Ooops - It Happens

I did a recent post that caused an uproar with an automotive vendor about Dealer Search Engine Marketing and had an interaction that was less than professional on both ends.  Since then there has been a meeting of the minds of sorts.

Well after the first interaction with them I blocked their IP address from my content and thought I had removed it.  I did on one property and forgot to do it on another so they were still getting a custom error message.  Well I have now fixed this error but it may have done irreparable damage to any future relationship.

Now what is kinda funny is they are stalking all of my content in an effort I guess to figure out how I was able to out rank them for dealer.com search engine marketing

dealer.com search engine marketing < LINK TO FLICKR

It is child's play to win these non competitive keywords it is even even easier to get them to stick if I really want them to.  They are spending an exorbitant amount of time stalking my content and trying to figure it out.  What is even better is they are taking time to correct my spelling my mistakes on a very obscure blog that really is more an exercise in search engine reputation management than it is anything else.

I appreciate the traffic and they really do not understand what that does for search engine optimization of a property.  As much time as they are wasting trying to figure out how I did it they would be a head of the game just to contact me and help them really learn SEO.

Where to go from here?

I am working on several projects right now and plan to use social networking to present these services to the online automotive community.  My main project is going to be a craigslist tool for car dealers.  My goal after that is to design a wordpress theme to build dealer micro sites on.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors but out there by various vendors but car dealer micro site vendors in the space today really do not have a clue about the best way to SEO these properties or how to optimize them for multiple keywords.

It is time for the industry to wake up and smell the roses.  The big vendors and the ones who do not continually look for ways to improve their skills will soon be left in the dust. 

Trying to develop a search engine presence to market specific vehicles with is really a waste of time and resources if you are doing it with multiple sites.  Having multiple properties to deliver a branding message and useful content to the masses is a great way to market a dealership but certain aspects of the business should be kept to one or two main properties then leverage other platforms to deliver traffic.

One good example is a credit related site I have seen recently pop up trying to draw search engine traffic in for NJ bad credit car loans.

dealer micro sites, automotive micro sites, craigslist for car dealers, nj bad credit car loans

Can You Change Your Philosophy?

I am working on a project for Frank Myers Auto Maxx.  They have been a North Carolina used car dealer for several years and their flagship has always been "Everybody Rides".  Now I get the feeling they are wanting to change their marketing paradigm which is fine, but what is the effect?

If you are branded as a type of business such as a dealer that specializes in bad credit then try to turn on the faucet to attract a different type of customer you will miss your bread and butter.  The customer types types are a dichotomy and it would be almost impossible to serve them both and maintain a market share.

The real decision is which is more profitable and gives you a higher ROI.  I know which customers I would chase if I had the outlets in place to get them financed!!

The Importance of the Long Tail

Trying to rank for competitive search terms is difficult however many place great emphasis on trying to shoot for the sun moon and stars on highly competitive terms.  One of my friends that runs a used car blog has been successful in ranking for some very competitive terms, but in my opinion it was due to the fact that he started out going for the long tail and the competitive terms came as a result of the long tail rankings and traffic.

Automotive SEO is not rocket science it just requires a lot of work in both content and link building.  That is what is missed in the everyday car dealer website.  I firmly believe that you can use a blog to capture traffic for some very competitive search terms and if people decide they want to do business with you they will visit your inventory.  Car dealers really need to learn about blog marketing.  That is why I am excited about one of the projects I am working on now.

A blog tied in with other forms of user generated content will kick ass and drive a tremedous amout of traffic to a dealers website.  To bad I could not get the Kingsland used car dealer to understand this.  Someone can chip away at their non competitive search terms and own the serps for anyone looking for used cars in Kingsland or even the whole state of Georgia.
 

Getting My Game On!!

I have been working very hard to help build the best automotive marketing blog in the world very diligently over the last few months.  I has caused me to put some things in perspective.  I love affiliate marketing and I love networking and I never thought I would ever be paid to network.  So in that since it is awesome, while at the same time most of my affiliate marketing properties are suffering.

I missed the opportunity to go to Digital Dealer V but from what I hear it was a wash out.  So maybe it was not a complete waste.  However I was wanting to visit a with a few of my online if I got there.  One that is a Dallas cosmetic dentist and the other who works for a Tulsa Chevrolet Dealer.

Oh well sometimes missed opportunities open other doors.  You just have to drive on and make the most of it!!

Torn, Beleagured and Tired

Well that is how I feel right now. I am working on a pretty major project it the Automotive Digital Marketing space and found out today that I will not be attending a conference that I was planning on attending. All of that is well in good because a home we were trying to buy fell through and it will allow me to spend more time with my family.

My family is the most important thing in my life. They are the absolute all in what I do day in and day out. The opportunity I have been presented with is keeping me from returning to "In the Trenches" and I am very grateful for that. I just hope that at the end of the day it is worth it for all parties concerned.

Just sometimes it feels like the harder I work the further behind I get and it opens people up for disappointments.  I really don't like that at all.  I find myself concerned with what is next and working harder to meet my obligations.  Oh well til next time .....

automotive digital marketing, in the trenches, paul rushing

People Love my Content

Maybe love is the wrong word.  They just love to follow it around.  I have recently started converting landing pages that I used as an Internet Sales Manager over to affiliate marketing landers.  My former employer did not pay me to create them so I did not turn them over to them, even though it was in my exit plan.

I had given my notice because of the undue pressure I was receiving over a blog post about an Automotive Internet Sales Training Program and was asked to leave the next day.  I had planned to turn these pages to my replacement to help him, in addition to other things like change the phone numbers on the Google directory listings.

Apparently someone is really worried about content I publish.  The pages are not finished that I was converting and some of them still encourage people to contact the dealership and I will be adding links to their website eventually to the ones that are pushing lead affiliate programs. 

This is what is funny though.  People take the time to email links to these landing pages like it is a subversive operation.  What is amazing one of the one of the pages that I just converted that talks about saving money at Carl Gregory Hyundai has gotten traffic from some very unlikely sources.  Plus I have done nothing wrong.  If they don't like it they can buy them from me or hire someone to beat me in the SERPS.  Guess they just like to show what they "discovered".  I am not positive and it is pure speculation but I am sure it all stemmed from a page about Special Auto Financing in Tulsa.

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I received and email about the page in question and check the stats.  It was amazing what I found.  A page that rearely get over 50 hits a month got over 30 hits yesterday.

I guess you can deduce the origination of all this traffic.  One person emailed it to someone at ADM and they in turn emailed it to someone who works for Carl Gregory Cars.  I thought sleeping dogs were supposed to lie.  Guess you can't take some peoples word in the Automotive Digital Marketing arena or they just never had any intention on keeping it anyway.

Trying to Acheive "Giant Squid" Status

Squidoo.com has a club so to speak, called "Giant Squids".  I am trying to enter the club.  I have over 60 lenses made at there but some are probably as not as good as they should be so I am working on improving them and moving some of my other out of "works in progress".

The subjects I know most about are Paul Rushing, car buying and selling, and search engine reputation management.  So I will be concentrating my efforts there on achieving Giant Squid status.  I am going to try my best to attend their campfire meeting on Tuesday if my schedule allows me to.

If you do not have an account at Squidoo.com you can join here.  There are a lot of good uses of the platform there.  From marketing your business to helping your favorite charity.  The best thing to do is if you are not sure is to jump in and create an account.

What is Social Marketing - Can Dealer Micro Sites Help?

A while back I did a post at my blog about being an Internet Sales Manager describing my research of Dealer Micro Sites. Once I did blog about it I got some caustic remarks from a vendor of Dealer Micro Sites that were comical to say the least. He took the time to post 15 links and description of what he does and trying to justify his pricing. Do not get me wrong, I do feel that people are entitled to a fair profit from their work, but their are some real cons to using dealer micro sites for automobile dealers and unless a dealer is willing to make a concerted effort at using the medium properly they will far out weigh the pros.

The Cons of Dealer Micro Sites

• Dealers do not own the content - Once spending the money to have a vendor create the landing page or micro site for them they lose the use of that web property once
  the contract expires. The dealer does not own vendor created micro sites content in most cases.
• Universal Search
  - Google is changing their algorithm to offer the surfer more options when they search for specific terms. Of course their own directory listing will show on top for specific dealer searches or market area and brand searches. More and more you will see other items such as blogs, video, images, books and maps in addition to plain website returns.
• Content Updates - If something changes and you wish to display different content to your potential customers you must wait for a vendor to update the content or pay them to do so. If there are dealer micro site providers that have a full functioning CMS for dealers to update content please let me know in the comments.
• Loss of website traffic - If a search engine user lands on a micro site instead of your main dealership website it may confuse them into thinking that it is you main piece of online real estate and not offer them what they are looking for.
• Accountability - If a micro site is not performing like it was promised the dealership is stuck in a contract that they cannot escape from in most cases. There will always be fine print that says "results not guaranteed" while you are stuck with a bill each month or even worse prepaid in advance.
• Advertising
  - Beyond creation of the micro site you will have additional expense of SEO and SEM to drive traffic to it. A site does not SEO itself just via submission to the search engines. There are other factors to consider such as link building and pay per click management.

Leaving caustic comments, dropping tons of links, and not using your real name on a personal blog is the anti thesis of Auto Industry Best Practices and violates any amount of decency in automotive social networking environments. Hopefully the car dealer network does a better job an social marketing then the vendors in the space today.

Nothing to fear - Blow hards just blow

Not long ago I did a blog post on my automotive marketing blog about how a company chose to advertise a training program called "The Masters of eMarketing". I am not going to get into the details of the post here. If you want to know more just click the title of the training program.


The response I received from Jim Ziegler and his attorneys would of scared the heck out of most people. To me I found it comical. One of the attorneys who signed this letter, Richard N. Sox, and Mr Ziegler write for the same publication, Dealer Magazine. I guess they were trying to flex their power by sending me that letter as "Recognized Automotive Authorities" and assumed I would buckle.


When it came to light that Jim Ziegler threated to sue me I got a tremendous amount of support from the Automotive Community and had people reach out to me that would surprise most. What is funny it appeared that sock puppets were employed to try to denigrate me at every possible step. One called me and apologized, a friendship may have even developed, and another can't seem to move on and a friendship ended.


At the end of the day I think the threats they sent me were hollow and unfounded, the interference that people are still trying to cause is backfiring and damaging their reputation, and I have dealers coming out of the wood work to throw me business. As my good friend at Suzuki of Wichita says, these people just don't get it!

Search Engine Reputation Management - Important to Understand

You are probably wondering what in the world Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) is. If you are no worries I am going to give you a simple primer.

There is a lot of information about you online whether you like it or not. I did an article about it after becoming a victim of Identity Theft. While that does not have to do much with SERM it is important for you to understand in today's online world, people are talking about you and putting information out there for the world to see regardless of your input.

The best way to keep your online reputation in tact is for you to control the content that is published about you online. While there is not much you can do about what others are saying there is a ton that you can do to own your name online.

When you google my name, Paul Rushing, the top listing is Who is Paul Rushing, my other personal blog and then there are several pieces of content about other people named Paul Rushing. Which is all good.

However there are other bloggers who are intent on trying to trash me because I have been vocal about the launch of the PayPerPlay Network and the NetAudioAds advertising platform being an aberration and have taken a vendetta march against my Search Engine Reputation. It will be in vain because no matter how much they try to destroy my reputation in the Search Engines it will be in vain because I will control what others find about me online.

While I will not respond to personal attacks, because it pushes their content above mine because of the recently updated content and to be quite frank it really does not matter what they think about me it is their opinion and they are entitled to it.

However I need to control what is easily found online about me. Here are some tools I am using that will eventually control the front page of google and other search engines when people search for Paul Rushing.

• My Personal Blog - Who is Paul Rushing
• Ziki - Promoting Paul Rushing on Ziki
• Blogger - This blog is a Good Example
• Squidoo - Paul Rushing on Squidwho
• Linkedin - Paul Rushing's Resume on Linkedin

Of course these are not the only mediums to use but they are a good start. Eventually I will own the first 10 pages of the Search Engine Results Pages for people looking for information on Paul Rushing, then I can control the conversation about me..

Having a Child with a Cleft Lip and Palate

My youngest son Preston was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, which is not a life threating birth defect, and requires a tremendous amount medical care. This has not affected him as far as normal kid stuff goes, yet. He will require a tremendous amount of corrective surgery through the years.

We live in Southern Coastal Georgia and find it necessary to use medical facilities in Jacksonville, Florida for his care because the care in Georgia for cleft lip and palate children is centered in Atlanta and Augusta. However, it does look like that Florida Legislature is taking steps to cut funding for the University of Florida Cleft Palate Team and cut out this program for children all over the southeastern United States.

While I am not a resident of Florida this is a tremendous blow to not only us in Southern Georgia but to the Children in Florida that are affected by this. Children are our future and hopefully the Florida Lawmakers realize that if it were not for these types of programs many children will be affected more than they are already.