Thread: Heron Academy FAQ

Q. I'm brand new to Internet marketing, where do I start?

Q. What is the difference between each membership level?

Q. How do I receive help for my Internet marketing related question?

Q. How do I receive help for a non-Internet marketing, sales enquiry or technical support related question?

Q. How do I upgrade/downgrade my membership level?

Q. How do I renew my membership subscription?

Q. How do I cancel my membership subscription?

Q. What is the No Affiliate Links Guarantee?

Q. What is the 30% Reinvestment Of Profits Guarantee?

Q. What is the Complete Transparency Guarantee?

Q. What is the Member Rewards Program?

Q. What are reputation points?

Q. Can I trade MRP Points with other members?

Q. What do the stars under a member's name signify?

Q. How come a lot of content on the membership site is available free at the Heron Academy Lab?


Answers

Q. I'm brand new to Internet marketing, where do I start?

It is recommended you start by reading over the Journey Into Internet Marketing tutorial series (Free Member version available here). After you have done this and setup your business, use the forum for any specific questions you have, and follow the advice and training that others give you. There are already some invaluable resources within the forum for you to utilize. Please remember to give out reputation to anyone that helps you on the forum.


Q. What is the difference between each membership level?

The difference is primarily one of training and support, as all members have access to the same resources. Standard members are not guaranteed any training from Academy staff, whereas Premium members are guaranteed at least one comprehensive answer to an Internet marketing related question each month, as well as receiving priority assistance and non-guaranteed answers to any other Internet marketing related questions they have. Business members are guaranteed unlimited training, answers, and analysis of their business on a continual, ongoing basis.

The difference is primarily one of a guarantee. Whilst we endeavor to help all members, we guarantee to help members of higher membership levels, where such help forms part of the actual Purchase Agreement.

Other separate benefits may exist, such as early access to training material, more licenses and less restrictions on using any software we create, and other such things, however guaranteed training and support is always the primary benefit of higher membership.

The reason we have structured the site like this is due to one very big, important reason. Many Internet marketing training sites will claim to offer training and support to all members, however as the sites grow they often find that they're unable to keep up this commitment, and members will have many of their questions being left unanswered. By charging extra fees for training and support, we can guarantee that this will never happen at the Heron Academy, as we can use these extra fees to hire more staff to train more members and answer more questions. No matter how large we grow, our training and support should never be compromised, as we continually reinvest our profits to hire more staff to keep up with the demand for personalized training.


Q. How do I receive help for my Internet marketing related question?

Help for any Internet marketing related question from Heron Academy staff is only guaranteed for Premium and Business members. If you are a Standard member then you may post your question in the forum that is related to your question, and other members may help you. If you have a general question then it is suggested you use the Search function of the forum, as it may already have been answered. If you are a Premium member please use the "Premium Questions" forum, or the "Paid Premium Consulting" forum if you have a valid paid consulting ticket for this month. Business members should already have received separate private instructions on how to access their dedicated training consultant for any questions they have.


Q. How do I receive help for a non-Internet marketing, sales enquiry or technical support related question?

Standard members may file a ticket by creating a post within the Academy Support Desk.

Premium members may file a ticket by creating a post within the Premium Support forum.

Business members just need to contact their training representative, or may file for a priority response at the Business Member Priority Assistance forum for any enquiry.


Q. How do I upgrade/downgrade my membership level?

Upgrading or downgrading your membership subscription is a simple process.

Simply click on the My Account link to open your membership account page. On the right hand side under "Add/Renew Subscription" select the membership subscription you'd like to transfer to, and click order. Complete your payment via PayPal to be subscribed to the new membership group.

That's it! You should now be registered as a member of the new usergroup you signed up for.


Q. How do I renew my membership subscription?

As long as you have an active subscription with us, we will automatically bill you each month in order to keep your access to the Heron Academy active. We will handle all of this for you automatically, so you don't need to do anything further. If however your subscription has been cancelled due to some reason (you have run out of funds, you cancelled it yourself, there was an error charging your PayPal account, etc..) then your rights will be reverted to that of a Standard (free) member. You will then be required to upgrade your subscription level again to that of a Premium or Business member if you wish to restore your previous level of benefits (following the instructions above).

Q. How do I cancel my membership subscription?

Cancelling your subscription is a straight forward process. If you cancel your Premium or Business subscription then you will be automatically reverted to the level of access of a Standard member.

Step 1) First of all, login to your PayPal account. Hover your mouse over the "History" tab which will create a drop down menu - click on "Basic Search" from this drop down menu. Click on "Find A Transaction" (this should appear just below the History tab after you have clicked on Basic Search). In the search box type [email protected], which should appear next to the "In Email" drop down menu. Select the start date as the date you signed up to the Heron Academy, and click search.




Step 2) In the search results, find the oldest subscription that has a payment status of "Active", and then click details (this will appear near the bottom of the results). A new page will load. Under Business Contact Information confirm that the "Item Name" is the name of the subscription you want to cancel. Click on cancel subscription.

You can repeat this process to cancel all your subscriptions if you have more than one. Remember not to cancel the subscription that contains the membership level you would like to keep, as detailed in the "Item Name", otherwise your access will be reverted to that of a Standard member).

Further instructions on cancelling a PayPal subscription are available directly from PayPal via https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/ma...lutionId=11750


Q. What is the No Affiliate Links Guarantee?

The guarantee is that nowhere on the Heron Academy site will you find us, or any of our staff, posting an affiliate link to any recommended product or service. Furthermore, all members are prohibited from posting affiliate links anywhere. All affiliate links posted will be removed. If you locate an affiliate link that a staff member has posted (either in a tutorial, forum post, or anywhere else) we will deposit $100USD directly into your PayPal account. More information on the NAL Guarantee is available here - http://heronacademy.com/nal.html. For discussion of the NAL program or to report an affiliate link, please use the NAL forum.


Q. What is the 30% Reinvestment Of Profits Guarantee?

The guarantee is that we will reinvest 30% of the total profits the Heron Academy generates each month, and let the community decide how half of these profits are allocated, whilst we decide how the other half are allocated. More information on this guarantee is available at 30% Reinvestment Policy. For discussion of the policy, or to cast your vote on how you wish for this month's funds to be allocated, please visit the 30% Re-investment Discussion forum.


Q. What is the Complete Transparency Guarantee?

If you have any question about our business, any of our practices, or if you have a suggestion on how we can improve ourselves, we will discuss them with you through our forums, and be completely open about our intentions, at all times. More information about our Complete Transparency commitment is available at Complete Transparency. To discuss any aspect of the Heron Academy or this guarantee, please visit the Complete Transparency Discussion forum.


Q. What is the Member Rewards Program?

Abbreviated as "MRP", the Member Rewards Program is a loyalty program available to all active subscribers. Members achieve MRP Points by completing tasks which help the Heron Academy in some way. These points can be exchanged for various rewards. More information on the MRP is available at Member Rewards Program. To discuss the program please visit the Member Rewards Program Discussion forum. To lodge an MRP Points exchange request, please do so at the MRP Points Exchange forum instead.


Q. What are reputation points?

Each month you will be able to give out 10 reputation points to other members. You may do this by clicking on the "Star" icon beneath the post of the member that you want to give a reputation point to. This is shown as the blue icon in the screenshot below -



Giving out reputation to members that make a useful post, or that help you in some way, ensures that the Heron Academy functions correctly by giving incentive for members to help you. Always give out reputation when you are helped. Each reputation point given will give that member 1 MRP Point. You will not lose any MRP Points for giving out reputation. The reputation you can give out resets back to 10 each month, so not giving out reputation does not benefit you in any way whatsoever.


Q. Can I trade MRP Points with other members?

No. Considering that MRP Points can be exchanged for real money, we must be very careful how they are used and can be acquired. If you wish to give someone MRP Points, please give them reputation instead, as each reputation given will give 1 MRP Point to them, and you will not lose any MRP Points.

Q. What do the stars under a member's name signify?

The color of the star signifies how the member is recognized by us, and the number of stars signify their standing within that group. There is a maximum of 5 stars for all groups.

Blue stars signify the member is recognized as an active contributor to the Heron Academy, and are earned by increasing MRP Points.

Green stars signify the member is recognized as honorary in some way, are a special guest, or are valued volunteer contributors.

Red stars signify a staff member, employee, training consultant, representative, paid contributor, or other position held within the Heron Academy or our parent business - Heron Online Marketing Solutions.


Q. How come a lot of content on the membership site is available free at the Heron Academy Lab?

One thing I have always despised are membership sites that require you to pay more and more hidden fees to access more content, or to only give short previews of content with promises that the "paid" content will change your life. At the Heron Academy, we take an entirely different, more transparent approach. Almost all of our content is available free publicly, and anyone can use it to learn about Internet marketing and setting up and running their own online business. What we charge money for is something that we can't provide for free - training & support. We charge membership fees only for things that we couldn't offer for free without compromising quality.

We also give other members incentive to help you through the forum for free by giving you the ability to hand out MRP Points, in addition to hiring staff that we pay to help all members on the forum. All levels of members, including our free members, receive access to our private community, which contains a wealth of resources from many very successful Internet marketers, business owners and entrepreneurs. Dircect training, support and limited resources that are only available to paying members are the sorts of things that we charge money for, not our training material.