Know-How Exchange : FAQ

How can I participate?

All you need to do is be a registered member of the MarketingProfs.com community. Basic Members join for free. Pro members pay an annual fee to access extra content. In either case, it takes only two minutes to sign up.

What are the basic rules of play?

This is a professional network, so we expect everyone to treat each other with respect. Please write clear questions and responses. Re-read everything you write before posting, to be sure your message will make sense to everyone.

Also, feel free to describe your company and its services in your bio on your My Profile page. (Your Community Name will be displayed with any messages you post in the forum, and it will link to your Profile.)

Close your questions in a timely manner by awarding points to the member with the best answer.

Please leave commercial promotions out of your messages in the forum. Any postings containing impolite language or sounding purely commercial will be deleted by the Moderator. You risk having your membership cancelled, too.

Find out more on the Important Guidelines page.

How can I get my name in the Experts box?

The top 25 contributors to the Know-how Exchange community are automatically featured in the MarketingProfs Experts box. Top contributors are those with the most Expert Points. More specifically, they are defined as those with the highest Cumulative Totals. This list is automatically updated as members' points change. So check back frequently!

What’s the deal with the Points?

The main idea behind the Points is to recognize the members who give the best answers and are the most frequent contributors to the community. You have two scores. One is your Expert Points. This one always increases. It is the one you can use to measure your participation with respect to other members in the community. The top contributors are recognized on the Main Page in the KHE Experts box. The other is your Question Points. This number represents how many Points you currently have available for posting questions.

How does my Community Name work?

Your Community Name is your name in the discussion forum. It is a hyperlink listed next to every message you post. Other members can click it to go to your Profile page. There they will see any other info you have chosen to include. Click any of the names in the MarketingProfs Experts box (to the right) to see an example of a Profile page. You automatically receive a default Community Name when you register with the site. If you want to change yours at any time, contact support@marketingprofs.com and let us know your preferred Community Name.

How can I see how many Expert Points I have?

You can find both of your totals (Cumulative & Current) on your My Profile page. Only your Cumulative Total is displayed on your public profile (for others to see). You can also see your Current Balance as you post a question in the forum. The number will be displayed in Step 4 of the Ask a Question form.

What are Urgent Questions?

Is your question time-sensitive? Consider upgrading its visibility by purchasing URGENT status. Your question will be displayed prominently on the KHE mainpage for 3 days - starting now. And we will send email alerts to many of our top Experts bringing their attention to your question.

Basic members pay just $5/question for this service. Pro members with annual memberships can upgrade FREE of charge.

Our Experts ask that you use some discretion by upgrading your question to Urgent only when it's truly necessary.

What's a Username vs. a Community Name?

Your Username is your login ID for the MarketingProfs Web site. Your Community Name is your public ID in the Know-how Exchange discussion center. When you register for the site, you select a Username (either an ID or your email address), and you are automatically assigned a default Community Name. You can change your Community Name at any time by contacting support@marketingprofs.com. But your Username is not changeable. If you re-register with MarketingProfs to get a new Username, you will lose all the Expert Points you accumulated under your previous Username (your Cumulative Total).

What do I do after I ask my question?

Check back at least twice a week to review responses. A member may ask you a question to clarify what you’re looking for. Be sure to respond quickly, so you can keep the process moving.

How do I ask a question?

First, you must be logged in. Second, you must have a Community Name. If you want to update your Community Name before posting, go to your My Profile page. Then, click the Ask a Question link in the Participate box. Follow the four-step process described on the question form. In Step 4 you’ll see how many Expert Points you have in your Current Balance. You can offer other members any amount of points up to your total. Hit the Post My Question button when you’re finished. That’s all there is to it!

How do I clarify my question?

Find your original question, either by using one of the orange category links across the top of the page, or by clicking Search Questions in the Participate box. At the bottom of your question page you will see a message box. Write your new clarification message here, and publish it by clicking the Answer This Question button. Or, if nobody has posted a response to your question yet, you can click the Edit My Question link below to your original message and edit there. (The link disappears after the first member responds, so the original question will remain consistent for all responses.)

How do I award Expert Points to the best answer?

Make sure you're logged in first. You can find your original question by clicking My Open Qs in the Account Info box, and then you can click on the question's title.

When you see the question page, review each of the member responses, and click the checkbox next to the answer you find most helpful. This will automatically transfer the Expert Points you offered from the escrow account to each member who gave an Accepted Response.

How do I answer a question?

All you need is a little subject expertise! Click the Search Questions link in the Participate box to find questions you are interested in answering. Or browse the categories by clicking the orange subject links at the top of the page. Then write your response in the Answer box below the question, and click the Answer This Question button. The question askers may wait a week or two before closing out their questions. When they do, they’ll choose one answer as the most useful (or they may decide to choose two). The selected answers will be labeled Accepted Answer and the members who contributed them will automatically receive the Expert Points promised for those questions.

What are Accepted Answers?

These are the responses that the question askers have found to be the most helpful in resolving their dilemmas. Question authors review all the answers posted and select one or more members to receive the Expert Points offered.

Can I answer a question with an Accepted Answer?

Absolutely! But you will not be able to win Expert Points for your response. Nevertheless, the question author will receive an email announcing the new response, so he or she will be aware of your suggestions. Also, if this is your first posting in the Know-how Exchange, it will work to trigger your five-points-a-day that begin with your initial participation.

How can I get more Points?

There are MANY ways! As a Basic Member, you receive 250 points right from the start. Then, after you post your first question or response in Know-how Exchange, you begin receiving five Expert Points every day. Pro Members receive 2,500 Expert Points to start, plus five points every day (read more about premium subscriptions here). The five-a-day points are added to your Current Balance (Question Points), but not your Cumulative Total (Expert Points). Next, you can earn points by answering other members’ questions. When your answer is selected by the question author as an Accepted Answer, you win the points the member offered for the question. (Current & Cumulative) So be sure to specifically address the questions and to communicate your answers clearly. You an also earn points by answering member surveys and referring friends (see below). Finally, you can now Buy Points for $5, $15 or $25. Your account will be immediately credited and you can begin posting more questions in minutes.

Earn 5 Points a Day

We changed our policy during mid-February 2004. Prior to that time, our Cumulative Total and our Current Balance increased by 5 Expert Points a day starting when we began active participation in the forum (i.e., posting a question or an answer). The new policy grants us 5 Current Balance points, but does not increase our Cumulative Totals. This new system continues to encourage question-asking, but it will not impact everyone's relative ranking in the community. The hope is this will reduce some of the late-start disadvantage our newcomers have when they first arrive.

Can I earn Expert Points for referring colleagues?

Yes! Just click Invite Colleagues in the Participate box to get to our email referral system. We will give you 5 Expert Points for every email address you put in the form. (These points will be added to your Current Balance, so they will allow you to ask more questions in the forum. They won't alter your Cumulative Total, or change your ranking in the Top 100 list.) One caveat: We have so much trouble with bounce-backs from Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and other ISPs that we are excluding major ISPs from our reward program. You can still invite them, but you won't receive Points for these addresses. But any other addresses qualify! You can receive up to 1000 points this way. If you are interested in inviting a large number of people, and you have them in an Excel spreadsheet, please contact the moderators for special arrangements.

How do I spend my Expert Points?

When you post a question, you decide how many of the Expert Points in your Current Balance you want to offer for the question you’re asking. The more points you offer, the more attention you’ll attract to your question. As soon as you post a new question, the Points you allocated will be deducted from your Current Balance and put in an escrow account. They wait there until you review the answers you receive. Then you decide which answer you like best, and you award the Points to the member who offered the best answer.

Can I get an email when new questions are posted?

Yes, you can! Simply update your email notifications to indicate which subject categories you’re interested in following. To get there, click the Email Alerts link in the Participate box. By selecting categories in the top section, you will receive an email each time someone posts a new question in that category. (You won’t receive emails every time a response is added. We don’t want to overwhelm you with messages.) By selecting categories in the bottom section, you will receive one email each day listing all the relevant questions that were posted. Also, you can receive an RSS feed, if you're interested in closely monitoring new postings throughout the day. Go to the Email Alerts section for more information on that.

Can I get an email when responses are posted?

Yes, you will automatically receive emails each time a new response is added for a question you posted. You may also receive an email from the Moderator reminding you to select a winner for your reward points, if there are several responses posted. If you are not the author of a question you want to track responses for, the best way to do that would probably be through an RSS feed. Go to the Email Alerts section for more info.

Will you give my email address to advertisers?

Absolutely not! We will never sell or rent your email address to anyone. WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY! We hate spam as much as you do. Read our Privacy Policy, for more info.

How many Expert Points should a question be worth?

The value depends on how important the solution is to the question asker. Askers set the rewards based on how much attention they want to receive from the community and how many points they have available to offer (in their Current Balance). Askers who have a particularly difficult question or those who are in a hurry to receive responses are likely to offer larger rewards. Those who are looking for simple recommendations, like resource referrals, might offer smaller rewards. You’ll see on the Ask a Question form that we have suggested some values as guidelines.

What if I get two great responses to my question?

You can split the total reward evenly between two respondents. All you have to do is check the two checkboxes next to the two responses you want to recognize as Accepted Answers. Know-how Exchange will automatically assign half of the award to each member.

What if I don’t receive any (good) responses?

If your question has been on the site for a few weeks with no responses, or if you resolve the question on your own before you receive a response, just email the Moderator to request a refund of your Expert Points. The same goes for poor responses. If all the responses are completely unhelpful, try making your question more specific. (See the clarify FAQ above.) Failing that, feel free to ask the Moderator to delete your question and process a refund.

How long do questions stay open?

Questions stay open as long as the discussion remains active. We encourage question authors to check on their questions at least twice a week and to close the questions as soon as they find a response that helps them solve the problem they described with their question. If the conversation dies down and the Asker is no longer participating, we close the question to make sure we're rewarding our members' contributions in a timely manner. This usually happens after 10 - 14 days.

I don't want my question in the archives.

We don't delete Q&A threads here.

Part of the value of KHE is the wealth of knowledge that members can access from the question archives. And for people who participate regularly in the forum, these threads become important track records of ways they've helped other members.

If you need us to delete a detail from your posting, like your company name, just ask the moderator. But as it states in our Important Guidelines, the best thing is to avoid posting sensitive information in the first place.

What is My Profile for?

Other members of the community will see your Community Name with each of your postings in this bulletin board. Your Community Name is a hyperlink that takes members to a Profile page that displays as much or as little information as you like. Send your brief bio to support@marketingprofs.com and we'll add it to your Profile, to help others get to know you.

Why doesn't the Remember Me checkbox work?

Your computer is probably not set up to accept cookies. To change the setting in Internet Explorer, click the menu item Tools, followed by Internet Options. Select the Privacy tab, and set the level to Medium.

What is the role of the Moderator?

The moderators' job is to answer your questions about how the system works and to take care of deleting inappropriate messages. They can also refund your Expert Points, if you don't receive a helpful response, or you resolve your question on your own. And they may send you a reminder email to choose an Accepted Answer and close out your question if it has been up for a while and has several responses. They monitor the discussion center on a daily basis. Please feel free to write them any time if you have questions or concerns.

I still need help!

If we didn’t answer your question here, please feel free to write the Moderator through the contact form. You can get there by clicking Moderator Help in the Participate box.