Glossary
The catalogue uses words a reader may not know.
affiliateappears in its texts 208 times,API182 times,payout32 times. Here they are explained in ordinary words.
The explanations here are ours. They are not platform documents and not quotations: there is no such thing as *the* definition of "reach" — every platform defines it for itself. The platforms' own definitions are on the metrics page, each with a link and a date. Every glossary entry carries a link to the page of the catalogue where the facts on that topic live.
The first occurrence of each of these words on any page of the catalogue is linked to this page — click it and you will land on the right entry.
Money and payouts
The words that stand between "earned" and "received". Between those two events sit a threshold, an identity check and a tax form — and each of them can stop a payout.
Payout
The transfer of what you have earned to your account. Not the same as "earned": between crediting and payout stand a threshold, a waiting period and an identity check. Money can be credited and stay unpaid for months — because the threshold has not been reached.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: the first ninety days
Payout threshold
The amount below which a platform does not transfer money: earnings accumulate until it is reached. Thresholds differ between platforms by tens of times, and it is the first number worth finding out.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: the first ninety days
KYC
"Know your customer" — an identity check before a payout: passport, address, sometimes a selfie and a tax form. It is passed before the money, not after, and in some countries it cannot be passed at all.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: barrier to entry
W-8 and W-9
United States tax forms. A US tax resident fills in the W-9, everyone else the W-8. Without the form a US platform withholds tax at the maximum rate or does not pay at all.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: barrier to entry
Resident and non-resident
A resident is someone a country counts as its own taxpayer (usually by the number of days in the year, not by citizenship). This determines who withholds the tax and at what rate.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: conditions by country
Self-employed (samozanyaty)
A Russian tax regime for income earned without employees. Some platforms and networks pay only against that status or only to a legal entity — that is a term of their contract, not our advice.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: conditions by country
CPM
Cost per thousand impressions. The advertiser pays for the ad having been shown a thousand times — regardless of whether anyone clicked.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: earnings
CPC
Cost per click. Payment happens only when the ad is clicked.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: earnings
CPA
Cost per action: a sign-up, a purchase, an application. What counts as the action is defined by the advertiser, and the advertiser is also the one who credits it.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: earnings
RPM
How much the author receives per thousand views — after the platform's share. Not to be confused with CPM: CPM is paid by the advertiser, RPM is received by the author, and they are different numbers.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: earnings
Revenue share
Payment as a share of revenue rather than a fixed sum: the network or platform keeps a part and gives you the rest. The share and the base it is calculated from are two different things, and the second matters more than the first.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: who the platform pays
Card acquiring
Accepting card payments. Its fee is withheld before the money reaches you, and it is usually not included in the rate the platform announces.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: what you are charged for
Affiliate programmes
A separate language spoken by affiliate networks. It is opaque from the outside and almost nowhere translated.
Affiliate programme
An arrangement in which you are paid for the people you bring or for their purchases. You receive a link carrying your tag; it is used to count who came from you. Terms, time limits and disclosure rules differ from network to network.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: chains
Referral link
An ordinary link with a tag added, by which the affiliate network recognises that a person came from you. The tag lives for a limited time and is usually stored in a cookie.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: chains
Offer
A specific advertiser proposal inside an affiliate network: what to advertise, for which action, and how much is paid. In this catalogue the word means only that.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: chains
Webmaster
In affiliate networks this is what the person placing the advertising is called — that is, you. The word is left over from the time when affiliates were site owners.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: chains
Landing page
The page your link leads to and on which the person performs the required action. In affiliate networks it is arrival on that page that is credited — not the display of an ad.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: chains
Metrics
Four words that sound like synonyms and mean different things. How each platform defines them is on a separate page: the platforms' definitions differ several times over.
Impression
One display of the material on a screen. Not a person and not a view: the same person produces several impressions, and what exactly counts as an impression each platform decides for itself.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: how to read metrics
Reach
How many different people saw the material. Smaller than the number of impressions and almost always smaller than the number of subscribers. The window over which reach is counted differs between platforms — they cannot be compared directly.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: how to read metrics
Engagement
The sum of actions taken with the material: clicks, marks, comments, forwards. What exactly goes into that sum platforms define differently, so percentages are not comparable across platforms.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: how to read metrics
CTR
The share of clicks out of the number of impressions. The number depends on what the platform counts as an impression — and that is its own business.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: how to read metrics
Technical
Words from platform documentation. You do not need to know how they work inside; you need to understand what stands behind the phrase "the service supports the platform".
API
The way one program addresses another. When a service "supports a platform through the API", it does what the platform has officially permitted; when the support does not go through an API, the platform can forbid it at any moment.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: automation
Token
A long string that replaces a password when a program addresses a platform. A token has a lifetime and a set of permitted actions; it can be revoked without changing the password.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: automation
OAuth
The procedure by which you allow an outside service to act on your behalf without handing it your password. The permission is visible in the platform's settings and is revoked in the same place.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: automation
Webhook
A callback: the platform itself tells the service about an event, instead of the service asking constantly. For the reader one thing matters — it works only where the platform can do it.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: automation
Rate limit
How many requests per unit of time a platform accepts from one program. Exceeding it usually ends in access being temporarily blocked rather than in a warning.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: frequency and limits
Cookie
A small record a site leaves in the browser in order to recognise the person on the next visit. In affiliate programmes it is the cookie that holds the tag showing who brought you, and it has an expiry.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: privacy
UTM tag
An addition to a page address by which analytics recognises where a person came from. It is no business of the platform's — it is your own counters that read it.
Embed
Showing someone else's publication on your own page, using a piece of code the platform itself provides. Platforms describe embedding rules separately from publishing rules.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: requirements for material
Platform and rules
What happens to an account and to publications, and what it is called.
Strike
A mark of a violation. Strikes add up: after the first there is usually a warning, after the third a ban. On some platforms a strike expires after a time, on others it does not.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: moderation and appeals
Shadowban
A readers' word, not a platform's: a presumed hidden reduction of impressions without notification. Platforms usually do not publish any such concept, and there is nothing to confirm it with from the outside. We name the word but do not present it as a fact.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: ranking
Verification
Confirmation that an account belongs to whoever it is named after. Requirements and consequences differ between platforms; in some cases payouts are closed off without it.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: barrier to entry
Cross-posting
Publishing one piece of material on several platforms at once. What gets lost in the process — formats, links, mentions — depends on the pair of platforms, not on the service.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: cross-posting
Organic reach
Impressions obtained without payment. It is set against paid promotion; how much of it there will be neither the platform nor we can predict.
Facts on the topic, with sources and dates: ranking
What is not in the glossary. Words that are not in the catalogue: the glossary explains what a reader stumbles over here, not the whole professional dialect. And judgements: "a good CPM" is not a definition but an opinion.
See also: how to read the cards · how to read metrics · where to start