Ramblings from Paul Rushing

Another Friggin Bully

2010-11-19T06:07:00.001-08:00

I am quick to call bullshit when I see it. That is possibly my strongest asset or my biggest character flaw, depending your individual perspective. Yesterday I received a call from a lawyer in Brunswick Georgia who was not impressed about the article I did about Brunswick DUI Attorney websites. He threatened me with a lawsuit and possible jail time. (#$%)

If he did not like the article I wrote about his website he should of acted upon the the deficiencies I pointed out versus picking up the phone to threaten me. If he wanted me to take it down he should of had his hat in his hand and not tried to use intimidation to get me to remove the marketing blog post I did.

Personally it is comical when lawyers threaten me with bullshit lawsuits. His arrogance is what prompted me to write the original blog post his phone call yesterday also prompted me to write a post on my personal blog on how I do not respond well to threats and intimidation. (Reid Zeh - Threatens Lawsuit and Jail)

Either I will learn a lesson based on my resistance to not be bullied or this alleged self efficacious, in relation to online marketing, attorney will improve his online presence.

Technorati Tags: reid zeh, bully, threats

Google Maps Disappeared - For a day or two...

2009-11-29T08:08:00.001-08:00

I was looking for directions to visit a friend of mine that works for a Cincinnati Ford dealer and all of Google Maps was gone. Not just for my friends at Beechmont Ford but across the whole net. It did not matter what browser I tried to use or what business I was looking for, Google maps was not showing.

I think it was just a brief anomaly on my data center because it did not last long. I just hope that when others try to verify the image I put up on my automotive seo services page the same thing does not happen to them. With the way things are scrutinized today in the car business you better make sure you presentation meets fact. A good example of that is a recent article I did about NextGenDealer Services where they are trying to pitch social media services and do not even have a real presence themselves.

Next Generation Dealer Services - Oh My

2009-11-24T23:34:00.001-08:00

My son recently came to work for SEGA Systems it was really a proud moment for me personally. I have told him that as we work to build our company providing services to car dealers across the country we have to be careful on how we conduct ourselves in online networking environments. When you are building your online story you need to make sure your message is credible. This conversation with him took place today as I asked him to be real careful with what he posts on Facebook and Myspace and we delved further into the why.

Today I got an email from a company that is competing with our upcoming workshop for social media and automotive seo it drove home the point I was making to my son. You have to be credible in your message. I did a post about this email "Next Generation of Dealer Services Scams - Social Media" where I dissect the fact if you are going to set yourself up to be a leader in a field you better be living it as it pertains to social media.

I don't consider myself an expert in the field, but I have used social media to build our business from one client to over 100 in less than a year. There is something to be said for that.

Technorati Tags: next generation dealer services, social media training,

An Automotive SEO Experiment

2009-10-19T11:33:00.001-07:00

This site is a test in Automotive SEO. We are wanting to see how fast we can get it to rank for used car search terms in different market areas.

Hopefully Google will approve of this effort and we can use sites like this to scale for automotive marketing initiatives.

in reference to: HandPickedUsedCars.com - View All (view on Google Sidewiki)

Attending and Contributing

2009-10-11T23:45:00.001-07:00

I am on a panel at the Drivingsales Executive Summit and using Google's Sidewiki to write this post about it.

We are looking forward to two days of action packed high powered discussion on how dealers can be more successful online. I will blog about the speakers and presentations using this tool throughout the Summit.

I am glad that I will finally be able to shake the hands of many of the people who have contributed to my knowledge base..

in reference to: Home - DrivingSales (view on Google Sidewiki)

Growing and Expanding - Lots of Work

2009-08-09T13:12:00.001-07:00

Our business has grown tremendously over the first half of this year and now we are expanding again. I have a lot of good people to thank for this but before I publish all of those thanks I have to get through a few things.

We are working on a redesign of our site for marketing to car dealers to sell Automotive SEO services and then will be reworking our original site to offer online marketing services for brick and mortar businesses. This in of itself is a lot of work.

We have a lot of work going on with dealer micro sites right now and that property we use to market those has not even in the planning phase. One of our newest sites is for a Chevy Silverado dealer and the traffic it is getting is phenomenal.

Working on another marketing campaign to do pod casting in the online automotive marketing space this will actually be a fun project. One of the largest concentrations that needs to be worked on is delivering the education to car dealer about how important Search Engine Reputation Management is. A recent post I did actually drive this point home.

Technorati Tags: automotive seo, search engine reputation management

What happens when others don't play nice...

2009-04-26T23:10:00.001-07:00

It is kind of comical the comments and emails I have been getting from my a recent post at my other personal blog. For those readers here who do not know I started affiliate marketing over a decade ago using the old usenet user groups and have been doing it ever since.

My clients come first and they get most of my time, but because my affiliate properties are generating enough revenue for me to pay someone to help manage them we are creating properties to destroy local markets and some has given us a good list to work off of.

We have started launching a series of sites and landing pages targeting NJ Infinti dealer traffic and will be puling in search traffic on dealers names like Circle Infiniti. Generally in affiliate marketing you actually try to pick of easier targets than ones that are being aggressively targeted by others, but this is an exception.

While I do not have any New Jersey Infiniti dealers as clients and probably never will I think this is a great way to prove a point and teach my new prodigy about affiliate marketing, automotive SEO and reaching into other verticals.

This will cripple the efforts of wannabe SEO consultants and maybe send them back to working and managing telemarketing rooms.

Technorati Tags: paul rushing, circle ininiti, nj infiniti dealer, automotive seo

Do you hide it or let it all hang out?

2009-04-24T14:48:00.001-07:00

I have recently come under attack by a competitor in my niche. He is disseminating false information about me, although the way he discovered it would lead one to believe it is genuine.

I did a recent blog post about the issue at my personal blog Who is Paul Rushing and I basically addressed the facts in a very transparent way. The reason that this individual has lashed out like he has is because his prior life before seeking to become an automotive marketing consultant is very checkered to say the least and I pointed this out when dissecting how he was mismanaging client relationships and brought attention to this article about Brian Pasch.

While I have never competed his company in any form, I do cringe when I see people publishing misinformation about automotive SEO. Because I do not use outbound marketing or have a very aggressive marketing site to sell my services with some but the content I put out there is right on. I just don't enter into conversations that do not apply to my skill set.

Now there has been hate sites thrown at me, him making false claims on his own website and talk among the rumor mill. This will probably cost me business at some point. To make up for this I will just throw up lead gen sites targeting his clients keywords. Very much like this one targeting New Jersey Infiniti Dealer Pricing.

Commuting Again - Kinda

2009-03-21T00:16:00.001-07:00

My business providing automotive seo and craigslist inventory distribution for car dealer across the county has grown to the point where I have out grown my humble home office and now require more space and flexibility.

Having gone from a one man band with one client to eight employees and 52 clients have necessitated this move. My new office will have a 1200 sq ft primary area with a second floor area of an additional 2400 sq ft. This is way more room than I need right now but it does give me room to grow.

It is in a revitalization zone in downtown Kingsland, GA with several conveniences available within walking distance. A coffee shop and cajun restraunt in the adjacent building a barbque restraunt and southern buffet accross the street. What is even better than that is it is less than a two mile commute from my home.

Maybe I should bike to work to work off some of new palatial delights I will be partaking of?

Technorati Tags: sega systems, automotive seo, new office

The Auto Dealer Blogsophere

2009-03-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Car dealer are starting to use blogs as a ways to promote their stores in many different forms. One that I helped set up was for a Cincinnati Ford Dealer. It is starting to do ok in the search engines and it needs a little push.

Another one I found for a New Jersey Hyundai dealer looks like it is gaining ground as well but it is a different type of property. It is more of a pure marketing piece. Very similar to this one about NJ Infiniti dealers or this on about used f150 trucks in Cincinnati.

While I have been doing a lot of content about Automotive seo at my main blog a recent article I did about automotive seo ethics has pissed off one consultant who even has a site dedicated to him I am sure Brian Pasch thinks I have something to do with it. What is great about the article I did about ethics caused my phone to ring off the hook yesterday. A couple of calls were from customers of the offending seo consultant and other were from people glad that someone finally called him out.

What will be fun to watch is to see how this really plays out. The automobile industry really has a long way to go in this regards but it is catching up very fast.

Technorati Tags: auotmotive seo, paul rushing, brian pasch

Winning Online Strategy for Car Dealers

2009-02-20T19:56:00.001-08:00

I have been working on and watching a couple of different projects. One that I have been working on is for a Cincinnati Ford dealer and it seems like it is going to turn out hugely successful. We will eventually own the online market for Ford dealers in Cincinnati.

Another project I have been watching close is for a New Jersey Hyundai dealer and New Jersey used car dealer. Those projects are also picking up traffic in a huge way and will dominate those markets.

I really get a kick out of watching projects like this because I love online automotive marketing and think doing these types of promotion will be kick ass for the dealers that are doing it. You can completely obliterate your competition in your market area with enough content to the point that they could not spend enough money to catch up with you.

That is what is so great about the wild West of the automotive online marketing sphere.

Technorati Tags: cincinnati ford dealer, new jersey used cars, new jersey hyundai dealer

Automotive SEO, Vendor and Microsite

2008-12-30T09:08:00.001-08:00

Automotive SEO is my specialty and I have not done any outbound marketing to speak of, all of my customers have come from networking and inbound marketing. One of the articles I did to negate a myth was doing really well in the SERP and beating a vendor for their name and product description on the term dealer.com search engine marketing and now they have taken the steps to beat it out, good for them!!

The thing is they should of never lost their name and product descriptions then they would not of needed to take reactionary measures to try to get those terms back. Automotive SEO is really quite easy for example I was able to get a fresh site for a Cincinatti Ford dealer relating to the 2009 Ford Escape hybrid and it is already ranking nationally and getting traffic with a four day old site.

I can create dealer micro site alternatives using wordpress and they will win day in and day out over the static three page aberations out there now. Now I will need to build my marketing site to reflect this offering. These will be my core offering in addition to Craigslist for car dealers.

Technorati Tags: atuomotive digital marketing, dealer micro sites, dealer.com

Tons of Content = Marketing Power

2008-12-20T21:13:00.001-08:00

Daily I work with car dealers to help them expand their online reach. Right now I am working on a platform using wordpress to create alternatives to dealer micro sites now I am finding myself creating tons of content to use as personal marketing pieces. It seems to be working quite well. Daily my phone is ringing with offers to take on partners or to partner with others to bad none of this is real cashable business at this point.

I have a couple core clients right now, a Cincinnati used car dealer and blog content for New Jersey bad credit car loans in addition to my craigslist service for car dealers. It is fun using the net as my only income source and am looking forward to leveraging these new relationships that is being established in the new year.

The good thing about working online and adding value to buiness relationsips is that there are more opportunities for repeat business and referral than in busines to consumer relationships.

automotive marketing, dealer microsites, wordpress

Making new contacts from online content

2008-11-27T23:21:00.000-08:00

This has been a really crazy week and there is still three days left. Tonight I had a long talk with Randy Charach who found me from some of my pages on squidoo that I created about affiliate networks. He gave me some good ideas on how to take advantage of my domain portfolio.

I am in the process of setting up a new service that lets car dealers use craigslist more effectively and have been devoting a lot of time on it. I really need to hire a designer to help me with it but that will come in due time. My first client on the service is extremely happy with the results so far.

It looks like iMagic Lab is pissed about a blog post I did a while back about my ineraction with them when I was an Internet sales manager and another vendor is going to be mad because I made a page that shows how unimportant a term like nissan delivers is.

Now I guess I need to work on the wordress tutorial for car dealers I have been promising. To bad I do not feel like taking the time to do a ton of screen captures to set it up. I need to figure out a way to set domains purchases and hosting to be automatic to install it. I am sure there is a way to do it if ijust would take the time to do it.

I love projects they really keep me busy .....

craigslist, keyword research, imagic lab, randy charach

Bridging new horizons

2008-11-26T17:21:00.001-08:00

Right now I am working on a new craigslist service for car dealers and am finding that it is a lot of work. No so much in the fact of setting up the service more so on the fact that it is all of the other stuff that comes with it. Eventually it will be rolling strong enough that it will allow me to diversify into other areas.

In speaking with a Tulsa Chevy dealer not long ago it reminded me how close minded the car business really is. The fact is most inventory providers offer services like this but it requires the dealer to do the work. Most people at a car lot have better things to do than to daily post ads to craigslist.

Hopefully this will be a new beginning in becoming a full service automotive vendor.

The car business is taking a bath!!

2008-11-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Some of the recent announcements coming from the big three car makers is enough to scare the heck out of anyone except maybe for a good internet sales manager. Automotive news just sent out a press release from General Motors that the talks to buy out Chrysler are over.

Even with the current credit crunch going on a certain aspect of the car business is doing really well. The buy here pay here business is actually getting better for most dealers that deal with those types of consumers. Their sales are brisk because of the lack of financing available for moderate credit score consumers.

Those dealers are in the right spot at the right time. The wholesale used car market is in the tank so they have the opportunity to maximize their inventory and solutions. Customer being turned down at regular car dealerships know they need down payments, although I have heard some good stories coming from a Cincinnati Ford dealer where they are able to get customers in new car with zero down. They have the best of both worlds. Low inventory cost and larger down payments.

The market is getting tricky right now, if you are in the car business you need to get over to Drivingsales.com right now and learn what others are doing to be successful.

Testing out Different Tools

2008-10-21T06:01:00.001-07:00

I signed up for a research tool that says that people that are looking for Buy Here Pay Here Car Lots in Indiana may be under served when looking for them. As always I am looking for ways to help car dealers expand their reach online and figured that was a good keyword to try to optimize for.

One thing that you do not see from Automotive SEO Consultants very often is them talking about thinks like KEI, long tail search and link building. These are things that the automotive community needs to become aware of. You will more of these types of conversations taking place on the best automotive blogs in the industry as the membership at DrivingSales picks up steam.

I will also be publishing post regarding keyword research there as well.

Missed Digital Dealer 5 - Sigh

2008-10-09T22:54:00.001-07:00

I was somewhat disappointed when I was unable to attend Digital Dealer 5 in Grapevine, Texas. It is not the end of the world just a disappointment. The good thing is though I would not of had the opportunity to do what I do best and network online and take calls from people needing help.

One thing I am really glad of is the conversation I had with a good friend who is a Suzuki Auto Dealer about my future in the automotive industry. I have a knowledge base of automotive best practices as it relates to Internet marketing and he is trying to guide me on building my future in that respect.

My time has value and for now I have been over delivering and being underpaid. That is ok, big things are to come. I look forward to a new direction for me in both content and direction in helping others.

suzuki auto, automotive best practices

Realingning Duties - Fun Stuff

2008-09-30T00:06:00.001-07:00

Content creation is my strongest point, networking and sales run hand and hand as a second. Dealing with people who repeatedly don't "get it" frustrates me. Now I am concentrating on building two one an automotive marketing blogs and another where I am "In the Trenches" at an automotive social network that deals with Automotive Digital Marketing.

Fun stuff and a huge direction of purpose on a particular project is actually a great milestone. Now to work on my schedule at an upcoming conference because I will blog this one huge.

automotive digital marketing, in the trenches

Social Networking Works in Two Directions!!

2008-09-02T22:08:00.003-07:00

My new job at an auto industry vendor rating site allows me to connect with people all over. Just today I was contacted by someone trying to break into the dealer market for a product that may have some value and also spoke with representatives from Jeffrey Gitomer's Company.

Both of these contacts happened due to social networking. One thing that that struck me was the parallel that happened.

In the case of someone wishing to "break" into the auto industry as a vendor they sought me out. I was able to learn about their product. Drive Equity and we discussed it's application and profit potential for dealers that use it. It may be a valuable product at some point for dealers, time will tell..
In speaking with Mr. Gitomer's representative I was the hunter. I was seeking to tap his knowledge base as a content source for www.drivingsales.com and even picked up a couple tickets to his upcoming seminar in Orlando, FL. I look forward in having his sales advice on our site.

Both of these interaction were exact opposites of each other, in the first one they wanted something, product exposure, in the second I wanted something, more knowledge and content.

The web is a great place to live and work!!

car dealer social networking, automotive vendor reviews, networking success stories

New Horizons - Car Dealer Social Networking

2008-08-22T14:22:00.001-07:00

I have recently taken on a position with an Automotive Social Network as their blog manager and SEO. Being a part of the team at Driving Sales has been a refreshing experience to finally get involved with a group that gets it.

There are other places on the web that are designed as Car Dealer Social Networks but it may take a long tome for them to catch up with Driving Sales. They are the first network out there to off Automotive Vendor Ratings which is scaring the pants off a lot of the vendors in the space.

It is about time that transparency in the Automotive industry reaches a level playing ground.

Time to move it on up ..

2008-04-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

Having lived in a very rural setting for the last few years without the real benefits for living way out it is time to make a move. While I really love my home in the woods the advantage of owning a home away from the crowd is no longer applicable. We bought our current home because the real estate prices were lower than being inside of the metro. With the current real estate bust happening and gas prices increasing daily the logic does not work anymore.

Unfortunately I am not able to find a bargain close to the beach and it is doubtful I ever will for a property that meets our families requirements, three bedrooms and space. So I am resigned to finding a home that makes the water more accessible without destroying the family budget.

This will be a cumbersome process for me in the past I have let my bride decide and I just completed the transaction, but I want more say in my next home and the budget factor is critical, because our youngest sons health care cost are getting ready to start rising considerably.

This should be an interesting, uncharted process for me..

Welcome Home Troops

2008-04-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

Many soldiers have/are retuning to Ft Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield from deployments abroad. I am glad you are home. I have met with many of this fine young men and women over the last few weeks and it has been a pleasure. I have heard some gut wrenching stories from some of them and if people really know what you were going through over there they would display more compassion on your return.

Glad to have you people home and out of harms way.