Events, Happenings & Cool Stuff

On January 15th, 2009 I wrote a blog post about a sneaky used car dealer who had their link placed in the middle of a painfully long article.

If you look in the middle of this page you will see the term “used cars” was snuck in there with a link pointing to a used card dealer in Florida. For those who don’t know, a link like that will boost the dealer’s ranking in search engine search results (particularly Google) because it is coming from a reputable source. Furthermore, a .edu domain provides huge “link juice”. This is reffered to as “Black Hat SEO“.

Boston College did contact me about my post and said the link would be removed “sometime this week”. Well, as you can see the link is still there.

Is Boston College making money installing these links and supporting the Black Hat SEO Market? It appears so. Do they have an employee on the inside selling these links? It appears so doesn’t it?

Tracey and I were in the middle of our workday and, as usual, we lost track of time.  It wasn’t until when we heard the rumble in our tummies that we noticed the time.  It was after 2:00 and neither of us had eaten lunch.  We had heard about the new oven baked subs at Dominos and thought we would give them a try since they are right across the street from us.  We logged into the dominos website and placed our order online.  As soon as the order was confirmed, the screen changed on the website and a “Pizza Tracker” was now available for viewing.

Dominos Pizza Tracker

It actually show the progress of our lunch even telling us the name of the person who put it in the oven. Then it tells you exactly when it done. Coolest thing!

Orlando Used Car Website Launched This Week

Showroom Logic is please to announce the launch of used-cars-orlando.com in Orlando Florida. The purpose of this website is to allow Central Florida consumers to easily search for a used car, truck or even “buy here pay here” dealerships.

Currently if you search for vehicles in that area you have to click at least 6 times before you actually see a vehicle. During that time, you are bombarded with advertising. That is what makes Showroom Logic different. They have a keyword search tool on their website that makes any car one click away. If you are looking for a Nissan Altima simply put that in the search box and you will see all Nissan Altimas in our inventory.

Every car dealer is hurting right now, escpecially in Florida. This technology will save Orlando Dealerships thousands of dollars a month in advertising and they’ll be able to pass the savings on to you! Small non-franchise dealers and buy here pay here dealers will be able to add their inventory for free and we can supply them with their very own dealer website for a fraction of what they are paying now.

The used car website in Lakeland Florida was launched last month and Showroom Logic Reports an astounding 27,789 visitors and 26,069 of those were unique. The problem? There are only 15 used cars and trucks on there posted by about 5 different dealers. Showroom Logic offered all dealers to post their inventory for free. The dealers that added their inventory made a mess out of it, using all caps and horrible grammar. “We had to give them the boot”, said Mike Annable; co-founder of Showroom Logic.

The right dealer would benefit immensly right now because of the high volume of traffic. As slow as the economy is people are looking. Let’s face it, everybody need a car or truck.

One of our customers ordered some full color yard signs from us last week. They are a family operated

landscaping company here in Lakeland. We started talking about the economy and how bad it’s getting here in Lakeland.

“Last year wasn’t a problem at all” he said. “This year we’ve seen many people go out and buy a tractor, a weed whacker and a trailer”. Now they have an “instant landscaping company”. They are undercuting everybody and are barely making any money for themselves.

One thing that really bothers me is there is a woman going around Lakeland telling business owners that whatever they are paying for landscaping service now she will take 20% off that price. Now I try to stick with the Lakeland Small Business (non-corporate) but this woman should be ashamed of herself. Any business owner (or homeowner) who gives her the time of day should be ashamed of themselves as well.

Our Lakeland economy is crumbling all around us. People just aren’t spending money like they used to. If you hire one of these start-up landscaping companies and they damage your property are they insured? If they trip on a banana peel on your property do you think they won’t sue you?

Wake up Lakeland! This is a problem for us all. Support your local Lakeland small business.