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Cache: Download information and store in memory for future use.

Call to action: A marketing and sales device that tells the customer how to take the next step towards a purchase or execute an activity; often uses an imperative verb.

Cannibalization: Decreased in sales of one or more products in a line, when a new product is released.

Category development index (CDI): A comparison of the percent of sales of a product category in a market, to the percent of population in that market.

Cease-and-desist order: An order by the Federal Trade Commission requiring an advertiser to stop running a deceptive or unfair advertisement, campaign, or claim.

Centerless network: Network architecture that uses a redundant design so that multiple nodes remain running even if one becomes inoperative.

C-to-C: Abbreviation for consumer-to-consumer commerce; that is, commerce with no middle business people The most notable examples are Web-based auction and classified as sites. Most large venues for such models (for example, eBay and Classifieds2000) are quickly permeated by consumers who participate so actively and regularly that they become small businesses for them. The presence of these quasi-consumers and the obvious businesses that sell through these sites blurs the distinction between b-to-C and pure C-to-C.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. Web programming method that turns non-Web information into a Web document on the fly and vice versa. Used for interactive online elements such as registration forms.

Channels of distribution: The routes used by a company to distribute its products, e.g., through wholesalers, retailers, mail order, etc.

Checkstand: A web software program that reviews and totals prices for items in a shopping cart, adds shipping and taxes, and arranges for customer payment.

Churn: Negative term referring to constantly searching out new customers to replace lost customers. A costly and inefficient way to run a business.

C/I ratio: Abbreviation for clicks per impression, or more commonly, click-though rate.

Classifieds: Short text advertisements organized by category.

Click: According to ad industry recommended guidelines from FAST, a click is "when a visitor interacts with an advertisement." This does not apparently mean simply interacting with a rich media ad, but actually clicking on it so that the visitor is headed toward the advertiser's destination. (It also does not mean that the visitor actually waits to fully arrive at the destination, but just that the visitor started going there.)

Click-and-mortar: Business models that are hybrid between Web-based and traditional (brick-and-mortar) business models. The term is attributed to David Pottruck, co-CEO of Charles Schwab, a firm whose Web services are tightly integrated with its traditional, physical, customer service-oriented offices.

Click stream: A click stream is a recorded path of the pages a user requested in going through one or more Web sites. Click stream information can help Web site owners understand how visitors are using their site and which pages are getting the most use. It can help advertisers understand how users get to the client's pages, what pages they look at, and how they go about ordering a product.

Clickthrough: A clickthrough is what the sponsoring site as a result of an ad click counts. In practice, click and clickthrough tend to be used interchangeably. A clickthrough, however, seems to imply that the user actually received the page. Some advertisers are willing to pay only for clickthroughs rather than for ad impressions.

Click rate: The click rate is the percentage of ad views that resulted in clickthroughs. Although there is visibility and branding value in ad views that don't result in a clickthrough, this value is difficult to measure. A clickthrough has several values: it's an indication of the ad's effectiveness and it results in the viewer getting to the advertiser's Web site where other messages can be provided. A new approach is for a click to result not in a link to another site but to an immediate product order window. What a successful click rate is depends on a number of factors, such as: the campaign objectives, how enticing the banner message is, how explicit the message is (a message that is complete within the banner may be less apt to be clicked), audience/message matching, how new the banner is, how often it is displayed to the same user, and so forth. In general, click rates for high-repeat, branding banners vary from 0.15 to 1%. Ads with provocative, mysterious, or other compelling content can induce click rates ranging from 1 to 5% and sometimes higher. The click rate for a given ad tends to diminish with repeated exposure.

Client: The ad agency's term for the advertisers it represents.

Clip: A bundle of links created and managed in Clip2.com, any of which can be a link to affiliated products or service.

Closed loop reporting: Measuring the achievement of goals beyond simple click-though- orders leads, etc. that are generated from specific banners on specific sites.

CO-brand: Include two or more brand names in extended promotional activities to encourage viewers to associate the two.

Code: On the Web, typically refers to HTML code (though programming purists point out that HTML does not compile and is therefore merely a markup language, not true code.) Affiliate solutions providers have online tools that provide affiliates with the lines of code they need to add affiliate links to their Web pages and/or clips. Affiliates can simply copy the appropriate code and paste it into their on HTML pages.

Collectibles: A type of premium that consumers may desire to have as a part of a greater collection of similar goods.

CO-location: Provide a secure physical locations for a business' server hardware. Typical CO-location services include dedicated Internet connections and protection from power outages, fire and other disasters.

Commission: The compensation paid to affiliates for participation in a merchant's affiliate program. Commission rates vary from merchant to merchant. Technically, flat fees are a form of commission, but most affiliate programs use the word commission to refer to compensations based on a percentage of the sales price.

Commission-based program: A program that pays a predetermined percentage commission on the revenue generated by the sale of a product or service to a visitor who came from the referring affiliate's site.

Community: Creating a feeling of loyalty among customers and prospects by permitting them to shore information with each other through chat rooms or moderated discussion groups.

Comparative advertising: An advertising appeal that consists of explicitly comparing one product brand to a competitive brand.

Comparison-price model: Allows customers to search a variety of merchants and find a desired product or service at the lowest price.

Competition-oriented pricing: A pricing strategy that is based upon what the competition does.

Competitive parity: A method of determining an advertising budget, designed to maintain the current "share of voice."

Comprehensive layout: A rough layout of an ad designed for presentation only, but so detailed as to appear very much like the finished ad will look.

Comps: Preliminary designs for a graphic or Web presentation.

Computer Network: Two or more computers connected together to share resources.

Computer usage compliance survey: Allow business owners to create a custom user's policy to define how the company will monitor Web surfing, e-mailing, visits to restricted sites, downloading of inappropriate images and use of encryption.

Concatenate: Chain together in a sequence.

Consent order: Also called a consent decree, this is a Federal Trade Commission order, by which an advertiser agrees to make changes in an advertisement or campaign, without the need for a legal hearing.

Consumer advertising: Advertising directed at a person who will actually use the product for his or her own benefit, rather than to a business or dealer.

Consumer behavior: Study of how people behave when obtaining, using, and disposing of products (and services).

Consumer jury test: A method of testing advertisements that involves asking consumers to compare, rank, and otherwise evaluate the ads.

Consumer profile: Collected personal information on a consumer, usually for marketing purposes.

Consumer stimulants: Promotional efforts designed to stimulate short-term purchasing behavior. Coupons, premiums, and samples are examples of consumer stimulants.

Consumerism: Advocating the rights of consumers, as against the efforts of advertisers, (2) the emphasis of advertising and marketing efforts toward creating consumers. These two definitions are almost opposite in meaning, but the former is commonly used today, while the latter was common prior to the 1970s.

Container premium: Special product packaging, where the package itself acts as a premium of value to the consumer.

Content delivery service: Manages, updates, and distributes Web site content.

Content manager: Frequent and efficient updating of Web site content.

Continuity: Scheduling advertisements to appear at regular intervals over a period of time.

Continuous advertising: Scheduling advertisements to appear regularly, even during times when consumers are not likely to purchase the product or service, so that consumers are constantly reminded of the brand.

Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors to a merchant's site who actually make a purchase during that visit. High conversion rates suggest high-quality or prequalified shoppers, those more likely to buy, as opposed to random visitors. Providing helpful information alongside affiliate links (such as reviews of the products) tends to weed out the uninterested, while motivating the interested to chick through to the merchant to buy.

Co-op dollars: Advertising subsidy in which a manufacturer underwrites some of the promotional cost incurred by its retailers or distributors.

Copy testing: Research to determine an ad's effectiveness, based on consumer responses to the ad.

Copyright: The protection given to the author of an original piece, including "literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works," whether the work has been published or not.

Core fair information practices: Established by the Federal Trade Commission regarding online marketing tactics that involve using consumer information.

Corporate advertising campaign: A campaign that promotes a corporation, rather than a product or service sold by that corporation.

Corrective advertising: Advertisements or messages within advertisements that the Federal Trade Commission orders a company to run, for the purpose of correcting consumers' mistaken impressions created by prior advertising.

Cost efficiency : or a media schedule, refers to the relative balance of effectively meeting reach and frequency goals at the lowest price.

Cost-per-action: Cost-per-action is what an advertiser pays for each visitor that takes some specifically defined action in response to an ad beyond simply clicking on it. For example, a visitor might visit an advertiser's site and request to be subscribing to their newsletter.

Cost-per-lead: This is a more specific form of cost-per-action in which a visitor provides enough information at the advertiser's site (or in interaction with a rich media ad) to be used as a sales lead. Note that you can estimate cost-per-lead regardless of how you pay for the ad (in other words, buying on a pay-per-lead basis is not required to calculate the cost-per-lead).

Cost-per-sale: Sites that sell products directly from their Web site or can otherwise determine sales generated as the result of an advertising sales lead can calculate the cost-per-sale of Web advertising.

Counter: A program that a Web site uses to count the number of visits to a Web page.

CPM: CPM is "cost per thousand" ad impressions, an industry standard measure for selling ads on Web sites. This measure is taken from print advertising. The "M" has nothing to do with "mega" or million. It's taken from the Roman numeral for "thousand."

CPTM: CPTM is "cost per thousand targeted" ad impressions, apparently implying that the audience you're selling is targeted to particular demographics.

(The) Creative: Ad agencies and buyers often refer to ad banners and other forms of created advertising as ""the creative." Since the creative requires creative inspiration and skill that may come from a third party, it often doesn't arrive until late in the preparation for a new campaign launch.CRM: Customer relationship management. A generic term that means to build long-term customer relationships by offing incentives for customers to remain loyal instead of taking their business elsewhere.

Cross-marketing: Creating marketing incentives in partnership with other no competing businesses.

Cross-media advertising: Uses a combination of rich media and traditional advertising forms to execute an advertising campaign.

Cross-sell: To recommend or display related or additional products to a customer who has already exhibited interest in a particular product type. Examples include: a grocery store displaying salsa next to chips; and the Travelocity site offering the option to rent a car to somebody who just purchased an airline ticket online.

Customer acquisition: Additional sales, which can result from having affiliates.

Customer development cycle: Refers to the five stages that define the relationship between a business and its customers and prospects.

Customer lifetime value: A measure of customer loyalty based on customer revenue or profits a customer generated over the length of the customer relationship rather than a single time period.

Customer registration: Requiring visitors to fill out a form with personal information that is used to create a profile.

Customer retention: The philosophy of treating customers so well that they lack any reason to go anywhere else. The philosophy of building your business on the basis of repeat sales, past customers, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Cyber squatting: The illegal practice of registering someone else's trademarked, service-marked, or personal URL with intention of resale.