Glossary
If you are an Affiliate Marketing Newbie, there are likely many terms that may have you puzzled, curious, or just plain lost. I am always adding, in as simple language as possible, definitions and explanations for things that affiliate marketers need to know. I hope this Glossary helps… 
(Click the letter links below to find topics alphabetically.)
A B C D E F G H I J K L M . . .
. . . N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Affiliate
Verb: (Pronounced uh-fil-ee-ate)
Connect with, agree to be partners, make a partnership, join a cause, agree to support or promote a person, group of people, organization or business.
Noun: (Pronounced uh-fil-ee-uht)
A person(s) who has agreed to be a partner or supporter of a person, group of people, organization or business. You will become the affiliate for merchants who are trying to sell goods or services, agreeing to help sell those goods or services.
Affiliate Marketing
Creating partnerships with businesses, companies or individual merchants who agree to compensate you (usually with money) for advertising and promoting sales of their products or services. Promoting sales is usually done through placing ads on a web site, or sending emails to prospective customers (never spam, though!). When a sale is made, you earn commission – a percentage of the money earned by the merchant.
B
Brainstorm
Get out your note pad and pencil, or use your “notes” on your phone, and start jotting down ideas. Write everything down that crosses your mind – you can cross it off later. Things to “brainstorm”: choosing a topic for your web site; choosing categories for your email campaign; choosing categories to help people find everything on your web site; choosing keywords to build around; choosing topics for your posts; what to name your new puppy… (?!)
C
Categories
Like file folders in your office, categories help organize your content into specific subjects. Categories should reflect keywords that you think your audience would be likely to search for so that your content may be more easily found.
Content
This is the meat & potatoes of your web site. Content is everything you provide on a page for your web site visitors. It can be a story, research report, a journal entry (a.k.a blog or web log), product description, photos, anything you put on a page of your web site.
Control Panel
Where you go to access your web site database, usually located at your web server. To go to your control panel, type in your web site home url followed by “/cpanel”. For example, if your web site is www.doglovers.com you would type in the following url address: “http://www.doglover.com/cpanel”
D
Domain
A Domain is like a kingdom where a King or Queen reigns. Animals establish territory that is theirs or their group’s domain. A lion’s domain is the area where he hunts and watches over his family. Your domain name stakes claim to your kingdom – a piece of the internet’s world-wide web that is ruled by you!
E
F
G
H
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser. A.K.A. “code” – somewhat complicated, but makes anything possible when editing how your web pages will look.
I
J
K
Keyword(s)
Word or words that a particular topic, post or page is built around. Keywords are words that you want to include in your post/page titles, as well as the post/page content so that search engines can find your post or page more easily. You want your article or post to show up early in the search results so that more people will find you, and therefore bring you more traffic that is looking specifically for your particular topic.
Keyword Research
The investigation of and search for the best word/words to build a page, post, or even a niche around.
L
Launch
Shoot off a rocket! But, relating to business, it’s when you’re ready to announce your arrival to the world, to let them know your product or service or blog is the hottest ticket going! It’s time to create traffic and get folks to pay attention.
Links
A link is what internet users click to take them directly to a different web address, or “URL.” Links can be embedded in text, or disguised in text, rather than as a long url. For instance, clicking the following URL, https://www.affiliatebiz101.com or this disguised text link, “Home” will both take you to the home page of this web site.
M
Merchant
A person, group or business who has a product or service to sell.
Marketing
Making a product or service as attractive and as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
Monetize
To add monetary value to web site content, videos, and emails. Add links for affiliate offers, or Google adsense, or other advertising to blog posts, content articles or even Youtube videos so that you can earn something from your efforts.
N
Niche
I’ve heard it pronounced “neesh” and “nitch” and refers to a specialized topic. It’s the buzzword of affiliate marketing, as in … choosing the right “Niche” for you to market is the first step to building a successful affiliate marketing business. Think of a “niche” as a single brick in a brick wall made out of a large, broad topic. For example: in my step-by-step guide, the brick wall (broad subject) is “music;” the single brick (my “niche”) is “music-themed artwork and decor.”
O
P
Q
R
S
SEO
Search Engine Optimization – This is the process of improving the ranking of a website on Internet search engines. Keywords and phrases are part of the bigger picture that is SEO.
T
U
V
W
Web Hosting
Web hosting is the service that provides storage of all the data that is your web site and allows your web site to connect to the world wide web.