IP Addresses
These outward-facing computers are identified by an IP address which is ideally unique for any individual computer on the planet. The original IP system (IPv4) consists of four numbers between 0 and 255, e.g. 12.144.65.19 and 253.123.67.44, giving 256 possible values for each integer, four times, giving 4,294,967,296 unique values.
This system didn’t plan for such a large internet and so we have outgrown it! So, a new standard called IPv6 was introduced - these addresses look like e.g. 2001:0db8:85a3:0042:1000:8a2e:0370:7334. This system provides 3.4×10^38 unique addresses, thus we are simply not going to run out.
DNS
So these IP addresses point to a server. Cool. But what about the domain names we type into our browser address bars? This is where the domain name system (DNS) comes in.
This system translates readable, human language to IP addresses. It’s basically a phonebook for server IPs. At some point, you will need to purchase a domain name and modify its DNS settings to point to a server. I do a large tutorial on this elsewhere (https://tolocal.com/career/marketing_specialist!).
There are several types of servers internet marketers use. Servers
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) ​- these are servers that run in their own virtual ‘container’ on some server box. Think of it as running multiple instances of some software on one computer. The VPS are all separate from each other but share the same hardware resources.
Depending on the type of VPS technology used, each VPS may have dedicated resources e.g. RAM and CPU usage. Due to their virtual nature, these systems are highly flexible - you can create and destroy them in minutes; scalable - you can expand or reduce their resources on demand; and cheap - many services bill by the hour so you can use them for a day just to test something.
Dedicated Server​ - your own individual server unit, i.e. a computer all to yourself. Dedicated resources, higher performance (usually), more reliable, more expensive. One disadvantage is
that it’s more difficult to scale with demand and you’re unlikely to find an hourly billing system - so they are a larger investment.
Lastly, let’s talk about content distribution networks (CDNs). Think of these as a huge network of thousands, heck even tens of thousands of servers, that are used for delivering static content like images, text, video, and CSS and JavaScript files.
Traffic source.
This could be a paid traffic source or a ‘free’ source of sorts.
By free I mean a source of visitors that receives traffic organically from search engines, Facebook posts/pages, content articles, or from regular followers who visit a site/blog/etc.
Most traffic sources are what we would consider "paid traffic", and this is what this forum focuses on.
Examples include Facebook, Google Adwords, and display advertising.
Generally, you will pay to have banners displayed on these traffic sources, on a per-click or per-impression basis, otherwise known as CPC and CPM, respectively.
An impression is a single delivery of your ad, which usually means a view by a user. Sometimes ads may deliver "below the fold" - the bottom of your browser window, so users will have to scroll down to see them. In this situation it's possible to get an impression without a user physically looking at your banner, hence why "above the fold" inventory is typically higher priced.
When users click on these banners, they will be sent to a URL of your choice - typically that of a tracking system you use.
A tracking system
This isn’t a typical entity or third party business like the other entities described here, but it is an integral part of your marketing campaigns and something which you control.
The Advertiser
When it comes to marketing campaigns at TOLOCAL, the advertiser is the person who owns the offer. This seems counter-intuitive since you are doing the advertising. However, remember, it is the product owner who is advertising their product or service and they are merely using an affiliate network as one means to this end.
The advertiser’s interests generally come first-especially to the affiliate network. This is why you will often be required to send in banners and landing pages for approval. This is to protect the brand of the advertiser by making sure people aren’t advertising their product or service and an unacceptable way.

AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (A design/advertising principle)
AJAX - Asynchronous Javascript and XML (Type of coding that is used to accomplish things on-the-fly without reloading a page, e.g. quick reply to forum posts)
API - Application Programming Interface (These allow things like the Power Editor, PoFPro, etc. to connect to the base services programmatically)
B2B - Business to Business
B2C - Business to Consumer
BIZOPP - Business Opportunity - basically make money online and guru products.
CDN - Content Distribution Network (Servers around the globe that deliver static content such as images, html/css/js files, etc. to your users)
CLV - Customer lifetime value
CMS - Content management system
CPA - Cost per acquisition / action
CPC - Cost per click
CPI - Cost per install (i.e. app download and install triggers the conversion event)
CPL - Cost per lead
CPM - Cost per thousand (usually impressions)
CPV - Cost per view
CVR or CR - Conversion rate
CRM - Customer relationship management
CRO - Conversion rate optimization
CSS - Cascading style sheets (Used to provide styling information for web pages)
CTA - Call to action
CTR - Click-through rate
DNS - Domain Name System
DOI - Double opt-in (user needs to sign up email/details and then click the confirmation link in email message for lead to register)
DSP - Demand-side platform
ECPM - Effective CPM
EPM - Earnings per thousand - I put these two together because they tend to get used interchangeably. A traffic source might want to maximize their earnings per mille, i.e. their EPM. Your eCPM would come from your CPM + any other influencing factors or may be derived from your spend/(impressions/1000) if using a different bidding mode than CPM.
EPC - Earnings per click
ESP - Email service provider
FB – Facebook
FTP - File transfer protocol (the primary way you interact with your server filesystem, i.e. upload/modify files)
GA - Google Analytics
HTML - HyperText Markup Language
HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol
HTTPS - HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
IP - Intellectual property or 'Internet Protocol, e.g. IP address = 123.012.123.078
ISP - Internet service provider
KPI - Key performance indicator
LP - landing page, a webpage that you send traffic to
LTV - Lifetime value
MMO – Make money online (in the context of offer types)
MVT - Multivariate testing
OEM - Original equipment manufacturer
OS - Operating system
PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor
POS - Point of sale
PPC - Pay per click
PPL - Pay per lead
PPV - Pay per view
QS - Quality score (usually Google-related)
ROI - Return on investment (Formula = (revenue - costs) / costs. Break even = 0% ROI. Loss = negative ROI. Spending $100 and making $150 is 50% ROI)
RON - Run of network
RTB - Real-time bidding
S2S - Server-to-server - Used in the context of conversion tracking, viz. postback URLs are a type of server-to-server tracking
SaaS - Software as a service (Software/application platforms that run as a service and generally charge monthly, e.g. hosted P202, ​Voluum​, PMDs, NewRelic, Trello, etc.)
SEM - Search engine marketing
SEO - Search engine optimization
SERP - Search engine results page
SLA - Service level agreement (agreements provided by SaaS and product providers which outline some minimum level of service reliability they will offer and compensation for breaking that, e.g. minimum 99% uptime and for every hour above that 1% you get 10x your hourly service expense refunded)
SMS - Short message service
SOI - Single opt-in (the user just needs to input email address and details into form and submit for lead to register)
SSL - Secure Sockets Layer
SSP - Supply-side platform
TLD - Top-level domain (e.g. .com, .net, .org - these define the 'root' DNS servers that are first contacted when trying to resolve a domain name)
ToS - Terms of service
UI - User interface
URL - Uniform resource locator (specific address for some resource on the internet)
USP - Unique selling proposition
VPS - Virtual Private Server. Similar to a virtual machine. Basically, an entire operating system run inside a virtual container of limited resources on some host computer. A large server might run 10-100 VPS's on it. Think of it as running multiple pieces of software at the same time in Windows or Mac OS X where each piece of software uses RAM/CPU/HDD resources.
VSL - Video sales letter
WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get (used to describe design software where much of the design is visual > code output afterward)

mobile conversion events can be complex and you should always know exactly what constitutes a conversion. Ideally, you should load your affiliate link through an iOS or Android device, while connected to an appropriate VPN (learn how to configure this on your phone), and physically go through the conversion process to check that a conversion event fires successfully.

Don't complain about sending 500 clicks to an offer without any conversions if you haven't even checked things yourself.
This cannot be stressed enough.
CPI - Generally means apps offers that payout for app install. A conversion usually fires on the first app open on the users device.
IVR Flow - Interactive Voice Response - relevant to pay per call campaigns.
MO Flow - User input his mobile number > User receives an SMS > User confirms by replying to SMS > conversion occurs.
MO Flow with Click2SMS - User clicks on banner > User sent to SMS application with the pre-filled confirmation form > User clicks on the confirmation button > conversion occurs.
MO MSISDN Flow - User's mobile number is detected and shown automatically > User sends an SMS according to instructions > Conversion occurs.
MT Flow - User input his mobile number > User receives a pin code > User submits the pin code > Conversion occurs.
MT MSISDN Flow - User's mobile number being detected and shown automatically > User Receives a pin code at his mobile > Submit the pin code on landing page > Conversion occurs.

Most traffic sources will either charge in CPC or CPM. You wouldn't bother recalcuating those, but it can be useful to be able to calculate your CPC from a CPM traffic source, or your CPM from a CPC traffic source.
CPM (Cost Per Mille) is the cost to display an ad 1,000 times to website visitors. CPM = CPC x CTR x 10

If your CPC is $0.50 and your CTR is 1%, your CPM = = $0.5 x 1 x 10
= $5
CPC (Cost Per Click) is the cost to get a single visitor to click on an ad. CPC = CPM / ( CTR *10 )
If your CPM is $5 and your CTR is 1%, your CPC = = $5 / (1*10)
= $5 / 10
= $0.50.

CTR (Clickthrough Rate) is the number of website visitors who click on an ad, expressed as a percentage.
CTR = 100 x number of clicks / number of views.
If you had 10 clicks and 10,000 views, your CTR = 100 x10 /10,000
= 1000 / 10,000
= 0.1%
CTR = CPM / ( CPC*10 )
If your CPM is $5 and your CPC is $0.5, your CTR = $5 / ($.5 x 10)
= $5 / $5
= 1%

Offer Math
CVR (Conversion Rate) is the percentage of people who clicked onto the offer who subsequently convert (take an action, like downloading an app)
CVR = (Number of conversions / number of visitors) x 100.
If you had 5 conversions and 100 visitors, your CVR = (5/100) x 100
= 0.05 x 100
= 5%.

EPC (Earnings Per Click) is the amount you earn per click on an ad. EPC = Payout x CVR / 100
If your payout is $2 and your CVR is 5%, your EPC = $2 x $5 /100
= $10 / 100
= $0.10

CPA (Cost Per Action) is the amount that it costs to get a user to perform an action, such as download.
CPA = CPC x 100 / CVR
If your CPC is $0.20 and your CVR is 5%, your CPA = $0.20 x 100 / 5
= $20 / 5
= $4

eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mille) is the amount you earn per thousand views of an ad. eCPM = CTR x CVR x payout / 10
If your CTR is 1%, your CVR is 5%, and your payout is $2, your eCPM is = 1 x 5 x $2 /10
= $10 / 10
= $1

Profitability Math
Profit / Loss is the amount of money you make from a given ad or campaign. If positive, it's called "profit", if negative, it's called "loss".
Profit = ( EPC - CPC ) x total spend on ads / CPC
If you spend $100 on a campaign whose EPC is $0.10 and whose CPC is $0.20, your profit/loss = ( $0.10 - $0.20 ) x $100 / $0.20
= -$0.10 x $100 / $0.20
= -$10 / $0.20
= -$50

In other words, you will lose $50.
Profit = (eCPM - CPM) x total spend on ads / CPM.
If you spend $100 on a campaign whose eCPM is $10 and whose CPM is $5, your profit will be = ( $10 - $5 ) x $100 / $5
= $5 x $100 / $5
= $100 .

In other words, you will make $100.
Profit = (payout - CPA) x total spend on ads / CPA.
If you spend $100 on a campaign whose payout is $2 and whose CPA is $1, your profit will be = ( $2 - $1 ) x $100 / $1
= $1 x $100 / $1
= $100 .

In other words, you will make $100. Profit = ROI x Spend /100
If you have a campaign which has 300% ROI but a maximum spend of $5 a day, you will make = 300 x 5 /100
= $15
a day from it.

ROI (Return On Investment) is the percentage of your initial spend you expect to see as profit.
Important: high ROI is not valuable on its own. Only if high ROI can be paired with enough spend to create a good profit is it valuable.

ROI = ( EPC - CPC ) x 100 / CPC
If your EPC is $0.10 and your CPC is $0.20, your ROI = ($0.10 - $0.20) x 100 / $0.20
= -10 / 0.2
= -50%.
In other words, you will lose half the money you invest in this campaign. ROI = (eCPM - CPM) x 100 / CPM.
If your eCPM is $10 and your CPM is $5, your ROI = (10-5) x 100 / 5
= 500 / 5
= 100%.

In other words, you will make as much money again as you put into this campaign. ROI = (payout - CPA) x 100 / CPA.
If your payout is $2 and your CPA is $1, your ROI = (2-1)x100/1
= 1x100
= 100%