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Bring Google (and people) to your website more often by adding Automotive News Feeds to any page - CaRP Video Tutorial (Free)

I’m building this really simple website for my Independent Used Car Store. Until I can afford someone like TK Carsites, I have to build it myself. Total cost for start up will be less than $600. And less than $200 per year after that. Yes it is almost ugly, but I am paying attention to function and usability first. Later I will contract out for the look and feel of the site. This site will be able to send Inventory Updates to my Autotrader and Cars.com accounts with the click of a button (or 2).

So, I was searching for a way to offer my visitors some quality content that would also help my Search Engine Rankings. I want to eventually show up high in organic (or free) search results.

I found a really neat way to make sure your front page has frequently updated information with minimum work (and cash) required. By adding Automotive News Links to my front page I always have freshly updated content pertaining to Automotive Industry News. Google and your visitors will love you for it. Make sure it is legal to use the links you choose to be displayed on your site.

There is an excellent software tool available for you that accomplishes many more things than most of the competing and over-priced software solutions can do. The tool is called CaRP Caching RSS Parser. It´s available in three versions. The basic version is free and the advanced versions of CaRP (CaRP Koi and CaRP Evolution), which you can purchase from GeckoTribe.com , have additional features and functions, some of them will be explained in this tutorial.

I hope to have my project completed soon. Once installed and configured, updates to your RSS Feeds will be automatic. Thus having a great way to add value to the site for both Google and our visitors.

By Sean X Cummings
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Now that social media has shattered the illusion of brand control,
is your company ready for this brave new world?

The Vatican recently announced that it was exploring mobile and social media as a way to reach people for World Youth Day . So, if a man wearing a funny-looking pointy hat gets it, what’s wrong with these companies: Louis Vuitton, Burger King, Johnson & Johnson, Taco Bell, Delta, etc., and the list goes on.

The Forrester blog came out with a list that shows which companies were punk’d by social media because of their ignorance of the new communication dynamic.

In a previous article on social media, I state: “It will just be much more difficult to lie to consumers since they have the tools and the communication ability to weed them out.” And that’s why they got punk’d. So what did they do wrong? And what do others companies do wrong when they approach social media?

There are two fundamental structural reasons that hamper current companies: layered vs. matrixed, and campaign vs. strategy.

The most powerful brands are often the ones that get left behind. Why? Because change comes much more slowly to them. Their corporate structures are layered — a tree structure of employees sitting on top of employees who sit on top of other employees, all in a tree structure of responsibility avoidance. This causes entrenchment and aversion to risk in an effort to reach that next rung. Those companies are glaciers; oil tankers trying a three-point turn; a blind squirrel trying to find a nut.

There are many reasons for that structure, but for a long time it was also the most efficient structure for the media cascade. Old media worked much the same way, rifling down from primary news sources, like a river from a mountain source hitting its tributary. Major broadcast networks and major newspapers dictated what the consumer saw, read, learned. Press releases hit primary news sources and fanned the message out. Everything was nice, neat and tidy.

And then it all started to fall apart, and it’s going to get worse. The fracturing of media communication, and many companies’ inability to spin their normal message, is causing a rethinking of how all brands will have to communicate with their consumers.

No longer can the marketing, corporate communications and senior leadership of companies remain in layered tree structures when it comes to the way they communicate their brands to the consumer. They must be matrixed, and those matrix hubs must be empowered to react without going up and down trying to force-fit a crafted message. They can keep the rest of their company functioning as is, but if they don’t rework the way those groups communicate, they are not only going to be left in the dust, they’re going to go out of business.

What they all must realize is that brand control was always an illusion, but now that illusion has been further shattered by the vortex of communication enabled by social media.

Source: iMEDIA Connections

The new generation of car buyers have been online since they were kids. They’re looking for dealers that understand them and how they shop. Does your Current Auto site give them what they want? Video, Mobile Phone Capable, Integrated Specials and easy to use direct navigation that takes them directly to what they were looking for from the search engines?

There’s a reason that TK has been named BEST Website Provider for 4 years in a row. We don’t just build websites, we study the market and track how customers find dealership websites. Then we build a custom site for each of our dealers that is specifically tailored to their unique market, makes, and demographics. The result is a beautiful thing indeed. It’s why our dealers experience 7% average conversion rate instead the industry average of 2%-3%.

And now we are proud to announce that the most advanced and powerful Automotive SEO Platform in the world has arrived. TK5 turns your single site into five separate, targeted and supercharged sites. With over 1,000 inbound links and a separate homepage for each department your Auto site will get more visitors and generate more leads than you ever thought possible.

Please visit http: //tkpowerof5.com to learn more.

Feel free to simply email jennifer@tkcarsites.com

Proudly offered to by the creators of the Bird Dog Club!

We have a NEW addition to our REFERRAL programs. Offering the same rewards & benefits, but in an all new theme. The Prospector’s Club lets customers earn GOLD NUGGETS (cash) for sending in referrals.

If you would like to increase your monthly retail sales choose the Bird Dog Club OR the Prospector’s Club, we guarantee results!

The Bird Dog Club & Toyota Signature, “Moving Forward” for great results!
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Way to Go Bird Dog Club!

DeVerl Austin, Charles Vogelheim and Sean V. Bradley lead a powerful program.

PHILADELPHIA, March 14, 2008 — Dealer Synergy, one of the premier Internet Sales Training organizations in the automotive industry in conjunction with AutoSuccess Magazine and The Dubis Group have attracted some of the best experts in the retail automotive marketing arena for their upcoming third annual Synergy Sessions Event being held in New Orleans.

• DeVerl Austin, a Senior Consultant with Franklin Covey will be speaking at this event, and representatives from the Franklin Covey team will be collaborating with Sean V. Bradley to develop a presentation which will leverage strategies from the best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  The results will yield the powerful “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Online Dealerships” presentation and provide a framework for auto dealers and their teams to create greater efficiencies for maximum results.
• Charles Vogelheim, a Vice President with J.D. Power and Associates one of the premier automotive research companies and a 20-year veteran of the automotive industry will share insights and trends that will shape the auto retailing market in the future.
• Sean V. Bradley, the Founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy will once again lead the event with his dynamic and energized presentations focusing on helping dealers use cutting edge technologies like video search engine optimization to build online relationships and create more interest from consumers to build sales volume for auto dealers in their local markets.

This event is also the first major automotive training session being held in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina and Susan L. Givens the publisher of AutoSuccess Magazine and organizer of the Synergy Sessions event said, “We are proud to show our support for this great city and hope that the over 200 attendees we bring to New Orleans take advantage of all that the city has to offer us.”

She continued, “Many of the top auto industry vendors are supporting our event and that helps insure a quality program, great exhibitors and top tier information for all the dealer owners and managers attending our event.”

Registration is now open and additional information is on the event website http://www.synergysessions.com/. SOURCE: Dealer Synergy, 7201 Keystone Street  Ste 120, Philadelphia, PA  19135, (888) 379-6374

What CarFolks does for the auto buying public is to provide a list of dealerships (as dealerships are bought and sold and franchises change our list may not be complete so we’ll ask you to call or email us if we miss someone or the info isn’t correct) and the ability for car and truck buyers to join our neighborhood and the rate the performance of the dealership and even the performance of the sales or service people at the dealership where you bought or serviced your vehicle. Then we make those ratings public for the world to see. In this way we can reward the dealers doing a great job of serving their customers and encourage our neighbors on CarFolks to buy or service their vehicles at those dealerships. See full story here

Carfolks.com supports salespeople and dealerships that are dedicated to the highest level of customer satisfaction.

• To reinforce our belief in high standards of customer service, Carfolks is offering $1,000 to the salesperson that has the highest CF Score on the site in the month of March. 
• Make sure you are registered (with your picture) and …
• …ask your customers to submit a review of you today! Sales folks sign up today at www.carfolks.com