The Internet Real Estate Center's

Dictionary of Internet Marketing Terms

For Internet Marketing Words Beginning with the Letter C

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Cache - This is the action of storing Web files for later reuse so that they can be easily accessed at a later date. When you are browsing the Internet, your Internet browser will store a HTML page code, graphics and multimedia elements in the cache. This way when you return to that particular Web page, the information doesn’t have to be downloaded all over again.

The cache is actually a form of high-speed memory. Your computer sets it aside to store frequently accessed data. The data can then be accessed directly from the hard drive, instead of the Internet server. Accessing the hard drive is a much faster process than accessing a server, so essentially the cache increases the time it takes to view frequently visited pages.

Keep in mind that the cache can build up over time and actually slow down your hard drive. It is advisable to clean out your cache from time to time.

Caching - the storage of Web files for later re-use at a point more quickly accessed by the end user.

Campaign -  All the work you are doing to advertise a particular site, service, or product.

Camtasia - A popular video making software, especially useful for making video of what you are doing on your computer. You can get it from www.techsmith.com

CGI - Common Gateway Interface. Rules which define that way that communication between a Web Server is done. Any software which handles complies with this CGI standard may be a CGI program.

Chat Rooms - These are one of the most popular ways to make connections with real people over the Internet. A chat room is basically an interactive message board that allows live, online conversation for two or more users. When you use a chat room, whatever you type appears in the main screen next to your login name or handle. Other users will appear in the main screen with their messages next to their handles.

Most chat rooms have a specific topic that everyone will discuss. However, other chat rooms are simply for meeting other people. There are some chat rooms that are designed as intricate 3-D environments, where you select an avatar that will represent you in the virtual meeting place.

Click - The action of a user clicking on your ad in the sponsored links or banner ad and going to your site.  When this action occurs your account is charged the bid cost for that click.  Also called a click through.  
 
Click Fraud - Any click that is made on a search term with malicious intent, including the intentional depletion of a competitors pay per click advertising budget or depletion of their daily budget thus eliminating that competitor for the remainder of that day.  This can be done manually by having friends or employees click on competitors ads or by setting up an automated program.  Affiliate programs are also becoming an increasing source of fraud.  Several programs are now available on the market to monitor and spot fraudulent click activity.  

Clickbank - One of the most popular marketplaces that sells and focuses on digital products, e-books, and software, it contains affiliate links to these products to give you the chance to make money. http://www.Clickbank.com

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - a data format used to separate style from structure on Web pages.

Click-Through - the process of clicking through an online advertisement to the advertiser's destination.

Click Through Rate - Click Through Rate (CTR) is a way of measuring the success of a part of an advertising rate.  CTR is established by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad or link by the number of people who saw the ad or link.  In a pay per click advertising campaign this would be the number of clicks by the number of impressions.

ColdFusion Hosting - Web hosting that supports ColdFusion, a web application language introduced by Allaire and currently owned by Macromedia.

Content - The words and information on a web page.  An article in a magazine about home remodeling would contain content on this subject.  The term is used in internet advertising when referring to pay per click ads placed on a content page of a web site.  
 
Content Advertising - A pay per click ad or banner that appears on the content page of another site such as CNN, NY Times or related business web site.   

Conversion - If you have an order form or some kind of sign up page on you site it is possible to track where these orders or sign-ups come from if they are from one of the pay per click engines.  When someone clicks through to your site and fills out a form or orders a product this is called a conversion.  

Conversion Rate - the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. Example – If you’re making 1 sale for every 100 visitors, that’s a 1% conversion ratio.

Conversion Tracking - If you have some kind of order or sign-up form with a confirmation page on your site Yahoo/Overture, Google and Findwhat all provide an easy means of tracking the conversions received from your search terms.   

Cookie - information stored on a user's computer by a Web site so preferences are remembered on future requests.

Copywriting - Copywriting is the act of writing to persuade someone to take an action or to adopt a way of thinking. Copywriting exists everywhere, both offline and online. To improve your copywriting skills, visit here.

CPANEL - Many hosts have you log into a cpanel site to control your files, and site information. Control Panel for hosting.

CPC - Cost Per Click - This is how much you will pay each time someone clicks on your ads, links, or text when using an ad buying program.

Cost Per Acquisition - How much does it cost to get a new customer or client.  If done accurately it should include all costs such as outside management services and

Cost-Per-Action (CPA) - online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.

Cost Per Click (CPC) - the cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.

CPM - cost per thousand impressions.

Crawler - A crawler (also called a spider) is a program that searches the Internet and locates new public resources. These resources can include web documents and other types of files. Crawlers report their finds to an Internet database (called indexing). Each search engine has its own crawler program that crawls the Internet for new material to list on the search engine. Spider technology is necessary because the amount of information being added to the Internet on a daily basis is more than any human team can index.

CSS - Many sites are now being written in css, instead of html. It stands for   cascading style sheets. There are usually many of these that control different parts of the page, and one that brings it all together.

CTR - Click Through Rate.  The average of number of click throughs to you site per number of impressions.  This results in a percentage which is the CTR.  If a term get searched for 1000 times and your site was on the results page every time and your ad was clicked on 100 times this would give a 10% click through rate.

Customer Acquisition Cost - the cost associated with acquiring a new customer.

This Glossary of Internet Marketing Terms is

Courtesy of the Internet Real Estate Center

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