AFFILIATE PROGRAM
A scheme which supports the marketing of a service or product where the marketing operates as revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model.

ALT TAG
The graphics on your page, such as logos, digital photos, clipart or products are not "seen" by most search engines. Search engine programs "read" the file name that the graphic is saved as. By using an ALT tag you can add text to graphics and improve keyword ratios on your page. ALT tags are HTML constructs i.e. you will be able to learn about them if you need to learn HTML or you'll come across the term ALT when you use packages such as Element25 to build your web-site.

ARTICLE BANK
A web site which invites you to contribute articles to their article section.

BANNER ADVERTISING
Placing banners such as the example (trafficswarm) one on this page, can attract more customers as they are more visible than ordinary text links. When you request a link from another site, they may have a selection of banners your can choose from in order that you can link to them. Here is an example of a selection of banners. You can design your own banners using a graphics package such as Xara Webstyle
Once you have your banners, set up a page on your site like the example one and invite people to add your banners to their site. You can also join banner exchange programs for free, to get your banners appearing on websites belonging to people who join the exchange program. We recommend DirectBanners

DOMAIN
The location of an entity on the Internet. There are several levels of a domain i.e. top level (such as .com, .co.uk etc.), second level (e.g. our second level domain is workathomeideas) which relates to the business name, and the third level (www, ww2 etc). (NOTE - make sure your site resolves with or without www).

DOWN-LINE CLUBS
Down line clubs (also known as Referral Building Clubs) are usually free to join. They provide you with your own unique URL and website (or a sort of clone of a standard website). Some allow you to showcase links to other affiliate programs you have joined. Others allow you to join featured affiliate programs through the club. Another possibility is that the club promotes Internet marketing software or other software which you buy to promote your own site. You promote your unique URL in the usual ways (see 'promote your website') and make potentially very good money by building up your down-line. If any new user/person joins, they join with your referral ID'S and you get free referrals. The exact way they work, varies from club to club. Usually they distribute new user ID's to the upline users under a forced matrix i.e. 2x2 or 3x3 etc. They work really well for people without their own web site. Two excellent such clubs that we are aware of are 1) ReferCentral and 2) AffiliateShowcase


KEYWORD / KEYWORD PHRASES
A word (or phrase) used in performing a search. Keywords are used by users of the Internet to describe what they hope to find when searching the Web. When promoting a site, it is important to predict what words your target audience will enter when looking for material similar to your site. By optimising your site for these words and phrases, you increase the chance that these surfers will find your site by virtue of it being ranked high in the search engine results. Trying to optimise your site for common keywords (e.g. cheap flights) is not advisable as the competition is too high. Optimising for more niche keywords is recommended. To determine these keywords, the service provided by WordTracker is ideal.

MLM
Multi-Level Marketing. Multi-level marketing, (a.k.a network marketing), refers to the practice of distributing, selling or supplying products or services through various levels of independent agents. Such agents are paid commissions (and possibly other forms of compensation) in return for selling and/or for recruiting more agents. Compare with pyramid scheme.

OPT-IN EMAIL
permission marketing via e-mail.

PERMISSION MARKETING
Marketing centered around obtaining customer consent to receive information on a specified subject or from a particular company. A.k.a Opt-in Marketing.

PYRAMID SCHEMES
Pyramid schemes take many forms, including chain letters and fake MLM setups. The typical setup for a pyramid scheme is to start with a base level of members who pay to be part of the scheme. These members, in turn, recruit others to pay the joining fee to recruit still more members to join. The pyramid collapses when there are no more recruits and the money has gone to the top members of the pyramid - the originators.

RECIPROCAL LINKING
Linking between two sites, usually resulting from an agreement by the site owners to exchange links.

REFERRAL MARKETING
Linking between two sites, usually resulting from an agreement by the site owners to exchange links.

VIRAL MARKETING
Marketing concept based on the encouragement of people to forward a marketing message to one or more people is a self-perpetuating manner.