Photo by Carlos Zaragoza via stock.xchg

In light of this, we'd like to help publishers like you demystify these terms so you can make the best advertising revenue decisions for your blog. Here are some of the most commonly used terms in online marketing:

Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing is a web-based revenue sharing practice between advertisers/merchants (affiliate merchants) and online publishers, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model. In a traditional affiliate network the merchant usually has a direct relationship with the publisher.

CPA -- cost-per-action. Also known as pay for performance, CPA is an effective way for merchants to select how they want to pay for their advertising -- by click, impression, sale or other variable. Like traditional affiliate marketing, CPA payouts are based on cost-per-action, where you get paid for leads you generate to their site that perform a specific action.

In a CPA network, the merchant communicates to publishers through the network and does not have direct contact with their affiliates. They also tend to have very transparent metrics with extensive lists of CPCs for search terms.

CPC -- cost-per-click. CPC programs are mostly successful in content-rich websites and blogs. The model is based on the amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other Internet publishers for a single click on its advertisements that brings one one visitor to its website.

CPC and CPM advertising is typically viewed as being about brand awareness. Brand conscious advertisers only interested in getting exposure will pay a high profile publisher for impressions or clicks with little regard for their return or investment.

CPM -- cost-per-thousand-impression. An impression is a single instance of an ad appearing on a website. In CPM ad networks, advertisers pay for the amount of traffic that simply view a web page with an advertisement or a pop-up or pop under ad. While CPM does not pay as well as other types of monetization strategies it fits large publishers needs quite well. If you're running a highly trafficked site, the bulk of impressions can easily translate low-paying CPM ads into a profitable revenue stream.

PPC -- pay-per-click, Also known as, pay-per lead or pay-per-sale. PPC implements the affiliate model, offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of revenue) to affiliated partner sites.

Have any other online marketing terms that need explaining? Let us know in the comments!

There has been a lot of internet chatter about the effectiveness of web advertising . Brick and morter agencies and their sexier younger digital counter types are still scratching their heads trying to figure out the best approach to branding, product recognition and monetization.

The manpower behind Facebook and Twitter still haven't figured out how to monetize their traffic despite their billion-dollar valuations. Banners ads are largely ineffective and ignored. It also doesn't help that they are often show ads that are completely unrelated to the publisher content.

Mac McKinley has a great post on social media sites might approach the advertising dilemma. He believes clever, well-produced video ads will deliver the best results.

Video and/or clever animation is where it’s at. Being able to quickly opt out of any web video should be mandatory. If a product ad isn’t compelling enough to make its potential customers want to watch, then the viewer should be able to click it away. On the other hand, if it is good enough to bring you back several times, then the production will be well worth the investment.

Continue reading here.

What are your thoughts? What innovations would you like to see for meaningful internet advertising?

Last week Mashable highlighted Ping-O-Matic’s new feature Publicize which allows you to instantly post your entries to your Twitter feed. Unlike TwitterFeed another popular plug-in which periodically checks your blog for new updates and posts to Twitter, Publicize is instantaneous and allows for instant feeds.

Increasingly blogs have peppered their looks with “Tweet This,” “Stumble Upon” widgets to attract traffic and hopefully more fans to their content. Of course you can always opt of the service but with many competing voices on the web it seems to be a quick and easy way to reach a wider audience.

1. Twittad is a "social media affinity network" for Twitter advertising. It offers Twitter users anywhere from $2 to $2,000 to post paid endorsements to their accounts. Twittad requires users to disclose the ads by posting a Twittad badge to their profile and including a link to 'spon.in' in their post to indicate that there is a 'sponsorship in update.'

2. Ad.ly automatically sends one tweet to your feed every other day for a week. (Users must explicitly approve these tweets first.) At the end of each Ad.ly tweet, (Ad by http://Ad.ly) appears to let readers know that it is an advertisement. Ad.ly's impressive list of registered publishers includes celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Greg Grunberg, and Nicole Richie.

3. IZEA's SponsoredTweets is another platform that is connecting advertisers with Tweeters. Users set the price they want companies to pay them and then wait for ad offers. SponsoredTweets promises 100% disclosure and belives in "safe, ethical sponsored tweets" through their disclosure engine (below).

All of these ad services are meeting the basic requirements of the FTC's new guidelines. However, their standards of disclosure vary, which may end up confusing the average Twitter user. We wonder whether 140 characters is enough room to accurately notify readers of the message's paid sponsorship. And will filling your Twitter feed with ads turn off followers? What do you think?

The Federal Trade Commission is putting limitations on advertising on social media sites in an attempt to make sure that paid endorsements are fair and transparent. On Monday, the FTC updated its guidelines to specify that bloggers are required to publicly disclose “any material connections” they might have to a brand or product they discuss, even those posted on Twitter and Facebook. While these guidelines are not law, the FTC can bring advertisers and bloggers into court for violating them.

To define what constitutes an "endorsement," the FTC examines factors such as:

-    Whether compensation or a free product/service was provided by an advertiser
-    Previous or future acceptance of products/services from the same or similar advertisers
-    The terms and length of the relationship
-    The value of products/services received

The FTC says that “a consumer who purchases a product with his or her own money and praises it on a personal blog or on an electronic message board will not be deemed to be providing an endorsement.” This means that independent consumers are still allowed to review their brands.

It’s important for all of our publishers to know about the FTC’s new guidelines. To make sure you stay safe and informed, read the full FTC announcement here.

According to The New York Times, dozens of colleges are putting student blogs on their Websites to market themselves to prospective students. The blogs offer first-hand narratives about student life and the college’s culture. Many high school seniors have become loyal followers of blogs at their top choice colleges and can post comments to connect with the authors and other applicants.

M.I.T. is an example of one university that has successfully integrated student blogs into their admissions process. M.I.T. bloggers are paid $10 an hour and write about a variety of topics, including tips for the application process and advice for managing the university’s difficult workload. In September, Snively ’11 devoted one of his blog posts to describing his fall course schedule in an interactive video format (see picture).

To learn more about how M.I.T. and other colleges are utilizing student blogs, check out the full article here!