CLICK-THROUGH Occurs when a visitor clicks an affiliate link and is taken to the associated e-commerce site. A purchase may or may not follow. COMMISSION Incentive that an affiliate receives from a merchant for generating traffic, leads, clicks or sales through its site. COMMISSION METHOD The payment method merchants use as the basis for affiliate commissions. Some examples of commission methods are Cost-per-Click (CPC), Cost-per-Lead (CPL), and Cost-per-Sale (CPS). CONVERSION Occurs when a visitor clicks through an affiliate link and makes a purchase from a merchant. COOKIES Very small files that store information about a visitor. A website stores cookies on the visitor's computer so that the website can remember something about the visitor at a later time. A cookie cannot include any information that the visitor does not provide. Cookies cannot access or read other files on the visitor's hard drive or be used as viruses. They reduce the amount of work that a visitor would ordinarily have to perform, such as repeatedly entering information into fields. CPC (Cost per Click) CPC stands for cost per click(through) and refers to the cost incurred in getting one person to click on an advertisement (banner, text or other form of advertising) and going to the site referenced by the link. The term CPC arises in a number of contexts in both web advertising and affiliate circles. An affiliate program that pays on a CPC basis will pay a small amount for each clickthrough (essentially, each visitor) delivered to the target site via an affiliate link. Some search engines offer advertising paid for on a per-click basis - these are called Pay Per Click search engines. CPL (Cost per Lead) A commission method that allows a merchant to pay its affiliates a flat rate for every qualified customer lead generated from a link on the affiliate's site. CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions) CPM stands for cost per thousand (think of the Roman numeral "M", which means "thousand") and is usually used as a measure of the cost of displaying 1,000 advertisements of any kind (banners, text ads or any other form of ad that can be tracked). For example, a CPM rate of $10 for banner ads means that it will cost $10 to purchase 1,000 banner ad impressions. CPM is also a useful metric to use when normalizing the revenue potential of two affiliate programs with completely different commissions and conversion rates; by calculating the value of each affiliate program on a notional CPM basis (in this specific case, income per 1,000 ad impressions) it is possible to quantify which of two affiliate programs is the more profitable for a given site or page. Affiliate programs themselves rarely pay a straight CPM amount (except in the case of extremely low-paying "filler" campaigns where the affiliate network is seeking to purchase large amounts of ad inventory in bulk.) CPS (Cost per Sale) A commission method that allows a merchant to pay its affiliates a percentage of each completed sales transaction made through its affiliate links. CTR CTR stands for click-through ratio or click-through rate, and refers to the number of ad impressions required to generate a click-through (i.e. to "persuade" a visitor to click on the link referenced by the ad), expressed as a percentage. In other words, if it takes 20 ad impressions to generate one click-through, this represents a CTR of 5%. CUSTOMER A visitor at an affiliate's website who clicks through the affiliate's link and takes an action on the merchant's website. The customer can make a purchase or generate a lead. EPC EPC stands for [average] earnings per (100) clicks. EPC metrics have been touted by many affiliate networks as a method of gauging the relative performance of different affiliate programs and of different ad creatives within each affiliate program. Beware: Some affiliate networks, such as Commission Junction, define EPC as "average earnings per HUNDRED clicks" whereas other affiliate networks, such as FineClicks, define EPC as "average earning per ONE click." It is therefore essential to be sure which definition of EPC is being used in any particular situation, since one EPC measurement scale is 100x the other EPC measurement scale - even though they're both confusingly referred to as "EPC"! EPC can be calculated by dividing the commission earned by the number of clicks required to generate that commission (and then multiplying by 100 if the larger EPC factor is desired). While EPCs can occasionally be a useful measure of a program's likely performance, you still need to do the math each time. FIRST-TIME CUSTOMER COMMISSION An other commission type that allows merchants to award affiliates that bring customers to the merchant's site for the first time. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) The code that is used to create hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. With HTML, the user can specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a World Wide Web browser. HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) The protocol for rendering hypertext files across the Internet. Requires an HTTP client program on one end and an HTTP server program on the other end. HYBRID COMMISSION METHOD A commission option that allows merchants to utilize various methods of compensating affiliates. Examples of hybrid methods would be Cost-per-Sale and Cost-per-Lead, Cost-per-Sale and Cost-per-Click, and Cost-per-Lead and Cost-per-Click. IMAGE A graphic that can be used as part of an affiliate link. Images can be GIFs or JPEGs. IMPRESSION Occurs every time an affiliate link appears in a visitor's browser. It represents an opportunity to buy an online merchant's products or services. Analyzing the number of impressions served, in conjunction with other data, allows affiliates and merchants to assess the effectiveness of the affiliate links. JavaScript™ A client-side scripting language developed by Netscape Communications that brings interactivity to the World Wide Web. Its functionality is primarily aimed at enhanced forms, simple web database front-ends, and navigation enhancements. Java™ A network-oriented programming language invented by Sun Microsystems. It is specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to a computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to a computer or its files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations and calculators. PAGE LINK A link type that, when clicked, leads to a page on a merchant's site. For instance, a merchant could offer a page link to its home page, a "what's new" section, or a "project of the week" page. PAGE VIEWS The estimated number of visited pages within a website. For example, if a website contains 10 pages and an estimated 100 unique visitors per month, the site receives approximately 1000 monthly page views (10x100=1000). TAG An HTML element delimited by opening and closing angle brackets. A coded HTML command used to indicate how part of a web page should be displayed. Affiliates generate tags for affiliate links and place them on their sites. TEXT SEARCH A link type in which affiliates choose the criteria for the search before they generate the tag. This link type is only available to merchants that have search capabilities on their e-commerce sites. TRAFFIC The number of impressions and click-throughs generated from affiliate sites. TRAFFIC-GENERATING SITE An affiliate site that generates at least one impression or one click-through in a given time period, usually a month. TRANSACTION Any process between a visitor and a merchant that involves an order. A transaction can be an order, cancellation, shipment, or return. TWO-TIER PROGRAM A two-tier affiliate program rewards affiliates on two levels, for two different types of action. The first tier represents the "standard" merchant-affiliate relationship, i.e. the affiliate is paid for generating an action such as a lead or sale. The second tier provides for a way to incentivize affiliates into bringing more affiliates on board. Typically, this second tier reward takes the form of an ongoing percentage of the earnings of affiliates that sign up "under" the original affiliate that introduced them to the program. The preponderance of the commission in a two-tier program is generally paid in the first tier (e.g. a 20% commission rate, and a 5% commission on the earnings of recruited affiliates.) Two-tier programs can sometimes be seen to walk a fine line between a straight affiliate relationship (whereby affiliates get paid for generating a sale or lead) and a multi-level-marketing relationship (where affiliates can expect to derive the bulk of their income from the actions of those under them, rather than from sales to end customers.) UNIQUE VISITORS The individual visitors that visit a site. A visitor may visit a site several times a week; however, because it is the same person, it only counts as one unique visitor. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) The web address for a specific site, link, or page. VISITOR A visitor to an affiliate site. If visitors click through and purchase products or services, they become customers of the merchant. WYSIWYG EDITORS What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get web-editing programs are used to create websites. These programs sometimes alter the generated link code after it is pasted into a page. Altering a generated link can cause tracking problems, which prevent affiliates from receiving proper credit for traffic and sales originating from their sites. XML (Extensible Markup Language) A subset of a much larger and enormously complex language called SGML. XML allows users to define tags and create, in effect, a unique markup language. This markup language enables the separation of presentation format from structured data.