I just had a strange experience on the UK search marketing blog, Apple Pie & Custard (the Site Visibility corporate blog). I clicked on their article, The Top 10 Sphinn Avatars, and Why from Sphinn’s homepage hoping to see my rocking avatar. Alas, my face was not among the winners. In spite of this serious affront, I enjoyed the article and gave it a Sphinn. I even commented on Eloi’s confusion of the Bartimus avatar, which he incorrectly labeled, “either a sock puppet or a Labyrinth character.” Any self-respecting biology freak would have easily identified the avatar as an ostrich, though the compression made me think it could have also been an emu or rhea bird.

Three largest, flightless birds…

Bartimus’ avatar aka an Ostrich:

An Emu:

A Rhea bird:

So, after I commented, I went back to Sphinn to see if there were any other amusing and informative articles. Less than two minutes later, Trillian informs me that I have a new message in my Yahoo account:

Title: Thanks for the comment on Apple Pie & Custard
From: Kelvin Newman

Hey

Thanks for stopping bye and commenting on our blog. In a shameless attempt to get you to sign up to our rss feed I thought I would send you a quick email with the url http://feeds.feedburner.com/ApplePieCustard

nudge nudge

Cheers in advance

Kelvin

Now this might sound like shameless self-promotion to some of you, but as Stuntdubl recently informed me, that’s simply the nature of an SEO, especially a good one. Can I fault a marketer for being an opportunist? No, in fact, I applaud the Apple Pie & Custard team: Damon Lightley, Eloi Casali and Kelvin Newman. This is genius! Maybe it’s my southern background, but I love good manners.What makes this email so awesome? They’re being:

  1. Polite – A rarity in the sea of anonymous and noisy blogging douche bags.
  2. Timely – If you’re going to ask a visitor for a favor, hit them up immediately after they’ve been to your site! They’re much more willing to listen now (while you’re still on their mind) than tomorrow when they have a report due, twelve emails to answer and a meeting in five minutes.
  3. Smart – Customer retention is a pain online. Face to face rejection is much more difficult, so any opportunity you have to personalize a visitor’s experience will increase your chance of them remaining a loyal reader or customer.

So, that’s why I hereby present to Apple Pie & Custard, the completely fake award: Miss Congeniality of Search Marketing Blogs!


Note to Google: None of the links were paid for though I do take cash, checks and free stuff if those I link to are in a thankful mood.