Commonly Encountered Online Marketing Terms

Adcopy: A website's sales presentation page for a product or service.

Adware: Advertising software that is installed on one's computer usually as the result of downloading something free off of the Internet. ie. free games, programs, music etc.

Auto-responder: An email program that sends a reply automatically back to the email address that it received a request from. A great tool for automating certain tasks that normally take a lot of time such as emailing information to a requestor who wants to know more about a product or service that is being offered. The autoresponder only has to be set up once containing the information desired to be sent out and it will automatically send out that information over and over again to everyone who sends a request to it.

Affiliate Marketing: A popular online marketing method used by the owners of products and services who recruit people to promote their product or services for them. In exchange for promoting their products and services and when a sale is made, the owner pays the affiliate a percentage of that sale.

Back-end Sales: Revenue generated after an initial sale was made. The initial sale can be the fee charged to gain limited access to a website or program. If at any time one upgrades their website access or program, a sale on the back-end was made.

Banner Advertising: A means of promoting a product or service through the use of graphics placed in highly visible sections of a website. The objective is to easily catch a visitor's attention upon entering a website and hope they click on the banner ad.

Blog: Short for weblog. A personal web journal or commentary shared with others having the same interest. The original intent of the web log was to keep track of work that was being done online but has since evolved into a type of personal diary program where one can write about something important to them.

Brick and Mortar Business: An offline real time business referred to as such because it has a physical structure.

Browser: Acts as an interpreter between your computer and the World Wide Web. Its primary job is to translate the HTML ( Hyper-Text Markup Language) which is the coding used to create websites into a viewable format on your computer screen. The Internet Explorer and Firefox are examples of browsers.

Browser Homepage: The place where your browser is set to go when you open up the Internet. Yahoo and Msn, which are not browsers, are just a couple of places where you can set your browser's homepage to open to.

Bulk Email Marketing: The process of sending out a single email to a large number of email addresses all at once. It is different then the blind carbon copy feature available in most email programs in that a single email is addressed individually to everyone on the list. It is also the preferred method used by most spammers.

CGI: Short for Common Gateway Interface. A programming script that enables information to be sent from one computer to another computer. This is usually a local computer such as yours which then cgi will send the information you fill out in a website's form that is displayed on your browser back to a database on that website.

Click-through: The act of using your mouse to click on a link that will take you from the current website that you are on, over to a different website. The term is heavily associated with affiliate marketing where one hopes to get visitors to click-through to their affiliated website where adcopy exists to do the selling for them.

Domain Name: Interchangeable with website name.

DNS: Short for Domain Name Server. Every website has a web computer or more commonly known as a server that it resides on. The alphabetical address of the website's server is known as its DNS. It's numerical address in known as it's IP or Internet Protocol.

Digital Products: Products or services that are electronic in nature and can be easily delivered to the customer by way of downloading. eBooks and software programs are examples of digital products.

Directories: Organized listings of websites that are usually similar in nature and content.

eBiz: Short for electronic business. A business that is not physical in nature such at those in the offline or brick and mortar world. Basically any business on the Internet.

eBook: Short for electronic book. Virtual in nature. Not a physical book. Classified as a digital product.

eCheck: Short for electronic check. An alternative method of electronic payment. Although there is no physical check involved with the transaction, it is handled as if one were being used.

eCommerce: Short for electronic commerce. The business conducted over the Internet where financial transactions occur between buyers and sellers.

Email Marketing: The process of marketing online by way of email. Unlike website marketing where a prospect comes to the adcopy, the adcopy is sent to the prospect.

eZine: Short for electronic magazine. Used extensively in online marketing as a means to give subscribers value added content in the form of articles and news stories on a particular subject. Usually ads are placed at different sections in the ezine with the hope of generating sales.

FFA: Free For All. An outdated form of online marketing network where website owners would join the network, then post small classified type ads about their websites. Each member of the network would have the ads submitted from other members posted on their individual FFA page free for all to see. As a general rule of FFA networks, individuals are permitted to send confirmation emails to all those who posted an ad to their site. These confirmation emails can then be used to add in other offers that the site owner may be promoting.

Front-end Sales: Introductory type sales. Usually a sale granting the limited use of a product or service. Also can be subscription type fees like those that grant access to website.

HTML: Short for Hyper-Text Markup Language. The basic code that all websites are created with. Your browser translates html and returns it to you in a viewable format.

HTTP: Short for Hyper-Text Transmission Protocol. A pre-agreed upon format of how information will be transmitted over the Internet.

Internet marketing: is the business of both advertising and selling goods and services over the internet.

Java Script: Should not to be confused with the java programming language. A programming script which enables your browser to add interactivity to the web page being displayed. Real time chat is one example of what java script can do.

Opt-in Mailing List: An email list in which individuals decide to join and receive email from the list owner. 

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC): An online advertising method in which advertisers pay only when a visitor clicks on their ad. Some websites require advertisers to bid on keywords and/or phrases related to their products or services and others charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

Permission Based Email Marketing: An email marketing method in which individuals give their consent to receive advertisements from an opt-in mailing list owner.

Pop-up: A window that launches usually unexpectedly overtop of the existing web page being displayed. Used primarily as an online marketing method considered to be intrusive by many.

Pop-under: Similar to a pop up except that instead of the window being sent overtop of the existing page being displayed, it is sent behind it and is out of direct sight of the viewer. Usually it will not be seen until all other web pages are closed. Also used as an online marketing method and considered to be less intrusive whereas it does not interfere directly with one's current surfing.

Roll-out: The process of turning a small test advertisement into a full fledged marketing campaign. Usually an advertisement is tested on a sample market which is much smaller in size than the full market and if proven to be successful, it is then rolled-out.

Safe List: A list that individuals join in order to send each other email without the fear of being accused of spamming. As part of the terms in joining the list, each member agrees to accept email from other members of the list.

Teaser ad: An ad designed and used to peak one's curiosity enough to cause them to click a link for more information about a product or service. The first step of the two-step marketing method.

Two-step: A very popular marketing method which consist of a small teaser ad used first to motivate a prospect to take the second step which is to click or send for more information.

Upsell: A marketing method used during a sale that is in progress where for an additional charge, the merchant offers the customer added value to their current purchase.

Web Host: The Internet's version of a real estate landlord. Web Hosting: The Internet's version of the Real Estate business. Instead of providing land, it provides web space on the Internet for individuals and businesses to put their websites.

Website Marketing: An online marketing method in which the sales of a product or service is done via the adcopy on a website. This is different than email marketing in that the prospect comes to the adcopy instead of the adcopy being sent to the prospect.

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