affiliate
network—A
business (such as Commission Junction and LinkShare) that connects web
publishers with cost-per-action affiliate programs. See affiliate program. affiliate
program—A deal
offered by a company to share a portion of the revenues earned from
traffic coming from web publisher websites. Affiliates provide text
and image ads to post on the publishers’ sites. If a user clicks
through to the affiliate site and takes a specified action (e.g., makes
a purchase, fills out a registration form, etc.) the publisher is paid
a portion of the revenue or a flat fee. Companies offering affiliate
programs include Amazon (the Amazon Associates program), Indeed, ClickBank, eBay and thousands more. banner
ad—Anad that consists of an image, often placed at the top of a page. blog
advertising—Advertising specifically
designed for display on blog sites. Companies include Federated Media and Blogads. contextual
advertising—Advertising
that is targeted to the content on a web page. Contextual ad programs
include Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, Vibrant Media, Kontera and Tribal Fusion. cost-per-action
(CPA)—Advertising
that is billed to the advertiser per user action (e.g., purchasing a
product or filling out a mortgage application). Companies include Amazon
and Indeed. See also performance-based advertising. cost-per-click
(CPC)—Advertising
that is billed by user click. The web publisher receives revenue each
time a user clicks an ad on the publisher’s site, regardless of
whether the user makes a subsequent purchase. Companies include Google
AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network. cost-per-thousand
impressions (CPM)—Advertising
(usually banner advertising) that is billed per thousand impressions,
regardless of whether the user clicks on the ad. Companies include DoubleClick,
ValueClick and many more. e-commerce—Selling
products and/or services directly through a website. Companies includeAmazon, Dell, CafePress.com and thousands more. interstitial
ad—Anad that plays between page loads. Companies include Tribal Fusion,
DoubleClick, and many more. in-text
contextual advertising—Advertising
that is marked by double-underlined keywords or phrases in the content
of a web page. When a reader hovers the mouse cursor over a double-underlined
word or phrase, a text ad pops up. By clicking on an ad, readers are
taken to the advertiser’s page. Companies providing in-text contextual
advertising include Vibrant Media, Text Link Ads, Kontera and Tribal Fusion. lead
generation—Leads
are generated when a visitor fills out an inquiry form so that a salesperson
can follow through and potentially convert the lead to a sale. Lead
generation is a subset of cost-per-action advertising. See cost-per-action
(CPA). paid blog post—A blog post
(often a product review) that an advertiser pays a blogger to write.
Some argue the ethics of this practice, and bloggers are encouraged
to disclose that they are being paid for the posts. Companies that match
bloggers and advertisers include PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews and ReviewMe. performance-based
advertising—Advertising
that pays based on user action, such as making a purchase, filling out
a registration form, etc. These are also often part of affiliate programs
such as Amazon and ClickBank. See cost-per-action (CPA). premium content—Content
on a website that is available for an extra fee (e.g., e-books, articles,
etc.). Companies that offer premium content include The Wall Street Journal Online
and Search Engine Watch. RSS
ad—Anad included in RSS feeds. Companies include Feedster, Feedburner and Yahoo! Search Marketing. tagging for profit—Asite that buys inbound links or tags from other sites to help
increase traffic, and thus increase potential advertising revenue. High-traffic
sites can sell tags or links to other websites for a profit. (Caution:
Search engines may lower the ranking of sites with paid links.) An example
is 1000tags.com. virtual
worlds monetization—Selling
products, premium services, virtual land and more in an online virtual
world website. Virtual worlds include Second Life, IMVU, Habbo, Gaia Online and There. |