The freelancer glossary

An accelerator is a program in which veteran entrepreneurs guide startup founders through the early stages of founding a company. In exchange, the accelerator receives a portion of the company’s equity.

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy commonly used in B2B marketing. Using this approach, sales and marketing work together to engage high-value businesses or prospects.

Accountants manage financial records for individuals and businesses, assisting with tasks like preparing tax returns, bookkeeping, and preparing profit and loss statements.

An accredited investor is an individual who is allowed to invest in unregulated securities, such as private equity. An accredited investor is determined by his or her annual income and/or net worth.

Adjusted gross income (AGI) refers to your gross income, minus what the IRS calls “adjustments to income.” These include things like student loan interest and contributions to a retirement account.

An advertorial is a type of ad that blends in with the surrounding content. It’s often written for a newspaper or magazine, and intended to promote a brand’s product or views—though it may not be obvious right off the bat.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is a set of writing guidelines for the social science fields. It establishes best practices for creating research papers and related projects.

Analytics refers to the process of identifying trends in data. Companies use analytics to make insightful decisions regarding a product, resources, forecasting, or financials.

Anchor text refers to the words that hyperlinked within an article or webpage. To aid SEO, you’ll want to be deliberate with the anchor text and make sure that it’s highly relevant to the page that it links to.

Annual contract value (ACV) is a metric that shows the average amount of money your company earns per contract in a year. It is calculated by dividing the total contract value by the total number of contracted years.

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) is a metric that sums up a company’s subscription-based revenue for a given year. It is calculated by taking the total annual revenue and subtracting non-recurring revenue from it.

An arbitration clause is a contract provision whereby all parties agree to resolve future issues with a third-party arbitrator instead of a judge and/or jury in court.

An art director creates and supervises the rollout of a visual production. Art directors may create the vision for a film, digital ad, TV commercial, catalog, or magazine.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to a software’s cognitive ability to make decisions without the need for human intervention. AI is often used to accelerate processes that are traditionally performed by humans.

The Associated Press (AP) style of editing is widely used among American journalists today. It provides a consistent way of checking for grammar, punctuation, formatting, and more.

An attorney (aka attorney-at-law) is a lawyer who has passed the bar exam in the state where they are practicing law. Attorneys are licensed to represent their clients in a court of law.

Attribution is the process of giving credit where credit is owed. For example, if you mention in a quote or statistic within your article, you’ll want to attribute the original source.

An audio engineer (aka sound engineer) handles the technical and mechanical aspects of sound recording. His or her work may be featured in a commercial, music track, video game, or movie.

An author bio is a short description of your credentials and personality (among other details). It’s often used to earn a reader’s trust.

An ACH payment is when funds from one bank are sent to another, and are processed by the U.S.-based ACH network. ACH payments generally take three to five days to clear.

BANT is short for budget, authority, need, and timeline. In practice, the BANT framework helps sales teams to better qualify their leads by checking that the lead is both able and willing to purchase their product.

A bank transfer (aka wire transfer or credit transfer) is a method of sending money directly from one bank to another. This process is typically simple, fast, and secure.

A baseline number is a point of reference used to evaluate the performance of a marketing (or other) initiative. The exact number is up to your discretion; its main purpose is to help you track whether you’re making a positive impact or not.

Behance is a free social media platform for designers, illustrators, and others who want to showcase or discover creative work. It is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite.

Beta testing is when you release an early version of a product to a select number of users. The goal is to identify bugs or areas for improvement prior to releasing the final product to the general public.

Billable hours are the hours that freelancers can include on their invoices and thereby charge a client for. Billable hours may include the time spent working, planning, participating in meetings, and more.

Billing cycle (aka billing period) is the length of time between two payment periods. As an example, freelancers may choose to invoice their clients on the 15th of each month.

A blog writer specializes in creating compelling and unique content for a site. He or she is often expected to accurately capture a brand’s voice and message within his or her writing.

Bootstrapping is when an entrepreneur doesn’t raise outside capital to start his or her business. Instead, the entrepreneur uses his or her own means to fund the operations of the business.

Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) refers to the last stage of the buyer’s journey in which the prospect is close to making a purchase decision.

A brand ambassador (aka brand advocate or evangelist) is someone who is hired to represent and promote a company to generate more interest in the company’s products and/or services.

Brand awareness is a measure of how many people can recognize your brand by its name. It represents the impact of your branding and marketing.

Brand positioning refers to how your consumers perceive your brand, especially as it relates to other products and services like yours. Marketing helps to shape this positioning.

Branding involves all the steps that you take to build an identity around your company (or product) so that it’s memorable and perceived positively by consumers.

In software development, a bug refers to an error within the app or platform. It is, in other words, a coding error that needs to be addressed.

A burn rate is a measurement of how much cash a company is losing in a given period of time. Burn rate is especially important to companies that are not profitable and rely on external sources of cash.

Burnout refers to a situation when someone feels mentally and/or physically exhausted from overworking. Burnout is one of the most common reasons why people leave their jobs.

A business account refers to a bank account that’s solely used for business transactions. It can be opened as a checking, savings, credit card, or merchant services account.

Business intelligence (BI) refers to all the tech and processes used to mine, visualize, and interpret raw data for a company. The core purpose of BI is to uncover new business opportunities and guide decision-making.

B2B is a business model in which a company’s primary customer is another company. For example, an airplane manufacturer sells its planes to a commercial airline.

B2C is a business model in which the company’s primary customer is an individual user. For example, a grocery store sells its goods to everyday customers.

A buyer persona is a detailed profile of your target customer(s). Buyer personas typically factor in things like demographics, job titles, interest, and behaviors to help you get into the head of your customer.

The buyer’s journey refers to the various steps that a person takes when researching, discovering, and making a decision about your product or service.

A byline is a line of text that provides the author’s name. For example, if you write a blog for a publication, your name would be featured in the byline.

C-Suite refers to the highest-ranking managers of a company. Examples of c-suite titles include Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

A call to action (CTA) is any part of content that directs people to take a specific action. For instance, a button that says “buy now” would be considered a CTA.

Cash flow positive is when a company is earning more money than it is spending or losing it in a given time. It is not to be confused with profitability, which is related but not the same.

A certified public accountant (CPA) is a licensed professional who provides financial advice for individuals and businesses. CPAs must meet certain work, education, and testing requirements.

A change order is a written agreement to modify the original scope of work or other terms of a contract. Both the client and vendor must agree to the amendment before it is considered valid.

The Chicago Manual of Style is a guide for academic and book publishing, established by the University of Chicago Press. It provides a set of rules for grammar, citation, style, and more.

In SaaS, churn refers to the proportion of customers that canceled their subscriptions. A simple formula for calculating churn is by dividing the total number of people who canceled by the total customers at the start of the period.

Click-through rate (CTR) is often used in advertising to show how many people actually take the time to click your ad. The formula for CTR is total clicks divided by the total impressions that your ad received.

A client is a person or business who purchases a service from a third-party vendor, such as a freelancer. Most client relationships are not merely transactional—many are ongoing and collaborative.

A client portal is a secure, virtual space that clients can log into in order to view files, project updates, and more. Some popular client portals include Zendesk and Huddle.

Closed lost refers to a sales opportunity that has rejected a contract and/or has been marked as such in your sales pipeline tool. Reasons can vary as to why an account ends in a closed lost.

Closed won refers to a sales opportunity that has signed a contract and is officially a customer. It is the final (and ideal) stage of the sales pipeline.

A cohort is a group of customers that share a common interest, behavior, or other trait. Companies can perform a cohort analysis to identify which cohorts generate more revenue or which ones tend to churn (as examples).

A cold call is when a salesperson reaches out to a person who has not previously expressed interest in a product or service. Cold calls are sometimes made via an auto-dialer

Confidentiality is the act of keeping sensitive information private between two parties, unless there is written agreement that says otherwise. A confidentiality agreement or clause is also known as a nondisclosure agreement.

A conflict of interest is when a party has competing loyalties or interests that could compromise the fairness, quality, and/or motivations behind their decisions.

A content management system (CMS) is a software platform—like Wordpress—in which users can create, edit, and publish digital content.

A content marketer leverages media like blogs, ebooks, and webpages to engage potential customers. He or she is often well-versed in SEO, writing, and overall inbound marketing.

A content mill is a company that creates and sells a high volume of articles or blogs at a low price. Writers are typically paid very little at content mills, adding to their poor reputation.

Content writing involves penning text that’s intended to inform, educate, or entertain the reader. It’s often used in relation to blogs, ebooks, or other long-form pieces.

A contract-to-hire job is a short-term role that has the potential to become a full-time position in the future. The length of the short-term role can vary from job to job.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving your website or landing page to drive more signups or any other desired action.

Copy editing is when you check a piece of writing for grammar, spelling, and other criteria before publishing it. At this stage, you’ll want to check that the text also aligns with branding.

A copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the owner exclusive rights to publish, copy, and distribute creative work—or to authorize others to do the same.

Copywriting involves penning text that’s intended to sell a reader on a product or service. It often refers to text on an ad, website, email, or other short-form piece of content.

Cost per lead (CPL)—not to be confused with customer acquisition cost—is the amount of money spent to acquire a new contact, which can then be nurtured or passed on to your sales team.

A creative brief is a short document outlining the goals, requirements, and other essential details of a creative project. This could include projects like a video, ad, or webpage that involves the magic touch of a designer.

Crowdfunding is when you raise funds for your business or project by asking a large number of individuals to donate money. Crowdfunding is often facilitated through a third-party platform.

Customer acquisition is the process of attracting new buyers. An acquisition strategy usually involves a mix of organic and paid marketing campaigns and/or offline and online tactics.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) refers to the amount of money spent to convert a new buyer. A basic formula for CAC is total marketing expenses divided by total number of customers gained from that effort over the same period.

Customer expansion is a term often used by SaaS companies that are looking to upsell their current users. As an example, companies may promote features or add-ons that require users to purchase a higher plan.

The customer lifecycle involves all the stages of a person’s relationship with your business. This includes the point at which they become aware of your product to when they become an advocate of your brand.

Customer lifetime value represents the total revenue that a business can expect to earn over the course of its relationship with a customer.

Customer relationship management (CRM) entails all the tactics and tools used to acquire and retain customers for your business. CRM systems provide one place to manage customer data and interactions.

Customer retention refers to the process of earning repeat shoppers or (for SaaS companies) avoiding churn. Customer retention strategies focus on delighting, engaging, and supporting existing buyers.

The customer satisfaction (CSAT) score is used to measure how happy customers are with a product, service, or the overall company. CSAT is measured through customer ratings and surveys.

Customer success refers to a company’s effort to ensure that its customers are satisfied with their product or service. Companies often have a dedicated customer success team.

A customer touchpoint is any type of interaction that someone has with your brand. This could include everything from talking with an employee to seeing an ad.

In law, damages refer to money that is paid, either for punitive or compensatory reasons. In the latter case, money from one party is owed to another as compensation for an injury or loss.

A data processing agreement (DPA) is a contract between a data controller and a processor that states the terms and conditions of handling data, such as personal info.

A deliverable is any piece of work that must be completed for a project to be considered done. It can be internal or external-facing, and can come in various forms (product, service, document, etc.).

Demand generation is the process of building interest around your brand. It is an umbrella term that refers to various marketing and sales activities, like content marketing or emailing.

A demo refers to a stage in the sales cycle when the company gives a prospective customer(s) a walkthrough of the product. The demo is meant to show a product’s full capabilities, as it relates to the prospect’s interests and needs.

Demographics are the distinct characteristics of a certain group of people. Demographics can include age, race, income, occupation, hobbies, and more.

A deposit (aka retainer fee) is a type of partial payment that freelancers may require prior to starting work. A deposit helps to show that a client is willing and able to pay for your work.

DevOps is a shorthand for software development and operations. It refers to the methodologies used to optimize the development process so that the company can build and improve products faster than its competitors.

A developer (aka software engineer, coder, or programmer) creates and maintains software systems, apps, sites, and/or other tech. He or she may specialize in one or multiple programming languages.

A direct deposit is a type of ACH transfer in which money is sent straight to your checking or savings account. Payroll employees are typically paid via this method, as are some freelancers.

Direct response is a type of marketing strategy in which you seek to immediately move a person to act. For example, you may send an abandoned cart email to get customers to complete their purchases.

A discovery call is the first phone call that a salesperson has with a prospect to collect more information about the lead’s goals, company, and challenges.

Dribbble is a popular destination for designers and creatives who want to find a job, create a digital portfolio, and/or connect with other design professionals.

A drip campaign (aka drip marketing) refers to a series of automated emails that’s intended to drive a certain action and keep your target audience engaged.

“Due upon receipt” means that a client must pay the full amount owed as soon as he/she receives the invoice. This is often a vehicle for getting paid upfront or establishing trust with a new client.

An early adopter refers to the first set of users who try a new product (usually technology) before it becomes mainstream.

Early payment is when a client completes payment (partial or full) before its due date. Freelancers may offer early-payment discounts in order to get paid faster.

An ebook is a short, digital book that users can download and read whenever they choose. It's intended to educate readers as well as demonstrate your brand’s expertise in a topic.