Explained terms and expressions

Affiliate Program: Widely spread method of promoting a site, in which the webmaster that promotes a site is rewarded for his efforts: for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer that he provides.

Bandwidth (BW): The amount of data sent through a network connection measured in BPS (bits per second). It's important to look into the limitations of bandwidth when choosing a host whether it is free or paid. The total bandwidth will affect your monthly cost greatly if you choose to use a paid hosting service.

Browsers: The programs that allow us to surf the web. Most commonly used browsers are MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer) and Netscape (Navigator or Communicator). Visit microsoft.com and netscape.net for the current versions. They are free to download.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI): A means for a webserver to pass on information via an application program and to receive data back. Check if a host allows the use of CGI scripts before you sign-up for its services.

Chargeback: What happens when a surfer cancels a sale. Chargebacks will result in cancellation of referral fees paid to the webmaster. If you are the one that sells, you will have to give your customer his money back and, most times, you will pay a fine of about 10-15$ to the third party payment processor in case you use one, or a similar fee to the bank that you use in case you have your own merchant account.

Chat room: A meeting place on the web, where people can ask question and receive information. For instance, IRC (see below) gathers thousands of people all around the globe. They actually become an international community. And they communicate as cheap as possible.

Click-Through Sponsor: This type of sponsor pays you per click rather than per sale. Some sponsors have a set conversion ratio (see definition below) while others simply pay you per raw/unique click.

Content: Anything you offer to your surfers on your site: images, videos, chat rooms, stories, programs etc. For most sites though, content means information in the form of words.

Counter: A program that allows you to know the number of hits to your site. Often it is able to track a number of statistics including: raw vs. return hits, browsers used to view your site, country/location of surfer coming to your site and much more. Some counter programs also count your outgoing traffic to help you track your hits to partnership and other sponsored programs.

Conversion Ratio: The rate of "useful" visits over the total number of visits. You have to be able to determine this to find out how good your salesletter actually is.

Directories: A website that features gathered and categorized information on other websites on the net. Sort of like a search engine but not quite the same, because it only "bookmarks" sites. Also, the sites are hand picked, so only the best of them get to be listed.

Domain Name: The address that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names consist of at least 2 parts. The part on the left is the name of the company, institution, or other organization. The part on the right identifies the highest subdomain. The IP address is translated into the domain name by the DNS.

E.g. amazon.com

Faces - characters that express the mood of the speaker : :)   ;)  =)   :o)   :-)   and the same but with "|" or "(" instead of ")".

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Very useful. You should read them to find out fast if a service is what you need or not. Also, if a visitor to your site might have many questions to ask, you should create a FAQ page and answer most of them there to protect yourself from receiving too many e-mails.

Freeware: Software that is free for use by the internet public. I love it, but beware: some freeware programs, images, utilities are limited for use on Noncommercial sites. As soon as you add a banner to your site you are considered commercial. Make sure you don't violate any terms of use to avoid fines, etc.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): A method of moving your files from your computer to your server to be used on your website or the other way around. There are many freeware and shareware versions of FTP software available. E.g. ftpx.com.

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF): A format for images to be used on the WWW. GIF images (versus JPGs and others) are the only form that can be animated for use in banners, web pages, etc.

Guest Book: A specially designed page that lets a visitor post a few words to mark its visit on the site and let other visitors see it. Encourage your visitors to give you feedback regarding your site!

HTAccess (.htaccess) Hyper Text Access: A form of password protection to be used on HTML files and main server directories.

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML): The standard for encoding webpages in a uniformed fashion. You will need to know at least the basics to be able to call yourself a webmaster. Go to draac.com for a free HTML course.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP): Standard rules for transferring or exchanging files (HTML, video, sounds, images, etc.) on the WWW.

Hyperlink: A link made using HTML coding for webpages used to direct the surfer to a new location or site.

ICQ: An excellent program used to help people communicate in real time (live) on the net. If you don't already have an ICQ account, sign up today: ICQ.com.

Internet Protocol Address (IP Address): The numerical address for your actual website which is translated from your domain address. IE: 148.345.122.163

Internet Relay Chat (IRC (mIRC) ): Another excellent tool used by webmasters to communicate. More than just a chat program, IRC allows you to communicate live in chat rooms. Download your IRC server interface today from either mirc.com, Tucows.com or Download.com.

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN): Digital telecommunications lines with 2 channels that can yield a combined capacity of 128 kbps.

Internet Service Provider (ISP): A host company that provides internet services and resources. There are many ISPs to choose from so you should take time to find the ones that are really good. Check the rules/requirements and make sure you find the type of service needed for your specific site before signing up with an ISP.

Java: A programming language. It is very common in web pages development because it allows the webmaster to post neat add-ons.

Keywords: They are what people post in search engines when they are trying to find something. And they are what webmasters post in the meta tags on their pages, to help search engines find their pages.

Link: In web's language, it means "a link to a site".

LOL: Short for "laughing out loud". I asked some people what this means for them and some said "lots of laughs". Choose for yourself. :o)

Lurker: Someone who reads message boards but rarely - if ever - posts. They show up just to absorb the information shared there rather than become a part of the discussion. That's what I usually do! :o)

Meta tags: Special html tags. Though visitors can't see their content, since all browsers ignore them, it is the search engines that make use of their existence to find out what your site is about.

Newbie: A new webmaster. Learning how to change and adapt with the changing ebbs and flows of business on the internet makes even an experienced webmaster an eternal newbie. You can never finish on learning when it comes to the WWW (or anything that is computer related).

Partner Programs: Another type of sponsorship program to use on your sites. Partnership programs usually pay you a percentage of sign-up and continue to pay you recurring charges for continuing members to their site. Others just pay you a set rate per sign-up. Just like with everything else on the web, make sure you read all the rules and terms before signing up and using a partner program.

Search Engines (SEs): Search engines are the sites that collect the data from the internet so that sites, information and content can be found more easily. Examples of such search engines are Alta Vista, Excite, Google and MSN Search. There are many, many search engines on the internet.

Server Side Include (SSI): A file or value of an environmental variable, that is included in an HTML document, so that information such as last date modified, file size, author etc. can be automatically included.

Shareware: Software that can be used in a trial period (usually a 30 days period). This way, you're able to test them out before you purchase. Good idea to use for your own programs (if you're selling some).

SPAM: An unwanted, obtrusive advertising that gets sent to you via email or is posted on newsgroups or boards is considered SPAM. Email SPAMMING is against most rules set up by sponsorship programs and you can be fined for it or lose your ISP access if complaints are filed against you. To put it short: Don't Spam! Wanna learn more? Visit spam.abuse.net.

Sponsor Programs: They are one of the safest and most common way to make money on the web. You promote and provide a specially coded link to a Paysite from your website. Each time a surfer clicks on this link and goes to the sponsor's site, you stand a chance to make some money.

Universal Resource Locator (URL): An address you use to tell your browser where to find a particular Internet resource. For example http://www.yahoo.com

WTG: Way to go!

WWW: This is short for the World Wide Web... it's that thing we're surfing on!

Webmaster: The person responsible for providing the information, content and programs available at the website. The person that designs the site and maintains it. Often the person that owns the site.