Aplus.net Blog

You know what SEO is, and you know what an affiliate program is (at least, you should!) … but do you know what the word choreography means, in eCommerce terms?  How about orchestration? Do you know what a long tail is, and how it can help you perfect your marketing strategies?

Forbes, working in conjunction with O’Reilly Media, recently ran a series of highly informative articles aimed at small and online businesses who need to get acquainted with the terms and concepts that fuel online commerce. The centerpiece is the Top 25 e-Commerce Tech Terms You Should Know, which outlines the 25 most important e-Commerce concepts that every aspiring online entrepreneur needs to get familiar with.

And this is an article that lives up to its name. Some of the terms outlined are relatively common (SOAP, Phishing). Others are downright obscure, at least to the novice (BPEL; UBL; WSDL). But even if your business is too small to really have a use for federated identity, you’ll want to know what that concept means to best understand your competition.

All those acronyms may seem intimidating at first, but, “if entrepreneurs want to achieve operational excellence while keeping technology investment in check,” as the article states, “they have to be able to at least speak the language. And you don’t have to know how to get down and dirty with computer code to understand the implications these issues have on strategy and budgeting.”

The Forbes / O’Reilly Media team have also put together lists on 23 Tech Security Terms You Should Know, 30 Social Networking Terms You Should Know, Your Small-Office Shopping List, and 16 Solid Small-Biz Web Site Design Tips. They’re all excellent resources for business owners and managers, and they’re all free. Take some time to read through them, and take another step towards mastering the art of Internet business.