Internet Marketing Dictionary and Resource Guide to Making Money

Internet marketing terms dictionary - Below is the beginning of what we hope will one day be a great resource to individuals who are interested in learning more about making money from the internet. Please feel free to email us thoughts / comments to info at cwire dot org. Additionally, check back often as this page will be added to on a daily basis (at least in the beginning).

Advertiser definition - The beginning of the chain that funds internet advertising. Can take the form of a product, service, or even a website.

Affiliate definition - see web publisher definition.

Affiliate Marketing definition - Acting as a representative to generate actions for another site. The web publisher is usually considered an affiliate of an advertiser. Actions generated can include anything from sending a visitor to a website to a completed sale that occurs from a website. Commission Junction was one of the founders of affiliate marketing programs, they connect advertisers and web publishers together and provide a platform for them to interact, most of their opportunities for advertisers/publishers are on a CPA basis. To estimate revenue that can be generated via an affiliate marketing program, please see our Internet CPA Monetization Calculator.

Click through definition - the act of a user clicking on an ad impression.

Click through rate definition - A calculation defined as clicks divided by impressions, always presented as a percentage.

Conversion definition - When a user performs the act required by the CPA.

Conversion rate definition - A calculation defined as conversions divided by impressions, always presented as a percentage.

Cookie definition - A piece of technology that an impression or web publisher can leave on a users computer in order to track actions taken by a user that helps in recording and in accounting for the internet advertising process.

CPA (cost per action) definition - Advertisers pay once an action that has been previously defined occurs. Depending on the action, this can be the riskiest for a publisher and holds the least amount of risk for the advertiser (since it knows exactly what it is paying for and only pays for specific actions). Commission Junction connects advertisers and web publishers together and provide a platform for them to interact on a CPA basis. To estimate revenue that can be generated via CPA offers, please see our Internet CPA Monetization Calculator.

CPC (cost per click) definition - Advertisers only pay when a user clicks on an ad. CPC campaigns shift risk to the publisher, as the publisher only receives payment when a user clicks on an advertisement. A publisher may have to show millions of impressions without receiving payment if users do not click on the advertisement. An example of a good CPC campaign is Google’s Adsense or Bidvertiser or Ad Brite. To estimate revenue that can be generated via CPC programs, please see our Internet CPC Monetization Calculator.

CPL (cost per lead) definition - See CPA definition.

CPM (cost per thousand) definition - The most basic way of measuring internet display advertising. Advertisers purchase impressions from publishers and pay on a “per thousand” basis. For example an advertiser may purchase 1,000,000 ad impressions at a $10 CPM, the total ad buy would be for $10,000. CPM campaigns benefit the publisher the most, as they have no risk, all of the risk lies with the advertiser (they are paying regardless of whether or not an action by a user occurs). An example of a network that pays affiliates on a CPM basis is Ad Brite. To estimate revenue that can be generated via CPM programs, please see our Internet CPM Monetization Calculator.

CPS (cost per sale) definition - See CPA definition.

Customer acquisition cost definition - Cost as viewed by the advertiser that it costs to obtain a customer. Obtaining a customer can mean be a variety of levels, and has corresponding costs.

Impression definition - The act of showing an advertisement to a user. There can be several impressions shown on one page (if there is more than one ad unit on the page).

Pageview definition - The amount of pages that a user views when on a website.

Monetization definition - The amount of revenue generated from a web site or a web page. For example “You can monetize this website in several different ways”.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) definition - This is the practice of purchasing keywords from a search engine such as Google or Yahoo! Advertisers pay in exchange for preferential placement in search engine results.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) definition - This is the practice of optimization of a web site for certain keywords so when users ping search engines, a web publishers results come back above other results. Search Engine Optimization has no cost to the web publisher, although advisory services are available from SEO experts.

Traffic Exchange definition - Can take the form of any exchange of traffic on the Internet including, link exchanges, banner exchanges, photo exchanges, etc. The basic premise is that you send a user away from your site in exchange for receiving a user at a later time period. If you can control when the user moves away from your website, traffic exchanges can be great tools (opposed to just loosing the user to another website, you can control where they go to and receive a user back). When entering into a traffic exchange always be on notice as their are several dishonest traffic exchange providers out there. Click here for a traffic exchange provider for blogs. Here is a post on two services that can help to boost your traffic.

Web Publisher definition - Also known as a website, this is the place where users come and see advertising impressions.