Basic terms for beginners

By Diana on Jan 29, 2008 under Blogging

It is very important for you to understand some terms we will use in this blog. If you are a beginner, than this post is the right place for you. This will be an ongoing list which we’ll complete with new terms, as we remember them or as you ask for them.

Blog - the shortcut for web log, is an online journal, created and maintained by one or more people. Blogs are used by people to share information on a topic (or more) they are interested in.
Blogosphere - The entire blogging community worldwide.
Blogger - Person who runs a blog. Blogger is also a web hosting service, but mostly this term is used for a person who runs a blog.

Posts/Entries - Articles you write on your blog.
Blog Carnival - A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community, like a magazine, which collects together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A Blog Carnival has many editions which typically come out on a regular basis. Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editor’s opinions or remarks. You can find more information about blog carnivals right on the Blog Carnival site.
Pingback - Pingback is a method for web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. If you like to know more about pingback, I suggest you to read this Pingback article.
Trackback - Trackback is a way to notify a website when you publish an entry that references it. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking, and so referring, to their articles. For more information about trackback, you can read The ultimate trackback help guide.
RSS Feed - RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.
RSS Aggregator/ Reader - A software used for reading RSS content. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed’s link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.
Page Rank - Google PageRank is a general representation of a website’s popularity; it is primarily based on link popularity. Websites with a high PageRank value will tend to have more traffic and higher positions in search engines (although many other factors are also taken into consideration). It’s an important factor when someone wants to advertise on your blog or when you want to write paid posts.
Alexa traffic Rank - it’s a measure of traffic a website receives from the number of people who visit this website with the Alexa toolbar installed. If you want to read more, see Alexa traffic rank. The smaller Alexa traffic rank is the better. For example google.com has an Alexa Rank of 2. Alexa Traffic Rank is also an important factor if someone wants to advertise on your site. Some of the paid posts programs also use Alexa Rank to measure the ad selling strength.
Social bookmarking website - allow you to save links to web pages that you want to remember and/or share. You can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. Social bookmarking websites are a very good way to drive free traffic to your blog. Some of these Social boogmarking websites also provide a linkback to your blog.
Contextual advertising - Contextual advertising is a type of online advertising commonly used for content-based Web sites. With contextual advertising, targeted ads appear on a Web page based on the page’s actual content. First, a contextual advertising system scans the content of a Web page for keyword phrases. Then, the system returns specific, targeted ads based on the content people are viewing. Contextual ads usually appear in three formats: separate ads that appear in specific areas on a page, inline or in-text contextual ads, or pop-up ads.
PPC - comes from Pay Per Click: an online advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser’s website.
PPM - comes from Pay Per Mille or pay per a thousand of impressions: an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for impressions received.
PPA - comes from Pay Per Action: an online advertising pricing model, where the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement.
CTR - comes from Click-through rate: a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.
EPC - comes from Earnings Per Click: tells you which of the affiliate merchants you’re promoting is performing the best. EPC can be calculated by dividing the commission generated to the number of clicks. For example, if you receive a commission of $10 after sending 100 clicks (visitors) to the merchant, your EPC is $10:100 = $0.1 (10 cents per click)
eCPM - the effective cost-per-thousand impressions (eCPM) is a useful way to compare revenue across different channels and advertising programs. It is calculated by dividing total earnings by the number of impressions in thousands. For example, if a publisher earned $180 from 45,000 impressions, the eCPM would equal $180/45, or $4.00. However, that eCPM is a reporting feature that does not represent the actual amount paid to a publisher.
Affiliate marketing - Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. When you join to an affiliate program, you will receive an affiliate link which you will display on your blog. Every time someone performs an action through this link (buys a product, joins to a program and so on) you will receive a payment.

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