Online Marketing Archives - Digital Marketing Trainer and Consultant https://ajayaggarwal.com/label/online-marketing/ Sun, 15 Jan 2023 04:06:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 Article Directory Marketing https://ajayaggarwal.com/article-directory-marketing/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 18:04:12 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=144 Article directory marketing means writing short articles in your niche and submitting them to article directories. At the bottom of your article is a resource box that tells the reader where they can find more information and gives them a link to your site. Instead of putting a link to your site in the resource […]

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Article directory marketing means writing short articles in your niche and submitting them to article directories. At the bottom of your article is a resource box that tells the reader where they can find more information and gives them a link to your site.

Instead of putting a link to your site in the resource box, you can place your affiliate link there. When a reader clicks on the link, they’re sent to the merchant’s site where they can buy. Rather than using your resource box to build your expertise, use it to pre-sell the product and tell them, ‘click here.’

Before you start submitting articles, however, be sure to read the directory’s TOS. Some directories don’t allow DTM (direct to merchant) links (i.e., your affiliate links) in their resource boxes while others do.

Facebook Fan Pages

Why create a website when you can set up a Facebook fan page? This is a free platform that you can use to create a niche site or a site about the product you’re promoting. Create the page, get fans, and start making money. You can embed your affiliate link directly on your fan page in wall postings and profile information.

You can also use your fan page for building a list of subscribers, and then use email marketing to sell them products. In general, people aren’t on Facebook to buy; they’re there to socialize and enjoy their hobbies and interests. Although you can sell directly through a fan page, most people find that it’s easier to use for list building, and then sell through email.

YouTube

Starting your own YouTube channel is another great way to do affiliate marketing without a website. Create short videos that solve problems for your audience or pre-sell them on your affiliate product. You can then put affiliate links in video descriptions and on your channel’s profile page.

Information Products

Using an info-product to promote affiliate products is another alternative to a website. Create a free eBook or report and put your affiliate link at the bottom of every page. Encourage your readers to give the report to anyone they like so that it’ll go viral. A great strategy for writing an eBook for this purpose is to teach them how to solve their problem using the product you’re promoting.

With a website landing page, your mission is to sell. With each of the above ideas, it’s a little different. What you need to do is provide useful information, solve problems, answer questions and teach your audience how to do things. At the same time, your content should pre-sell the product you’re promoting. Focus on providing value rather than hard selling, and you can create a wildly successful affiliate marketing campaign without a website.

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Pay Per Call Affiliate Marketing https://ajayaggarwal.com/pay-per-call-affiliate-marketing/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 18:02:40 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=141 Pay Per Call affiliate marketing is a method that many marketers don’t take advantage of. This is an advertising model in which you get paid for every phone call the merchant receives. It’s a lead generation strategy where you don’t have to do any selling; just get them to pick up the phone. Unlike Pay […]

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Pay Per Call affiliate marketing is a method that many marketers don’t take advantage of. This is an advertising model in which you get paid for every phone call the merchant receives. It’s a lead generation strategy where you don’t have to do any selling; just get them to pick up the phone.

Unlike Pay Per Click and other affiliate marketing models, this is a model that most Internet marketers are inexperienced with. Here are some tips on navigating the learning curve and making your Pay Per Call campaign a success.

Research the Offer

Spend some time choosing which answering party you’re going to promote. You need to make sure that they’re good at what they do. In other words, they’re going to keep the prospect on the phone long enough to give you your commission (many networks require a minimum number of minutes before you get your commission).

Talk to the CPA Network

When it comes to Pay Per Call, affiliate networks are much pickier about who they accept. This is because there have been many scams in the past using this method. When you apply, you may have to go through a lengthy process before you get accepted. A good idea is to call the network and talk to a representative personally. They can then instruct you on what you need to do to become an affiliate.

Check Out Your Niche

There are some niches that do better with Pay Per Call than others. Before you choose a network and product, you should make sure that yours is one that does. For example, debt settlement is a profitable Pay Per Call niche. Spend some time on affiliate marketing forums and do some research.

Keep Your Ads Short

It’s recommended that you keep your advertisement under 35 characters if possible. Make it as short as you can while still delivering your message. One way to do this is to write your ad and then cut unnecessary words. Focus on action words like ‘get,’ ‘save’ and ‘help.’ When you tighten the wording, the ad will be more focused.

Develop a Good Traffic Strategy

You can use paid advertising or free traffic generation methods. Whichever you choose, be consistent with your traffic strategy. Target your market well and create a long-term strategy that will get you steady traffic. Monitor your progress and make changes when they’re needed.

The great thing about the Pay Per Call model is that it’s much easier to get someone to make a phone call than to buy. It’s even easier than getting them to click on a link. Many people are suspicious of offers they see on the Internet and they’re more comfortable talking to someone over the phone. Pay Per Call affiliate marketing is a highly profitable model where you have little pre-selling that you have to do.

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Use Best SEO Practices https://ajayaggarwal.com/use-best-seo-practices/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 17:52:20 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=134 The best way to survive Google’s changes is to use solid best practices. While there is a good deal of consensus on many issues, there is also a good deal of disagreement among SEO experts on the relative importance of various techniques. If you put three SEO experts in one room, you are likely to […]

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The best way to survive Google’s changes is to use solid best practices.

While there is a good deal of consensus on many issues, there is also a good deal of disagreement among SEO experts on the relative importance of various techniques. If you put three SEO experts in one room, you are likely to get five different opinions about what is important.

Google keeps its search algorithm very secret. This is quite deliberate on Google’s part. They also present a moving target by making lots of changes all of the time. Google has acknowledged a few items involved in their search algorithm, but for the most part we are left to do experiments and to make intelligent conjectures about what is really going on.

It is in Google’s best interest to keep everything secret. They want to present the best search results possible. They do not want to facilitate people playing games with the search results. By not revealing the details of their algorithms, especially including the relative importance  of various elements, Google is better able to optimize the search results to detect and display “good” websites.

One of the problems is that SEO experts are human. As humans we have a natural tendency to believe that what has worked in the past will work in the future. When it comes to something as complex as SEO where nobody really knows the full truth then we can be in major trouble.

“What has worked in the past” is something that is up to interpretation. When there are hundreds if not thousands of permutations and factors it is easy to be mistaken about exactly why we got results that we did.

We also tend to adopt a particular position and then to try to defend it instead of being completely impartial. There are lots of names for this and lots of symptoms of this. It can be over generalization, use of anecdotal evidence, using sample sizes that are too small, or filtering information based on our preconceptions called confirmation bias.

I do need to note though that there are a lot of very intelligent good people with drastically different ideas about what is important in SEO. Many of these people argue quite passionately for their positions. I have seen discussions about relatively minor issues in SEO become quite heated.

The best thing to do, and indeed what I’ve tried to implement in this article, is to use best practices from a wide variety of sources. I get very pragmatic when it comes to SEO results – just show me what works. When it comes to particular suggestions I find myself asking “what does it hurt?” In other words, as long as the effort to implement something  is not excessive, and as long as it doesn’t hurt my website, so go ahead and do it.

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The Twelve Types of SEO https://ajayaggarwal.com/the-twelve-types-of-seo/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 17:51:12 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=131 I break SEO up into twelve distinct types.  Some of these types could legitimately be seen as subtypes, however I find it useful to look them separately. 1.Authority SEO Authority SEO consists of making yourself an authority in a given niche or particular topic in order to increase your rankings. 2.LSI SEO This consists of […]

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I break SEO up into twelve distinct types.  Some of these types could legitimately be seen as subtypes, however I find it useful to look them separately.

1.Authority SEO

Authority SEO consists of making yourself an authority in a given niche or particular topic in order to increase your rankings.

2.LSI SEO

This consists of understanding how Google uses words related to the search terms in calculating the relevance of the search results.

3.Site-Wide SEO

This refers to techniques used to improve your SEO standings that are applied across your entire website.

4.On-Page SEO

This refers to SEO techniques that apply to the content on one particular page.

5.Blogging SEO

this refers to techniques which use blogs and blogging to improve your search standings.

6.Local SEO

This refers to SEO techniques that are particularly useful when promoting a website that is associated with a local business or organization.

7.Search Results SEO

This refers to things you can do to improve the way your site appears within the search results. The other types of SEO focus on changing where you appear within the search results. This type changes what the search result listing for your site looks like.

8.Off-Site SEO

While this version does break this down a bit more than the previous one, I considered breaking up this category even further because it contains so much. This type of SEO includes things that you do outside of your website in order to improve your standing on the search results pages. For the most part this consists of ways and places to get links from other websites to your website.

9.Viral SEO

Viral SEO consists of techniques used specifically to cause people to share and re-share your website content. When this is done well the sharing can multiply exponentially.

10.Social SEO

This refers to specific techniques to promote your site within social media such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

11.Video SEO

This refers to techniques which use videos to improve your traffic and search standings.

12.Press Release SEO

Finally, this refers to techniques using press releases to gain additional traffic authority and to improve your standings in the search results.

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What Does Google Want? https://ajayaggarwal.com/what-does-google-want/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 17:49:54 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=128 This may seem rather simplistic and self-evident, but it really is key to understanding SEO.  Google is a company. As a company they want to make money. As a matter of fact, they have a duty to their stockholders to do as well as possible. Google has a number of different businesses. Many of these […]

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This may seem rather simplistic and self-evident, but it really is key to understanding SEO.  Google is a company. As a company they want to make money. As a matter of fact, they have a duty to their stockholders to do as well as possible.

Google has a number of different businesses. Many of these businesses have revenues in the millions of dollars. However, by far Google makes most of its money on advertisements. To make money on advertisements they need people looking at their pages.

They get people to look at their pages by providing quality search results for free. The better the search results the more people will look at their pages. If a user has an unpleasant experience with a particular search result they are a little bit less likely to use Google in the future.

Google strongly believes that efforts to artificially influence the search results make the search results worse. That is why they continually change their programs to screen out any websites that are found to be trying to influence the search results.

Any successful effort to manipulate search results is a problem for Google.  Even if it results in better search results in a particular case, the fact that it works means that it could be used to cause the search results to be degraded.

Google’s updates its software frequently. Typically, it updates its software a bit more often than once a day. Most of these updates are minor, but some of the updates are huge, and take on a life of their own.

Google updates its software to produce better search results. Sometimes this is a general algorithmic improvement. At other times, the updates are in response to changing conditions on the Internet caused by people trying to fool Google and game their search results.

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The Role of Email Marketing in the Multi-Channel Evolution – Part 2 https://ajayaggarwal.com/the-role-of-email-marketing-in-the-multi-channel-evolution-part-2/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 13:29:26 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=112 While it’s easy for marketers to understand why they should be integrating email, social and mobile – the real challenge remains how to do it. At its most simple level, it’s merely about taking all the basic principles of email campaigns and consistently applying them to newer channels and platforms. 1) Start by embedding social […]

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While it’s easy for marketers to understand why they should be integrating email, social and mobile – the real challenge remains how to do it.

At its most simple level, it’s merely about taking all the basic principles of email campaigns and consistently applying them to newer channels and platforms.

1) Start by embedding social media links into your emails

Social sharing is becoming a part of the web’s DNA.

According to a new study by website monitoring service Pingdom, 24.3% of the top 10,000 websites in the world now feature some form of official Facebook integration, and once you also include basic links to Facebook, the number goes up to 49.3%. Twitter is featured on 10% of homepages in the top 10,000 and over 13% of the sites surveyed in this study used Google’s +1 button on their homepage. Counting all kinds of links and official widgets, Pingdom saw 49.3% for Facebook, 41.7% for Twitter, 21.5% for Google+ and 3.9% for LinkedIn.

The use of social sharing via widgets is also one of the best email marketing tactics. But to avoid putting the cart before the horse, you’ll need to lay a solid foundation in social media.

It’s critical to identify where your customers are rather than making assumptions. There are many free third party tools that can provide insight about social site traffic by industry sector – to help you prioritize your social initiatives – such as Compete and Hitwise.

You can also make use of a data provider, like Rapleaf, who will append social data to your opt-in mailing list. This information is delivered at the individual email address level and gives you a snapshot of each consumer; including whether they are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goolge+ and so on.

2) Discover how your brand is being discussed and in what context

Is there a buzz around a certain product or promotion? Are there complaints that need to be resolved? Are there suggestions or comments waiting to be addressed?

Start by monitoring blog posts and social conversations by setting up Google alerts and using a service such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social to see what content of yours is being shared and talked about on social networks.

Next you need to look at what draws your customers in and brings them back for more – in other words – the ‘sticking points’. This is what ultimately brings home the bacon and is the most important information you can have at your disposal to run successful cross-channel marketing campaigns.

Use Google analytics tools to see which parts of your website are the most active and which links, content, referral sources or conversations generate the most traffic.

Once you have taken these measures you can identify what motivates your audience and therefore design even more attractive campaigns in the future. With this data at your disposal you can also start thinking about deploying segmentation tools that will enable you to tie in campaigns across email, social and mobile channels based on individual preferences and analytic indicators.

For example, you can segment by gender, age, geographic location, or by preferred channel – which is critical to know when you’re looking to communicate with a specific customer.

3) Stay consistent from one platform to another

Email should work hand-in-hand with various digital messaging channels, and the efforts made on each one should complement initiatives on the other.

Here’s a simple structure for how to achieve integration:

Step A: Create your email campaign and define the message with your subject line

It all starts with a well-made marketing email. One point to focus on especially is crafting a short and sharp subject line, at 50 characters or less; which should clearly state what your readers can expect from your email, what’s in it for them or what you want them to do as a result.

Step B: Translate your message to Social

If you have discovered that your subscribers are active on Twitter and Facebook, your task is then to convey the same message to this audience in a style that is appealing, according to the unique attributes of each platform.

By taking that message to the 120 character frame in Twitter, you can create more interest and clarify your call-to-action. Add a #hashtag and use a shortened URL to save on character count.

A Facebook post gives you the opportunity to entice fans even more by expanding your message to 150 characters. Remove the #hashtag you used in Twitter and add a compelling graphic.

Step C: Take your message mobile

Every email and social marketing message presents the chance to provide relevant motivators in a contextual setting to your mobile-oriented consumers.

However, it’s often difficult or too expensive for smaller brands to have their own mobile applications developed.

The cheaper route is to look for a suitable mobile marketing service that offers mobile site creation and hosting tools.  Some of these services let you build as many mobile sites as you want, with editors that make it easy to upload videos, images – often rendered automatically to the appropriate size and weight per device type.

The key principle is to reduplicate your website experience to make it appropriate for the small screen, for readers who may be checking your emails on a smartphone and looking to check what’s on your domain for further information (in which case you will want to optimize your email for the mobile format, but more on that in part 3).

It’s really that simple. If you start with email as a campaign root, you have all the tools and resources already at hand to reach audiences anywhere and everywhere, with no need to create anything new.

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The Ultimate Guide to the Deep Web Browsing for Professionals https://ajayaggarwal.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-deep-web-browsing-for-professionals/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 13:27:46 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=109 HOW DO I ACCESS THE DEEP WEB? You can’t just access the deep web from a normal web browser – like Firefox for example – you can only access the deep web through a deep web browser. The most famous of these deep web browsers is called Tor and this is the one we recommend […]

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HOW DO I ACCESS THE DEEP WEB?

You can’t just access the deep web from a normal web browser – like Firefox for example – you can only access the deep web through a deep web browser. The most famous of these deep web browsers is called Tor and this is the one we recommend you get if you’re looking to get onto the deep web. Downloads of Tor soared in August by almost 100% as the general population became more and more concerned about their privacy amid revelations about US and UK intelligence agencies monitoring web traffic. In short, more and more people are turning to the deep web to get their internet fix and protect their information.

This is because when you’re using Tor – or any other deep web browser – you are truly anonymous and your location cannot be picked up and neither can your browsing habits. Essentially nothing you do in the deep web can be monitored and as such the deep web is becoming a more attractive option for all internet users – those who know about it at least.
Want Tor to really work?

You need to change some of your habits, as some things won’t work exactly as you are used to.

Use the Tor BrowserTor does not protect all of your computer’s Internet traffic when you run it. Tor only protects your applications that are properly configured to send their Internet traffic through Tor. To avoid problems with Tor configuration, we strongly recommend you use the Tor Browser Bundle. It is pre-configured to protect your privacy and anonymity on the web as long as you’re browsing with the Tor Browser itself. Almost any other web browser configuration is likely to be unsafe to use with Tor.

Don’t enable or install browser pluginsThe Tor Browser will block browser plugins such as Flash, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and others: they can be manipulated into revealing your IP address. Similarly, we do not recommend installing additional addons or plugins into the Tor Browser, as these may bypass Tor or otherwise harm your anonymity and privacy. The lack of plugins means that Youtube videos are blocked by default, but Youtube does provide an experimental opt-in feature (enable it here) that works for some videos.

Use HTTPS versions of websitesTor will encrypt your traffic to and within the Tor network, but the encryption of your traffic to the final destination website depends upon on that website. To help ensure private encryption to websites, the Tor Browser Bundle includes HTTPS Everywhere to force the use of HTTPS encryption with major websites that support it. However, you should still watch the browser URL bar to ensure that websites you provide sensitive information to display a blue or green URL bar button, include https:// in the URL, and display the proper expected name for the website.

Don’t open documents downloaded through Tor while onlineThe Tor Browser will warn you before automatically opening documents that are handled by external applications. DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING. You should be very careful when downloading documents via Tor (especially DOC and PDF files) as these documents can contain Internet resources that will be downloaded outside of Tor by the application that opens them. This will reveal your non-Tor IP address. If you must work with DOC and/or PDF files, we strongly recommend either using a disconnected computer, downloading the free VirtualBox and using it with a virtual machine image with networking disabled, or using Tails. Under no circumstances is it safe to use BitTorrent and Tor together, however.

Use bridges and/or find companyTor tries to prevent attackers from learning what destination websites you connect to. However, by default, it does not prevent somebody watching your Internet traffic from learning that you’re using Tor. If this matters to you, you can reduce this risk by configuring Tor to use a Tor bridge relay rather than connecting directly to the public Tor network. Ultimately the best protection is a social approach: the more Tor users there are near you and the more diverse their interests, the less dangerous it will be that you are one of them. Convince other people to use Tor, too!

Be smart and learn more. Understand what Tor does and does not offer. This list of pitfalls isn’t complete, and we need your help identifying and documenting all the issues.

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Online Glossary of Digital Marketing Terms https://ajayaggarwal.com/online-glossary-of-digital-marketing-terms/ Sat, 14 Jan 2023 13:22:53 +0000 https://ajayaggarwal.com/?p=105 A/B testing – a method in marketing research where variables in a control scenario are changed and the ensuing alternate strategies tested, in order to improve the effectiveness of the final marketing strategy. above the fold – the section of a Web page that is visible without scrolling. ad blocking – the blocking of Web advertisements, typically the […]

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A/B testing – a method in marketing research where variables in a control scenario are changed and the ensuing alternate strategies tested, in order to improve the effectiveness of the final marketing strategy.

above the fold – the section of a Web page that is visible without scrolling.

ad blocking – the blocking of Web advertisements, typically the image in graphical Web advertisements.

ad space – the space on a Web page available for advertisements.

Add URL – (see Search Engine Submission)

AdSense – a contextual advertisement service provided by Google.

advertising network – 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.

affiliate – the publisher/salesperson in an affiliate marketing relationship.

affiliate manager – a person responsible for managing an online affiliate program for an affiliate merchant.

affiliate marketing – 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.

affiliate merchant – the advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship.

affiliate network – a value-added intermediary providing services, including aggregation, for affiliate merchants and affiliates.

affiliate software – software that, at a minimum, provides tracking and reporting of commission-triggering actions (sales, registrations, or clicks) from affiliate links.

ALT text – HTML attribute that provides alternative text when non-textual elements, typically images, cannot be displayed.

animated GIF – a graphic in the GIF89a file format that creates the effect of animation by rotating through a series of static images.

autoresponder – a program that sends an automatic form response to incoming emails.

B2B – business that sells products or provides services to other businesses.

B2C – business that sells products or provides services to the end-user consumers.

bandwidth – how much data can be transmitted in a time period over a communications channel, often expressed in kilobits per second (kbps).

banner ad – a graphical web advertising unit, typically measuring 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall (i.e. 468×60).

banner blindness – the tendency of web visitors to ignore banner ads, even when the banner ads contain information visitors are actively looking for.

banner exchange – network where participating sites display banner ads in exchange for credits which are converted (using a predetermined exchange rate) into ads to be displayed on other sites.

barter – to exchange goods or services directly without the use of money.

beyond the banner – online advertising not involving standard GIF and JPEG banner ads.

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

bounce rate – 1.) In web analytics, the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing a single page.
2.) In email marketing, the percentage of emails in a campaign that are undeliverable.

browser – (see Web browser)

burstable bandwidth – a hosting option that allows sites to use the available network capacity to handle periods of peak usage.

button ad – a graphical advertising unit, smaller than a banner ad.

buzzword – a trendy word or phrase that is used more to impress than explain.

caching – the storage of Web files for later re-use at a point more quickly accessed by the end user.

call to action (CTA) – the part of a marketing message that attempts to persuade a person to perform a desired action.

CDN (content delivery system) – a system of geographically distributed servers designed to accelerate the delivery of web pages and files by routing user requests to the server that’s in the best position to serve them.

click-through – the process of clicking through an online advertisement to the advertiser’s destination.

click-through rate (CTR) – The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.

comment spam – irrelevant comments posted to a blog for the sole purpose of dropping a link to the spammer’s website.

contextual advertising – a method of serving advertisements based on the content (i.e., overall context or theme) of a web page.

conversion rate – the percentage of visitors who take a desired action.

cookie – information stored on a user’s computer by a Web site so preferences are remembered on future requests.

cost per action (CPA) – online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.

cost per click (CPC) – the cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.

cost per lead (CPL) – online advertising payment model in which payment is based on the number of qualifying leads generated.

CPM – cost per thousand impressions.

customer acquisition cost – the cost associated with acquiring a new customer.

Data Studio – a free tool from Google that lets users make custom reports with data from Google’s marketing services and external sources.

data transfer – The total amount of outbound traffic from a website*, typically measured in gigabytes (Gb).

dedicated hosting – hosting option whereby the host provides and is responsible for the equipment,
dedicating an entire server to the client’s websites.

dedicated IP – an IP address dedicated to a single website.

deep linking – linking to a web page other than a site’s home page.

deep Web – (see invisible Web)

description tag – an HTML tag used by Web page authors to provide a description for search engine listings.

directory (see Web directory)

disintermediation – the elimination of intermediaries in the supply chain, also referred to as “cutting out the middlemen.”

domain name – location of an entity on the Internet.

doorway domain – a domain used specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main domain.

doorway page – a page made specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main content.

eCPM – effective cost per thousand impressions (technically, “effective cost per mille”).

email marketing – the promotion of products or services via email.

email spam – unwanted, unsolicited email.

exclusivity – contract term in which one party grants another party sole rights with regard to a particular business function.

ezine – an electronic magazine, whether delivered via a Web site or an email newsletter.

Facebook – a social networking site located at facebook.com.

favicon – a small icon that is used by some browsers to identify a bookmarked Web site.

favorite – (see bookmark)

first-mover advantage – a sometimes insurmountable advantage gained by the first significant company to move into a new market.

Flash – multimedia technology developed by Macromedia to allow much interactivity to fit in a relatively small file size.

forum – an online community where visitors may read and post topics of common interest.

frames – a structure that allows for the dividing of a Web page into two or more independent parts.

freemium – a technique where a business offers a free basic product, giving the customer an option to use an advanced version for a premium cost.

frequency cap – restriction on the amount of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement.

geo-targeting – a method of detecting a website visitor’s location to serve location-based content or advertisements.

GIF89a – (see animated GIF)

Google Data Studio – a free tool from Google that lets users make custom reports with data from Google’s marketing services and external sources.

Google Instant – a feature of Google’s search engine that shows search results as the keyword query is being typed.

guerilla marketing – unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.

guest blogging – writing a blog post to be published on another blog as a temporary featured author.

heatmap – a graphical representation of data where varying degrees of a single metric are shown using colors.

hit – request of a file from a Web server.

house ad – self-promotional ad a company runs on their own site/network to use unsold inventory.

HTML banner – a banner ad using HTML elements, often including interactive forms instead of (or in addition to) standard graphical elements.

HTML email – email that is formatted using Hypertext Markup Language, as opposed to plain text email.

hybrid model – a combination of two or more online marketing payment models.

impression – a single instance of an online advertisement being displayed.*

inbound link – a link from a site outside of your site.

inbound marketing – a marketing model whose sales performance relies on the initiative of its client base to find and purchase a product.

incentivized traffic – visitors who have received some form of compensation for visiting a site.

interactive agency – an agency offering a mix of Web design/development, Internet advertising/marketing, or E-Business/E-Commerce consulting.

interstitial – an advertisement that loads between two content pages.

invisible Web – the portion of the Web not indexed by search engines.

JavaScript – a scripting language developed by Netscape and used to create interactive Web sites.

keyword – a word used in a performing a search.

keyword density – keywords as a percentage of indexable text words.

keyword marketing – putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and keyphrases.

keyword research – the search for keywords related to your Web site, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment (ROI).

keyword stuffing – the excessive, unnatural use of keywords on a web page for search engine optimization purposes.

keywords tag – META tag used to help define the primary keywords of a Web page.

lead magnet – a specific deliverable that is offered to prospects in return for contact information, typically to join an email list.

like-gate – a barrier requiring a user to “Like” a brand’s page before they can access certain content from that brand on Facebook.

link building – the process of increasing the number of inbound links to a website in a way that will increase search engine rankings.

link checker – tool used to check for broken hyperlinks.

link popularity – a measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site.

link text – the text contained in (and sometimes near) a hyperlink.

linkbait – a piece of content created with the primary purpose of attracting inbound links.

log file – file that records the activity on a Web server.

long domain name – domain names longer than the original 26 characters, up to a theoretical limit of 67 characters (including the extension, such as .com).

managed WordPress hosting – web hosting optimized specifically for WordPress, where the hosting company assumes many of the routine maintenance tasks.

manual submission – adding a URL to the search engines individually by hand.

marketing automation – the use of software to automate repetitive tasks related to marketing activities and connect different parts of the marketing funnel.

marketing plan – the part of the business plan outlining the marketing strategy for a product or service.

media kit – a resource created by a publisher to help prospective ad buyers evaluate advertising opportunities.

meta search engine – a search engine that displays results from multiple search engines.

META tag generator – tool that will output META tags based on input page information.

META tags – tags to describe various aspects about a Web page.

moderator – at a forum, someone entrusted by the administrator to help discussions stay productive and within the guidelines.

mousetrapping – the use of browser tricks in an effort to keep a visitor captive at a site, often by disabling the “Back” button or generated repeated pop-up windows.

multivariate testing – a method in marketing research where multiple variables in a control scenario are simultaneously changed and the ensuing alternate strategies tested, in order to improve the effectiveness of the final marketing strategy.

navigation – that which facilitates movement from one Web page to another Web page.

netiquette – short for network etiquette, the code of conduct regarding acceptable online behavior.

network effect – the phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters.

opt-in email – email that is explicitly requested by the recipient.

opt-out – (1) type of program that assumes inclusion unless stated otherwise. (2) to remove oneself from an opt-out program.

organic search – the unpaid entries in a search engine results page that were derived based on their contents’ relevance to the keyword query.

outbound link – A link to a site outside of your site.

page view – request to load a single HTML page.

pagejacking – theft of a page from the original site and publication of a copy (or near-copy) at another site.

pass-along rate – the percentage of people who pass on a message or file.

pay per click (PPC) – online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs.

pay per lead (PPL) – online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying leads.

pay per sale (PPS) – online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying sales.

payment threshold – the minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program.

PayPal – an online payment service that lets its users make purchases and receive payments via a user-defined email address.

permission marketing – marketing centered around getting customer’s consent to receive information from a company.

podcast – a series of audio or video files that are syndicated over the Internet and stored on client computing devices for later playback.

pop-under ad – an ad that displays in a new browser window behind the current browser window.

pop-up ad – an ad that displays in a new browser window.

portal – a site featuring a suite of commonly used services, serving as a starting point and frequent gateway to the Web (Web portal) or a niche topic (vertical portal).

premium WordPress theme – a theme coded for the WordPress content management system that costs money.

rate card – document detailing prices for various ad placement options.

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

rectangle ad – any one of the large, rectangular banner sizes suggested by the IAB.

rep firm – ad sales partner specializing primarily in single-site sales.

return days – the number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion (sale or lead) by a referred visitor.

return on investment (ROI) – the ratio of profits (or losses) to the amount invested.

rich media – new media that offers an enhanced experience relative to older, mainstream formats.

run of network (RON) – ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on sites within an ad network.

run of site (ROS) – ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages of the target site.

search engine – a program that indexes documents, then attempts to match documents relevant to the users search requests.

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.

search engine spam – excessive manipulation to influence search engine rankings, often for pages which contain little or no relevant content.

search engine submission – the act of supplying a URL to a search engine in an attempt to make a search engine aware of a site or page.

search retargeting – the use of a site visitor’s search history as a basis for the ads that the visitor will see.

self-serve advertising – advertising that can be purchased without the assistance of a sales representative.

SEO (see search engine optimization)

SERP – shorthand for a page of search engine listings, typically the first page of organic results.

shopping cart – software used to make a site’s product catalog available for online ordering, whereby visitors may select, view, add/delete, and purchase merchandise.

sig file – a short block of text at the end of a message identifying the sender and providing additional information about them.

site search – search functionality specific to one site.

skyscraper ad – an online ad significantly taller than the 120×240 vertical banner.

social networking – the process of creating, building, and nurturing virtual communities and relationships between people online.

spam – inappropriate commercial message of extremely low value.

splash page – a branding page before the home page of a Web site.

sponsorship – advertising that seeks to establish a deeper association and integration between an advertiser and a publisher, often involving coordinated beyond-the-banner placements.

stickiness – the amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.

super affiliate – an affiliate capable of generating a significant percentage of an affiliate program’s activity.

surround session – advertising sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.

text ad – advertisement using text-based hyperlinks.

title tag – HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.

top 10 – the top ten search engine results for a particular search term.

trick banner – a banner ad that attempts to trick people into clicking, often by imitating an operating system message.

two tier affiliate program – affiliate program structure whereby affiliates earn commissions on their conversions as well as conversions of webmasters they refer to the program.

underdelivery – delivery of less impressions, visitors, or conversions than contracted for a specified period of time.

unique visitors – individuals who have visited a Web site (or network) at least once in a during a fixed time frame.

URL – location of a resource on the Internet.

usability – (see Web site usability)

vertical banner – a banner ad measuring 120 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall.

viral marketing – marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.

vlog – a blog that publishes video content.

Web browser – a software application that allows for the browsing of the World Wide Web.

Web design – the selection and coordination of available components to create the layout and structure of a Web page.

Web directory – organized, categorized listings of Web sites.

Web hosting – the business of providing the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website.

Web site traffic – the amount of visitors and vists a Web site receives.

Web site usability – the ease with which visitors are able to use a Web site.

whois – a utility that returns ownership information about second-level domains.

word-of-mouth marketing – a marketing method that relies on casual social interactions to promote a product.

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