This glossary would help you to understand some of the most used terms related to affiliate marketing.

Above the Fold- That part of the web page that is displayed as soon as the page is loaded is called above the fold.

AdSense – Introduced by Google, in AdSense text and image ads targeting web page content are displayed and the site owners earn a commission on the basis of price per click.

AdWords – This is Google’s Pay Per Click, or PPC advertising program in which ads are displayed on Google’s Search Engine Result Pages.

Affiliate or Associate – Affiliate is a website owner who promotes products and services of another merchant on his site and earns a commission according to the number of leads or sales.

Affiliate Agreement – This agreement states the terms of an affiliate partnership for both, the affiliate and the merchant.

Affiliate Marketing – It is an arrangement or a deal for online revenue sharing between online merchants and affiliates. Affiliates get a commission for the leads they generate and the merchant gets more customers.

Affiliate Network – Involvement of a third party for important services like tracking, reporting and processing payments.

Affiliate Program – It is an arrangement in which a merchant pays a commission to the affiliate for generating leads through ads or links displayed on his (affiliate’s) site.

Affiliate Program Directory – It is a directory that provides information about affiliate programs. It may or may not include commission structure and number of affiliates, etc.

Affiliate Program Manager – The individual responsible for managing the affiliate program. He is required to communicate with affiliates and other key people and resolve their concerns with respect to the affiliate program.

Affiliate Solution Provider – The company that provides software and services for an affiliate program.

Affiliate URL or Link – Codes used in graphics or text links for identifying which visitors has come through a specific affiliate site.

Auto-responder – The automatic response generator that does not need human intervention.

Banner Ad – Graphic ad used in affiliate advertising to attract the attention of the target audience.

Click Fraud – Artificial means of generating traffic to advertisers through automated or manual means.

Click Fraud Detection – Service that detects and monitors clicks from PPC campaigns and acts against click frauds.

Click-Through – Clicking on a link that leads to another website.

Click-Through Ratio or CTR – Proportion of visitors who click on a merchant’s Web site.

ClickBank – Digital product marketplace and affiliate network offering online billing and marketing services.

Cloaking – An affiliate linking code.

Commission – Known as the referral fee for generating a sale or lead.

Co-branding – Where affiliates are able include their own logo and/or colors on the merchant’s site.

Contextual Link – Placement of affiliate links within related text.

Conversion – When a site visitor makes a purchase, he converts from a visitor to a buyers and this is called conversion.

Conversion Rate – Percentile of visitors that convert into buyers.

Cookie – Information that is sent by a Web Server to the Browser software and is retained for future use

Cost per Acquisition – Amount required to be paid to the customer.

Cost per Click – Amount paid to the company when a surfer clicks on a listing.

Creative – Promotional tools used by advertisers use to attract users.

Cross-linking – Linking various domains with each other to increase search engine popularity.

Disclaimer – This document sets terms and conditions for the information used in the site, and are used in case of breach of copyright.

Domain Name – Unique name provided for the identification of an Internet site.

Doorway Page – Referred to as bridge pages, entry pages, gateway page, and portals or portal pages improvise the search engine placement.

Download – The process of transferring files.

Endorsement Letter or promotional letter – A formal product review for outlining its benefits.

Email Link – The affiliate link that connects with the merchant site.

EPC – The terms used by the Commission Junction affiliate network.

Exclusivity – An agreement that restricts the affiliates from promoting other competing products

Forum – The online community for reading and posting topics and comments of common interest.

Hit – This is the single request from one item for the web browser.

Hypertext Markup Language or HTML – The basic language used for creating Web pages.

Lifetime Commissions – Reference to retention of customer for life.

Merchant – The business marketer who sells goods or services.

Multi-Level Marketing or MLM – This is also called Network Marketing and includes the elaborate process of different levels of retailers, distributors, etc.

Niche Marketing – Marketing program that focuses on a specific market segment.

Pay-Per-Click – An advertising model where advertisers pay only when his ads are clicked by potential customers while surfing the net.

Pay-Per-Lead – The affiliate program where an affiliate gets commission for each lead generated through him or her.

Pay-Per-Sale – Affiliate programs where commission for each sale is provided.

Reciprocal Linking – Exchanging links with other websites for getting search engine popularity.

Recurring Commissions – Getting commissions on initial sale and subsequent purchases for a particular product.

Referring URL – The URL that leads to your site.

Search Engine Optimization – A set of activities performed on the site code and content to increase search engine ranking. Some SEO activities are not performed on the site like link building and article marketing.

Super Affiliates – The main 1 or 2% of affiliates responsible for generating almost 90% of the earnings of any affiliate program.

Targeted Marketing – Marketing of products or services that is done focusing on a particular market segment or group of customers.

Third Party Tracking Software – Software used for tracking and recording visits to your Web site. This software is located on a server other than where the site is hosted.

Two-Tier Program – This is a type of affiliate program where commission is earned by affiliates when webmasters buy or register for program supported by them.

It can be quite a challenge for an affiliate marketer to find a niche that is massively profitable, as well as personally enjoyable to work. Even profitable niches which happen to revolve around passionate projects, must be calculated. Unless you have ultra-specific interests which are well removed from mainstream culture, it’s likely that you’ll find hundreds, if not thousands of fellow Internet marketers attempting to monetize your niche.

Although the largest mainstream profitable niches are more often than not, saturated with competition, it’s still possible to make them lucrative by using the dynamics and possibilities of these niches in achieving this goal. Are you more likely to earn a better living by choosing to focus your attention on dominating popular niches, instead of ultra-specific ones? Well the answer to this question can be yes, however it can just as easily be no.

Dominating ultra competitive profitable niches requires massive amounts of effort and work. The time dedication that would be required to make this happen could easily prevent you from working on any additional projects that you may be involved with. Another problem would arise due to the massive amount of competition within mainstream profitable niches, in that you would be constantly focused on anticipating your competitors’ next move. What you could find yourself doing is spending equal amounts of time looking backwards as you would be spending looking forwards.

Of course if you can handle what is required to succeed in a mainstream niche, by all means, give it a shot. If you have the dedication, it’s entirely possible that you would find yourself successful in a mainstream niche. However, the fact of the matter is that the journey to online success may prove to be easier, when working with the commercial viability of ultra-specific and specialized niches. Such niches can yield lucrative rewards if researched before monetized. These niches are not nearly as competitive as their more general counterparts, and although the size of their audience isn’t as wide, they can be very lucrative once their dynamics and market possibilities are mastered.

So you may be asking yourself which of the profitable niches out there would be best for you to become involved with. Do passion projects fit the bill for you, or should you look into more refined calculated niches? All in all most successful online businesses are built on a combination of the two. Dedicated work and research in fields that you as the entrepreneur may be passionate about, combined with hard data and calculations involving a market’s commercial viability.

In the end, profitable niches can be found and/or settled on, by investing time into planning what niches your affiliate marketing campaign will excel in. This is true in mainstream niches, as well as in more specific ones.

Hi All,

Here are a few more photography contests for you to enter. Tomorrow I will be adding a summary of all the photo contests to date so stay tuned for that one!

First up, check out Icon Photo 09 it appears that the competition is open to worldwide entries but please check the terms and conditions using the above link carefully to be sure. There is a charge to enter this competition but the prizes are very worthwhile if you win!

Another site which offers competitions on a monthly basis is Passion For Pixels you need to register to enter the competitions.

One for the parents…

Enter your child in the cute kid of the year contest it’s free to enter after you register and you could win a $25,000 scholarship for your child.

Lastly for today, take a look at the International Photography awards for 2010 and you could win up to $10,000 cash! Check the website for more information.

All the best,

Scott

Having been a member now for some time I feel that I am more than qualified to provide an honest Wealthy Affiliate Review. In this article I will not only touch on a few of the features of the site as the vastness of information and training available is far to expansive for this article alone.

If you are new to internet marketing and just starting out then this is the place you simply must go to learn. If you have been around for a while and sick of all the rips offs that you have come across and you are looking for something where you can really learn how to make money then this is the place to be as well. When I took my first steps into the site I was extremely sceptical as I was a complete novice to internet marketing. Yes I had done my research, well I am not stupid, but with all the scams and rip offs out there that I had read about I was still worried about my investment, despite how small it actually was.

However, once I arrived inside the Wealthy Affiliate site I was in sheer amazement at the number of tools and resources that are open for everyone to use. Being a complete novice though I had no idea what I was in for and where I should start. Thank goodness I was pointed in the direction of the 8 week learning centre and this really gave me the foundation of what I was about the learn over the next 6 months.

Being extremely impatient as well as sceptical, after I finished the week one training module I went straight to the learning centre and began to read through the resources there that are broken up into three distinct modules;

1. Junior
2. Intermediate
3. Senior

Each of the resources in the learning centre contains a number of modules that are all a fantastic way to learn everything you will need to learn about internet marketing. The modules are a step by step guide into how each component of internet marketing works.

As I said previously in this article the site is just way to vast to review each and every part in detail of what you will find inside. But here are just a few of the things you will find inside and please remember that there is just so much more to the site than this small snapshot.

1. Free Website Builder.
2. Free Web Hosting for up to 3 complete websites.
3. Research Tools to teach you how to find profitable markets.
4. Custom made and read to download website templates.
5. A Sharezone where experienced marketers share the tools and information they used to become successful.

Far and away the best thing I would like to cover in this Wealthy Affiliate Review is the forum. Inside the forum you can ask questions which are then answered by the people who have been doing this type of business for year. In fact just recently I answered a question for a person who has been a member for only a few months which was posted in the forum. I answered the question and in doing so pointed that member to some more detailed explanation in the Sharezone. The member was extremely grateful not only for the assistance, but more so for the fact that she didn’t even realise the Sharezone existed.

James has been learning to make money on the internet with the fantastic training and information that is available on the Wealthy Affiliates University Site. Prior to this training James had no internet skills whatsoever. If you are serious about planning for your future and want to learn how to make money on the internet with the best training you will ever be able to find then you need to click this link to learn to Wealthy Affiliate Review

Ah Thursday, the middle child. Not quite the end of the week, but close enough to incite that rush of weekend anticipation. Don’t worry, the mydeco team are here to ease your restlessness with today’s selection of the best design news.

mydeco’s pick of the top three stories:

1. Design Boom: Real Design Exhibition at Serpentine Gallery London

Image credit: Design Boom

We love a good exhibition at the mydeco office (even more so when they are accompanied by free wine). However, there is no alcoholic incentive needed for Design Real: the first show at the Serpentine Gallery devoted to contemporary design. Curated by Konstantin Grcic and designed in collaboration with Alex Rich and Jürg Lehni, the exhibition examines items which have a function in everyday life. And yes, before you ask the above image does fit into this category – it is simply a textile wall constructed from interconnected foam tiles. Nothing unusual about that at all.

2. Inhabitat: Dallas Hill-filled design wins Re:Vision Dallas competition

Image credit: Inhabitat

Hard to believe, but the television show Dallas was not always an accurate reflection of reality. The real city is not all high-glamour, sex and murder; in fact some areas of this gigantic metropolis might even be described as ‘run-down’. Not for long however, as the winner of Re:Vision Dallas – a competition to create a completely sustainable community in the downtown area of the city – was announced yesterday. The hillside design runs entirely on renewable energy, has vertical gardens and can grow its own food. Construction is due to begin in 2011.

3. Moco Loco: Springtime chair

Image credit: Moco Loco

This design is the brainchild of Frank Winnubust, who researched various types of springs (Frank is single) in order to create a chair that would provide optimum comfort. Notice the knitted covers on the top layer, which were added to stop the chair from looking quite so much like a torture device. Cosy.

The best of the rest:

dornob: 10 eccentric eco homes of the far east

Design milk: Klein bottle house by Mcbride Charles Ryan

Inhabitat: Eden-falls skyscraper

The Telegraph: Ski property: Buy into the high life

The Independent: Art websites: DIY designer furniture

The Independent: House hunting goes high-tech

The Independent: House doctor: ‘We’re self-employed – will we find a lender?’

Daily Mail: Mel B’s California dreamin’ as she moves her family to L.A.

That’s all from us today, but make sure you check in again tomorrow for your last fix of daily news before the weekend.

Me, copywriter, iPhone owner, spoilt for photography choice

Me Love Lomo Lady Diana

Me Love Lady Diana so pretty in her plastic

Me Love Lady “never know what you’re going to get” Diana

Me Love Lady “unpacking it is part of the fun” Diana

Me Love you Lady Diana, me take you on holiday, take photos like this

If you want free Lady Diana, you go buy something at Hang Ten stores in December, you maybe win one (secret tip)

Your competition is more than just the business down the street that’s trying to sell the same product to the same customer.

Being a good competitor is something we all take pride in. Competition is known to bring out the best in each of us. When it comes right down to it however, lets be honest, increasing competition is one thing most businesses would just as soon do without.

The business down the street is but one of nine potential competitors. Generally speaking, most companies pay too much attention to the business down the street and too little to the other eight. These nine competitors can be categorized into two groups, five industry competitors and four environmental competitors.

The five potential competitors within each industry are the first, obvious, existing direct competitors plus suppliers to the industry, customers of the industry, other potential entrants, and substitute products.

Suppliers to an industry can become a competitive factor if they decide to forward integrate into the industry. When a supplier of raw materials decides that in addition to selling those materials they will begin to convert them into finished products, they have forward integrated and have become a competitive factor to an industry that they had previously supplied. Steel mills making high volume finished products out of raw steel are an example of forward integration.

Customers are a potential competitive threat if they decided to backwards integrate into an industry. Take, for example, a growing business that has its sales literature produced by the local print shop. As its printing needs grow, it may decide to invest in its own printing equipment and no longer do business with the local print shop.

Disequilibrium is a force for change. When business in your industry gets real good, you can be certain that other businesses will consider entering your market. If business gets bad in other areas, businesses with similar capabilities will begin to look to diversify, and that may mean another entrant. Several years ago when the construction equipment business was depressed, industrial equipment companies like Caterpillar Tractor started planning on making farm equipment, even though the farm equipment business wasn’t booming itself.

Overnight mail delivery has become a giant business in just a few short years. The competitive threat to Federal Express is not the Post Office or DHL, they’re just guys down the street that do the same thing. The real competitive threats are the substitutable alternatives for document delivery such as FAX machines and computer modems.

There are four potential environmental competitive factors for most businesses. Environmental competitive factors not only pose competitive threats, but an early understanding of these developments can often provide excellent opportunities.

Changing technology can be a formidable competitive force. Not much more than fifty years ago, the ice delivery business was a flourishing industry. While the ice companies focused their attention on the competitors down the street, the widespread distribution of electricity and the invention of the refrigerator doomed them to extinction. Had the ice companies recognized their true competition, they could have capitalized on the opportunity by adopting the new technology. How many of yesterday’s ice companies are building refrigerators today?

Sociological changes are the source of obvious, but powerful competitive pressures and opportunities. The two career family and a health conscious generation are but two sociological changes that have reshaped a number of industries and given birth to others.

World economic trends are forces so powerful that we can do little to alter them. Although we are little able to alter them, we can adapt to them. The economic after shocks of the oil crunch are still being felt by small businesses throughout the southwest. The high value of the US dollar sent the domestic manufacturing industry into a prolonged tailspin. Depressed grain prices proved too strong a competitor for many rural businesses to overcome.

The impact of political change is felt far beyond the banks of the Potomac. Deregulation has drastically changed the landscape in the communication, transportation, and banking industry. It has provided opportunities for some while providing strong competition for others. Politics will continue to have a major economic impact with environmental and health legislation, continued deregulation and re-regulation, changing governmental expense priorities, zoning, and taxation.

In order to effectively deal with competition, to meet its challenges and to recognize the opportunities that it presents, each business must identify all of the competitive forces that will impact it. Because it’s your business, let the competition bring out the best in you.

The other day I received a call for entries for a typographic competition involving three-dimensional experimental letterforms. UK-based Flat 33 is looking for surprising and inventive ways to interpret the alphabet, ranging from beautiful and humorous to poetic, witty and conceptual for their upcoming book: ABC Dimensional (working title).

DEADLINE: Wednesday, 6th January 2010

Background on Project: (from website)

The ongoing fascination with three-dimensional letterforms – found, arranged and/or created from unique materials and then exhibited and/or photographed to be ‘flattened’ for two-dimensional print – is as ‘now’ in contemporary typographic design as it appears to be timeless. Graphic design students and professionals alike create an endless stream of variants of a similar theme with the alphabet and its 26 letters (plus a few numbers and signs here and there) at the centre of attention. An amazing amount of innovative, playful and inspirational projects are continuously being produced by emerging and established talents from around the world and the latest book by FL@33 – provisionally entitled ABC Dimensional – will document the best of the best.

To get full project description, go to stereohype’s page.

Typography is one of my favorite things about design – and lately it’s been Arabic calligraphy. I’m a major type geek. I’ve already forwarded the competition to a few of my type-obsessed friends, and I might send something too if I have time. I’ll post what I come up with..

On Saturday November 28, 2009 this years competition si finally going to start. In our first game we will play Willemstad team b. All boys should be at the pitch of Willemstad at 9:15 am.

On Sunday, December 12 the annual Toys for Tots IPSC Match will be held at the Mid Carolina Rifle Club. All proceeds from the match benefit the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program. Last year, we had 117 shooters at the match. 

Individuals who are not able to shoot the match or just want to watch, can donate toys, cash or checks to Toys for Tots. They will be listed as Virtual Competitors and their contributions are tax deductible as a charitable donation for federal income tax purposes.

"El Factor X"

El Factor X: 27 años de edad, profesor Danyl tiene una pasión por el canto y se roba el escenario por completo en una increible primera audicion!

The X Factor: 27-year-old teacher Danyl has a passion for singing and manages to completely own the stage in an incredible first audition!

Connie Talbot singing Ben and winning her Britains Got Talent semi final

Andrew Johnston

The X Factor: It’s difficult to surprise Simon Cowell, but Stacey Soloman manages to do just that… Does she have The X Factor?

Jamie Archer AKA Jamie Afro has never had his chance to break into music, despite it being a lifelong dream. Will he get that chance today?

Joseph McElderry The X Factor: Joe from South Shields immediately got a yes from Cheryl before he started singing! But will he be able to perform well enough to impress the other judges?

Susan Boyle – Memory from Cats – Made Amanda Cry – Piers said brilliant!

You voted him, out of thousands of entrants, your X Factor winner 2007! Watch Leon Jackson perform his brand new single When You Believe!

Lucie Jones,The X Factor 2009: Nervous Lucie takes to the stage, but her choice of song is questioned by Simon. Has she got The X Factor?

The X Factor: 24-year-old Duane returns to The X Factor after failure at last year’s Boot Camp. Has he got what it takes for this year’s competition?

Shaheen Jafargholi Britains Got Talent Wins Semi Final,UNBELIEVABLE 12 YEAR OLD BOY SINGS!!!

Nicky Evans, who recently lost her father, tries her luck at the auditions – and manages to amaze even Simon!

So, I have something exciting to announce (and a first for this blog) – I have been approached by Island Records (owned by Universal Music) and asked if I would like to invite two of my blog readers down to a ’secret’ Erik Hassle gig in East London on December 17th 2009.

Regular readers may be aware that I have blogged about Erik previously, and that I am a fan of his music, and so this was not only a great surprise, but is a good way of putting my blog to some practical use I think (for me, you and the artist!), and allows me to give something back to those lovely people who visit my pages.

To be fair to all, I have decided to operate this as a small competition, as I think/hope that this could prove quite popular! I’ve been given complete freedom to choose how I want to select the people I guestlist (so please don’t be cynical people – and yes, the question is my own! ), I just figured this would be the best way.

Whether you’re an old friend, or a new face, do please feel free to enter, this competition is open to all who are 18 or over. It would be great to see a few familiar faces at the gig, or maybe bump into a few new ones.

To enter, all I would like you to do is answer the following question:

What date is Erik Hassle’s single ‘Hurtful’ being released in the UK?

(hint, you ‘ll find the answer on his official page)

To enter please fill out the details on the Contact Form at the base of this blog post with your name, email and your answer!

Good Luck!!

A few important points to note:

• This competition is only open to people aged 18 years old or over – sorry, but I am simply a blogger and can’t guarantee the welfare of a minor, nor do I know yet if there will be an age restriction on the venue/show.
• If your entry is correct and you are selected, you will win one ticket to the show – thus there will be two winners.
• I will close the competition and remove the ‘Contact Form’ at 17:15 on Friday 4th December 2009.
• The winners will be notified by email soon after – so make sure you pass me the correct email address!!
• Please be aware that I do not have any further information on the secret venue, I am as much in the dark as you! I have my suspicions though, but they may be incorrect! Regardless, it should be easy to get to using TfL transport.
• Winners will need to make their own way to the secret venue.
• Details of the secret venue will be provided to you by email from Universal Music 24 hours before the gig (i.e. on the 16th December).
• In lieu of the above, and due to this being a guestlist, please do be aware that I will need to pass your name and email address to my contact at Universal Music – if you object to this, please do not enter the competition. Note: your details should only be used for the purpose of this competition and communicating the venue to you – you are not signing up for marketing info etc.
• By entering the competition you consent to the above terms.

Thanks!

Jealousy Amongst Women

Have you ever experienced another woman trying to sabotage your relationship with your boyfriend/ husband? I have. I seem to have this constant theme throughout all my relationships, where random, jealous women try to come between me and whomever I am with. Is there such jealousy amongst women that they will act like delusional lunatics, at the cost of their dignity, just for the slim chance they will steal a man away from another woman?

Ever since I can remember, I have had to deal with women trying to come between me and my man…why? There are tons of men out there and I question what would make a woman consciously seek out committed men? Women who go after “taken” men must have very poor self-esteem. Why else would someone go for an unavailable person…spells out low self-respect and self-sabotage to me.

It saddens me that women feel such a need to compete with other women instead of support each other. Why can men get along without the constant competitions and women can’t? When us women have any issue, we hold a grudge until it gets the better of us, while men can have a fight and be over it the next day.

Who or what is to blame for the terrible way women relate to one another? I hope for future women that try to force themselves into my life, they sense a Queen Lioness ready to defend what I’ve created. Moreover, I hope women can stop competing and start supporting one another…we are each other’s best ally.

Usually I share info about writing contests,

but this one is too good to pass up:

Turkey jello mold contest

See all the

WINNERS @

http://bit.ly/7nwH2Z

Blissfully effective: Yes

Painfully efficient: No

Get your gain without pain.

For this thought must work harder than muscle.

To work out smart you favor insight over ache, attention over effort.

You study limit, you don’t break it.

If you race against yourself, you will eventually break. If your last best is the limit to be broken, breaking your very best will break you.

For those that haven’t seen it, here is a short but interesting video from Jay Barney where he discusses what Strategic Management is.  This video is bad news for mission statement and strategic plan enthusiasts.

Jay Barney video from OSU Executive Education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewyfKzYiKlc