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Before you really step into the world of Affiliate Marketing, understand the language use in Affiliate Marketing the first step in your affiliate business learning curve.

Here we go……

AFFILIATE : Someone who earns a commission for sending clicks, leads, or sales to a merchant.

AFFILIATE AGREEMENT : A contractual document, usually executed electronically, between an affiliate and a merchant. Includes terms and conditions of the relationship. Legally binding.

AFFILIATE LINK : Code that sends your customer to a merchant’s sales page. The code can either be an HTML link or be part of a graphic (such as a banner). The code identifies you as the affiliate who should be credited for the click or the sale.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM : A business model that pays a commission to someone who sends leads, clicks, or sales to a merchants via a link (text or graphic) on a web site.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM DIRECTORY : A web site that describes and sorts various affiliate programs.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM (OR SOLUTION) PROVIDER : Third party firm that that provides software, database support, affiliate ID and link-tracking, and payment services for affiliate programs.

ASSOCIATE : Another word for Affiliate.

ASSOCIATE PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

AUTO- RESPONDER : Software that will automatically send email messages on a pre-set schedule. Subscribers can send the auto-responder an email, or submit their mailing information via a web form.

BANNER AD : A graphical ad, similar to a billboard, displayed on web pages.

BROWSER : Software that allows the user to surf web sites while connected to the Internet. The most popular browsers today are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla, and Netscape.

CHARGE BACK : A product return that results in loss of affiliate commission.

CLICK- THROUGH : Another term for a click on your affiliate link.

CLICK- THROUGH RATE OR CLICK- THROUGH RATIO (CTR) : The number of actual clicks that you receive when you display an affiliate ad or link. Usually described in terms  of a percentage.

CO-BRANDING : Permission to place your logo, company name, and other distinctive brand features on a product or site.

COMMISSION : Income you are paid for making affiliate sales.

COOKIES : Code written to your prospect’s computer after clicking on an affiliate link. Cookies are a way of identifying which affiliate should be paid a commission.

CONTEXTUAL LINK : An affiliate link that looks more like content than an advertisement. Contextual links are usually part of an article or other informative web copy.

CONTEXTUAL MERCHANDISING : Matching relevant products to your content.

CONVERSION RATE : Percentage of clicks that results in sales or leads.

CPC (COST PER CLICK) : Cost of each click on a PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising link.

CPM (COST PER THOUSAND) : The amount you pay for one thousand banner ad impressions on someone else’s site.

EMAIL SIGNATURE : A brief message that closes every email sent by an individual. Your email signature file can contain affiliate links, relevant site links, free offers, and advertising messages. See also Signature File.

EZINE : An electronic magazine or newsletter, usually delivered via email.

FAQ (FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS) :  A web page that answers the most common questions about your products.

HTML CODE: HyperText Markup Language . HTML is a set of codes that tells your browser to display web pages. When you sign up for an affiliate program, your merchant or affiliate program provider will send you HTML code to use for your links.

IMPRESSION : An instance of your advertising link being displayed in a browser.

LIFETIME COMMISSION : Affiliate programs that write long-term cookies (two years or more), or that use their own internal customer data tracking, to guarantee that affiliates will earn repeat commissions. In general, with a lifetime commission program, your affiliate ID will be permanently “attached” to your customers, so you will make commissions on all your customers’ future purchases.

LIFETIME VALUE OF A CUSTOMER : Projected dollar amount of sales that your customer is expected to spend with you.

MICRO -SITE : A 1-3 page web site devoted exclusively to selling a product, soliciting subscribers, or otherwise getting a prospect to take immediate action. (See also Mini-Site.)

MINI-SITE : A web site with a tightly focused topic and highly specialized information. Mini-sites began as single sales pages, but today these types of sites are called micro -sites (see above). Currently, the optimal mini- site contains at least 10 pages of targeted content – product reviews, specs, FAQs, recommendations, etc. – as well as sales pages. Many “mini-sites” are actually quite large – some contain hundreds of pages of content.

PARTNER PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

PAY -PER- SALE : Most common affiliate program, where you receive a commission for each sale of a product or service via your affiliate link.

PAY -PER- LEAD : A program in which an affiliate is paid a commission for each “qualified” lead generated through your affiliate link. Merchants often have very specific criteria for what constitutes a “qualified” lead. In general, the prospect must take some sort of action while at the merchant’s site, such as filling out an application, subscribing to an ezine or offer list, entering a sweepstakes, requesting a free sample, or downloading software or PDFs.

PAY -PER- CLICK : A program in which an affiliate is paid for each click to a merchant’s web site. Pay- per- click returns are very low, usually less than $.50 per click and sometimes as low as $.01 per click. Best  for webmasters with extremely high traffic sites.

QUALIFIED LEAD : See Pay-Per-Lead.

REFERRAL LINK : See Affiliate Link.

REFERRAL PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

RESELLER PROGRAM : Sometimes used as a synonym for an Affiliate Program. However, a true Re seller Program is usually structured as a B to B (business-to-business) wholesaler relationship. Many merchants require Resellers to apply to their program, and require a transparent contractual business relationship. Resellers then purchase product at greatly reduced prices, but often also have to provide product support.

RESIDUAL INCOME : A program that pays commissions on recurring payments. These are usually memberships, subscriptions, or monthly fees for services such as web hosting.

REVENUE SHARING PROGRAM : See Affiliate Program.

ROI (Return On Investment): A method for measuring actual profit from a given sales campaign.

SIG FILE : See Signature File.

SIGNATURE FILE :  Similar to an Email Signature, this usually refers to a brief message that follows your signature in a forum posting. See also Email Signature.

SPAM : Unsolicited commercial email, junk email, or junk forum postings. Today, the term is also loosely (and erroneously) applied to ANY UNWANTED email received from any source. Any email  you send to a purchased bulk email list (”Mail to 1 Million People For Only $199″) is bound to be spam.

SUB-AFFILIATE : Affiliates you have referred to a Two- Tier Affiliate Program. (See also Two- Tier.)

SUPER AFFILIATES : A term originally coined to describe the top 1% earning affiliates.  Today it loosely refers to anyone who makes a good living from affiliate programs.

TRACKING : Recording information about sales, leads, clicks, or other actions taken by a visitor on a web page. Usually done with cookies, unique links, or unique URLs.

TEXT LINK : A link that displayed as text only, without an image overlying it (such as a banner).

TWO -TIER : Affiliate payment model in which you can refer other affiliates and receive a small additional commission on their sales. You are the first tier, your sub-affiliates are the second tier. Two-tier affiliate marketing is sometimes compared to MLM (Multi- Level Marketing). But two-tier affiliate programs avoidthe complicated matrix payment systems of MLMs, as well as some of the shadieraspects of “pyramid” marketing.

VIRAL MARKETING : Advertising that spreads on its own (like a virus). Viral marketing is accomplished by offering free products with a high perceived value. These are usually delivered digitally, with permission to copy and share the product with anyone.

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