Is what is good for the goose good for the gander? Dealer.com Debacle

I love social networking but I hate it when misinformed people preach things as gospel. I recently had an interaction at my favorite automotive social network and saw a comment from a Dealer.com executive that just reeked of BS. What is even worse is I gave him a link to his post for search engine marketing to help drive traffic to them and that is when good intentions turned into garbage.

The original post I did talked about ways to drive online traffic to car dealers but I stand by the fact that search engine marketing is a very expensive way to drive traffic to a dealership. However they did not like me referencing them in that extent.

The comment was made by their executive that SEO "takes ages" where as search engine marketing is instant and allegedly more effective than SEO. This is just not true and I did a fun blog post to show how easy it is to get almost instant search engine rankings without buying them and pointed out that #9 in the SERPs is more effective than #2 paid listing. See it at Dealer.com Search Marketing vs SEO.

After I did the mild jostling blog post I was contacted by a different executive with dealer.com with an offer to educate me on search engine optimization. I did not realize that I was that inept at SEO and my theories are wrong. But low and behold that post is already winning terms that Dealer.com should have and never get pushed out of the top spot.

[Dealer.com loosing dealer.com search engine marketing]

Dealer.com is worried about losing their search terms however they encourage dealers to buy their competitors names. I guess they are concerned that it may cost them business when holes are punched in their sales pitches and they realize they are the ones that need an education. I doubt they will contact me to train them even though I would probably work cheaper than most SEO trainers. Why is it ok for their clients to do it but not ok when other automotive vendors do it?

Now other bloggers are picking up my post. Some are republishing it and other are referencing how dealer.com lost their keywords and I did another post about the dealer.com search marketing holes.

Dealer.com left me a message that was unprofessional in tone and nature offering me an education in SEO. I called them back and was talked down to still, I terminated the call. Guess they don't like it when people show others the light and will not put up with intimidation tactics.

It is the car business an egos are strong and the big players try to bully people. They are picking the wrong market environment to try that in. Now they will get beat down by the little players in the automotive niche. Kinda like a hundred midgets on a bear. There will be some bloody midgets but they will win and force the bear into submission. I got plenty of bandages and do not care.

dealer.com, search engine marketing, seo, sem

Some things are better done in private

I have received flack from people in the automotive industry over pages I controlled on squidoo.com, I have since transferred them to someone who is learning affiliate marketing.  They are starting their squidoo empire on concentrating of special financing terms in the automotive industry.

Just based on interactions I have had from a dealership employee regarding Tulsa special financing over pages I controlled is what prompted me to make the transfer and get out of the automotive affiliate marketing arena.  It is a tough decision for me, but managing the top automotive blog, regarding automotive marketing, has caused me to make this decision.

That affiliation will undoubtedly propel my place in the automotive industry to the next level.

squidoo.com, automotive blog, special financing

Diluting My Brand? Maybe, Maybe not!

Had a long conversation this evening about brand dilution.  There are so many ways this can hurt, while at the same time it also helps build market saturation.  My biggest product right now is Paul Rushing without a defined product offering.  That does not stop engagement.  Almost daily I have people reach out to me for advice and opinions and also have people attempt to interfere with my search engine reputation management efforts for what ever reason.

I have been cast into a public eye in the the automotive industry best practices arena, while I will openly admit that pushing a mouse to follow a defined process is not my strong point, adapting to current changes in the search markets and online publishing are.  My efforts backed by a defined process for follow through is what will win.

Here in the very near future I will be publishing some online marketing and networking how tos to capitulate the brand that I have built into a marketable product.  I have spent to much time on proofs of concepts versus delivering quantified results for others.  I am looking forward to the challenge.

search engine reputation management, online branding, auto industry best practices.

Automobile Industry Events - J.D. Powers Automotive Internet Roundtable

The JD Powers and Associates Automotive Internet Roundtable will be held October 7th - 9th at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas Nevada. As a member of the staff of the premier Automotive Social Network hopefully I will be able to attend to network with auto industry professionals.

While there is a competing conference at the same time, which will probably have more dealers in attendance, this will be an opportunity to reach out to the community that supported me when I was threated to be sued by Ziegler Enterprises.

Also as a result of building up my search engine presence I have been engaged by a new friend, Scott Pitman, of mine to help Suzuki of Wichita build some lenses on squidoo. Hopefully this will help in their online marketing mix.

Hopefully all of the anchor text that I have added to this blog does not hurt my efforts, because some people consider me knowledgeable in Automotive SEO. I would hate to get this site sandboxed...

Be Real Be You - Don't Hide Hide Behind a Handle

If you are trying to build a personal brand online one of the worst things you could do is hide behind aliases. If you are going to voice your opinion and want others to look at you as a resource you need to do it in your own name. There are some rare exceptions to this rule and your goal may not to build your brand.

In a recent exchange at a very popular automotive marketing blog a reader disagreed with my opinion, I don't have a problem with that. People disagree with me all the time. The other side of the exchange did not use their real name or even provide a link to their website. That I do have a problem with. What it tells me is that they feel that they need to hide from letting the world know who they really are. Their opinion sharply contrasted from mine yet they hid behind their initials JL while I used my real name, Paul Rushing


On the basis of the of the sharply contrasting views that "JL" stated it would appear that he worked for an Automotive Classified Vendor trying to protect an antiquated business model while remaining anonymous. JL's anonymity caused me to discount his entire opinion and not even consider his point of view, because I could not identify with the reason for his position, while it was obvious why held mine. I could only work from supposition, which is never good.

While it was not my goal to call JL out here, or was it? I am using this as an example of how not to build credibility in your position and to show a good example of why you should not hide behind a "handle" and try to sway other peoples opinion to yours.

If JL's Identity is that of a representative of one of the online classified vendors then he should realized I was the Internet Sales Manager at Carl Gregory Chrysler Dodge Hyundai and his sharply contrasting view would not help save the cancellations coming down the pipe for these vendors and may of even hastened the decision. If he does not work for one of these sites then his Identity may of helped me understand his position better. Either way I am of the same opinion still...

Why Brand You?!?

I guess the better question is why not "Brand You". In todays world virtually anything anyone wants to know about you is available online and how you brand yourself can make or break your online success.

No matter if you are marketing affiliate products on line, business to business products or high ticket retail items your first priority should be to brand you, then the products you represent second, unless you are paid directly for building the company brand.

This goes against conventional wisdom and may be hard for many to grasp, especially corporate pinheads. There are many ways to help you brand yourself first, blogs, user generated content, micro sites, Pay Per Click and the list goes on forever. It can be a daunting task to keep multiple levels of content moving forward but like with anything else you get back exactly what you put into it.

One thing you should do is to concentrate on your goals first and not the goals of others as you move forward in your branding mission. You are the only person who is going to look after your brand with the enthusiasm it deserves.

Personal Branding can be broken down to several levels:

• Search Engine Reputation Management - When people search for you what are they seeing? You need to be the one in control of this conversation.
• Establishing yourself as a resource - This can be accomplished in many ways, but some of the easiest ways is to get involved in Social Media and Networking in the Niche in which you wish to distinguish yourself.
• Building Trust - Create raving fans of your services to them. Create and online "brag book". One way is "User Generated Content". Check out my page : Paul Rushing on SquidWho. While it is not the only way it is one of the easiest.

While these are not the only things you can do it is a good place to start. Eventually I will create a free ecourse on building your brand which will also help build mine.

Until then go build you....