1. Use blogging as a tool to be kept updated and in the latest developments and products of your field.

2. Blogging helps in adding fresh relevant content to website which search engines like.

3. You can build up your business creditability with the help of blogging.

4. A blog is a great tool to help increase your customer base.

5. Get free and fresh content with the help of comments that are made in blogs. This can be like User-generated content or UGC.

6. Create and establish a brand and brand awareness with blogs.

7. Help build trust between you and your readers and customers through blogs.

8. Enhance your website effectively and cheaply with the help of a blog.

9. Blogs are an easy way to establish two way communication and social interaction.

10. There is a higher and better chance of getting viral over social media sites with the help of a blog.

11. People generally consider reading a blog much better because of their non promotional tone and informative nature.

12. Blogs give you an easy way of approving comments before posting as against to social media sites where you have very little or no control at all.

13. Create more targeted traffic to your websites through search engines using blogs.

14. Blogs help to save time as visitors find many answers to their questions there.

15. Rumors about a business can be clarified through a blog.

16. With a blog, you not only become famous, but also gain power which you had never experienced.

17. Blogs have a huge part in SEO. Blogs are loved by Google and other Search Engines.

18. With the help of a blog, the Google PR of your site is enhanced.

19. Blogs are a great means of increasing potential traffic to your site.

20. Develop free PR for your business with a blog.

21. Blogs are great for creating returning targeted traffic.

22. The interactive nature of blogs makes people choose blogs over websites for links.

23. Remember that blogs consist mainly of text; and in SEO, text is king.

24. The comments posted on your blogs can give you better business ideas and tricks for your business.

25. Use blogs to express your thoughts. You can also use the blog to exercise your freedom of speech.

26. You can share whatever knowledge you have using a blog.

27. You will be considered an expert in your field because of a blog.

28. Use the help of RSS and links in getting targeted traffic to your blog.

29. Maintain public relations and relations with the media through your blog.

30. When compared to normal website pages, spiders tend to crawl blog posts more frequently.

31. Blog is a great means of creating a buzz or voice of mouth advertising.

32. Use the blog as a foundation for the content of a book.

33. Develop your business with the help of your blog.

34. Remain connected with people 24/7 with a blog.

35. You get new visitors and potential clients with the help of blogs.

36. Blogs are helpful and beneficial to the community.

37. Blogs are used to share company news.

38. Blogs are used as a communication link between employers and employees.

39. Blogs indicate that you are an easily approachable entity.

40. Keep in touch with industry leaders through blogs.

41. Use blogs in educational marketing, where you show how your services and products can be used to solve customers’ problems.

42. Blogs maintain convenient internal communication to share information in a company.

43. Find out more about your customers and clients’ needs through blogs.

44. Use blogs to create an online community.

45. Blogs provide easy communication with clients.

46. Talent is easily found with the help of blogs.

47. Blogs are used for getting back links.

48. Use blogs for getting internal links.

49. Blogs are regularly indexed by Google.

50. Use blogs to get free links from blog directories.

51. Develop easy and efficient deep linking with blogs.

52. Share any ideas you have on a blog.

53. Use blogs to solve problems.

54. Blogs are used for marketing because of its low overheads.

55. The navigation on blogs is text based, and search engine friendly.

56. The non promotion tone of blogs makes them very easy to link. This makes blogs highly linkable.

57. Use blogs to generate quick feedbacks.

58. A blog is a really great promotional tool.

59. Use blogs to convey authority.

60. You can easily target variety of keywords using blog.

61. Search engines find blogs easy to crawl.

62. Use a blog to let people and clients to get to know you better.

63. The RSS feeds of blogs help in efficient link building.

64. Blogs indicate that you are open, and don’t hide from anyone.

65. Use a blog to increase membership and opt-in lists.

66. Blogs are great for educating and informing people about specific topics

67. You can learn time management and discipline through a blog.

68. Find new partners and experience better networking through blogs

69. Use a blog as a platform for announcing new products and services.

70. Use blogs to reply to queries.

71. Both cultural and geographical borders are overcome through blogging.

72. The long tail keywords in blogs help you get top rankings as blog are mostly hosted on very reliable domains. Blogging give you an excellent platform to target long tail keywords and get top ranking.

73. Generate a niche appeal using a blog.

74. Blogs bring about a more personal connection between yourself and your clients.

75. A blog helps you find jobs and clients quickly.

76. A blog can be easily integrated into a market plan.

77. Get to meet new visitors and buyers through guest blogging.

78. A blog offers increased lead generation opportunities.

79. Learn current trends through blogging.

80. A blog means low cost, better communication.

81. With a blog, you experience reduced emails, calls and inquiries.

82. You can also boost your social life with a blog.

83. Flexibility is an important feature of blogs.

84. The easy web publishing solutions make blogs much easier to set up and maintain than websites.

85. Blogs provide a punctual and important means of sharing information with an audience.

86. With the help of a blog, you can increase your writing, debating and analytical skills.

87. Use a blog to generate money with Adsense and Affiliate marketing.

88. A blog is a great and easy publishing tool.

89. With a blog, you can introduce a human voice or element in a company.

90. Blogs provide a great medium for opportunities and to use as a research tool.

91. You can increase the number of your loyal customers with blogs as it helps you get close with customers.

92. With a blog, you become different from your competition. This is because the medium tends to approach you if you have a blog and not the competitor who does not have a blog.

93. Blogs offer different and varies means of spreading ideas.

94. Blogs are considered a great means of relational marketing. This is because once you post honest and heart felt blogs, you instill trust and respect in prospective customers.

95. Manage your online reputation by using a blog to answer any negative remarks made about you by a competitor. In other words, blogs help you stop rumors from spreading.

96. With a blog, you can easily create more pages which is great for search engines that rank pages and not sites. With a blog, you need not bother about the fitting in of the new pages with design.

97. You can use a blog for recording all your past experiences and thus, start a sort of history about yourself.

98. Blogging is fun. Blogging is something everyone enjoys doing.

99. It has been proven that blogging offers some medical and psychological benefits like better memory and sleep and fast healing after a surgery.

100. After creating quality posts like this one, you develop a feeling of satisfaction.

For further information, please visit SEO Consultant Specialist’s Website

Abdul Hayi Mansoor
SEO Specialist and Article Marketer

1. What is A Resume?

A resume is a presentation of your qualifications for employer. It lets your employer know what type of job you are seeking and highlights your education, experience, skills and other relevant information. A resume (or CV – Curriculum Vitae) only may be the tips to potential employer for determination whether or not you will be interviewed.

2. Does a resume always need to be only one page?

Resume (CV) length should not exceed 2 sides of A4. How much of those two sides you fill depends on how much you have done.

3. Should the education section always be near the top?

If you have recently completed formal education your academic achievements will form a major part of your qualifications, and it is recommended to place these near the top of your resume.

4. Is an objective always necessary?

No, it is not crucial. But however an employer will be impressed if you have a focused idea of where you want your career to be heading.

5. What if I haven’t done very much to fill up my resume?

This does not matter. If build a resume is a problem – use sensible formatting and fonts so that you comfortably fill one side of A4.

6. Do hobbies and personal interests need to be shown?

It is not imperative but it can provide an employer with an insight into your personality.

7. Must references be included?

One note that ‘References available on request’ will be sufficient.

8. What should be on my resume?

Contact details, Date of birth and nationality, an introduction, employment history, academic qualifications, hobbies and interests are enough for resume building.

9. What shouldn’t I put on my resume?

Religion, references, sexuality, why you left your previous jobs, all your school grades, a photo, lies should not be included into resume.

10. Do I have to include all of my exam results?

No, just the most recent.

11. In what order do I list information?

Contact details at the top, a brief introduction, employment history, education, interests hobbies. Follow these simple instructions:

• The heading is first.
• The objective is second.
• All other headings are listed as they relate to your job objective. Build a resume that highlight your objective and enhances you as a candidate for the job you are seeking.

12. What sort of paper should I print it on?

The best quality that you can get your hands on, but don’t get paper that is too thick .

13. In what text format should I save my resume so that it can be e-mailed?

Employer unequivocally can read your resume in *.txt attachment. However this format does not allow you to include attractive formatting. The MS Word document or PDF will probably be suitable. If you want to be certain you could paste a txt version of your resume into the body of the e-mail and attach a Word or PDF version.

14. How can I ensure that my resume will be read?

Resumes (CVs) usually aren’t read at first. They are scanned (look at the questions #21, #22). So, how to build a resume to be easily scanned:

• Present information in concise, compact statements.
• Leave irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate information off your resume.
• Organise your information so that the reader doesn’t have to hunt for your skills.

15. Do I need more than one resume?

Construct a ‘core resume (CV)’ using the ‘How to build a killer resume’ guide then configure that to the recipient each time you send it out.

16. How far back should I go with the information I put on my resume?

Ten years is usually required. However, there are certain situations in which experience from more than ten years ago may be advantageous to show on your resume.

17. What are some common components of a resume?

They are:

• Identification: Your name, address, and home and/or message phone number with area code, and e-mail address should be placed at the top of the resume.
• Objective: Describe your career or professional objective. Be specific and include what you want to do for the employer – not what you want the employer to do for you.
• Summary: Used by the candidate with experience; briefly state your achievements, the range of your experience and the environment(s) in which you have worked.
• Employment: Describe your job history in reverse chronological order – most History recent first.
• Education: Build your resume with list of educational experience, most recent first.
• Skills: Include into your resume (Curriculum Vitae, CV) foreign language fluency, knowledge of computers including specific hardware, software, operating systems and anything else that may be relevant.
• Community: Create a resume with information about any volunteer efforts, including name of organization, dates and a brief description of your activities and experiences.
• References: List professional references on a separate page. You may want to state that references are “available upon request” (you can see question #7).

18. How long is the standard resume?

See question #2. The general tips of resume building are to use enough space to provide all info and to write only relevant information about yourself.

19. What resume style is preferred by employers?

There are three resume building styles: Chronological, Functional, and Combination. Chronological resumes present your work history and experience most recent first. Functional resumes focus on the skills and abilities that have been acquired and can be applied to new career opportunities. Combination resumes combine elements of both the chronological and functional formats.

20. Are All Resumes Alike?

I wrote above there are three basic types of resumes. The format you select should be the one you believe will best allow you to target your education, experience, and skills towards your career objectives.

21. What is a Scannable Resume?

A scannable resume is one that may be “read” by a computer equipped with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) hardware and software. They scans your resume and puts data into a database. The software then creates a summary of your resume and ranks it among other qualified candidates for the position. This process, sometimes called electronic applicant tracking, is gathering popularity among medium- to large-sized companies as an initial employment screening device.

22. Why are the Employers Using Scannable Resumes?

Scannable resumes have advantages for employers:

• Employers can simply search through their database and identify names with the specific experience, skills, and qualifications.
• Human Resource departments can be much smaller because this technology speeds up the entire hiring process.

23. What is an Online Resume?

An online resume is a plain text document (*.txt) which can be cut-and-pasted into online forms. It can be used by resume builder because ASCII files are recognized by PC’s, Macintoshes, UNIX Workstations, and mainframe terminals.

24. Why do I need an Online Resume?

You can build a resume in online version and to send it to companies who are soliciting resumes via e-mail. Frequently the companies who are calling for resumes want them in the form of a plain text document sent in the body of an e-mail message – NOT PDF, NOT MS WORD.

25. Can’t I just send my resume as an email attachment?

Sending any attachments through email can be tricky, and the last thing you want to do is make a potential employer work to read your resume. There are many types of computer systems, increasing the risk that the program that you create your resume in will not be compatible to the computer of the receiver, making it impossible for them to open up the attachment. The online resume solves that problem as you import it directly into the text body of the email message. Its simple, plain text look is easy for employers to read through email.

26. What is a Functional Resume?

The Functional Resume is a resume in which the resume builder organized information by skill sets. These resumes design focus on individuals whose education and experiences do not obviously match their career objective.

27. Who Should Use a Functional Resume?

Functional Resumes can be used for people who have a History or Psychology degree. In these cases it may be easier for the student to highlight their Communication, Computer Skills, Leadership, Research, Administration, and Management. A functional resume allows such people to feature their volunteer and other non-paid experiences. It also includes individuals who have multi-track job histories, or work history gaps.

28. What are the Benefits of Using a Functional Resume?

Functional Resumes are beneficial in these ways:

• Utilizes volunteer, unpaid and non-work experiences.
• Demonstrates precisely the skills that the employer wants.
• Eliminates work history that does not support your current objective.
• Directs the emloyer to what you want them to notice.

29. What is a reference?

A reference is someone who knows you well and can builds talk about your job related qualifications with a potential employer. Many employers will want a list of your references, including addresses and phone numbers.

30. How many references do I need?

You will need at least three to five references as a recent college graduate. It is also a good idea to tailor your references to the job for which you are applying.

31. Who do I ask to be my reference?

Someone who knows you well through a job, class or organization. Find someone who can make a positive statement about your skills, work habits, and other qualifications. There are three main kinds of references:

• Professional References are the best help, it can provide the potential employer with specific work habits and abilities.
• Academic References can also assist you in finding a job in your chosen field, for example a professor in your major can attest to your knowledge base and study habits.
• Personal References are usually not recommended unless the potential employer specifically asks for them. Generally, personal references get the least amount of attention from employers.

32. What Is A Cover Letter?

A cover letter is an accompanying letter that serves as the introduction to your resume. No resume should be sent without one. The cover letter is created separately and individually for each position for which you express an interest.

33. What Is The Purpose Of The Cover Letter?

The purpose of the cover letter is to introduce yourself to an organization, demonstrate your interest in the company or a specific vacancy, draw attention to your resume and motivate the reader to interview you. A cover letter tells a potential employer that you are available, qualified, and interested in employment. Cover letters personalize your resume by briefly highlighting your strengths as they relate to the position sought.

34. How Should Cover Letters Be Organized?

The cover letter typically consists of three parts: Introduction, Body, and Closing. Within these three parts you must get the following three points across:

• Why you are specifically interested in the organization?
• Why they should be particularly interested in you?
• When and how you will contact them to follow up on your letter and schedule an appointment.

35. Should cover letters be personalized to match each job opportunity?

Yes, certainly! The cover letter is your chance to personalize the resume to highlight your strengths as they relate to the needs of an employer. Often this means simply changing the address, salutation and opening paragraph to specify the employer. The manual of resume building recommends to personalize the cover letter in any manner that you can because such cover letters assist in grabbing the attention of an employer.

36. Should a cover letter always be included with a resume or application?

YES, Of course! Cover letters clarify what are you seeking and highlight your strengths to an employer’s needs.

37. Where Can I Learn More About Resume Writing?

Available steps are:

• Look at the sample resume handouts, and the many resume-related resources in the Career Discovery Center.
• Request Career Services to present a Resume Writing Workshop to your club or organization.
• Schedule a Resume Review with a Career Associate.
• Make an appointment to discuss your resume with a member of the Career Services staff.
• Look for additional FAQ pages, including Action Verbs to Enhance Your Resume.

Oleg Savchenko is the author of the eBook “Expert Resume Writing” and the site “How to create a CV” [http://how-to-write-a-cv.net/]. He is expert in the resume building – all of his experience in the theory and practice of building a resume allow him to receive more favorable position in the more famous company each time at job changing. His last job position is management in the one of the largest worldwide advertising agencies. If you are worried about the resume writing, sign up for our email course “How to Build a Resume” [http://how-to-write-a-cv.net/course-10-resume-writing-trade-secrets.html] and receive 10 resume writing ‘Trade secrets’. It’s Absolutely Free!

Over the years as a recruiter and resume coach, I’ve seen the consequences of poorly written resumes. Unfortunately, most people don’t seek professional career help until they experience the frustration of a long and fruitless job search. It’s surprising how many of their problems can be traced to the top five resume mistakes.

#1 No resume focus.

The most effective resumes leave no doubt as to the job seeker’s career objective. A one-size-fits-all resume gives the impression that the job seeker is uncertain of his career goal. An employer once told me that if a candidate is interested in two completely different positions, he must not be very good at either. If you have more than one career objective, you need more than one resume.

#2 Lack of marketing strategy.

Job seekers rarely see their search for what it is-a sales campaign. Think of your resume as marketing material designed to create a powerful first impression and win a multitude of job interviews. A resume coach can help you translate your career history into an effective marketing piece by selling toward the reader’s buying motives: solving problems, saving money, or increasing profits.

#3 No accomplishment statements.

95% of all resumes lack accomplishment statements. These statements allow employers to visualize your contribution to their company. A resume coach can help you move from a job description type resume to a resume with quantifiable statements that motivate employers to call you before their competition does. These statements can dollarize your worth and increase your bargaining power.

#4 Lack of resume keywords.

These days, resumes are screened by both humans and computers. A resume lacking in keywords runs the risk of being read by neither. An average screening of a resume is 15 seconds or less, so more attention is paid to resumes using the same words found in the job description. Candidate-tracking software retrieves resumes by keywords. A keyword-focused resume will put you front and center.

#5 Incorrect resume format.

Basically, there are three resume formats: chronological, functional and hybrid.

Chronological: The chronological is best known and easiest to write, a timeline style resume. This format works well if your objective is to remain in the same industry or occupation.

Functional: The functional resume places transferable skills and accomplishments at the beginning of your resume. However, a poorly crafted functional resume can be confusing, causing the reader to believe the candidate has something to hide.

Hybrid: The hybrid resume combines the best features of other resumes. It showcases skills and accomplishments while maintaining ease of reading. This is the best format for job seekers of all level, but it is also the most difficult to write, requiring thoughtful planning to identify the most critical transferable skills that will attract potential employer attention.

Once your resume is designed to avoid the top five resume mistakes, you will be well on your way to winning interviews and reaching your career objective. How much is you old resume costing you in lost opportunities?

Deborah Walker, Resume Coach, has spent years studying the art of fine resume crafting. Her career-long focus on all phases of the employment process provides a solid base of knowledge for resume advice and coaching. Learn more about resume coaching at http://www.AlphaAdvantage.com

Imagine this! You are walking down the market place checking out the variety of rates for a box of apples. You scout the market on foot, personally checking with all vendors who have apple carts on display. The entire process takes you roughly about an hour as the market is spread out over a large area. You pass by those that quote a high rate and mentally check those that offer the sum that’s nearest to what you can pay. At the end of the exercise you zoom in to the vendor who offers the best quote for the best quality as well. And then you pick your lot. Something similar happens when you shop around for the best free quote in car insurance.

Let us first understand what insurance is. Answer: Insurance is basically an agreement you make with an insurance company to secure yourself or your belongings in case of any eventuality. The insurance is payable in cash, the amount which is pre-decided between the insurance company and the insured. The insured pays a premium to the insurance company regularly towards this insurance cover.

Car insurance is insuring the car that you or your family/ employees would drive. All car insurance companies provide quotes for your cars on request and you can get free quotes by spending some time looking around yourself. Unlike going about the car insurance market on foot as described, there are easier ways to obtain some good free quotes.

Obtaining free quotes for your car insurance is something like this. All vehicles by law are required to have insurance. If your car is not insured you cannot drive it. Therefore you need to get a car insurance done at the earliest.

Now, how do you go about getting your quotes?

In today’s internet savvy generation, car insurance quotes can be obtained free over the net. You can also find loads of information about numerous car insurance companies that operate in your district and those car insurance companies, which offer the best and free quotes as well. This helps cut any costs that may be associated in obtaining car insurance quotes from several car insurance agencies.

Let’s assume you need a car insurance free quote today. What do you do? Simple, as a first step you log on to the net and run a search for car insurance free quote in your district. This will throw up several web links. You have to click on them to read and understand what the car insurance agencies offer, their free quote requirements, their policy and procedures and such information.

When you are scouting around for the relevant car insurance free quote information you will need some specific information regarding your car. To start with you need to provide your personal contact information which would include name, contact numbers, email address, car driving license number and since when you have it etc.

Then you will need to fill in details about your car like the any current car insurance policies you are holding and their term. This section will probe your car history (any accidents, tickets or violations), the car make and model (4 Wheel drive or sedan), your specific use of the car (to work/ cross-country), and details like if the car has airbags, security alarm system etc etc.

You will also need to clearly mention in your quote requirements what is the coverage amount you need like a full cover or liability only. Also required by the car insurance companies is the bodily limit injury amount you are seeking. Once you submit these details related to car insurance, your quote will be on its way.

All you need to do is await a number of free quotes from several car insurance companies. Once you have shopped around among the best car insurance companies in your district to get the best free quote, select one. You have to try to get the maximum car insurance benefits for your free quote. If you find that you are not happy with the rates in the free quotes that the first lot of car insurance companies have sent you, there are ways to get even better free quotes.

Free quotes depend on the information you put in on the car insurance websites. You can reduce the premium amounts mentioned in the free quotes drastically if you do any of the following and mention the same in your free quote request. You park your car inside a garage. This eliminates damage and theft. You set a ‘break in warning alarm system in your car. You alone drive your car instead of several persons. You don’t have a history of self-caused accidents or violations. You don’t need a car hire clause when your car is taken by the insurance agency for any repairs and many such important points.

So you see, you can get fantastic free quotes from reputed car insurance agencies for your car without moving out of your home.

Scott is a consultant at Car Insurance Free Quote [http://www.lespillets.com/Car_Insurance_Free_Quote.html], a directory listing site with all your car insurance information needs. If you have any other car insurance questions please visit [http://www.lespillets.com/Car_Insurance_Free_Quote.html]

In 2002, the lease was up on my current car, so I decided it was time to get a new one. Like most people, I generally don’t like going to a car dealership to buy a car. At the beginning of my career, I worked for 6 months as a car sales person so I knew exactly what would happen if I went to the car dealership:

The sales person would “assess my needs.” Then get me to settle for a car that they had in stock on the lot. Then I’d have to go for a test drive. Then negotiate on a price. Fill out a credit application. Sign the paperwork in the Finance and Insurance office. All the while they attempted to sell me additional add-ons to the car–paint protection, under coating, and extended warranty.

If I was lucky, the entire process would take about 5-6 hours. Plus be physically exhausting.

That’s if I was lucky. If I was unlucky, I’d have to shop from dealership to dealership and negotiate several times before I finally found the price and the car I wanted. The entire process could easily take several hours a day for a week or more.

At the time, I was working as a consultant at a very high hourly wage. And at the time, the company needed me to even work extra hours in order to complete an important project. So, for me to take any time off just to buy a car was not only a waste of time, but would probably cost me hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars in lost income.

So, I decided to take control of the situation. I decided that I would find exactly the car I wanted on the internet, and do everything else over the phone. I decided I wasn’t going to even step on the dealership lot until it was time to sign the final papers and pick up the car. After the experience, I’m convinced that you don’t have to earn a lot of money to do what I did, you just need a plan and be prepared to follow it through exactly.

Here’s what I did:

1) I decided on exactly the car that I wanted. This strategy is not going to work if you are at the stage where you are just browsing for a car. In my case, the way I decided was to rent the type of car I wanted for a week. What happened was that the dealership where I had my car serviced rented me a Jeep Liberty. I had the car for a solid week so I had a chance to get to know the car’s basics. How it drove, what the visibility was like, what the gas mileage was like, etc. Even though it was a base model, I absolutely loved it.

The best way to find out about a car that you are interested in is to rent it for several days. You are not going to learn much about a car in a 10 minute test drive. If you can’t find the exact car, at least drive a similar car by the same manufacturer. There are usually a lot of similarities. Also, make certain you research the car in Consumer Reports.

2) Once I knew the make and model of the car, I researched it online using the manufacturer’s website. There I was able to see all of the available exterior and interior colors, determine the difference between the different model types (e.g., Sport vs. Limited, etc), and the options. In my case, I wanted the car “fully loaded.”

3) Using the online tools of the manufacturer’s website, I designed the car exactly the way I wanted it and got the basic information on the manufacturer’s suggested retail price–the sticker of the car. That told me what the high end of the price was going to be (but of course, I had no intention of paying full sticker price).

4) I contacted my insurance company to find out what the exact insurance price would be on the car. This is important because your insurance will probably go up or down when you buy a new car. You want to know this information upfront before making a final decision so that there are no surprises.

5) I arranged for the financing I would need for my car. In my case it was easy. My insurance company (USAA) also providing car financing at extremely low interest rates. They took all the necessary information over the phone–no credit application to fill out.

You may have to shop around for your financing and fill out a credit application, but believe me, it’s quicker (and usually cheaper) to make those arrangements before you go to the dealership. What the lender will probably do is tell you that they will loan you up to 75% of the car’s value up to a certain value. It will all be based on your credit application and credit rating.

By getting the financing in advance, you know exactly how much you will be able to afford, and the interest rate and monthly payments are even before you speak to the dealer. This gives you a lot more leverage in negotiating the best deal and gives you time to think without a sales person pressuring you for a decision so he or she can move on to the next sale. Plus you don’t have to wait around at the dealership for them to approve your loan.

6) I went back online to locate the dealerships in my area. In the case of Jeep, they not only listed the dealership, they also listed their inventory. I not only new exactly what car I wanted, I new exactly which dealerships had the car and how many cars of this type were in the area.

7) After this preparation, it was time to call the dealership. In my case, I called the original dealership who had rented me the Liberty. I was impressed with their service department, so I decided to give them the first shot. I knew from my research that they didn’t have the car, but I also new by experience that they could arrange for a trade with another dealer.

I spoke to the sales person and directly explained my situation: my lease was up on my current car. I wanted to turn it in and buy a new car. I explained that this was going to be the easiest sale he ever made. I already knew exactly the car I wanted. I had already driven the car, so I didn’t need a test drive. I already had my financing. I knew what a fair price for the car was.

I told him that we either do the deal over the phone, or I will have to go some place else. He referred me to the sales/desk manager who had to approve the deals. I put him in touch with the lender so they new I was serious. Since they had to trade with another dealership for the car, I had to put down a small deposit using my ATM card.

They arranged for the dealer trade, got exactly the make, model, and color I wanted. They contacted the lender directly to give them the VIN number and the price.

9) The lender Fedex’d me the check made out to the dealership for the amount agreed upon.

10) I went to the dealership during a week day when sales traffic was slow. I wanted to show respect for the sales staff’s time by not going when it was busy. And I wanted to get in and out in record time. I dropped off my leased car, signed the papers, gave them the check from the lender, wrote a separate check for the down payment, and drove off in my new car. I spent about 20 minutes in total at the dealership. And most of that time was the sales person showing me the car–and forcing me to take a 10 minute test drive.

By being prepared, by demonstrating to the dealership that I knew what I was doing, by making the deal easy for them, by respecting their time, I not only was able to get exactly the car I wanted, I got a great price. And, most important to me, it took very little of my personal time.

You don’t have to be an hourly paid consultant or a former car salesperson to get a similar result. It’s all in the preparation and especially in the attitude. I approached the situation with complete confidence that this deal was going to happen. That confidence was based upon solid preparation in advance.

It was also based on complete integrity. Because I was prepared, I made certain that the sales manager knew that I would do exactly what I said I would do–if they met my terms. I convinced them that they could trust me not to shop around at other dealerships if they met my terms. I made sure that it really was the easiest sale they ever made. I reduced the salesperson’s role to that of an order taker.

This strategy will not work if you try to pit one dealership in competition with another after they give you a price. That’s not fair to them. If they offer you a fair price you can live with and the convenience of doing the deal over the phone, you have an obligation to follow through on your part of the agreement.

So, it’s critical that you have all of the other approvals you need before you make the first call to the dealership. Otherwise, they will identify you as a “shopper” or a “be back” and only negotiate with you at the dealership.

I should also add that through out this process, I used my Power Affirmations (see information in the bio below) to stay completely on target and to get exactly what I wanted in a manner that was also more than fair to the dealership. This may sound corny to some, but it’s the absolute truth.

By the way, it’s three years later and I still love my car. It pays to know exactly what you want, to have a plan to get it, and have the confidence to take action and not settle for anything less.

Copyright (c) 2005 Bill Marshall – All rights reserved. Feel free to republish this article provided you include the copyright information and the weblinks where possible.

For practical self-improvement tips, visit http://www.poweraffirmations.com. Get my new free e-book, “Power Affirmations: Power Positive Conditioning for Your Subconscious Mind”