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What to Watch Out For If You Decide to Finance at a Dealership

I am going to make this a simple article to read. I want you to be able to read this whole article and understand it before you make your next vehicle purchase.

Yeah, the economy isn’t the greatest right now. Yeah, nearly all industries are down on sales.

You see commercials on TV all the time talking about how now is the best time to buy a car. It is, BUT…..

You see, the auto industry is struggling. So of course, to get people to come in and purchase a car they need to advertise these “great” deals and show you how you can get their employee pricing! Sounds exciting, eh? Well if you walk in there with cash, maybe you are going to get a great deal. Actually, you probably are assuming you can negotiate a good deal.

But what if you are going in there without cash? Or without your own financing? Are you really going to get such a great deal? Well you may receive your dream car at employee pricing and they may promise you that its the best they can do on price.

Lets take a close look at their financing techniques.

Did you know that dealers really do shop for the best rate for you? Yeah, they do! However, they won’t give you that best rate! They shop for the best rate then give you a higher one. How? They are allowed to mark up your interest rate up to 2% higher than what they were quoted. That means that they are making profit off of the financing too. That can lead to you paying hundred to thousands more for your new car.

So think about this:

The car you are looking at costs $20,000.00 after manufacturer’s rebates. The dealership said they would take off an additional $1000.00 to get you to employee pricing. Sounds good, right? It is good. Now, you go to the financing office, they finance you at an 8% rate when you could have actually had a 6% rate. That will end up making you pay more, a lot more. They could have you paying a couple thousand dollars more in just interest! It makes that $1,000.00 discount look weak, doesn’t it?

The whole point here is to tell you that you need to be cautious when using dealer financing as if you know they aren’t making much from the car due to the incredible deal they gave you, they are going to make it up on the financing end of it.

Always negotiate interest rates. You wouldn’t ever take them up on their first offer on the price of the car would you? Nope. So treat the first offer on the interest rates the same too. A lot of dealers won’t even tell you what the rate is. Be sure to ask.

They have their own special programs through the car manufacturers to make up for lost profit. Don’t let them fool you. It is called dealer hold back. It is tough to negotiate into that.

How to Optimise Your Videos for Search Engines

If you aren’t optimizing your videos to match what people are searching, your videos are likely to get lost and not reach their intended audience. Without reaching their intended audience, they serve no purpose.

So how do you ensure your videos get results?

With video search engine optimization, commonly referred to as video SEO.

To simplify what you need to do, think about your target audience. Consider their language, wants, and needs.

Use the following 12 valuable tips to get your video to reach the first page of Google and YouTube, but most importantly build visibility to a large niche audience that is interested in what you have to offer.

1. Content Quality
Ensure your videos are relevant, informative, and rich with content.
Videos demonstrating step-by-step processes or videos expressing opinions about topics can be quite useful. Videos should be fun, memorable, short, and leave the viewer wanting more. If using a video production company, choose one that understands the importance of these concepts and check out their existing video portfolio for videos that match these qualities.

2. Catchy Title
Capture the potential viewer’s attention with a catchy title that contains related key phrases that are relevant to your brand or service. Do some keyword research and find the words that your audience will most likely be searching, but keep the title interesting, not just filled with keywords.

3. Keyword Tags
Optimize your video with important key phrases or keywords. Refer back to your keyword research and think in terms of what your targeted audience might be searching for when looking to find your brand or service. Tag your video with these terms and consider naming the file of the video with these terms in mind.

4. Keyword Description
Optimize your video’s description with relevant keywords and include a keyword-rich description of your video to allow search engines to index it and rank it higher, and for users to better understand your video before viewing.

5. Link back to your website
Use video as a portal to other content on your website. Upload your videos to portals like YouTube and Vimeo, and consider providing links back to related content and other relevant videos on your site.

6. Provide Transcripts
Provide transcripts of your videos. If you want your video to rank well, you need to give the search engines something to index and rank. Surround your videos with on-page copy that can be indexed by search engines.

7. Short Length
Keep your video at 2 minutes or less. The average amount of time a user spends on a YouTube video is around 1 minute 30 seconds. If you have video content that is of longer than 5 minutes, consider breaking it up into smaller pieces and tagging each accordingly, to be more appealing to the viewer. Not only does this make for better viewing pleasure, multiple videos are also better for optimization efforts.
As YouTube is now paying close attention to viewership and engagement it is critical that viewers watch your video for as long as possible.

8. Video Sitemaps
Use Google Webmaster Tools for creating a video sitemap to make sure that the search engines can find your video content and index it accordingly. Use important keywords in the anchor text that links to your videos featured on your sitemap.

9. Branding
As video is a great way to generate brand awareness with prospects, take advantage of this opportunity to incorporate your brand and logos into your videos.

10. Embedding Options
Allow other users access to the coding that will allow them to embed your video on their website or blog. This can help gain valuable back links and shares that will boost your rankings in search engines.

11. Syndication
Submit your video to RSS feeds and syndicate your videos to drive exposure across various online platforms and to optimize your videos even more.

12. Share!
Get on your social networks, check your email contacts, write on your blog, and get the hype going. Share your video with everyone, because if you have content worth sharing, it will continue to be shared with an expanding audience, and in turn develop more exposure for your brand or service.

In summary, video optimization can be a great way for you to expose your brand to users who may otherwise not have been familiar with your brand, product, or services. It is a great way to engage, entertain, and promote!

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Romance in the Law Office

We’ve all heard tales of office Christmas parties that ran amuck. Coworkers get caught making out in the copy room or a storage closet. Reports of after-hours office frolicking run like wildfire through the halls and floors of businesses. These shenanigans occur in all types of companies.Office romance isn’t only the tipsy pawing of revelers. Coworkers date. They even marry.Does office romance negatively affect office atmosphere and the service provided? I’d like to share a work story, and you can tell me if you think office romance is detrimental.One time, at band camp…no, not really, but it definitely left me feeling LIKE I was at bamp camp…For a time, I worked for a satellite office of a large law firm. I was the legal secretary for a husband and wife team. Being assigned to two attorneys married to each other was…interesting, to say the least. The entire staff could tell in the first two minutes on Monday mornings how their weekends went. If it had been a bad weekend, I was offered condolences.The thermostat which controlled both of their offices was located in husband-attorney’s office. My desk was conveniently across from their doors. One particular “bad weekend” Monday morning, Mrs. Attorney came out to my station and said, “Would you tell HIM to turn up the heat, I’m cold,” and returned immediately to her office, shutting the door firmly behind her.I stopped typing, fully aware that our close proximity created the strong likelihood that Mr. Attorney had already heard what she said. I was also aware that the secretary behind me had stopped typing as well. The day’s antics had begun.I stood up, smoothed my blouse, and ventured into Mr. Attorney’s office. He was typing and didn’t immediately acknowledge my presence. Finally, he said, “…yes?” I dutifully delivered the message. Silence reigned. Well, silence reigned in those four walls. I heard shuffling and whispers as staff began clustering near my station.Mr. Attorney swiveled his chair to face me, peering at me over his glasses. “Do tell, if you will, my lovely wife that if she had dressed appropriately for the weather, she wouldn’t now be complaining that she is cold.”Silence reigned everywhere.I walked out of his office. Exchanging glances with my coworkers who were poised to scatter but too curious to immediately beat a retreat, I veered right and knocked on Mrs. Attorney’s door. I gained entrance, and dutifully delivered the quoted reply. Silence reigned again. Coworker shuffling had ceased at that point. All ears were at attention.Mrs. Attorney said, in a voice an octave higher, “Will you please inform him that my state of dress is none of his business and that if he ignores a reasonable request it will not bode well this evening.”I returned to Mr. Attorney’s doorway, repeating Mrs. Attorney’s words. His response was, “All reasonable requests are considered. It is the unreasonable requests that are denied, in toto.”I updated Mrs. Attorney and announced that I was going back to my desk, to work (while wondering if emphasis on “work” filtered through).My fingers typed senseless words on the screen as the thermostat dance began. She walked in his office, flipped the control and went back into her office. The sound of the heat kicking in muted the return of coworker shuffling. They backed away but remained a rapt audience.His chair squeaked as he got up, turned the heat off, and sat down with more squeaking.Heels clicked (which was pretty amazing since the floors were carpeted) as she made another control-flipping appearance.I chose to take my morning break earlier than usual that morning.Yes, I believe office romance definitely affects office atmosphere. Based on my personal observation, it affects client service as well.

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