A Wicked Web We Weave

Being high profile in an industry has it's advantages and disadvantages.  We have built our business completely on networking and content distribution.  Just recently I did a post about "The Next Generation of Dealer Services Scams" which was a play on words for a company name.  I knew there would be some rebuff from it but the biggest came from someone who tried to remain anonymous.

It turns out, with a little research, that this person who wished to remain hidden has ties to individuals putting on a training seminar for social media, but he did a poor job covering his tracks.  By using Google I was able to determine their real identity and previous social media interactions.

When we create online persona's we have to be careful of all of our interactions.  We cannot say one thing in a social media setting then and then try to sell a different version in our business.  This is what happened in this interaction.  Once I was able to track down this person I found that he was antagonistic in all of his interaction with others online but bills himself as a Neuro Sculpting practitioner.

Just makes you wonder what their real agenda was..



Technorati Tags: paul rushing, neuro sculpting, social media

Recent Trip to New Jersey

A couple weeks ago I made a trip to see clients and to discuss my craiglist service for car dealers with future business partners.  It was an awesome trip because I got to connect with some top tier automotive SEO practitioners in addition to meeting with clients.

One of the stops I made was with a Greenville Chevy Dealer who is doing a phenomenal job with their online marketing efforts.  It looks like they have scaled back on most antiquated forms of advertising and turning their efforts to the web.

In New Jersey I met with a NJ Infiniti Dealer who feels like they have been taken advantage of by the marketing of another automotive seo provider.  It is realkly amazing to find out what others really think of my competition. 

While my personal marketing sites are lacking in their current state, something I am working on, I have found that the best clients are the ones that come from referals and recomendations from others.  The growth I have experienced has been completely from organic growth and I have yet to do any outbound marketing.  I am greatful for this but now I have to kick it to a higher level.

 Technorati Tags: automotive seo, chevy, dealer, infinit dealer

Casual observations mid month Janurary 2009

My business is really picking up to a point where it is getting hard to keep up so I have hired two people to work for me and am so glad I did. Two of the biggest projects I am working on right now are for the same dealer. I am building them microsites/blogs. New Jersey Hyundai Dealer and New Jersey Used Cars

On another note I am redirecting the content of my flagship site to incorporate more automotive seo content just because there is so much smoke and mirrors out there in regards to this topic and also have an Internet sales manager that is going to collaborate with me now.

I also am helping a competitor to improve their rankings for automotive crm software and have had people tell me I am crazy for doing it. Our products are so diversely different and we just have one offering that overlaps so really with the reciprocal help we are giving each other it is a no brainer.

On another note dealer.com has not followed up like they said they would after they got upset about my article on dealer search engine marketing but I really did not expect them to follow through with anything. They are to bloated to make changes and two arrogant to listen to a voice of reason.

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.

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

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.