When you are just getting started in online marketing, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all the terms flying around. There is plenty of free help available from hundreds of marketers, but until you understand the basic terminology you’re bound to feel overwhelmed. Here is a list of some of the common IM (Internet Marketing) terms and a brief description of what they mean.

• Internet Marketing- Using the Internet to sell products and services with a website, blog sales pages or other methods.
• SEO – Search Engine Optimization – SEO is a method of strategically placing certain keywords throughout your articles, websites, blog and other content so the search engines will find them and move your website listing to the top of the SERPs.
• SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages- The pages the search engines (like Google, Yahoo and MSN) use to list the results of a search
• Keywords – Keywords are the individual words and phrases that people use to search for your products or services
• PPC or Pay-Per-Click- This is a type of advertising where you are charged for the ad only when someone clicks on the link with their mouse.
• Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is when you sell someone else’s product by referring people to their website. Affiliates are paid a percentage of the sales price of each product they sell by referral. You can build an entire business on affiliate marketing, making money without ever having your own product.
• Article marketing- Article marketing involves promoting your website and products through writing informative articles about them and distributing them across the Internet, primarily through article directories.
• Article directories- Article directories are sites that house thousands of articles on thousands of topics. People can use the articles in directories for informational purposes only or as free content on their own sites. Articles in article directories contain a resource box with the name of the author and a link to their website.
• Social media- Social media includes sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as blogs and forums. People use social media sites to develop relationships with potential clients and prospects, increasing their sales by building trust through relationship.
• WordPress – WordPress is a popular software used for blogging. WordPress is free to use, although most marketers choose to host the blog on their own domain, which involves a monthly fee.
• Hosting- Hosting refers to providing storage of a website on the Internet. Hosting companies provide the ability to publish your website or blog on the Internet in exchange for a fee.
• Domain – Your domain is the name of your site- the www.yournamehere.com part of your website. The domain serves as the virtual address of your website.