Archive for August, 2008

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I have just started trying Google’s Knol product.  It does look like it is their answer to Squidoo.com.  I have created my first real page there titled Car Dealer Search Engine Reputation Management.  I will be randomly searching to see how long it takes for it to index and it’s position in the search engine.  It may actually become a good tool in Online Reputation Management in the near future.  But just like anything associated with Google.com it could be hit or miss.

One thing is for sure it will probably never get slapped like Squidoo.com by googles algorithms.  I am a huge fan of Squidoo and don’s see Knol as a replacement but as a more of an article database and wikipedia.com combined.

For someone who likes to create content it can also provide an additional revenue stream as you do have some options for including your google adsense code as well.  This will be interesting to watch to see how well it competes with other user generated content style sites.

When I was working as an Internet Sales Manager I made several lenses at Squidoo.com that ranked well for competitors names in my market area.  That is one of the benefits of understanding how to present things to the search engines.  I had a lens that got a lot of traffic when people searched for Golden Isles Nissan.  I would sell every Nissan trade in that we got off of that lens.  It was pure magic.  It gave people what they were looking for a great deal on a Nissan car or truck.

I was still getting calls almost daily from it even though the cars that were featured there were no longer available.  It was kind of comical actually.  I even had the manager from Golden Isles Nissan complain to my former employer a few months before I left because he realized I was stealing some of his web traffic when people were looking for them online.  What is going to be time consuming is changing all of these lenses I made while working at Carl Gregory Chrysler Dodge (<< another one needing to be edited) unless a dealer in my area wishes to take them over. $$  I am not actively seeking someone to buy them I will just turn them into affiliate lander and monetize the traffic that way.

I am making squidoo lenses for a dealer who sells a lot of Suzuki in Kansas City and am working on optimizing those lenses for him now.  As we see how this project turns out I will be offering some content for Car Dealer Reputation Management and use squidoo as one of those levels.  Please keep in mind the last thing that Suzuki of Wichita was worried about is reputation management.  Scott Pitman and the gang stand out with their reputations online and other wise.

Sorry for the lack of recent updates.  As you will notice there is a new look here.  It is because I am completely changing the direction of this blog.  In the past most of the post were exclusively on the Make Money Niche of online marketing.  For me I have succeeded there.  I just don’t engage that niche.  I am not a trainer per se.  I will still provide value added content here.  More so about automotive SEO, Automotive vendors and things people can do to increase their online viability.

How you chose to apply these things to your business is entirely up to you.