Tuesday 30 June 2009

Benefits? of a high ranking on search engines

The Norvic Philatelics website was created 10 years ago when I first started using the internet and found that information about new British stamps was plentiful after they were issued but not before - not even on Royal Mail's website.

Before it even turned into a business our site was providing information not only about new stamps but the many pictorial postmarks associated with them. Sometimes it was difficult to get good images of new stamps: I once spoke to somebody on Royal Mail's IT team about this. He told me that - at that time - he had to wait until he got the PHQ cards, and then he scanned them and used those images for their website! How times change: now they have advance information, Preview in pdf files, and sometimes their published information breaks the publication embargo they impose on dealers and the media!

But our 10 year effort means that we get quite good rankings on search engines, and often get asked for permission to publish stamp images. All these requests we refer to Royal Mail's Copyright department.

Today's call, though, was something different. The lady - who seemed to be of asian ethnicity - asked if it was the Post Office. When asked to elaborate she asked about Post and Go machines...

"How can I get one of these in my shop?"


I gave her the number for PO Customer Service - 08457 740 740.

Happy Days!
.

3 comments:

  1. There seems to be no Preview online for the Postbox issue - I asked at trafalgar Square PO this afternoon and they said that there was to be no more Previews or stock lists - something new was coming but didn't know what.

    ReplyDelete
  2. just found the answer - NO more Previews, see page 3 in this publication from RM

    ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/ctf/rm/200_Quarterly_Catalogue_Pdf.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  3. 'Preview' has been replaced by 'first' a triple-A5 fold-out which among other things pictures a FDC which is addressed to the subscribers address.

    The first 'first' was for the Postboxes MS and Treasures of the Archive PSB, the second is for the Fire & Rescue set, but makes no mention of the presentation pack even on the order form. (As one of my correspondents wrote, "I just can't understand the Royal Mail publicity department, and wonder if half of their staff are unsupervised kids on work experience! "

    If you don't get 'first' contact the Bureau in Edinburgh on 08457 641 641 or [+44] 0134 316 7483

    ReplyDelete

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