|
A B C
D E F G
H I J
K L M
N O P Q
R S T
U V W X
Y Z
A
above the fold
the section of a Web page
that is visible without scrolling.
An advertising term used to
describe the viewable area of a loaded web page. In other
words, the viewable area without scrolling down the page.
Advertising space above the
fold is more valuable than space below the fold because the
probability that content is viewed and read is greater when
placed above the fold.
If you advertise in
traditional media like newspapers almost invariably you’ll
pay more for ads that are in an above the fold position.
active buyer
An active buyer is a
customer who has made a purchase within a period of the last
12 months. Active buyers are highly likely to buy again and
are considered “hot” leads in direct marketing. Some offline
and online direct marketers believe that active buyers are
most likely to make an additional purchase within 30 days of
a prior purchase. Thus, the hot lead period. There are many
mailing list companies that sell hot names, or the names and
addresses of people who have purchased a particular product
or service within the last 30 days.
ad blocking
the blocking of Web
advertisements, typically the image in graphical Web
advertisements. The deliberate screening or blocking of
graphic-based Internet advertisements through software
filtering. Banner ads are an example of such advertisements
that can be blocked from appearing in a user’s browser.
ad blocking software
Ad blocking software is a
specialized utility for screening and filtering out unwanted
advertising content. Typically any graphical advertisements,
web banners, buttons, popups, etc. are filtered out.
ad broker
For many organizations,
it's often not feasible or desirable to personally select
every web site in which it wants to advertise. In this
scenario ad brokers, also called media brokers, gather and
aggregate prospective web sites for advertisers based on
marketing profiles, supplied by the advertiser. Demographics
and other factors may be considered. The ad broker is a
single point of access to advertising buys across various ad
networks targeting both niche as well as broad-based
consumer and business markets.
ad clicks
Also referred to as
click-through. An ad click is a web advertising metric (unit
of measure) that refers to the number of times a unique user
clicks through a banner or other web advertisement. Ad
clicks or click-through are the primary basis for Internet
advertising.
ad inventory
Ad inventory refers to
unused, vacant or available placements (ad slots) on a web
site for banner ads, text links, buttons, box ads or other
web advertisements.
ad space
the space on a Web page
available for advertisements.
ad hoc survey
In market research, an ad
hoc survey is a focused marketing questionnaire with a
particular purpose or objective. No prior contact has been
established with the target audience being surveyed.
ad metrics
Measurement standards for
assessing the performance and effectiveness of advertising
buys. For example, ad views and click-through
are online advertising metrics that yield the ad buyer with
statistical information about the performance of their
online advertising investments.
ad rate card
A comprehensive pricing
sheet that describes all advertisement buying options. An ad
rate card lists things such as ad inventory, ad type, ad
location and corresponding ad price. It can usually be found
on a publishers website. Traditional publishers have
hardcopy ad rate cards which are usually sent to prospective
advertisers through the mail.
ad rotation
Ad rotation is a script and
database-driven web site function where client ads are
rotated into ad spaces or slots on a Web site. Banners,
buttons and text links can all be rotated. Ad management
scripts and software usually include features such as ad
priority control, keyword functionality, media management,
ad clicks and ad views management, timed delivery, etc. Ad
rotation can be executed and managed through each individual
web site or through a centralized server-based facility for
a network of web sites
Ad Sizes Online IAB
Here are the standard
banner ad sizes as per the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
and CASIE. Ads are measured in pixels.
Full Banner = 468 x 60
Half Banner = 234 x 60
Vertical Banner = 120 x
240
Square Button = 125 x 125
Button 1 = 120 x 90
Button 2 = 120 x 60
Micro Bar = 88 x 31
Newer IAB Ad Size Standards
300 x 250 (Medium
Rectangle)
250 x 250 (Square JAVA
Pop-up)
240 x 400 (Vertical
Rectangle)
336 x 280 (Large
Rectangle)
180 x 150 (Rectangle)
160 x 600 (Wide
Skyscraper)
120 x 600 (Skyscraper)
ad space
The area on a web page used
for advertising elements, such as banner ads, buttons, text
link ads and box ads.
ad tracking
A process for monitoring
the performance of online advertisements. Tracking online
advertising is a much simpler process than tracking offline
advertising.
Because the performance of
Online advertising is measured primarily by click-through
and impressions (views), Web address (URL) extensions in the
ads are the key data used for tracking. Ad tracking is an
important activity when advertising online and off,
particularly when you’re paying and not relying heavily on
free Web traffic. It tells you which ads are working and
getting the job done.
It also tells you which
ones aren’t so that you can quickly make adjustments to the
non-performing ads. Ad tracking takes the guesswork out of
advertising Online.
ad tracking software
A program or service for
tracking the results of online advertising campaigns.
Ad tracking is an
important activity when advertising online and off,
particularly when you are paying for ads and not relying
heavily on free Web traffic.
Ad tracking software tells
you which ads are working and which ones aren’t so you can
quickly make adjustments to the non-performing ads.
ad views
Ad views are also referred
to as impressions. An ad view is an advertising metric
(standard of measure) that refers to the number of times an
advertisement such as a web banner or text ad has been
downloaded and presumably viewed.
advertising network
a network representing many
Web sites in selling advertising, allowing advertising
buyers to reach broad audiences relatively easily through
run-of-category and run-of-network buys. An organization or
broker representing a number of web sites that sells
advertising placements. An advertising network can provide
your business significant promotional leverage because of
the ability to reach large target audiences with relative
simplicity. An ad or group of ads can be implemented
quickly, in as little as a few minutes or a few hours.
An example of an
advertising network is an organization called Double Click.
Their network consists of 1,500 web sites in 15
International Networks. The largest advertising network
online is a company called Click Agents. They represent
advertising on more than 37,000 Web sites.
advertising start page
A no cost marketing
technique that utilizes web browser start pages to generate
growth in targeted web site traffic. Participating in the
service requires that you set your browser’s start page to
open the start page network’s home page. Each time you start
your browser, it will contain a set of new links to other
participating web sites with content that matches your
specific interests. When you set up a start page account,
you enter information about the web page or site that you
want to promote such as a URL, category, title, and
description. This profile information is used to generate
the links TO your site. Your links are then displayed all
over the start page network, which is usually comprised of
1000’s of web sites. The concept is based on a credit system
whereby each time you open your browser, you earn a credit.
Each credit you earn equals another targeted link to your
site. Start page advertising networks have received their
fair share of criticism and praise, so like all things in
advertising you must test them for yourself.
add URL
(see Search Engine
Submission)
affiliate
the publisher/salesperson
in an affiliate marketing relationship.
A
Web-based salesperson or organization in an affiliate
marketing program. An affiliate is an independent contractor
that promotes a product or service on behalf of a supplier
organization (the merchant).Strategically located links and
promotional copy in the affiliate’s web site are used to
attract and redirect web traffic to a sales offer or product
order page, usually published by the affiliate merchant.
Affiliates are paid commissions based on contractually
agreed activities and performance such as click-through,
leads or sales generated by their advertising and
promotional efforts.
affiliate
agreement
An
online contract that stipulates the terms and conditions for
participating in an affiliate program. For example, a clause
in every affiliate agreement will be a term or condition
that states if the affiliate is caught or implicated in
spamming activities, the contract is terminated immediately.
affiliate directory
- a categorized listing of affiliate programs.
affiliate forum
- an online community where visitors may read and post
topics related to affiliate marketing.
affiliate fraud
- bogus activity generated by an affiliate in an attempt to
generate illegitimate, unearned revenue.
affiliate loyalty programs
Incentive programs used by
an affiliate manager or merchant to encourage its affiliates
to be loyal to their affiliate program. A good,
incentive-driven affiliate loyalty program will keep your
affiliates from switching to other programs and will
increase sales by helping affiliates become more successful.
Loyal affiliates sell more products and they have a
contagious enthusiasm, which helps you get other top selling
affiliates into your program.
affiliate manager
An individual or
organization that owns and or manages an affiliate program.
Sometimes used interchangeably with affiliate merchant.
Affiliate manager is also a term sometimes used to describe
software applications that manage the administrative
functions of affiliate programs, such as commission payouts,
charge backs etc.
affiliate marketing
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.
A performance-based online
marketing arrangement. Independent contractors called
affiliates place links on their website which refer visitors
to other websites selling specific products or services.
Affiliate marketing is 100% performance-based so an
affiliate is paid on either a pay-per-click, pay-per-lead or
a pay-per-sale basis. On pay-per-sale arrangements,
commissions can vary from as low as 1% to as high as 60% or
more. Affiliate activity and commissions are tracked by an
affiliate manager or an affiliate network and affiliates are
paid according the agreed upon activity (either
click-through, leads or sales) generated by their
advertising links.
affiliate merchant
the advertiser in an
affiliate marketing relationship.
affiliate network
a value-added intermediary
providing services, including aggregation, for affiliate
merchants and affiliates.
A third party organization
providing administration services for affiliates, affiliate
merchants and affiliate programs. Such services typically
include data collection & aggregation, performance &
commission reporting and in some cases affiliate recruiting.
Some affiliate networks offer additional services like
sending checks, sending out tax forms and performing general
customer service functions. Two popular and trustworthy
affiliate networks are Click Bank and Commission Junction.
affiliate programs
Also referred to as
associate programs or referral programs. Affiliate programs
provide a mechanism or platform for performance-based
Internet marketing relationships between an independent
contractor (the affiliate) and a sales/fulfillment company
(the affiliate merchant). The purpose of an affiliate
program is to sell products and services through a network
of online salespeople. The relationship is mutually
beneficial to both the affiliate and the merchant because
the affiliate is paid on either a pay-per-click,
pay-per-lead or a pay-per-sale basis. On pay-per-sale
arrangements, commissions can vary from as low as 1% to as
high as 60%. Merchants benefit because they capture and
convert traffic and sales that would have been otherwise
unattainable without the affiliates.
affiliate software
- software that, at a minimum, provides tracking and
reporting of commission-triggering actions (sales,
registrations, or clicks) from affiliate links.
affiliate tracking software
Software for implementing
and managing affiliate programs.
It typically provides
functions for tracking and reporting of sales,
registrations, and clicks from affiliate links as well as
for reporting commissions, payouts and charge backs.
agents intelligent
An agent is a software
program that performs a specific set of tasks for its user.
Agents are used
extensively on the web by search engines to discover new
resources, which are then indexed and stored for future
recall by search engine users. In this case the agents are
robots (called spiders), which comb the web looking for new
web documents to capture and index. When an agent program
visits your web site, your web server will create a record
called an agent log
agent log
An agent log is a web
server file that records the agent programs that have
accessed a web server. Agent programs typically include
robot programs, search engine spiders, search engine
indexers and link verifiers.
agent name delivery
One of two methods of
delivering cloaked web pages is called Agent Name Delivery.
The other method is IP Address Delivery. Agent Name Delivery
takes advantage of the fact that all web crawlers and
spiders (called agents) have an identifying name. For
example, Google's spider is named Googlebot. Knowing the
agents name allows you to deliver a specific page associated
with the agent name. Because of the controversy surrounding
web cloaking, agent name delivery is not a recommended
practice. If caught your site can be removed from the search
engine that discovered the cloaking.
AllTheWeb
- (see FAST Search) One of the Big 10 search engines and
archrival to Google for search engine dominance. AllTheWeb
has moved ahead of competitors like AltaVista and Excite by
focusing most of its resources on pure search power and
search simplicity.
ALT Tags
Short for alternative
representation tag. An ALT tag is an HTML tag that displays
alternative text when non-textual elements, like images,
cannot be displayed.
The descriptive text is
displayed for users with either older browsers that don’t
support the image display or for non-visual browsers such as
Lynx, a popular text-only browser.
ALT text
HTML attribute that
provides alternative text when non-textual elements,
typically images, cannot be displayed.
AltaVista
- search engine located at
www.altavista.com. AltaVista
AltaVista is one of the
world leaders in search technology and as a search engine
has been online since 1995. They developed the first
searchable, full-text web page database on the World Wide
Web. It was born out of Digital Equipment Corporation's
Research lab in Palo Alto, California.
AltaVista claims to have
more search related inventions and patents than any other
company in existence, including the very first multi-lingual
search function on the Internet and the first search
technology to translate & support Chinese, Japanese & Korean
languages. Their technologies continue to raise the bar,
making AltaVista one the leading search engines among
surfers. Their service includes integrated search results,
offering users immediate access to the most relevant
information including Web pages, multimedia, news, products
and services as well as a free language translation feature.
Like fast (AllTheWeb), AltaVista is also a provider of
high-powered search software solutions for intranet,
enterprise and e-commerce applications. Corporate customers
include Daimler-Chrysler, Siemens, Amazon and Borders to
name a few. Their search technology is embedded in
information management solutions from companies like Oracle,
Novell, HP and IBM. AltaVista supplemented their own
technology with the Ask Jeeves search appliance back in
1999. This allows surfers to submit questions (called
natural language parsing) to the search engine rather than
just keywords.
American Marketing
Association
A not-for-profit
organization set up to provide marketing professionals with
information, products and services required to succeed in
their jobs, careers or businesses. Marketers can use the
site and its associated services to find new job
opportunities, develop new skill sets and utilize
profit-enhancing tools for business. The AMA also tracks and
reports trends in the marketing field.
anchor text or link text:
The clickable – text – part of a webpage. Anchor text is
usually underlined.
animated GIF
a graphic in the GIF89a
file format that creates the effect of animation by rotating
through a series of static images.
anonymous FTP
an option in FTP that
allows users to download files without having to establish
and account.
anonymous mailer
An anonymous mailer or
re-mailer is an e-mail service that privatizes your email.
Every Internet Service
Provider (ISP) has the potential to monitor, store, and even
share your email information with "authorized persons"
without your knowledge. By using an anonymous mailer or
re-mailer, you protect your e-mail communications from being
monitored or accessed. Some also provide masking services to
hide your identity from recipients if you wish.
Unfortunately these services are heavily used by spammers
for sending out their junk mails
anonymous surfing
Anonymous surfing allows
you to mask your identity from the web sites you visit by
surfing through a specialized web server application.
Anonymous surfing shields your IP address and computer id
and can optionally keep cookies off your PC. The host
service that provides the anonymous surfing will assign
anonymous IP addresses to surfers as they connect to the
host web site. It’s important to note however that you
cannot anonymously surf and order or buy products online
simultaneously. E-commerce transactions require the use of
cookies for tracking customer information important for the
transaction and after the sale support. For this reason,
when you buy something online make sure cookies are enabled
and that you are NOT using an anonymous surfing filter.
anti spam
Refers to opinions and
resources helpful in the fight against spam. Anti spam tools
and resources include such things as spam filtering
software, spam watch groups and spam blacklists.
AOL search
Search engine for the
America Online Web properties and communities. A public
version is also available to non-AOL subscribers at
www.aol.com.
In May 2002 America Online,
the world's leading interactive services company, and
Google, developer of the industry-leading Internet search
engine, announced a multi-year deal that will utilize
Google's search technology and targeted paid listings
program across all of the America Online Web properties.
Under the contract,
Google's search technology will power the search functions
of AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe as well as Netscape by mid 2002.
The union of the two companies on this initiative creates
good synergy, which translates into a richer search
experience for AOL's more than 34 million members and tens
of millions of visitors worldwide. Also, Google will supply
AOL and CompuServe members as well as users of AOL.COM &
Netscape its targeted paid listings product. The paid
listings program offers a variety of advertisement listings
ranked by relevancy and other factors, from Google's growing
base of advertisers. Google will be the exclusive provider
of sponsored Links for the search areas in each of the
America Online Web properties.
apache
an open source web server
software.
apache web server
An open-source Web server
software product of the Apache Software Foundation. It runs
on Unix, Linux, Windows NT, NetWare and OS2 operating
systems. Apache is the defacto standard and their Web
servers are considered the fastest, most efficient, and most
functional web servers in existence.
application service
provider
Sometimes abbreviated as
ASP (not to be confused with Microsoft’s Active Server Pages
(ASP).An application service provider is a technology vendor
that supplies software and or hardware applications usage to
businesses over the Internet. Businesses can use the
software applications owned by ASP’s rather than make their
own capital investment in hardware and software. Because of
economies of scale (the main benefit of the ASP business
model), ASP’s can pass on big savings and capital cost
reductions to their customers.
applied market research
In market research, any
research activities and information used to answer a
specific question or solve a particular problem or set of
problems.
The resultant research
data is analyzed and often formulated into product
development and product marketing and promotion.
architext spider
The ArchitextSpider is a
web crawler robot that collects information for the Excite
and WebCrawler search engines. Its two main purposes are to
discover and index resources on the web (web sites, pages,
content etc.) and to generate statistics.
ask jeeves
- metasearch engine located at
www.askjeeves.com Ask Jeeves
One of the many metasearch
engines available on the Web. Ask Jeeves is not a standalone
search engine service like Google or AltaVista. It does not
have it’s own directory index. Rather, it is a metasearch
engine, or an engine that is used to search a number of
other relevant search engines such as Google, Alta Vista,
HotBot & Excite among others. Ask Jeeves’ search results are
a compilation of results from the other engines it searches.
Ask Jeeves also supports natural language parsing, which
allows users to post questions in their queries rather than
simply entering keywords for their searches. Many enterprise
search appliances and knowledge base engines (also called
Expert Systems) use natural language parsing for retrieving
and delivering information on demand.
(ASP)Acronym
for Microsoft’s Active Server Page (not to be confused with
Application Service Provider An active server page
is a web page that is created dynamically or spontaneously
as a result of a user request. The user request is initiated
by clicking a link typically. The resultant page is
generated using Microsoft’s ActiveX controls. ActiveX is set
of software components similar to Java that provide an
interactive and multimedia-rich experience for web users.
ASP Hosting
- Web hosting that supports Active Server Pages, a
server-side scripting environment from Microsoft.
auctions online
Online marketplaces where
products and services are sold to high bidders. Online
Auctions have become extremely popular and competitive since
their ushering to the mainstream by online auction giant,
eBay. Over the last few years, thousands of auction sites
have come Online and Auction mania continues to spread
throughout the world with no apparent signs of slow down.
Marketing Alert: Auctions are a quick and easy way for
ANYONE who wants to start making money Online immediately.
I’m not kidding. I know a guy in upstate New York with no
special computer skills who is pulling in as much as $4,000
a week on eBay! His secret? Nothing special actually, he
simply buys old motorcycles, strips them down for parts and
sells these parts on eBay. It’s not rocket science. Just
about anyone can do this if they put forth the effort.
auction software
Software for establishing
and or operating an online auction. Functions provided by
the software include the buying (bidding) platform,
transaction processing & fulfillment and inventory
management
auto responder
a program that sends an
automatic form response to incoming emails.
An auto responder is a CGI
script that automatically responds to incoming e-mail. When
e-mail is received, an auto responder sends a return e-mail
with the requested information. Auto responders and the
correct use of them are important to your Internet marketing
success. A new generation of “smart” auto responders has hit
the market and they provide a lot of value for the money.
These smart auto responders allow for: HTML or Plain Text
Messages ,Running Your Own newsletter, E-zine or Opt-in List
Full Personalization of Messages Automatic Subscription Code
Generation ,Tracking the Exact Source of All Subscriptions
You can also automatically
send timed and sequential follow up messages, keeping your
sales message in front of the people who join your opt-in
mailing list. E-business studies have shown that more than
70% of people do NOT buy on the first visit to a commercial
web site. People will need to feel comfortable before making
a purchase. Smart auto responders capitalize on this basic
human need. They allow you to make your newsletter, ezine
and web site "sticky", encouraging your visitors to make a
purchase when they are comfortable and ready.
B
baby boomers
A large segment of the US
population born between 1946 - 1964. Baby Boomers are a
popular target market for the retail consumer products
industry.
Nostalgia-related items
are one example of products that are ideal to market to baby
boomers because of the sentiment and personal memories they
conjure. This mental process reinforces the impulse or
desire to buy.
back end marketing
Term used to describe
strategies and tactics for generating sales of additional
products and services to an existing customer list. Backend
marketing is extremely important for long-term business
growth and for the overall success of a sales and marketing
venture, online or off. Back-end marketing is a very
inexpensive form of marketing because the largest expense
relating to marketing (customer acquisition) has already
been incurred or absorbed. Another important benefit of
backend marketing is that your response rates and
conversions will typically be much higher because your
customers already know, respect and trust you. Despite the
benefits of back end marketing (low cost, higher
conversions, higher profits, etc.) it’s the most ignored
form of business-to-business and business-to-consumer
marketing strategy. To be successful in marketing and sales
in the long run, a business MUST become adept at back end
marketing.
backlink or backward link:
Links from other sites pointing to your site. This term is
usually used in regards to a link exchange or reciprocal
linking.
bait and switch web pages
Text only versions of web
pages used in an effort to secure high search engine
rankings. Also called code swapping. Once the desired
ranking position is achieved, a web page designed for humans
is swapped with the search engine friendly text page. Code
swapping is the technical name for bait and switch. Code
swapping is considered a form of search engine spam. Don’t
do it. Another major downside is that a search engine may
revisit your site at any time after it has indexed the text
only pages. If it indexes the real pages, the positions
achieved by the text pages will most likely drop. Or worse
yet, you are discovered and your site is dropped from their
index altogether. Not good. Side Note: Fortunately, you
don’t need to code swap to do well with the search engines.
A highly qualified search engine marketer or Internet
marketing consultant can attain excellent ranking results
for you without controversial methods and tactics like code
swapping or web page cloaking.
B2B
business that sells
products or provides services to other businesses.
B2B. Abbreviation for
business-to-business. It refers to businesses that market
and sell products and/or services to other businesses. B2B
companies do not sell to end consumers or individuals. An
example of a typical B2B company is Oracle Corporation.
Oracle markets, sells and implements its database software
solutions in small to large business environments.
B2C
business that sells
products or provides services to the end-user consumers.
B2C Abbreviation for
business-to-consumer. B2C refers to businesses that market
and sell products and/or services to individuals or end user
consumers.
An example of a successful
B2C company is Amazon.com
bandwidth
- how much data can be transmitted in a time period over a
communications channel, often expressed in kilobits per
second (kbps).
banner ads
A graphical web
advertisement (usually 468 X 60 pixels in size) that is
linked to the advertisers web site or offer page. Banner ads
are one of the most popular forms of advertising online yet
the effectiveness of banner ads is often debated among
Internet marketing professionals. Typically the more
targeted or focused your banner ads are, the higher your
click-through rates (CTR). Blind banners and banners
promoting products or services to a broad-based consumer
market will have lower CTR’s. Statistics garnered by the
IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) show that the average
click-through rate on banners is a mere 1%.
Banners that tend to
outperform the average CTR are the newer, interactive,
media-rich banners as well as creative standard banners
placed in highly productive advertising networks.
banner blindness
- the tendency of web visitors to ignore banner ads, even
when the banner ads contain information visitors are
actively looking for.
A psychological phenomenon
whereby web site visitors tend to ignore or filter out
banner advertisements. Visitors may even ignore banner ads
containing information they might normally be interested in
learning about. Banner blindness occurs because people are
continually bombarded with advertising messages: on
television, radio, postal mail and on the Internet. People
have responded by mentally screening out advertising
messages in general. Most people don’t find ads that
interesting, they don’t believe the message or they don’t
trust the advertiser. That’s because many of the banners out
there use tricks to get you to click them. For many people,
banners = trickery. As an Internet marketer, you must become
adept at learning and testing different concepts in banner
advertising in order to find what works best for your sales
offers. Banners can definitely bring your business good
results but picking the right banner networks and markets,
creating the right ads and testing are critical to success.
banner exchange
A banner exchange network
allows participating web sites to display 3rd party banner
ads in exchange for ad credits. Credits are redeemed for
placing your own ads on other 3rd party sites. The typical
exchange rate is 2:1.In most banner exchange networks for
every 2 banners you display on your site, you earn one
credit, or the right to display 1 of your banner ads on
another site.
Two of the largest banner
exchange networks are LinkExchange and SmartClicks.
barter
to exchange goods or
services directly without the use of money.
benchmark
A quantitative reference or
milestone used to measure the performance of a marketing
campaign at a particular point in time. Benchmarks are also
used as performance measures when testing software
applications and computer operating systems.
better internet bureau
The Better Internet Bureau
is an online, not-for-profit organization dedicated to
making the Internet a safer place for people worldwide.
Members who join the Better Internet Bureau may display the
Better Internet Bureau logo on their home page, assuring
visitors that the site has been reviewed and is certified as
a quality site. Certification of a Web site builds a bond of
trust with first-time visitors. Members also receive a free
e-mail newsletter that alerts them to deceitful, fraudulent
or dangerous locations on the Web. Another important benefit
is that the Bureau monitors Internet sites around the world
and reports back to members any activity that may be of a
questionable or unscrupulous nature. Members are encouraged
to report such sites for further investigation. If the
Bureau reviews a site and agrees that it could cause harm to
subscribers, an alert will be posted.
beyond the banner
online advertising not
involving standard GIF and JPEG banner ads.
Beyond the Banner. An
industry expression used to describe online advertising that
does NOT utilize conventional GIF and JPEG banner ads, but
rather other forms of advertising such as text link ads and
rich media interactive advertising.
bias search engine
The term bias is used to
describe search engines that deliberately skew search
results to include pay-for-inclusion or pay-per-click
listings. In market research, bias refers to a
misrepresentation of a target audience due to flaws in
methodology or execution.
blacklisting spam
The act of placing known
spammers on “avoid lists” that are published prominently in
various Internet communities or consumer advocacy web sites.
Because of the large sense
of community and the pervasiveness of the Internet, being
blacklisted can ruin an Internet marketing career. The
lesson here is to avoid any and all forms of spam.
blind ads
Banner ads (and the target
site’s they refer traffic to) that promise a tremendous
benefit but offer little or no detail about the product or
service that delivers that benefit. Blind ads are
deliberately vague in an attempt to pique your interest and
motivate a call to some sort of action, i.e. a click-through
to a web form requesting you sign up for more free
information. There are many companies online that use blind
ads to simply collect e-mail addresses for future spam
e-mail campaigns. I’m sure you’ve seen those banner ads like
“Earn $6,000 per month in your spare time!” all over the
web. Clicking-through on one of these blind ads usually
presents a vaguely detailed web page asking to to sign up
for a newsletter or email list. My advice is to stay away
from blind ads because of the potential for unwanted and
harmful spam activity. Also, products marketed by blind ads
tend to be suspect in terms of quality or effectiveness.
Many are outright scams and rip-offs.
blog
A frequent, chronological
publication of personal thoughts and Web links.
Blog
Contracted term for “web
log”. A blog is an online diary or log of personal opinions,
experiences and web links revolving around a specific topic
or theme.
Someone who contributes to
a blog is called a blogger.
boolean searching
The use of the logical
operators OR, AND, NOT when performing online searches.
Searching with the OR operand will retrieve documents in
which at least ONE of the search terms is present.
Searching with the AND
operand will retrieve documents in which ALL of the search
terms are present.
A search using the NOT
operand retrieves documents in which the specified term IS
NOT present. Most search engines support some form of
Boolean logic.
bookmark
a link stored in a Web
browser for future reference.
bot
Short for Robot. See Robot.
box ad
A box ad is a square or
nearly square banner advertisement on a web page.
brand awareness
The extent of which people
are familiar with your product, company or brand.
For example the brand
awareness level for the household product Clorox Bleach is
significantly greater than the brand awareness of
competitive bleach products in the U.S. Think about it. Can
you name another brand of chlorine bleach off the top of
your head? I can’t. Except for the obvious supermarket
brands of products i.e. Kroger, Safeway, Shop Rite, A&P
brands of bleach. Clorox enjoys the highest levels of brand
awareness and brand recognition as compared with its
competitors.
bridge page
There are several
variations of bridge pages. A bridge page can be a separate,
secondary home page customized for visitors who click on a
specific banner or advertising link. Bridge pages can also
be pages that have been optimized for the search engines for
particular keywords and keyword phrases. Bridge pages are
also referred to as entry pages, jump pages, doorway pages,
gateway pages and portal pages. The gap between the entry
and the destination page is where the name comes from.
Bridge pages are not a new concept. Many spammers have used
them successfully for years to capture traffic. As a result,
most search engines frown on doorway pages because of the
potential for abuse. The best and most “clean” way to design
bridge pages is to create a second website (with a different
domain) as a text-only version for your main pages. Then
insert a link on your text site to your main website. This
will "bridge" visitors over to your main site. It’s
important to note that search engines generally no longer
index pages using fast “meta refresh” (a special tag in the
section of a document that tells the web browser to
automatically redirect to a different page). This was
enforced in an effort to discourage abuses with doorway
pages. To get around this some webmasters will do a code
swap, which is submitting a text only page for search engine
indexing then swapping it on the server with the "human"
page once a ranking position has been achieved. Code
swapping is also called "bait-and-switch." The downside of
this practice is that a search engine may revisit at any
time and if it indexes the "human" page, the position could
drop. Or worse, you could get dropped from the SE index
altogether.
broadband
Broadband refers to
telecommunications in which a wide band of frequencies is
available to transmit data over physical cables or wires.
Information can be
transmitted on many different frequencies or channels within
the band simultaneously thus allowing more information to be
sent in a given time period. In the context of the Internet,
broadband is connecting to the Internet and transferring
data at speeds faster than 200 kilobits (kb) per second.
With broadband, web pages download at lightening speed and
surfing the web becomes a whole new experience. Examples of
Internet broadband technologies include DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line) and cable modem.**It’s important to note
that most people today still have dial-up Internet access of
56 kilobits (56kb) or less. Many people still connect with
28,800 modems.
Internet marketers must
build their web pages to download at reasonable speeds over
28,800 bps modems. This ensures that the greatest number of
people will see these web pages successfully. Internet
marketing is a numbers game so the more people who see your
pages, the more sales you’ll make
browser
(see Web browser)
bulletin board systems
Abbreviated as BBS.
Bulletin board system and bulletin board server are older
terms used to describe a computer on the Internet containing
a communications forum accessible by modem or Telnet. BBS’s
allow Internet communities with common interests or goals to
exchange information. Today most bulletin boards are
web-based and it’s estimated that there are over 40,000
bulletin board systems worldwide.
bulk e-mail
Sending bulk e-mail
messages to a large number of recipients (newsletter
subscribers for example) is a necessary function of most
Internet marketing businesses. However, many recipients
consider bulk e-mailing as spam -- unsolicited and unwanted
e-mail from an unknown sender. There are two distinct types
of bulk e-mail: Opt-in bulk e-mail. This is the practice of
e-mailing to large numbers of recipients who have given
their permission to send those marketing communications.
This would include, for example, a broadcast e-mail of a
sales message or offer to your customer or subscriber list.
Spam. The irrelevant, uninvited junk information you get in
your e-mail inbox on a regular basis. Spam bulk mailing is
the practice of non-personalized mailing to massive numbers
of e-mail recipients who have not given permission to send
those marketing communications. Note: Be careful if you buy
ready-made Opt-in lists to send bulk e-mail. Unless the list
owner has notified the list of the sale and that subscribers
will now receive e-mail communications from a different
organization (the list buyer), subscribers may think you are
spamming them. If you buy these lists get proof from the
list seller that they have informed their opt-in subscribers
of your legitimate purchase and use of that list.
bulletin board software
Web application software
that runs an interactive bulletin board system
burstable bandwidth
a hosting option that
allows sites to use the available network capacity to handle
periods of peak usage.
business hosting
Web hosting geared towards
the mission-critical functions demanded by business-class
customers.
business opportunities
online
Any number of low cost
online business ventures that can be started quickly and
provide individuals or organizations with an opportunity to
derive income by promoting, referring or directly selling
products or services on the Internet.
There are quite literally
thousands of online business opportunities. But they all
revolve around a single theme: SALES.
Probably the hardest part
of pursuing an online business opportunity is selecting the
right one. There are no shortages of scams out there and
many people don’t know who and what to trust. That’s one of
the main reasons I built this site, to provide a baseline of
accurate and trustworthy information that people can use to
make their own informed decisions about income and business
opportunities online.
button ad exchange
A button ad exchange is a
network of participating sites that display button ads in
exchange for credits. Credits earned are converted to a
number of ads to be displayed on other sites. A fixed
exchange ratio is used to calculate credits, such as 2:1.
Button exchanges are not nearly as popular as banner
exchanges but nonetheless provide opportunities for
promoting your products and services. Like all things in
Internet marketing, you must TEST the concept for yourself
to determine if it’s a worthwhile advertising tactic.
button ad
a graphical advertising
unit, smaller than a banner ad.
button exchange
network where participating
sites display button ads in exchange for credits which are
converted (using a predetermined exchange rate) into ads to
be displayed on other sites.
buzzword
a trendy word or phrase
that is used more to impress than explain.
C
cache
A cache is a temporary
holding bin or repository. In the context of Internet
browsing, a cache is a folder on your computer that stores a
copy of web pages, graphics, files etc. for future recall
and reload when you revisit a web site.
The browser and caching mechanism automatically pull these
stored pages and objects from your computer’s cache folder
rather than requesting them to download from the server each
time you visit the site.
Note: Once you delete the cache, your browser will be
forced to download those previously cached web pages the
next time you visit.
caching
- the storage of Web files for later re-use at a point more
quickly accessed by the end user.
call to action, direct marketing
A direct marketing device
that instructs a user or prospective customer to execute one
or more actions. A call to action could include filling out
a contest form, ordering a product or service or signing up
for a free newsletter.
cascading style sheets
(CSS) - a data format used to separate style from structure
on Web pages.
CGI-Bin
Acronym for “Common Gateway
Interface-Binary.” CGI-BIN is a directory on a web server
that stores CGI programs and scripts. These scripts can
perform various interactive functions on a web site.
Examples of CGI-driven website functions include feedback
forms, hit counters, site search capability and shopping
cart functions to name a few
CGI common gateway
interface
Acronym for Common Gateway
Interface. A CGI script or program is a web-based program
that converts non-web information into web documents on
demand. An example of CGI is interactive elements in a web
site, such as an E-zine subscription form or a shopping cart
application.
clickstreams
In Online advertisement
tracking, clickstreams is a term used to describe the paths
a web surfer takes when navigating individual web sites and
when navigating the Web in general. The clickstreams of your
visitors can easily be viewed in the log files of your web
server or by using software designed for monitoring visitor
traffic flow.
click-through
the process of clicking
through an online advertisement to the advertiser's
destination.
click-through rate
(CTR) - The average number of click-through per hundred ad
impressions, expressed as a percentage.
cloaking
A controversial search
engine ranking technique of presenting one version of a web
page to search engine spiders that is specifically optimized
for keywords, while returning a different version of the
same page to a human user.
A cloaking system uses IP
address attributes to identify visitors as either human or
robot. Once it detects that a visitor is a robot, the
cloaking system presents text only, keyword-rich pages. Some
unscrupulous web masters use this technique to blatantly
mislead search engine users to their sites.
Search engines officially
frown on cloaking because of the potential for abuse and
they may remove sites practicing it from their indices. Most
search ranking experts will recommend you avoid this
high-risk tactic for capturing traffic. There are plenty of
clean ways to bring swarms of traffic to your site
co-branding
Co-branding is a marketing
strategy where two or more brand names (companies or
products) join together in promotional activities to
associate the two brands.
Co-branding allows a
company to leverage the complementary strengths of their
branding partners.
code swapping search
engines
Submitting text only
versions of web pages to the search engines in an effort to
gain high rankings and once the desired positions are
achieved, swapping the search engine friendly text page for
a content page designed for humans.
Code swapping, referred to
as bait and switch, is also sometimes used in an attempt to
keep others from learning how the page ranked well, although
it’s not really useful or necessary today. The major
downside of code swapping is that a search engine may
revisit the web site at any time, and if it indexes the
"real" page the positions will likely drop. Or worse, you
are discovered and your pages are dropped from the index.
Side Note: Fortunately, you don’t need to code swap to do
well with the search engines. A highly qualified search
engine specialist or Internet consultant can secure
excellent ranking results for you without the need for
controversial tactics like code swapping or web page
cloaking.
cold fusion
Macromedia’s web
development suite for building rich Internet applications
that integrate with databases, XML, web services, Macromedia
Flash, etc. The newest platform, ColdFusion MX, provides
developers with a productive scripting environment along
with integrated search and charting capabilities. ColdFusion
can be deployed on industry-standard operating systems and
allows you to leverage the power of the Java and .NET
platforms.
coldfusion hosting
Web hosting that supports
ColdFusion, a web application language introduced by Allaire
and currently owned by Macromedia.
communities, virtual
Term used to describe a
group of people sharing common interests, hobbies, goals or
aspirations. To be successful in the long run web marketers
should build their own online communities i.e. newsletter
subscribers and loyal web site visitors that crave the
information, products and services they provide.
competing on Google
The number of competing web
pages for a particular keyword.
content is king
Catch phrase used to stress
the importance of having quality, educational information on
a web site in an effort to attract and inform new site
visitors, build repeat visitor traffic and to rank well in
the search engines.
content management
A term used to describe
manual or automated activities relating to the creation,
publishing and management of information on a website. Web
content management systems allow you to create pages or
content objects and feed them to a Web publishing system.
Content management systems may have custom or automated
quality assurance features to ensure content is published
correctly, navigation paths are created and maintained and
that rights are assigned to control the authoring and
publishing process (workflow capabilities). A good Web
content management system separates content objects (copy,
images, audio, video, etc.) from the presentation of content
(style templates).
content protection
Software applications,
tools and methods used to keep content secure. Content
protection keeps content from being hacked, copied, stolen,
and or illegally republished.
content web
Web content can be defined
as any useful, educational information you make available to
visitors on your web site. The importance of having good
content on your web site cannot be overstated, as it is such
an important element for success online. Unless a site has
quality content, visitors usually never return. When
developing your website content you must ask yourself:Why
would someone visit my site a second, third or fourth time?
Does my site have useful information or services that people
are willing to come back for? Updating your content
regularly is also quite important. It's a proven method for
encouraging return visits to your site. The search engines
also give higher relevance scores to web sites that update
regularly.
conversion rate
The number of visitors who
completed the desired action. For example: signing up for
news letter, buying your product, downloading a trial
version of a software, etc. (conversion rate tool)
Calculating conversion rate: the number of visitors who took
the desired actions divided by the total number of visitors
in a given period.
conversion rate, web
The percentage of site
visitors who follow a call to action specified in an
advertisement or the marketing copy of a website.This action
may be a click-through to another page or web site, a sign
up for a newsletter or a purchase of a product or service.
| 
