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Research And Referencing Policy |
With thousands of websites offering differing advice within the field of Internet marketing, it can be difficult to know which sources to rely upon. Even authority sources may mistakenly pass on unresearched beliefs about certain aspects of Internet marketing, particularly within practical fields such as Search Engine Optimization. The Heron Academy is of the belief that no Internet user should rely upon any "statement of fact" unless it is backed up with a citation from a reliable source that's conducted the appropriate research or case study to confirm the stated findings.
Even we, at the Heron Academy, have a number of beliefs about different fields within the Internet marketing industry that haven't been confirmed through appropriate experiments or research. Whilst we may have the experience to make highly educated guesses, you should never rely upon anything that we say, or that any other source says, unless you have examined the evidence behind the statement for yourself. For example, it is easy for us to say (in reference to the field of Search Engine Optimization) that "Relevant Title tags increase rankings for the desired keyword term". This is of course true, yet there was no evidence or citation backing up this statement of ours. Instead, you may believe in our statement based upon the belief that we know what we're talking about. We think this is a very dangerous thing, and here's why.
Over the years, a vast number of "myths" have been spread throughout the Internet marketing industry of what's "real" and "what's not". Many of these myths have been fabricated, others created from a misunderstanding of various principles within Internet marketing, and none of them are backed up with any reliable evidence. If they were, they wouldn't be myths, they'd be facts. The sad truth is that (we believe) most Internet marketers believe in at least one commonly circulated myth which holds no substance, and that is outright incorrect.
At the Heron Academy, we aim to take a different approach to the way we train our members. We hope to eventually provide evidence to back up any practical advice we give you. Whilst this may not be feasible, and perhaps even trivial for some things, it is nevertheless our goal to one day achieve this standard. It may not be practical to offer evidence for advice based on theory, however advice based upon quantitative fields should always be backed up with evidence, and it is our goal to do just that. We consider evidence to be any well researched, well controlled study that demonstrates something to be true at a level significantly above chance, and that is highly unlikely to have been caused by some unknown external factor. The evidence itself doesn't have to be conclusive, however it can help build a case towards making a certain statement or belief become so. We will do our best to either conduct our own case studies and research in order to ascertain whether something is true, or to cite a reliable source that has conducted a study already, provided that the study meets our standards.
We want to build a free database of Internet marketing training and resources through the Heron Academy Lab that is not only reliable, but backed up with evidence. To take your part in helping create factual Internet marketing training, please feel free to provide us with links to any well researched studies, from reliable sources, that you believe back up (or disprove) any statement we've made on our website, so that we may link to them. You are also welcome to link to any Case Studies or Research Papers we have created. Let's take Internet marketing out of an age of myth, and into an age of reason, and make all our findings available publicly, free of charge, through our respective websites.
It is the policy of the Heron Academy to do its best to adhere to the goals stated within this document.