e-Commerce Internet Success | e-Commerce Glossary - Acronyms, Abbreviations, Definitions

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-- # --

-- A --

A/B Testing --
A/B testing tests two versions of an advertisement, the "A" version and the "B" version, to determine which gives better results.  The classical A/B test has but a ONE variable difference between the two versions.  This can be the headline, a body paragraph, an illustration, the price, etc.  But ONLY one of those per test.  This can be time-consuming and/or expensive.

A recently popularized methodology, called multivariate testing, allows multiple variables to be tested at the same time.  Different combinations of headlines, body text, calls to action, pricing, etc., can be tested to see which combination proves most effective.

Above the Fold --
"Above the fold" is the section of a Web page that is visible without scrolling.  Where the fold on a web page is located depends on the resolution setting of the viewer's monitor.  For example, if the resolution is set at 800x600 the fold will be higher on the page than if the resolution is set at 1024x768, where the fold will be lower on the page.

The term derives from newspaper publishing, where important pictures or news stories were placed on the upper half of the front page to garner reader attention.  This is what you would see in a newsrack window (for a regular sized newspaper, not a tabloid.)

Ad Impression --
Ad impressions are generated each time a user views a page displaying advertisements.  (Assuming the page is set up for tracking.)  This is different from page impressions in that if a page contains four adverts, the count will be one page impression and four ad impressions.
See also Page Impression.

Advertiser --
In the e-Commerce business, an advertiser is one who runs his advertisements on publishers' websites.

Alternate Ads --
If you, as an ad publisher, are running Google AdSense ads, if they can't serve a targeted ad to your ad spot, they will by default fill the spot with a PSA for a non-profit organization.  When a user clicks on one of those, you don't get any earnings for the click.  You can, however, modify the AdSense javascript to have Google get and serve one of your own alternate ads for one of your own products or an affiliate program.

Anchor Text --
Anchor text is the text you see for a clickable link.  That is usually underlined to call your attention to it, but nowadays with all the trendy "kewl" web design using css (cascading style sheets), the fact that a link is there to click on may not be apparent until you run your mouse over it.  The "css (cascading style sheets)" text just above is anchor text for a link that, when you click on it, takes you to a short definition of "css" on this page.  For an example of a trendy "kewl" use of css, go to the very top of this page and run your mouse over the heading "e-COMMERCE BUSINESS".  When you do so, you will see the text become underlined, and if you click on it, you will be taken to the home page of this site.

Using descriptive anchor text for links from one page to another on your sites is much better than a generic "click here".  "Click here" means nothing to search engines, where descriptive anchor text will help greatly in improving the search engine ranking of the destination page.

Article Spinner --
Article Spinners are also known as Article Rewriters, Article Generators, or Article Submitters.  These are software or services that takes original or PLR articles and generates or assists in generating a number of variations.  The variations are (hopefully) unique enough so that when posted on web pages, blogs, article directories, etc., they avoid the Google "duplicate content penalty" (placed in the "supplemental results" bin).

Many of the article spinners just add junk, generating articles full of nonsense and irrelevant material which will be rejected by many sites.  Make sure you have software that turns out readable unique article versions.  These will take a bit more effort on your part, but the results will be worth it.  For a simple to use, inexpensive, article generating software program, see Articles Unique Article Generator.

-- B --

Bot --
"Bot" is short for "robot".

One type of bot is software used to visit and index the content of web sizes.  This information is gathered and used by search engines to provide lists of (hopefully) relevant web pages to searchers.  This information is also gathered by services such as Google AdSense to enable providing contextual advertising to website publishers.

Other bots are designed for various nefarious purposes, such as attempting to access financial accounts and information, to send spam e-mails, submit spam blog posts and comments, etc.

-- C --

Captcha --
"Captcha" stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", a term trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University.

Captcha is a challenge-response test with the aim of attempting to determine if the user is a human or not.  A graphic presented to a user, which the user has to interpret and enter into a text box on a web page in order to proceed farther in that website -- for logging in, accessing an account, setting up an account, verifying a payment, etc.  This is usually in addition to a log-in name or account number and password.

The graphic is usually a few digits and/or letters that are presented in a distorted or obfuscated form, which can (hopefully) be interpreted by a human, but not by machine.  The purpose is to prevent automated bot log-ins or other site access.

For a very sophisticated log-in procedure including a "Turing Number" captcha graphic, see the e-gold "Turing Number" log-in method.  (And to find out more about e-gold - real money - browse the e-gold® site.)

Click --
In the e-Commerce business, a click is a click on an advertisement that sends the user (clicker) to a page on the advertiser's web site.

Client-side Software --
Software applications that are used to access or make better use of the internet and are installed on users' machines.  This includes browsers and e-mail managers. 

Contextual Advertising --
Advertising placed on web pages according to the content as determined by keywords on the web pages.

Conversion --
A conversion occurs when a user you've referred completes the necessary actions for you to receive earnings for that referral.  The event and earnings for referrals vary by product.

CPA --
Cost per Action.  The CPA is the amount an advertiser pays when a user completes a certain action.  This can be for just a click on an advertisement, but usually requires some further action after getting to the advertiser's page, such as submitting a form or making a purchase.

CPC --
Cost per Click.  The CPC is the amount an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on an ad.

CPM --
The CPM is the amount an advertiser pays for every 1000 times a user views an advertisement and an impression is recorded.  That is, it is the Cost per Thousand impressions.
Compare to eCPM.

The "M" in "CPM" is an holdover from pre-computer days as an abbreviation for thousand, and is still used much in the financial area.  It is the Roman Numeral for 1000.  "K" (kilo) is the abbreviation used for 1000 in the computer world and in weights and measures worldwide except in the U.S.A. and a few other countries.

CPO --
The CPO is the Cost per Order, and includes ALL costs, per item and prorata per item.

Crawl Rate --
The frequency of crawling your site.  Supposedly, the Google crawler will crawl a page every 90 days as the default frequency.  (THAT IS ONLY EVERY THREE MONTHS!!).  But if the content has changed since the last crawl, it will crawl more frequently.  Some sites with frequent changes are eventually crawled daily.  If you have changed your site, you could try to get Google to crawl it sooner by notifying them that your site has changed, at Google Add URL.

Crawler --
Software used to visit and index the content of web sizes.  This information is gathered and used by search engines to provide lists of (hopefully) relevant web pages to searchers.  This information is also gathered by services such as Google AdSense to enable providing contextual advertising to website publishers definition.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) --
Cascading Style Sheets are an addition to HTML that allows web designers to have more control over the appearance of web pages.  Colors, sizes, and faces of fonts can be specified so that they do not have to be called out repeatedly in the main HTML for a page.  Many other attributes can also be controlled.  Different browsers frequently render pages differently, so the css specifications override the default behaviour of a browser for a more consistent web page appearance between browsers. 

If the style information is extensive, it can be put into a separate file to be called in the header of a web page.  So you will see something like this:

      <link rel="stylesheet"
                  href="http://xxxxxxxxxxx.com/wp-content/themes/xxxxxx/style.css"
                  type="text/css" media="all" />

If the style information is less extensive, it may be in the actual page itself.  You can see an example in the HTML source code for this page.  You can "View | Page Source" in the browser and then look for "style type" in the source code. 

For an example of its use, consider that text using the HTML <h1> tag is usually VERY large.  The style information for this page makes it small, sets the font face and color, makes upper case whatever text is between the <h1>...</h1> tags, etc.  You can see an example of that at the very top right of this page.

CTR --
Clickthrough rate.  The CTR is the number of clicks an advertisement receives divided by the number of times the advertisement is shown.

Cybersquatting --
A perjorative term used by those who have already snapped up the good domain names when somone registers and tries to use and profit from domains with similar names.  The monopolists claim that the so-called cyber-squatter would get undeserved traffic if a user typed in an incorrect version of one of the monopolists' hallowed domain names.
See also Typosquatting.

-- D --

DGC --
Digital Gold Currency / Digital Gold Currencies.  For an example, see e-gold.

DTI --
Daily Target Income.
See Target Income.

Destination URL --
The URL to which an advertisement links.  This is the page a user sees when he clicks through to an advertiser's site from an advertisement on a publisher's web page.

DR --
Direct Response.  The Direct Response Industry encompasses print media, radio, television, postal mail, AND internet marketing.  The consumer/buyer responds directly to an advertisment (e.g., a web sales page) and orders.  This is in contrast to retailing, where the customer goes into a store and buys.

-- E --

eCPM --
Effective CPM.  Cost per 1000 impressions. From a publisher's perspective, CPM is a useful way to compare revenue from different advertisements.  eCPM is calculated by dividing total earnings by the number of impressions in thousands.  For example, if you (an advertising publisher) earned $200 from 51,000 impressions, the CPM would be $200/51, or $$3.92.  Note that this is a comparative measure and does not represent actual earnings.
Compare to CPM.

-- F --

FAQ --
Frequently Asked Question(s).  To save time handling pre-order questions, post-order questions, and support, FAQs, to be effective, should result from an on-going process of refinement derived from prospect and customer queries and complaints.

Many marketers disparage FAQs and don't post them because they say no one reads them.  Others are just too lazy.  Still others just don't give a crap about the customer after they make a sale; they just hope the customer will give up without demanding a refund.

My guess is that most people do try to find and read FAQs, but because they are usually so hard-to-find and so poorly written and organized (searchable), that they give up and then call customer service, after all.  Really, don't you think most people would rather spend just a few moments on-line to get the information they need from easily found and well-constructed FAQs as opposed to waiting ten, fifteen plus minutes on hold, only to end up talking to some doofus in Appalachia, or some wog in India whose accent they have to struggle to decipher?

-- G --

GTC --
General Terms & Conditions.  These are the terms set between you and a distributor as part of a purchase order when an order is taken.

Geo-Targeting --
The IP address assigned to a computer generally reveals at least its approximate location (country).  Using that information, advertisements shown on web pages can be determined dynamically according to users' locations.

Glyphius --
Copywriting Evaluation Software from James D. Brausch.

-- H --

-- I --

IM --
Internet Marketing.

IP Address --
Internet Protocol Address.  Each computer connected to the internet is assigned a unique number.  This enables communication but also can be used for tracking.

-- J --

-- K --

Keyphrase (Key Phrase) --
See Keyword.

Keyword --
A keyword (key word), for a webpage (web page), can actually be just one word or several words.  Several words would be more accurately called a keyphrase (key phrase), but common usage still refers to such as a keyword.

A keyword is what a user enters into a search engine (e.g., Google or Ask.com) search window when he is searching for information.  Your web pages should, therefore, contain appropriate keywords to help the search engine serve up appropriate SERP pages to the user.

A rule of thumb is that your keyword phrases that you want the search engines to find for your users should not exceed five words. Users search on one word most frequently, two words less frequently, three words even less frequently... and rarely on six words or more.

KFCP --
Keyword Focused Content Page.  A web page with content devoted primarily to discussing the subject corresponding to a specific keyword (or keyphrase).

-- L --

-- M --

MAP --
Minimum Advertised Price.  If you are in the product business, selling to distributors rather than direct response, to prevent excessive price discounting, you may want to set a MAP in your General Terms & Conditions.  You can't control selling prices, but you can control the advertised prices.

Master Resale Rights --
The right to resell material, especially on-line Private Label Rights (PLR) material such as e-books and videos.  Any owner of "Master Resale Rights" material may sell it to anyone else without restriction, in contrast to material that has more limited (Non-Master) Resale Rights attached.

MFA --
Made For AdSense.  Websites designed specifically to generate Google AdSense clicks, with content being a secondary concern, if at all.

MMO --
Make Money Online / Making Money Online
Some related terms you might see are:  Make money online at home, making money online at home, easy ways to make money online, learn how to make money online.

MTI --
Monthly Target Income.
See Target Income.

-- N --

-- O --

-- P --

Page Impression --
A page impression is generated each time a users views a page displaying advertisements.  (Assuming the page is set up for tracking.)  This is different from ad impressions in that if a page contains four adverts, the count will be one page impression and four ad impressions.
See also Ad Impression.

Pareto's Law --
This is also known as the "80/20 Principle".  Pareto's Law states observations such that (approximately) 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort (and conversely, that the other 20% of results takes 80% of the effort).  That 80% of sales come from 20% of the customers.  That 80% of the wealth is owned by 20% of the people.  That 80% of crime is perpetrated by 20% of the criminals.  Etc.  Note that the 80/20 is a general rule.  In any given case, it could be higher, e.g., 85/15, 90/10, 95/5, etc., but usually no lower than 80/20.

Parkinson's Law --
Parkinson's Law states observations such that expenditures rise to meet income (think governments' and your budgets).  That work expands (or shrinks) to fill the time available, etc. 

PHP --
An HTML embedded scripting language used to create more functional and consistent web pages in less time.

PLR --
Private Label Rights.  Refers to articles (private label articles) written by others that you can use on your web pages in order to add content.  Unless you edit them, they will be the same as everyone else's using the same article.  That means that Google and other search engines will see the article as "similar results" (duplicate content) and your pages probably not be shown in SERP - Search Engine Results Pages.  To avoid that penalty and to generate even more versions that you can post or email to other sites, you need an article rewriter such as the Articles Unique Article Generator.

See also  Resale Rights  and  Master Resale Rights.

PPC --
Pay per Click.  An advertiser pays the PPC amount each time a viewer clicks on an advertiser's advert on a publisher's web page.  If there is a middleman, such as Google AdSense, the PPC amount is divided between Google and the web page publisher.

PSA --
Public Service Ads.  If you, as an ad publisher, are running Google AdSense ads, if they can't serve a targeted ad to your ad spot, they will by default fill the spot with a PSA for a non-profit organization.  When a user clicks on one of those, you don't get any earnings for the click.  You can, however, modify the AdSense javascript to have Google get and serve one of your own alternate ads for one of your own products or an affiliate program.

Publisher --
In the e-Commerce business, a publisher is one who runs advertisers' advertisements on his website.

-- Q --

-- R --

Resale Rights --
The right to resell material, especially on-line Private Label Rights (PLR) material such as e-books and videos.  The purchaser from the author or owner may resell the material to others, but in contrast to Master Resale Rights material, a person buying from the Resale Rights holder does not have the right to resell the material.

-- S --

SEO --
Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Optimized.
Tweaking copy and elements on web pages in an attempt to get higher placement in user search results -- Search Engine Results Placement (SERP).

SERP --
Search Engine Results Page.  Search Engine Results Placement.  The page that returned by Google, Ixquick, Ask, or other search engine as a result of what the user entered to search for.  Hopefully, your page link(s) will be placed on the first page of ten results.  Or at least in the next few pages.  If your pages targeting users searching for pages like yours are not placed on the first few SERP pages, they may as well not be there at all.  You've got Search Engine Optimization work to do.

Spider --
Software used to visit and index the content of web sizes.  This information is gathered and used by search engines to provide lists of (hopefully) relevant web pages to searchers.  This information is also gathered by services such as Google AdSense to enable providing contextual advertising to website publishers.

-- T --

TDI --
Target Daily Income.
See Target Income.

TI --
Target Income.  Your income goals.  This can be broken down into yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily numbers.  Take care of the daily figure, and the weekly, monthly, and yearly figures will follow.

One caveat:  Say you have a weekly figure to meet of $7000.  You don't want to make $1000 a day and work for seven days a week.    You ideally want to do something like set a Daily Target Income of $2333 a day for three days, or even $7000 a day for one day per week.   

TMI --
Target Monthly Income.
See Target Income.

Typosquatting --
A perjorative term used by those who have already snapped up the good domain names when somone registers and tries to use and profit from domains with similar names.  The monopolists claim that the so-called typo-squatter would get undeserved traffic if a user inadvertently typed in an incorrect version of one of the monopolists' hallowed domain names.
See also Cybersquatting.

-- U --

-- V --

-- W --

-- X --

-- Y --

-- Z --

Do you have any suggestions?  Any terms you would like to see added to the e-Commerce internet business glossary?  Contact me to make your suggestions.

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