I’ve been known online by my avatar for quite a few years now, even having people in conferences come up to me and say they recognized me from it. The original credit for the avatar goes to Paul Madden, the SEO formerly known as SEO Idiot. I decided it was time to start taking this exercise in personal branding a step further, so I’m having a friend and talented illustrator, Erwin Brouwer, draw some more images of me.
I thought it’d be fun to share the first two here for your enjoyment. One is me in a business suit, the other one me as superman, inspired by this tweet from Pamela Lund. So here we go:
Let me know what you think in the comments!
Nice Yoast – they fit you well!
Yoast – these are great! I always enjoyed the original windmill back in the day and these just add to the lore that is Yoast and the brand you’re building. Personally, I’m with Pamela. Go with the SuperYoast version.
Hey Joost, pretty awesome images, but do you have a 6-pack just like the the first image? :)
I dig the Super Yoast version. That half-smile on the face is priceless. Very nice!
Well done Erwin, Super Yoast I like it with the reverse color shirt.
I like the image with business suit.
I like the ‘SuperYoast’ a lot. Gives you that little extra style. Great illustrations by Erwin Brouwer.
Nice avatars. Great work. I really liked it, specially, one with super powers.
Looks really cool! ( and I really hate it when us Dutchies are portrayed with windmills, wooden clogs or tulips so you have my 100% blessing :) )
I like that superman-style! Great!
Looks nice! Reminds me of my own avatar / logo :-)
SuperYoast looks really good on you. Sorry to say that the Danes beat you to the SuperWP avatar :-) Have a look here: http://brianbrandt.dk/ Looks like the SUPER theme is getting popular – but then again some of you guys really are SUPER.
Ha I didn’t know that one, luckily mine looks better :D
awesome avatars, especially the superhero one!
I have yet to meet you or see a photo of you but I LOVE this idea! Thanks for adding a bit of fun humor to my day! :-)
Awesome pecks! :D
New avatars look really good and modern too. Love the tie.
Those are way cool – your friend is very talented! Fwiw, I still prefer the older design of your site with your character on it – made your site much more personal looking & friendly imo.
Sweet! Your new avatars look like Steven Colbert!
wow those are some great looking avatars. The superman one is awesome. Thumbs up to the creator!
Congratulations, really beautiful. W Superheroes!
You look great! hehe!
Im looking for another work of wow to describe them
Your avatar looks Awesome :) nice work…
Pretty awesome! Thumbs up!
Awesome stuff man. I was missing the cool image on the old site design. Nice to see you’ve got some fresh ones!
Like em both!
Maybe people could see the first one (casual guy with hand on wall) then as the article gets more interesting (scrolling down), your like “blam, I’m Super-Yoast too”! And you reveal some of that super information at that point.
WOW!! These are fantastic I love them both! :)
great avatar!
just to throw in a humble suggestion… you could spice up Yoast’s cape crusader look by wearing a batman-like mask with pointy ears shaped like your logo…
as for your logo, the yellow speech bubble background behind the Y could be wavy like a cape of a tech superhero in action.
i’m colorblind… i meant orange.
The Superman image is awesome. Good work! Could you do Spiderman and Batman too? They’d be great!
The very talented Erwin Brouwer can be proud of himself and I am proud of him ;-)
The first one is my favorite; awesome! :)
Love it! takes the same good-humoured style and adds an edge
Ripped Abs! You must be doing p90x lol
Nice picture and great design.
By the way which plugin do you use for your related posts with thumbnails?
It’s coded into my theme directly.
The old avatar was better.
Superman or Batman image
And we DO think of you as a superior being!
I am not sure about body to head size ratio there. Than again I have not meet you in person. I was thinking there would be some ref to WordPress. May be its on the back !! We need 360 deg of you!
Those are really fun.
I have a question, can you tell me what plugin you use for the related posts at the bottom. That is a fantastic implementation with the thumbnails.
Thank you.
Super Yoast is awesome!!!
WOW .. I have also been following you for a long time and when I think of your site, I think of your avatar .. great way to brand yourself..
Another vote for Super Yoast, because Elton John wore that exact same tie to the Royal Wedding yesterday.
You are definitely my hero – with your world-wide following you took time to help me out. I will always sing your praises :)
hi Yoast, love the look, I think they will look great. cheers, :)
Nice Joost! I love the new pics
What a great way to brand yourself.
Hey Joost,
Awesome images, you where a seo hero already, but now it comes alive with nice new images!
One thing i dont like about the images is that there is somewhat to much glow/shine in it. You could make that more subtle.
I like the super avatar the best!
Man, That’s just outrageous smooth.
I like the “superhero” avatar, but mostly the fact you use your powers for good! :-)
Cheers!
You inspired me I put up a post with my own avatars which i some times use in my company presentations.
http://blog.maripositas.org/presonal/personal-branding-every-day-more-important
Your earlier Avatars and these new ones are all awesome. I too recognized you in a real picture because of the avatar which was part of old Yoast.com Design. Also share with us your other avatars. :-)
Ha ha! These are great, Joost! Your friends are talented as well!
Hi, I’ve been having problem with ‘avatar’ on my website and I’ve tried to contact Avatar and wordpress so many times and no one gets back to me. I’ve done what was recommended such as checking the spelling,etc. Still nothing works. Why?