Online Marketing Glossary: Search Engine Marketing

Posted on Jul 24, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing |

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):

  • Tactics that seek to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results.  SEM methods include SEO, paid placement and paid inclusion.  It includes the practice of buying paid search listings with the goal of obtaining netter free search listings.

glossary bookTraffic to your website is the name of the game.  SEM is primarily used to drive traffic; from there it’s the marketing and web designer’s job to convert that traffic.  While there are many firms that focus on just SEM, many website companies also employ in-house teams to work on SEM.  Often times, an in-house employee will be the best at SEM because not only do they know the useful tactics, but they know the product or service background enough to delicately utilize the right tactics effectively.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Online Marketing Glossary: Shopping Cart

Posted on Jul 23, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing |

Shopping Cart:

  • The term for software that is used to make a site’s product catalog available for online ordering, whereby visitors may select, view, add, delete and purchase merchandise.

glossary bookWe’re all pretty savvy people reading this, so I’m certain that you know (at least in vague terms) what a shopping cart is.  Many larger online retailers build their own software for this process, while smaller affiliates and other retail operations often rely on third-party applications to power their stores. Without the shopping cart, e-commerce would be a major hassle and would never have risen to the prevalence it has now.

As an example one of my most frequented online stores, Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, still uses Yahoo! Shopping to power their cart.  As retail is just a small arm of the View Askew operation, they have relied on this solution to get them through the bare bones online shopping experience.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Free Toolsday for July 22nd

Posted on Jul 22, 2008 in Marketing, Social Media, Tools |

A great tool for anyone looking for a little scratch is Brickfish.  Brickfish presents contests in a part web 2.0 part social media environment. For example, tell them how you make your summer sizzle and you could win $500!

There are tons of contests in different categories, and for the most part – the most creative wins!  They also reward those with the most viral exposure, taking viral marketing to a whole new level! This is a great tool to show off your creativity and possibly win a prize.  Brickfish also offers handy widgets and voting tools for contestants to get the word out on their entries.  Users of the community vote, and anyone who wishes to vote has to join the community.

For any businesses out there that want to sponsor a contest, rates vary depending on the campaign.  Variables include size, goals, purpose, etc.  The great staff in the marketing and business development departments can give you an estimate if you e-mail them at info@brickfish.com.

Check it out today!

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Online Marketing Glossary: Listing

Posted on Jul 22, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing |

Listing:

  • The information that appears on a search engine’s results page in response to a search.

This is basically just the ad unit if it’s a sponsored link or the relevant portion of the website for organic links.  Much weight is put on the position of the listing since most users click on the organic listings Non sponsored) first.  As well, most needs are met within the first 3-5 links, making any listing position lower than that significantly less effective.  Highlighted in the image below is an example of a listing.

listing example

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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Firefox Fail

Posted on Jul 21, 2008 in Career |

cheese failHas anyone else been having this issue?  All day I’ve been typing url’s into the address bar of my browser (Firefox 3) and hitting the “Enter” key like usual only to have nothing happen.  I’ve clicked the green arrow in the right side of the address bar to “Go” and again, nothing happens.  It’s as if the icon isn’t even a hyperlink.  I hover the mouse over and pause to see the arrow change to a darker shade of green and click…nothing.

Not even the auto fill is working to use in the address bar.  Yet, the Google Search bar is working just fine, so I’ve been browsing through Google all day.

So, anyone else experienced this?  Is it a sudden glitch between Windows 2000 Pro and Firefox 3 not playing nicely?  It’s worked since FF3 came out… so why the bummer now?

If you know, share!  Please?

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Online Marketing Glossary: Parasite

Posted on Jul 21, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing |

Parasite:

  • Software that works on a person’s computer, typically without their knowledge or consent and without a visible interface.  It can include software that’s installed along with another application.

glossary bookParasites are pretty universally looked down upon amongst white-hat, legit affiliate marketers.  Recently there was a class-action lawsuit against Commission Junction for allowing affiliates using parasitic software to continue earning commissions, so this is serious business.  More specific types of software that tend to fall under this category are malware, spyware, and adware.

Whenever you’re installing a program you’ve downloaded from the internet, always pay attention and look into the Custom Installation options to see what unnecessary features or secondary programs might be automatically installed onto your computer.    I also periodically take a look at my list of installed programs through my Control Panel to make sure nothing that I don’t recognize got past me.  For Mac users check the /Applications/ folder.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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