Friday, November 21, 2008

Beware of the Doghouse- Hilarious!

This is a great video, and comes to rescue us men just in time for the holidays... avoid the dog house at all costs! But check out this video!

Monday, November 10, 2008

What Syd's Eastside Dugg

http://digg.com/users/AutomotiveParts
If you are writing articles to promote your business, create awareness for your cause or to establish your own professional expertise, you will probably want to add Digg to your publishing resource toolbox.

Even if you are not an article writer, Digg.com seems to have caught on because it allows users to list, promote & view each others news, images & videos found anywhere on the net. So it would also come in handy for photographers, graphic artists, videographers and podcasters, as well.

And being able to recommend not only your own works, but the stuff on the internet that you find and want to share with your friends is really what social networks are all about, anyway. And because of its broad range of coverage, Digg is easily a great tool that is intertwined as a news, photo, art and video promotion service by the online community as a whole.

See what Syd's Eastside has Dugg on Digg:
http://digg.com/users/AutomotiveParts

Our Page on SearchWarp

http://searchwarp.com/Author69559.htm
SearchWarp is also a great place to use for article distribution. But please note that we don't simply write an article and upload it for redistribution on other websites, we usually hold onto them for a period of time before we allow them to be redistributed, thus establishing that our website is the original source for such duplicated content.

Our own article directory can be found in our own Syd's Eastside Auto Parts website Articles section. By keeping an archive of our articles here for some time before redistribution, Googlebot will have scanned our website articles and had any particular article available through search long before it shows up on any article site. This can usually be verified by using the WayBackMachine.

Finally, after a period of time on our own website, we may release any articles we have written through article directories such as SearchWarp.

SearchWarp is a unique website though, because it is more than an article directory. It is also a writer community and offers assistance to those who want to learn how to write, or to learn how to write better. This is why SearchWarp is also identified, to me, as a social networking site, because of the existing community and the effects a membership can have on that community. Plus little contests are run for writing articles on certain subjects as are appropriate and relevant to the time.

Our Page on SearchWarp:
http://searchwarp.com/Author69559.htm

Squidoo

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/SydsEastside
Squidoo offers great Social Networking Site Integration and Easy Article (Lens) Publishing.

Squidoo offers a great place for those who are interested in articles on any particular subject. Squidoo actually refers to each article as a lens, and their writers as lensmasters. They claim they are doing it just to be difficult, but I gather it has something to do with good old fashioned marketing. It is interesting, though, how they are a popular social networking site without relying so heavily on generic keywords.

Although I found the article editor hard to use because of the lack of good instruction while using it the first time, after posting the lens (article) I easily was able to realize my first time mistakes and will probably get it right the next time. However, if you are using Squidoo to distribute previously written articles, it seems that it might be a little harder to use as simply another distribution outlet because you shouldn't simply copy the article and paste it in as on most article distribution websites such as one of our favorites, SearchWarp.

Our Page on Squidoo:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/SydsEastside

Saturday, November 08, 2008

On Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/people/Rork_Feimer/1625856528
Facebook is actually quite a lot more interesting than I thought it was. It also can act like a homepage for the not-so-geeky oriented who like an easy way to setup a homepage, much like Blogster or CarSpace, but it goes yet further by incorporating many of your other social networking services, too. Its easy to setup groups, as well. It's also easy to upload & share photos and video. Your default public profile page acts as a "wall" that you write on and you can easily communicate with your friends this way.

I suppose some may say that I had cheated, as I had put-up a profile to represent and promote my employer. The name RorK Feimer I used is actually derived from the owners of Syd's Eastside Auto Salvage, Ron & Kathy Feimer. And this may be so, but you have to remember that I am employed to promote the Syd's Eastside Auto Parts website, and not to promote my own websites and business interests. In the same manner, I still want a profile on Facebook that reflects me and my own interests, both personal and business related. On top of that, the business and my opinion may differ on a variety of things.

That said, if I am cheating, so are a great deal of other businesses which are doing the same thing on Facebook. All we are looking for is a profile that we can promote as an employee, while maintaing a separate personal profile for ourselves outside of work.

So, I'm actually not worried about it. Heck, this blog entry will appear on Facebook, anyway. Because Facebook is configured to post my blog entries that I post here on that site, as well. So by adding blog entries here, I am also updating Facebook.

Facebook also supports a variety of other social networking websites. Twitter is one, Digg is another. As these services are updated, so is Facebook.

The Syd's Eastside Auto Parts Page on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Rork_Feimer/1625856528

Twitter

http://twitter.com/AutomotiveParts
Twitter is a microblogging system where users can give shout-outs in 140 character chunks. Although I would honestly recommend allowing up to 255 per post myself (and am often ticked off that it isn't), it is an interesting concept that allows some interactivity between friends. Plus, there are a variety of tools for it that I haven't even explored, yet.

Despite its micro limited posting format, Twitter seems to be not only a decent way to communicate, but also to promote your business, your websites, your blog, your portfolio, your groups and even your causes.

In the long run, Twitter works. But I do think 140 characters is too tightly wound and someone else will probably come along and offer the same idea with a more generous 255 character limit. Perhaps someone already does, and I am yet to find it.

But Twitter has also embedded itself into the social networking scene because a few of the social websites actually display your latest Twitter posts within your public profile page (once you have set it up with your username on Twitter). The result is that by using this one service, you could potentially update several other websites, including your own.

Our Page On Twitter:
http://twitter.com/AutomotiveParts

Edmund's CarSpace

http://www.carspace.com/blogs/autoparts/
Edmunds sponsors a great automotive community website. Both individuals and businesses are welcome to sign-up for free. Each account has a blog available and automotive community groups are easy to start.

Sure, CarSpace is a way to get you into the Edmunds branded websites and further promote their brand. But if you look around their really isn't anything like this for the automotive community that I have found. There really aren't too many niche sites available that are dedicated to the automotive industries for automotive businesses, car clubs, or racing & auto enthusiasts.

I am just starting at CarSpace, but I'm not going to be giving up our blog here and shifting over to their blog, either. For now that will just compliment this one. So for now I'll kind of post there as I discover the website and figure out how we might best make use of its services. Because there is a whole community of like-minded people and a ready established market there to tap into if you know how to do it. Perhaps Syd's Eastside will eventually take that page over if it becomes important for us.

My Page at CarSpace:
http://www.carspace.com/blogs/autoparts/

Delicious

http://delicious.com/SydsEastside
One of the first social networking sites I signed-up a very long time ago was del.icio.us, a worldwide web bookmark (or shortcut) sharing site. Here I have been trying to keep track of all of our own websites, their pages and our pages on other sites that we belong to, though I now see that I have to update it quite a bit with these new listings for the social networking websites I have been joining.

Google also offers a bookmarking service, so that you can access your bookmarks anywhere. But Delicious goes a little further by allowing you to share your bookmarks with the rest of the world.

This is service is actually a fantastic idea and I think it will go far in the future as it has all sorts of possibilities for expansion. Some are already copying the idea (and even the format).

OUR PAGE:
http://delicious.com/SydsEastside

Social Networking Resources

I have honestly been having a bit of fun checking out some of the Social Networking websites and resources that have been appearing in the past couple years. In fact, I've actually been so impressed that I thought that I should post something to the blog about them.

However, I have actually been working on this post for quite a few days, already. There are so many social net websites out there that I was trying to include in this one post that I realized that the only way around this was to split this blog entry into a bunch of little posts that will tell a bit about each site. That way, I don't have to have every single social website pegged in one big post.

Heck, there are still a bunch of these social networking groups out there that I want to check out. Some of these actually have optional tools developed specifically for them, so there are actually little cottage support resource sites for some, built to support them, allowing extra plug-ins or software tools to make them more convenient to use.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with the automotive industry? Well, the truth is that these are often great places for auto enthusiasts, car clubs, as well as neat places to promote auto shops or trade parts. Most allow easy setup, and may support blogging. Some even offer a great place to post news and articles and would be a great way to distribute them to an already large pool of social networking users. Others offer a great place to promote your (auto related) website by allowing the sharing and promotion of bookmarks. Users of these sites that are logged in can sometimes also vote on the materials of the resource(s) in question, making them even more popular or notorious.

One of the very first new trends was the blog and some of these services even allow you to incorporate your current blog.

Remember that as the trends move in the online industry, the automotive industry must adapt, adopt them, and move with them in order to maintain a high profile to the masses or regions that they are targetting as customers and clientel.

So, eat this stuff up guys, because social networking websites utilities, and software applications are not only fun to participate in, but actually strengthen the market and provide new interest.

To most this will be understood, others will have to check it out. But as a webmaster I understand that the security of a managed and constantly updated network is much better than the vulnerability of an open source software based website that is usually chock full of security holes.

And if the security is not an issue, there are other things that should be, like the fact that these social sites already have an established user base, like the fact that your firends and community are probably already online using them.

If nothing else, these are great opportunities to promote your existing website. Yet, they really are so much more.

Anyway, in order to share this information as quickly as possible, I will be spotlighting these social networking websites and tools. Each site or resource will be discussed individually, showcased in their own blog entry. This will also allow me to update them individually, should I need to. And I will always identify each service by through our membership so that you can join us and have a friend on the site.

Look for a bunch of blog entries to follow very shortly.

-Syd's Eastside Auto Parts webmaster

New Used Equipment Section now Online at Diesel Rebuild Parts

I have finally finished putting all the Used Equipment online at our Diesel Rebuild Parts website. This has been a big chore and I am very happy to have it listed in my Mission Accomplished column, now.

If you are interested in any of the heavy equipment, utility trucks or construction vehicles there, we would be glad to help you out with it. Just click on a photo (that isn't marked as sold) in the main Equipment Catalog Index page and you will be presented with more photos and info concerning that item. Our contact information follows the detail page description.

Let me know if you see any spelling errors, or anything that looks strange. I did address a few problems before making that whole section public. But as you know, I'm not perfect.

This section actually comes from a corresponding section on the Syd's Eastside Auto Parts website. We thought that since establishing the Diesel Rebuild Parts website back in June of 2007, that we should move this section to that website where the information is more on-topic and relevant to the website content material, since it is already geared at supporting equipment and truck overhauls.

So, now that this has finally been accomplished, I can go back to promoting our websites as my primary webmaster duty for a little bit (until the next big website project comes along).

LINK:
Used Equipment For Sale Catalog Index