Automotive dealer management systems, are you using your tools correctly

The potential of many of the UKs dealerships will never be realised unless they start to use the tools they are provided with in the correct way. There is also a good argument that some dealerships are working so hard to achieve their potential that their old antiquated DMS cannot provide the tools needed. Many dealerships need to change their DMS solution because of this. However some view change as troublesome and worrying. There is a simple question that needs to be levelled is your dealership achieving what it should if the answer to this is no then a review of your DMS is essential.

I am often asked about what changes are needed to dealerships to gain that competitive edge? The simple reply to that is you know your dealership, staff and customers better than I. What I can say is that without dedicated, trained and motivated staff even the best DMS in the world will fail. People and process are the most important things in any dealership. Lets be clear about this, DMS is just a device used to achieve set down objectives. It helps if your DMS contains all the tools necessary.

Many in the industry now see that tools such as Showroom systems, Customer relationship management (CRM), analytical reporting, Internet marketing and time management systems are essential. These all should be available integrated into the DMS. There are many of these products available as stand-alone but few integrate, this means yet more work for the user duplicating information.

Choosing a DMS that suits your business is a bit like choosing a business partner, it needs very careful thought and consideration. The following were listed in the last issue as relevant questions to ask and are still essential today.

· How will it give us a return on investment and over what time

· Where will it cut costs/enhance efficiency

· Is it designed to grow with our business

· Is it capable of operating multi-company, multi site, multi-franchise

· Will it communicate efficiently with customers on the web, in the call centre and on the dealership floor

· How good is the CRM part of the system

· How easy will it be for staff to adapt to the system? What training is required

· From talking to other users of the system, how good is the suppliers customer support

Once you have chosen and implemented the DMS that's where it begins. So many dealers forget that constant training and reviews of process need to be addressed. It is recognised that the average dealer should book at least two days training a year. A decent DMS provider should always be prepared to share their experiences on good working practices. I also think that as business partners the dealer and the DMS provider should document process controls. Simple but effective training training training.

I'd echo other industry observer's recent comments about the current obsession with running a hosted DMS solution. It's imperative for a DMS to have access to web services providing third party data delivery, and indeed using the internet as a transport mechanism for multi-site connectivity is a cost effective solution. However, running a DMS over the web where the server is in a datacentre all too often ends in tears. The UK communications infrastructure is not mature enough to reliably run a remote web server based application as intensive as a DMS with adequate performance. How many problems do you have with slow Internet connections? We offer the service, but we don't actively promote it. Keep your DMS server within your business.

Most dealers owe it to their potential to review the DMS market. I believe that Gemini Systems Dealer Management Systems should be one of the systems reviewed.

Blogging: one of the best Internet marketing methods that won't cost you a cent.

Blogging: the act of writing in one's weblog. To blog something is to write about something in one's weblog. This usually involves linking to something the author finds interesting on the internet.

A weblog is a public web site where users post informal journals of their thoughts, comments, and philosophies. So basically, a blog is an online journal. A blog could be set up to no cost at all, and can be used for just for the fun of it or for business reasons.

Blogging itself isn't new at all, it's populary is. Thousants of teenagers all around the world see blogging as an outlet for their emotions, their opinions and interests. Smart marketers however, have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that won't cost you a cent. 

Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to boost the visibility of your products and services. 

Find some tips to boost your internet advertising with the help of a blog below:
* Keep your customers informed about changes to your website. Important updates, like your new products and affiliate sites, could also be announced through your blog

* Use your blog as an archive: keep track of your business objectives and plans through open writing. What could be better than searchable information that could be easily accessed by anyone browsing the web, right?

* Write reviews, give your opinion or advice on on specific services or products that are related to your business.

* Be sure to include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. Affiliate links in the form of advertisement banners could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.

* Add fresh and quality content to your weblog on a regular basis: search engines like fresh content. 

*Post quality content articles to your blog. Allow your visitors to reprint those articles on condition that the author by-lines remain unchanged, and the link url's are left intact. This way, links to your website will spread around the net.

* Encourage your visitors to leave comments and feedback. It's the best way to learn and improve your products/services.

* Exchange links with other bloggers.

In fact, when it comes to blogging, the sky is the limit. Once you're comfortable using a weblog, it's up to you to get creative. Add sound, video, eBooks, pictures, advertisements, ... and give your website the boost it deserves! 

Email Marketing Tips - How To Start Your Own Opt In List

Having your own opt in list is essential if you want to succeed on the internet. Its common knowledge that email marketing is one of the most reliable ways of generating consistent free targeted traffic for your website.

Once you have your own responsive opt in list it can open up a variety of different opportunities, such as selling advertising space and setting up joint ventures with other list owners.

The first thing you need to do is collect email addresses from your visitors and you can do this by offering a free report or starting a newsletter using an auto responder, allowing you to set up a series of messages that will be sent out automatically on your behalf on a timeframe you specify.

Its important to choose the most reliable auto responder at the start because it can be very stressful and time consuming to transfer your opt in list from one place to another.

For best results you should not use a free auto responder service because advertisements will be added to all your outgoing emails. You will have no control over which ads are shown and this will distract your subscribers and dramatically reduce the response rates to your emails.

You can either pay a monthly fee and use a third party hosted auto responder service like Aweber or Get Response, or you can pay a one time fee and install an auto responder script like Auto Response Plus on your domain.

The problem with auto responder scripts is that the number of subscribers you can store will be limited depending on how much disk space you have with your hosting plan, and you will also need to backup your list on a regular basis in case a problem occurs and all of the information is lost

Its much easier and safer to use a third party hosted auto responder service because you will not have to worry about installing a script and your subscribers will be stored securely on a dedicated server with no limits.

Its essential that you focus on one specific topic for your opt in list as this will dramatically increase your response rates. You need to create a landing page consisting of a short sales letter that encourages visitors to subscribe, and a subscription form that allows visitors to enter their name and email address. You should also offer some quality bonus gifts to increase your conversion rates.

Double opt in lists are becoming more popular because they provide extra security as subscribers must confirm their email address, but many people will forget to complete this confirmation which results in fewer active subscribers so you may prefer to use the single opt in feature.

Once you have set up your landing page and follow up messages you will need to start sending visitors to your website. Submitting content to article directories and writing press releases are the most effective ways of generating unlimited free targeted traffic

Keyword Selection Process For Search Engine Optimization

Keyword selection is the most important piece of information you need to figure out to be successful online. To build a search engine friendly website, you have to have content and that content must be filled with words that would be used to identify your company and its products. Keywords are words that are searched for often on the major search engines. These are important because you want people to easily find your website when they are looking for the type of product you offer.

The first step in the process of keyword selection is finding the right keywords. There is a free tool available on overture for keyword selection, the url is:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Overture is the company that handles Yahoo's pay-per-click advertising and other programs. This tool will tell you how many times any given keywords were searched for during the period one or two months prior. It can give you a very good idea of what keywords or keyword phrases to optimize your site for by using the free tool above.

You should always try to mix up the popularity of the keywords you choose. The most searched keyword or phrase is important to optimize your website for, but you should choose some lesser searched phrases, as well. This should make it easier for your prospective customers to find you. The lesser searched keywords and phrases are not optimized for as often as the most searched terms and will be much easier for your company to rank well for them.

Once you know what your main keywords are, you need to take one or two keywords and create a page of content based on the keywords you chose. You can do this by writing information on your products. If you offer furniture and hard wood furniture is one of the keyword phrases you have chosen, you should write a page on the quality of the wood you use in your furniture products. By using the term "hard wood furniture" as often as possible, you will be able to show the search engines why you should be ranked for that term. Feel free to scatter your other main keywords throughout the content you write for your website. This can only help you obtain good rankings for those keywords. You must create a page of content for every one or two keywords you want to rank well for.

Once you have content written for your keywords, it is important to have a solid linking structure for the interior of your website. Search Engines look at exterior and interior links to figure out what is important to your customers and help them find you easier. In English, this means that you will rank better by using the correct words inside the hyperlinks used on your website. These words are given extra weight by search engines by being used inside a link. You should include a link to another content page inside of every content page you write that points to a separate content or product page inside of your website.

The last, and possibly the most important, piece of your search engine optimization puzzle must be the exterior links pointing to your website. Major search engines, especially Google, put a very large focus on the words that are used to link to your website from other web pages. It is also important to obtain links from "authority" sites. A relevant site's link is worth much more than a site that has nothing to do with what your company does. By following the simple steps above, you will be on your way to better search engine rankings for the most important keywords.

How to Effectively Promote Your Website

1. Take advantage of the search engines. Submit your site to search engines. There are those that offer services free of charge. You can submit to Google, Yahoo, Altavista, Infoseek, Lycos and other trusted search engines. You can submit with an interval of 3 to four months. Try a redirection, if you cannot submit the real URL.
2. Do some reciprocal linking. This is one of the best ways to lead viewers towards your website. In this method, you exchange link with other websites. That way no site is disadvantaged. To find sites, you can again use the search engines.
3. Exchange banners. This is also one of the most productive ways to promote your website. However, they do not bring much traffic. Choose wisely when deciding banner ratios. Some sites are also offering paid banner submission. Decide on the matter cleverly. Select the ones with good traffic to influence your traffic as well.
4. Write articles and press releases. People wants to read news and tips more than reading ads. Moreover, a good number of articles and news releases with your website as footer is a promotional tool. Submit them to high-ranking sites in order to market your site.
5. Use meta tags. Always use the same on your site especially on the index page. The essence is that when search engines add up your homepage to their database, what they will look for is a special tag with keywords and description of the page. Give your title, description and keywords to make it easier for the search engines to locate you.
6. Patronize online classifieds. Millions of online ads programs are available in the net. Choose a category where your site belongs and add your site. Resubmit every 2 months to update them.
7. Make signatures. Use signatures which are linked to your websites. You can use these signatures when posting a reply in forums, chat rooms and guest books.
8. Maximize webrings. This is also a productive way of promoting. All you have to do is to find and join webrings which are similar to the topics in your site. They will bring in slow but stable traffic.
9. Do some promos. Promotions like discounts can be a tempting strategy that can boost both your traffic as well as sales.
Promote your site and be productive like you never been before. 

Overview Of An Affiliate Marketing Program

An affiliate marketing program is a revenue-sharing marketing strategy where a merchant pays their affiliates a commission for referring business to their website. The webmaster signs up as an affiliate in the affiliate marketing program and gets a login id. He then collects information about the marketing material for the affiliate marketing program and uses it on his web site as banners, ad- links and search boxes. If a visitor to the website is interested in one of the affiliate marketing program links then he clicks the referred link and purchases the product. The marketer identifies that the particular sale has been through the affiliate marketing program, and he pays the affiliate his commission. By having an affiliate marketing program the owner does not pay for expensive advertising but pays when a sale, lead or subscription action occurs.

There are numerous benefits that an affiliate marketing program has to a marketer. Affiliate marketing programs have become one of the easiest way to advertise the products in the market. An agreement is formed between the website owner or affiliate and the merchant. The website owner allows the merchant to promote his product through his site and the merchant pays the affiliate commission for the sales generated through these sites via the affiliate marketing program. Affiliate marketing programs are a cost effective medium to provide brand awareness. It also provides a wider market for the merchant. The marketer gets a chance to identify new markets which he might not have thought of without the affiliate marketing program. Affiliate marketing programs have beaten the traditional advertising techniques by giving maximum exposure world wide. The affiliates can introduce the products and services to the niche markets which have been neglected and thus boost the business of the marketer.

There is affiliate marketing program software called Affiliate Network Pro which enables a person to start his own affiliate program. There are many features including multi-language, instant payment module, affiliate directory,, sales reports, anti fraud blocking, email messages and reminders etc. Financial affiliate marketing programs are also available which provide facilities such as auto loans, debt recovery and settlement programs, and the best converting payday loans.

Affiliate marketing programs are not just for customers, but it also provides a strategy for development of business to business partners. Here the merchant and the affiliate become partners. If a person owns a website, sells his products through the site, and if he pays other website owners, or bloggers for sending customers to his site, then he becomes the marketer. If you have a website and direct surfers to various merchants for services and products through blogs, or e-mail links then you become the affiliate. There are several merchants who are affiliates too. They have their own affiliate marketing program, receive traffic from other affiliates and they also direct traffic to other merchants in return for commission.

Three Simple Guidelines When Writing Article Marketing Content

Article marketing is widely known as among the most powerful and effective Internet marketing techniques available for all businesses, big or small. There are many reasons why businesses resort to generating and producing article marketing outputs when promoting and advertising their products and services. One of those reasons is the overall costs. It is a common knowledge that article marketing outputs are usually disseminated and distributed for free. That way, advertising expenses can be significantly lowered. Another reason is the overall effectiveness. Experts would readily assert that article marketing is able to boost sales because the technique is effectively reaching out to intended readers, who would also be the target consumers of the product advertised and promoted.

The basic gist of article marketing is writing informative, resourceful, helpful and comprehensible copies that would be used and appreciated well by readers with convenience. For writers, writing good article marketing copies is not as hard as everyone thinks. As a matter of fact, there are many article marketing writers who are not actually experienced and seasoned writers. They are just honest about themselves and are sincerely writing based on what and how much they know and feel. For you to be able to write impressive and overall good article marketing copies, it would be imperative if you would be able to always take note of the following three simple guidelines.

1. Refrain from preferring to use too fancy and flowery words. During your elementary days, when you were asked to write simple compositions, you surely had the tendency to use complex and uncommon words in your writing assignments in hopes that doing so would make up for an impressive written output. That should not be the case when you are writing an article marketing output. As much as possible, experts say, writers should be as direct and less wordy as possible when writing to persuade. Writing to convince also mandates writers to be careful in choice of words. To prevent complexities and problems, going for the simple, yet convincing and powerful words would do the trick. You would be surprised at how more effective and impressive your article marketing could become if you would make your sentence construction simple, yet, very convincing.

2. Strive to use real, factual and helpful resources. Many article marketers are falling on the fault of using hypes to promote products and services. As a rule of thumb, such marketing and writing schemes should be avoided. When writing, be sure to so some research about the topic. That way, you could expand your knowledge about the subject you are talking about. When gaining and collecting usable information, it is important that you filter and prefer those that are truly informative and juicy. When writing, also be as informative as you can. Remember, readers are discerning and are highly analytical. Most of them would not appreciate hypes and articles that deserve to go straight to the trash can. Being informative would not be possible if you are not informative yourself for how could you write educational copies if you are not well knowledgeable yourself? That way, it is imperative to invest in knowledge.

3. Write with utmost sincerity. In other words, write from your heart. Article marketing also needs some traces of human and personal touch. Articles need to be interesting enough for all readers and to do so, one of the best and proven strategies would be to give the outputs personal touch. When writing from the heart, there is sincerity and readers would readily feel that everything the writer is saying is based on actual experiences and opinions, which they like to hear about the most. When practicing such a tip when writing, you can be sure your personality and style would shine all throughout the duration of the article. Always remember that your readers are actually human beings who are very much interested in listening and knowing stories from all other people.

The content of any article marketing output is the soul of the copy. It is imperative that the content be made as helpful and interesting as possible. Selling and advertising products and services is very crucial to almost any business. Success in doing so is greatly needed and is considered a necessity to make all ends meet for the company. No business would be able to assert or even claim that it is not allotting particular and significant attention to such common marketing factors. That is why as a writer of article marketing outputs, you should always make sure that your copies would prompt readers and consumers to action. You would surely be surprised at how strategic writing could work wonders. Be simple, straight to point and very personal and sincere when writing any article marketing output. Those are the main points in a nutshell.

10 Tips for Successful Ezine Advertising

When it comes to advertising, I've tried just about everything. I tried free classified ad sites, I tried FFA sites, I tried banner exchange programs.

The results? Not much.

I was tired of hearing that the Internet is the largest market in human history. Maybe so, but how could I reach those millions of people?

The answer, I discovered, is ezine advertising.

Ezines are sometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone who receives an ezine has chosen to do so.

And that's why ezine advertising gets results. People read ezines and they'll read your ad. And if you've matched the ezine to the product you're selling, you've reached your target audience.

There are currently around 90,000 ezines being published every month. So whatever you're selling, there's more than likely an ezine that will take your ad straight to the audience you want to reach.

Ezine advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as well. A 5 line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people will cost you between $5 and $20 per issue.

As a general rule, you'll always get back at least the cost of the ad, and usually much more. So there's very little risk.

But there are some tips for successful ezine advertising. Here they are:

1. The first and most important rule is: "Track your Ads!" Say you place an ad in 5 different ezines and get a hundred responses. If you don't track your ads, you won't know which ezines were pulling responses and which weren't.

But how do you track your ads?

Then, when you get a reply with 'ezineA' in the subject field, you'll know which ezine it came from.

For a URL, it's the same principle:

However, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll need a good webstats program to track the coded URLs. Here's another way to code your URLs: for every ezine ad, create a duplicate of your homepage and name the page after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So, if the ad is appearing in EzineA

2. Target your audience. It may seem obvious but some advertisers overlook this. If you're selling a web-marketing course, don't advertise in an ezine that deals with stock options; they probably won't be interested.

Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory to find ezines that relate to the product you're selling. You can find a list of 56 ezine directories in 'The Free Directory of Ezines' at:

3. Once you've chosen a number of ezines that target your audience, subscribe to them and examine the ads closely. If you see an ad that keeps repeating issue after issue, you can be pretty sure that it's getting results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in.

4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. You probably won't get much response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads per issue. Readers of those ezines have become hardened to the ads and have learnt to skip them.

5. Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy of never running ads for two similar products in the same issue - your ad will be much more effective if it's the only one of its kind in that particular issue.

6. Small ezines Vs. Big ezines: bigger is not always better. The big ezines with 1000's of subscribers tend to have more ads than the small ezines. Also, small ezines with only a few hundred subscribers often have a much more targeted audience than the big ezines.

7. Repeat your ads. Research shows that off the Web, an ad has to be seen about 21 times before someone acts on it; on the Internet it's about 9 times. If your budget allows, try and have your ad repeated at least three times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offer discount packages for bulk advertising.

8. Email address Vs. URL. The advantage of giving an email address is that it gives you the opportunity to send a powerful sales letter to the person who responded to your ad. It's also much easier to track your ads with an email address than a URL.

9. Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll often tip the balance between a response and no response.

10. Keep your ads short, even if you're not using the number of words you're allowed. Short ads are more likely to be read. Keep your sentences short too; they pack much more power. Use the word 'You'. Don't describe your product but tell the reader what your product can do for them

8 TOP Ways To Promote Your RSS-XML Feed For MAXIMUM Exposure

RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is the new technology on the block and is taking the Internet by storm as Internet marketers are hurrying to incorporate this new form of communication and technology into there existing online businesses to Maximize there exposure online with NEW and/or Existing customers.

I recently received a post on my Blog from a fellow that inspired me to write this article since I found the nature of the topic important to ALL who are serious about getting the most out of there RSS feed and this new technology.

I'm pretty sure you can guess what he ask from reading the headline of this article.

Well... I did some research on what he had asked of me and came up with...

"8 TOP Ways To Promote Your RSS/XML Feed For MAXIMUM Exposure"

So, with that said, let's dive into the first and MOST important step to Maximizing your RSS feed for the exposure it deserves.

Step #1. Build a dedicated webpage for your RSS feed.

This is probably the most important part of getting the most out of your RSS feed, is by building your own dedicated webpage for your RSS feed subscription.

The KEY here is to give your potential readers many options to adding Your RSS feed.

The best way for me to illustrate this to you is by clicking on the link below that leads to my dedicated RSS feed subscription page so you can see first hand what you need to do to get yours started.

Click here:

http://www.internetwondersezine.com/rss_feed.html

Did you notice all the different options I give?

That's what you need to do.

Now, for those of you who aren't so web savvy, don't worry, I have something for you that will auto-generate a RSS feed webpage for you within minutes if you already have a Blog or RSS feed.

The service I'm talking about is called FeedBurner.com -- http://www.feedburner.com -- and is a free service for you to sign up for.

Here's what my webpage through FeedBurner.com looks like so you'll have an idea of what yours will look like.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheInternetWondersBlog

Do you see all the options they give your potential readers to add your RSS feed to there RSS readers?

Once you've accomplished one of the two options above your all set to start promoting your RSS feed for MAXIMUM exposure.

Step #2. Add links to your RSS feed webpage on your website.

This is yet just another way to pull your visitors towards your RSS feed webpage by simply adding Text or Graphic links to your existing webpages.

Make sure you put them in Highly visible area's where your visitors will see your links.

I would would put one at the top, middle and bottom of your website.

This really depends on what kind of website you have so you'll have to use your own dicression.

Here's what I have done on my website to give you an example.

Click here: http://www.internetwondersezine.com

Step #3. Add this HTML tag to your RSS feed webpage.

Here's something you can add to all your websites webpages that will get the attention of Search Engines spiders to come on over and check out your RSS feed further.

Simple add the following HTML tag to the of your document

Quiz Yourself - Will You Survive Break-Up?

Quiz Yourself - Will You Survive Break-Up

I did everything possible to save our relationship. I gave in a lot, but I could not save. We will be breaking-up soon. That has already broken my heart. This relationship was made brick by brick over so many years. What all we did not do to make it last? But alas, we are breaking -up. This is a typical statement from a person facing break-up. How to survive after a break-up? Will you survive a break-up? Why not quiz yourself about it?

The immediate effect of the break-up would be pain. Will you be able to take the pain? The pain would go away slowly over a number of years, but the initial impact will be high. You will have to gather all your energy and tolerate the pain.

The second effect would be bitterness and blame. You will non stop think about the behavior of your ex partner and fix blame everywhere. You will recap all the arguments and fights and there will be a large amount of self-talk about how you were ditched. That will not be a pleasant experience. You will have to find way out of all this by spending quality time with friends, involving you in new activities, and keep yourself busy. Are you ready for that?

The major effect would be the temptation to join immediately with anew partner. This can work both the ways. Some people never wish to form a relationship again after undergoing the trauma, while some want to form a relationship as soon as possible to forget the earlier one. Both of theses choices carry danger. The best alternative is to wait for sometime and when you find your stability and self esteem back, try and form another relationship. Are you ready for this

good cover letter for odesk

Hello,

I want to apply for this job. I guarantee you that I can efficiently write articles of at least 250 words in length, good quality, and unique content. I can write 4 articles on a daily basis and submit them on time.

I understand that problems regarding SEO and copyright infringement may arise from articles with duplicate content. I will never copy content verbatim from any website. I also check the uniqueness of my articles' contents using a software.

Attached herewith is a text file containing three sample articles as proof of my quality work.

If you grant me the opportunity to work this job, rest assured I can work with minimal or no supervision, meet deadlines, and understand directions in one go.

I am also comfortable with $33.00 for the 26 articles, inclusive of oDesk fee. I have bid for an ongoing period since I want to continue working for you if you are satisfied with my performance.

Sincerely,

Ahmed Hassan