Glossary
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms this site uses — business models, freelancing, affiliate marketing, blogging, AI, e-commerce, creators and finance basics.
Search the glossary
Type a word to filter the terms below, or choose a category. The full list stays on this page — filtering only hides what does not match.
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Business Models
Affiliate marketing
Recommending a product and earning a commission when someone buys through your tracked link.
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Business Models
Dropshipping
Selling a product without holding stock: a supplier ships directly to your customer after an order.
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Business Models
Print on demand
Printing a design onto a product only after a customer orders it, so no stock is held.
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Business Models
Digital product
A product delivered as a file or an account — an ebook, a template, a course — with no physical shipping.
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Business Models
Passive income
Income that continues after the setup work is done. It is never passive at the start: the setup work is the cost.
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Freelancing
Freelancer
A self-employed person who sells a skill directly to clients, usually per project or per hour.
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Freelancing
Gig
A single freelance job or project, usually short and clearly defined.
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Freelancing
Portfolio
A collection of sample work that proves a freelancer’s skill to a potential client.
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Freelancing
Proposal
A written offer to a client explaining how you will do the job, for how much, and by when.
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Freelancing
Retainer
An agreement where a client pays a regular fee for ongoing work, instead of per project.
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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate link
A tracked link that identifies you as the referrer when someone clicks and buys.
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Affiliate Marketing
Commission
The payment an affiliate earns when a referred visitor buys, usually a percentage of the sale.
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Affiliate Marketing
EPC
Earnings per click: how much each visitor to an affiliate page is worth on average. The number that decides whether a page pays.
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Affiliate Marketing
Cookie window
The period after a click during which a purchase still counts as yours. Also called an attribution window.
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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate network
A platform that connects affiliates with merchants, tracks clicks and sales, and handles payouts.
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Blogging and SEO
Keyword research
Finding the words and questions people actually search for, before writing a page to answer them.
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Blogging and SEO
Search intent
What the searcher actually wants: to learn, to find a site, to compare, or to buy.
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Blogging and SEO
Backlink
A link from one site to another. Search engines treat it as a vote of confidence — but only from a real, relevant page.
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Blogging and SEO
Meta description
The short summary that can appear under a page’s title in search results. It describes the page; it does not decide the ranking.
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Blogging and SEO
Organic traffic
Visitors who arrive from search results without the site paying for the click.
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AI Business
AI agent
Software that carries out a multi-step task with some independence — for example, triaging an inbox — under human supervision.
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AI Business
Workflow automation
Software that carries out a repeated sequence of steps automatically, such as moving data between tools.
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AI Business
Prompt
The instruction given to an AI tool. A clear prompt names the task, the audience and the format wanted.
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AI Business
Large language model
An AI system trained on text that can draft, summarise and answer questions. It can be wrong, so its output needs checking.
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AI Business
Chatbot
A program that answers questions in conversation, often used for customer support on a website.
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E-commerce
Conversion rate
The share of visitors who take a wanted action, such as buying — usually shown as a percentage.
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E-commerce
Checkout
The final steps of a purchase: details, payment and confirmation.
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E-commerce
Fulfilment
Getting an ordered product to the customer: picking, packing, shipping and handling returns.
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E-commerce
Shopping cart
The temporary list of products a visitor has chosen to buy, before checkout.
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E-commerce
Storefront
The public face of an online store: the pages a customer browses before buying.
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Creator Economy
Creator
A person who publishes content — video, writing, audio or images — and earns from the audience it builds.
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Creator Economy
Monetisation
Turning an audience or a skill into income: through ads, affiliates, sponsorships or products.
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Creator Economy
Sponsorship
A paid arrangement where a creator features a brand, disclosed as advertising.
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Creator Economy
Subscriber
A person who follows a creator’s channel or list to receive new content.
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Creator Economy
Watch time
The total time viewers spend watching a channel’s videos. Platforms use it to judge whether a channel qualifies for monetisation.
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Finance Basics
Revenue
All the money a business takes in from sales, before any costs are taken out.
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Finance Basics
Profit
What remains after all costs are taken out of revenue. Price minus product cost alone is not profit.
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Finance Basics
Margin
Profit as a share of the selling price, usually a percentage. Gross margin ignores some costs; net margin counts them all.
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Finance Basics
Markup vs margin
Two ways of describing the same profit: margin is profit as a share of the selling price, markup is the increase over the cost price.
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Finance Basics
ROI
Return on investment: what you gained compared with what you spent, as a percentage.
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Finance Basics
CAC
Customer acquisition cost: what it costs, on average, to win one new customer.
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Finance Basics
RPM
Revenue per mille: how much a thousand page views earn, usually from advertising.
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Finance Basics
LTV
Lifetime value: what a customer is worth to a business over the whole relationship.
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Finance Basics
ROAS
Return on ad spend: how much revenue each unit of advertising spend brings back.
About this glossary
These are the terms the site’s guides actually use, defined once, plainly, in one place. A term gets its own full page only when it needs a longer explanation than a definition — for example, a term with a worked example and links to several guides. Until then, it lives here in the searchable index. The glossary grows with the content: new terms are added when a new guide introduces them, and never bulk-generated.
Three terms readers often confuse: margin and markup are not the same thing — margin is profit as a share of the selling price, markup is the increase over cost. Commission and earnings per click are not the same either — a high commission on a product nobody buys is worth less than a modest commission on a product many buy. And passive income is not income without work: it is income after the setup work is done.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Margin is profit as a share of the selling price; markup is the increase over the cost price. A product that costs 60 and sells for 100 has a 40 percent margin and a 67 percent markup. Confusing the two is one of the most common pricing mistakes.
What is EPC and why does it matter?
EPC is earnings per click — how much each visitor to an affiliate page is worth on average. It matters more than the commission percentage, because a high percentage on a product nobody buys earns nothing, while a modest percentage on a product many buy can pay well.
What is a cookie window?
The period after a click during which a purchase still counts as yours. If the window is 30 days and the buyer returns on day 20, you still earn the commission. If they return on day 31, you do not.
Will every term get its own page?
No. A term gets its own page only when it needs a longer explanation — a worked example and links to several guides. Most terms are best served by a clear definition here.