

Blogging term used to keep track of links to content.

Tracking

A business practise undertaken by Internet Marketers to monitor their efforts. Amongst other things, tracking can be applied to traffic generation, conversions, blogging, list building and affiliate sales. Examples of tracking tools include Google AdWords, Google Optimiser, Google Webmaster Tools, InPlay, Quantcast, Alexa, Technorati, FeedBurner and Aweber.

Traffic

A term to refer to the process of moving people from one place to another with the objective of putting them in a “conversion scenario” where there is a possibility of the user taking an action desired by the marketer.

Trojan Horse

A computer virus that disguises itself as a helpful program. Once the program is downloaded and run on the user’s computer, the virus is released. Extreme examples of trojan horse viruses can erase the hard drive or destroy certain parts of the computer rendering the computer useless. Sometimes a trojan horse can reside deep in a computer’s filing system such as in registry or system files and slowly transforming files and documents.

URL

An acronym that stands for Uniform Resource Locator. The precise web address that must be typed into the address bar of a web browser to direct the user to the exact web page.

Username/User ID

The name used to log into a user’s account. This is often a username the account holder chooses and is sometimes the email address used upon registration.

Viral

A practice that moves a product or idea from person to person. The ease at which information can be passed from one place to another with the Internet has made it possible for information, videos, audio and graphics to spread throughout the Internet community like wildfire.

Virus

A program that multiplies itself on a computer system and incorporates itself into shared programs. Some viruses are relatively harmless whereas others can destroy computer files or even disable a computer entirely. It is advisable for any Internet user to protect their machines with Anti-Virus software.

Web 2.0

Second generation of web services. These include blogs, Podcasts, PPC marketing, social media, wikis, RSS and tagging.

Web Designer

A person that designs web pages and websites. A designer handles branding, aesthetic and navigational elements of creating a website. A web designer is often confused with a web developer.

Web Developer

A person that handles the coding and functionality of the website. This includes coding, testing and deployment of pages.

Webinar

An online environment where content can be delivered to many people simultaneously. A market leader of webinar services is GoToWebinar which is a company that falls within the Citrix umbrella of companies.

Webmail

Online mail services that enable users to have email accounts. The most popular webmail providers are Google (Gmail), Yahoo (Ymail), Microsoft (Hotmail) and AOL.

Webmaster

A person involved with the creation/management of a website.

White Hat

A legitimate process or practice that is within the terms and conditions of the relevant web authority.

Widget

An area within a blog page that can be customised to achieve a certain function or purpose.

World Wide Web

The connected documents that exist on the Internet.

XML

An acronym that stands for Extensible Markup Language. XML enables web developers to add customised tags to the web page design and it’s content therein.

ZIP File

A file that is compressed and/or encrypted. Some files are too large to send via email easily. “Zipping” files also gives a convenient way to bundle files together, compress them into a smaller folder and even encrypt them.