Internet Terminology

Understand the Lingo, Know the Landscape

As an Internet entrepreneur, expanding your vocabulary of Internet terminology is essential. Much of this may happen in a surprisingly seamless fashion as you prepare to launch your home business.

Free Ebook!

For those baby boomers who like to read, this ebook will be a valuable edition to your desktop library.

Words That Mean Business!

Basic Internet Terminology for the Entrepreneur

Some terms are basic to the World Wide Web, while others are specific to Internet marketing.

affiliate marketing
Some online companies offer revenue sharing agreements, or affiliate programs, as a means of advertising their product or service to a broad range of consumers. An Internet entrepreneur may encounter products and services that they would like recommend to others. Once an affiliate agreement is in place, if someone clicks on a link in site A, that takes them to site B, where they then make a purchase, site A gets a commission on the sale. This form of marketing was pioneered by Amazon.com. Affiliate marketing is a way of developing multiple income streams.

autoresponder
A program that can be used to automatically answer e-mail. Autoresponders are often used as e-mail marketing tools, to immediately provide information to prospective customers. Follow-up can be accomplished by continuing to send informational emails at preset time intervals. Examples of autoresponder programs are Oprius and aWeber.

blog
A contraction of the term weblog, a blog is a type of website. Blogs are usually owned by an individual for the purposes of making regular commentary on specific issues. They may contain graphics or video as well as text. As a verb, "to blog" means to add content to a blog. Using a blog as a marketing tool is considered a form of Social Marketing.

click-through rate (CTR)
This is the percentage of users who click on an online ad. CTR is a way of measuring the success of an Internet advertising campaign.

conversion rate
An Internet marketing term referring to the ratio of visitors to a website who complete desired actions based on requests by the website owner. Successful conversion can mean anything from a sale of an online product to a membership registration, newsletter subscription or other desired activity.

e-business
In Internet terminology, any business that derives revenue, in part or in whole, from something electronic, usually on the Internet. Also refers to a marketing strategy that involves the use of the Internet.

ezine
Online magazines that are part of the World Wide Web, are called webzines. Ezine (also spelled e-zine) is a more generic term for magazines and newsletters distributed by any electronic method, including email and the Internet.

HTML
Referring to Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is the predominant language used in the construction of web pages. Due to the upsurge in user-friendly website software, one can now easily create a website without ever learning or using any HTML!

hyperlink
Code may be embedded within the text or "hypertext" of a web page which allows a word or phrase to become a hyperlink or "link." On web pages hyperlinks are commonly blue in color and when clicked on will access
a new web page.

Internet
Consisting of a global network of interconnected computers, the Internet accesses information from a vast array of available servers. Most of the accessible information on the Internet consists of resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).

Internet marketing
Also known as online marketing, web marketing or e-marketing, the term simply refers to the marketing of products or services over the Internet.
A benefit of Internet Marketing is the low cost of distribution of information to a global audience.

Opt in e-mail
This term is used when someone is given the option to receive e-mail that is sent to many people at the same time, typically a mailing list or newsletter. Unsolicited Bulk Email, sent without permission, is known as spam. In single opt-in email, a new subscriber to an e-mail list receives
a confirmation e-mail telling them they will begin to receive e-mails if they take no action. The term double opt-in (closed loop opt-in) is used when the new subscriber must respond to the confirmation e-mail to be added to the list. Opt-out (contained within the body of the email) allows the recipient of the email to unsubscribe at any time.

pay-per-click (PPC), same as cost-per-click
An Internet advertising model in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. PPC ads can be found on search engines, websites and blogs. The ads are often noted as "sponsored links" and appear above or beside the content of a site.

permission marketing
Not limited to Internet terminology, this is a marketing approach in which the prospective consumer is asked for his or her consent to receive information. This concept was pioneered by Seth Grodin, the author of Permission Marketing. When used in online marketing, an opt-in or double opt-in email is used to obtain permission.

podcast
A podcast consists of audio and/or video which is made available for download via syndication. Subscribers retrieve the podcast with software applications (such as Apple iTunes) and can then listen at their convenience. Podcast can refer either to the content or to the method of syndication (also called podcasting). The person who creates the content
of the podcast is known as a podcaster.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
A Web feed that uses a standardized format to publish frequently updated entries, such as those from a blog or news headline. An RSS document (also called feed, web feed or channel) may include full or summarized text.

search engine (SE)
Also known as a Web search engine, is a website designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Search engines are a mixture of algorithmic and human input. Someone searching the Web for kitchen appliances simply types that phrase into the search box, and will be taken to another Web page or pages that list links to related sites. Examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo and Live Search.

search engine optimization (SEO)
Commonly referred to as SEO, this is the process of improving the traffic volume directed from a search done via a search engine to a specific website. This optimization often occurs through the use and placement
of specific words, known as keywords, to clearly denote the content of
a website. Websites that appear higher in the search results list tend to receive more visitors.

social networking
A type of communication and information sharing accomplished via social network services, most of which are Web based. Social networking websites are regularly used by millions of people, and for many have become a part of everyday life. Examples are Facebook, MySpace and Friendster. These sites are part of the growing landscape of Social Marketing.

target market
The audience a marketer intends to reach. Internet marketing provides the opportunity to easily research a target market, in order to learn what that specific group searches for on the Web.

traffic
In Internet terminology, traffic refers to the amount of user activity on any given Web site.

URL (uniform resource locator)
The URL, or uniform resource locator, is the standard Web term for
a website address. This address is commonly preceded by http://

Web 2.0
Referring to a second generation of Web development and design, Web 2.0 facilitates communication and information sharing in new ways and with greater ease across the World Wide Web. Among the new developments are blogs and social networking sites.

webcast
A one-way recording of a taped presentation, broadcast via the Internet. Unlike Webinars, webcasts are not interactive. The user must have the appropriate multimedia application in order to view a Webcast.

webinar
A type of web conference or web-based seminar. Attendees access the visual portion through their computers and the audio portion via computer or telephone. Webinars are interactive in nature, giving participants the ability to receive and transmit information, thus making live discussion possible. People in various locations across the globe may participate. Webinars can be used as a form of Internet Marketing.

web browser
A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display text, images, video, music and other information located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web. Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox are examples of web browsers. You are viewing this web page via your web browser.

website
A website (or "web site") is a collection of related web pages, images, music and videos that are hosted on one web server, accessible via the Internet. All publicly accessible websites constitute the "World Wide Web". This valuable informational tool can also be used for business promotion through Web Site Marketing.

web page
A web page or webpage is a resource of information that has been uploaded and posted on the World Wide Web. A web page can be accessed via a web browser. Navigation to other web pages is provided via hypertext links. A web page is usually part of a website.

whitelist
In Internet terminology, a whitelist or white list refers to a list of email addresses that are provided a specific privilege, access or recognition. Used as a verb, to whitelist an email address prevents that address from landing in a junk or spam folder. Adding to your address book those email addresses from which you wish to receive email is a form of whitelisting.

World Wide Web (WWW)
The World Wide Web (also known as "the Web") is a very large set of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Using a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia. Navigation from page to page is accomplished using hyperlinks. The World Wide Web was begun in 1992 by the English physicist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer scientist.

Interested in an expanded version of this list?
Check out my free ebook: Words That Mean Business!