9. What is “CPM?”

Definition

Cost per thousand impressions.

Information

The CPM model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in contrast to the various types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is only triggered by a mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale).
The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by the number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM equal a $10,000 total price.
1,000,000 / 1,000 = 1,000 units1,000 units X $10 CPM = $10,000 total price
The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPM by 1000. For example, a $10 CPM equals $.01 per impression.
$10 CPM / 1000 impressions = $.01 per impression

10. What is “CTR?”

Definition

The average number of click-through per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.

Information

It is important to distinguish what a click-through rate does and does not measure. The CTR measures what percentage of people clicked on the ad to arrive at the destination site; it does not include the people who failed to click, yet arrived at the site later as a result of seeing the ad.
As such, the CTR may be seen as a measure of the immediate response to an ad, but not the overall response to an ad. The exception involves ads that display no identifiable information about the destination site; in these cases the click rate equals the overall rate.
Merely getting visitors to a site had value when Web site traffic was generally accepted as a measure of success. The trend towards profitability, along with better tracking tools, has resulted in less interest in click-through rates and more interest in conversion rates.
A high click-through rate does not assure a good conversion rate, and the two rates may even share an inverse relationship. An advertisement geared towards curiosity clicks will result in fewer sales, percentage-wise, than an advertisement geared towards qualified clicks.

11. What is “SEO?”

Definition

Search Engine Optimization.
The process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.

Information

There is much confusion about search engine optimization (SEO) and its relation to search engine spamming. Generally, legitimate search engine optimization adds to the user experience, while search engine spamming takes away from the user experience, although there is much gray area between the clear-cut examples on either side.
Optimization involves making pages readable to search engines and emphasizing key topics related to your content. Basic optimization may involve nothing more than ensuring that a site does not unnecessarily become part of the invisible Web (the portion of the Web not accessible through Web search engines). Advanced optimization may include significant research into every element of page design, site structure, and off-the-page criteria.
Before pages can be optimized, research must be done to determine which keywords to target. This involves finding relevant keywords, determining their popularity, assessing the amount of competition, and deciding which keywords can be best supported with quality content.
Pricing Models Include:one-time flat feemonthly fixed feepay-per-click

pay-per-ranking

revenue sharing

12. What is “Advertising Network?”

Definition

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.

Information

Advertising networks provide a way for media buyers to coordinate ad campaigns across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites in an efficient manner. The campaigns often involve running ads over a category (run-of-category) or an entire network (run-of-network). Site-specific buys are not a major emphasis when dealing with advertising networks. In fact, site-specific buys are not even available at some networks, so as not to conflict with in-house sales reps.
Ad networks vary in size and focus. Large ad networks may require premium brands and millions of impressions per month. Small ad networks may accept unbranded sites with thousands of impressions per month.
One of the key issues for publishers is exclusive vs. non-exclusive representation. Exclusive representation generally brings a higher percentage of revenue sharing, but sometimes results in a smaller percentage of ad inventories being sold. In non-exclusive arrangements, publishers may use secondary advertising options to fill the space left unsold by the primary ad network.

13. What is “Affiliate Marketing?”

Definition

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.

Information

The advertisers/merchants are typically referred to as affiliate merchants and the publishers/salespeople are referred to as affiliates.
Benefits of affiliate marketing include the potential for automating much of the advertising process (accepting & approving applications, generating unique sales links, tracking & reporting of results) and payment only for desired results (sales, registrations, clicks).
Paying only for performance shifts much of the advertising risk from the merchants to the affiliates, although merchants still assume some risk of fraud from partner sites.
Affiliate marketing has contributed to the rise of many leading online companies. Amazon.com, one of the first significant adopters, now has hundreds of thousands of affiliate relationships. It is not uncommon to see industries where the major players have affiliate programs–often structured in a similar manner and making similar competitive changes over time.

14. What is “Email Marketing?”

Definition

The promotion of products or services via email.

Information

Email is a very versatile medium. Formats range from simple text to HTML & rich media. Content can be one-size-fits-all or highly customized. Frequency can consist of fixed, frequent intervals or sporadic intervals, with transmissions occurring only when something newsworthy comes along. Sophistication (and cost) can be very low or very high.
Along with the power of email comes the abuse of email, commonly known as spam. Is spam email considered marketing? Technically, the answer is probably yes, but it is certainly not responsible email marketing. While some users fail to distinguish between permission marketing and email spam, spam is actually a major threat to legitimate email marketers, as a glut of messages could make the entire email medium less effective.

15. What is “Linking Strategy?”

Link Checker

Tool used to check for broken hyperlinks.

Deep Linking

Linking to a web page other than a site’s home page.

Inbound Link

A link from a site outside of your site.

Outbound link

A link to a site outside of your site.

Reciprocal links

Links between two sites, often based on an agreement by the site owners to exchange links.

16. What is “Link Popularity?”

Definition

A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site.

Information

Link popularity is an example of the move by search engines towards off-the-page-criteria to determine quality content. Off-the-page-criteria add the aspect of impartiality to search engine rankings, as citations from other authors in the Web community helps define a site’s reputation. In theory, great sites will naturally attract many links, and content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links.
Link popularity assumes that not all inbound links are equal. For example, an inbound link from a major directory carries more weight than an inbound link from an obscure personal home page.

17. What is “Blog?”

Definition

A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

Information

A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person’s life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.
People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process.
Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs. However, “blog” seems less likely to cause confusion, as “web log” can also mean a server’s log files.

18. What is “Keyword Marketing?”

Definition

Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and phrases.

Information

Keyword marketing can have slightly different meanings depending on whom you ask. For ad buyers, keyword marketing involves purchasing ad units, typically banners, on the search results page when a Web surfer searches for particular keywords and phrases. For search engine optimization professionals, keyword marketing involves achieving top placement in the actual search listings themselves.
The advantage of keyword marketing is the potential to reach the right people at the right time.
For example, assume a Web surfer enters “buy widgets online” as a search phrase. First, we know the potential visitor is interested in widgets. Specifically, they are interested in buying widgets. Better yet, they are looking to buy online. This three word search phrase tells us much about what the Web surfer is looking for at that exact moment in time.