>>Sell Your Car Online: Step 2, Using Pictures of Your Automobile Correctly

Sell Your Car Online: Step 2,
Using Pictures of
Your Automobile Correctly

Selling your car or truck online is a great way to put it in front of potential buyers. In step one of this series, titled "Sell Your Car Online: Step 1, Taking High Quality Pictures of Your Automobile", you learned how to take great quality pictures of our vehicle.

The second step in placing an ad is selecting the pictures of the vehicle you want to use in your listing. Remember the hypothetical situation from step 1? Using multiple pictures in your listing can give the potential buyer loads of information about your vehicle before the buyer even reads the first word about it.

You must choose the correct combination of pictures to display with your listing for maximum effect. If you followed the directions in step 1, you should have at least 15 to 20 pictures to choose from. Group the pictures into categories depending on the angle (for example: front, left, rear, right, front right, rear left, under the hood, interior, etc.). Then select the best picture from each category and discard the rest.

Now you should have a group of about 7 to 10 high quality pictures. Comb through these pictures and select the ones that, if displayed together, would show the most detail about your vehicle. The goal is not to overwhelm the potential buyer with tons of photos showing the same details, but to display great photos of different areas of the vehicle that convey the overall condition of the vehicle.

A great example of photos to use is: front driver's side, rear passenger's side, under the hood, interior, and any after market add-ons to the car. You should use at least 4 photos with each listing, but feel free to use more.

After you select the correct photos, you need to edit them. Most auto classified web sites have a maximum file size for photos you can upload with your listings. The highest quality settings for digital cameras can be anywhere from 1 MB to 5 MB per photo and greater depending on the camera. So what do you do if the photos you take exceed that size? You have to edit or resize them. But before you do that, you need to know how images are displayed on computer monitors as opposed to print.

High quality images displayed on the web are actually low quality when printed. Computer monitors display images at 72 DPI. A good quality printing will be 300 DPI or greater. A photo displayed on a monitor at 600 pixels (8.33 inches) wide will only be 2 inches wide if printed on paper. To get a good quality 8.33 inch print on paper, the photo will need to be at least 2500 pixels wide. This is a big difference in file size (and download time).

The optimal size for photos on the internet is approximately 600 pixels wide by 400 pixels high. If your camera can't take pictures this size, even in the lowest quality setting, you will have to manually resize them. To do this you need an image editing program. Most computers have at least a simple image editing program on them. If your computer doesn't have one, you'll need to download one from the internet. You can find free and low cost image editing programs by going to www.download.com and searching for "image editing software."

However, you can skip the image editing step if you find a car classifieds site, like VINclassifieds.com, that automatically resizes the photos upon upload so they are the optimal size for the internet. This could eliminate the need for you to manually resize your photos before upload.

Choose the right pictures for your classified ad and viewers will set up and take notice. Look for the next installment titled "Sell Your Car Online: Step 3, Using the Right Information to Help Sell Your Automobile." Happy selling.

Derrick Walker is founder of http://www.vinclassifieds.com used car classifieds site. VIN Classifieds displays cars for sale by individuals and car dealers. Sell your car at http://www.vinclassifieds.com/sell_my_car.htm

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

By: Derrick Walker

>>Sell Your Car Online: Step 1, Taking High Quality Pictures of Your Automobile

Sell Your Car Online: Step 1,

Taking High Quality Pictures of
Your Automobile

Placing your car or truck for sale in an auto classifieds website is a great way to reach tons of potential buyers. But constructing a great ad is not child's play. To generate a lot of interest in your vehicle, you must know how to create the perfect online listing. The necessary steps are outlined in five articles titled "Sell Your Car Online."

The first step in placing a great ad is taking pictures of the car or truck that is for sale. You don't just want to take any picture and post it on the internet. You want to post the best picture you possibly can. After all, the potential buyers that view your online listing want to see a picture that tells them something more than just the color of the vehicle. A good picture can convey the overall condition of the body, paint, interior, and more. A good, or near professional-quality, picture can seal the deal in the buyer's mind.

Hypothetical situation: A potential car buyer is looking for a particular car. The buyer has found two nearly identical cars, one belongs to you and one belongs to someone in a nearby state. These two cars have the same body style, the same engine and transmission, the same color, the same options, and very close to the same price. The only deciding factor is the pictures. The competing car has one low quality picture. It is half blocked by a neighboring vehicle. The sun is in the background causing a glare that obscures the color and overall appearance of the car. Your car, on the other hand, has multiple pictures from different angles. There is no sun to cause a glare and no rain to make the picture look dreary. The true color of the car shows and there is nothing blocking the view. Which car do you think the buyer would choose? Pictures of competing cars can, without a doubt, influence the potential buyer to purchase one car over another.

There are things you must consider before you take the first picture. What type of camera should I use? How many pictures should I take? What exactly should I take pictures of? Should I take the pictures in direct sunlight? Unless you are a professional photographer, or at least an experienced one, you may not know the correct answer to these questions.

What type of camera should I use? Since the pictures you upload to the internet must be in digital format, a digital camera is the best type of camera to use. If you use a non-digital camera, you first have to pay to get the film developed. Then use a scanner to digitize it. You must spend valuable time and money to do this. Using a digital camera is the most cost efficient and time conserving way to take and upload photos of your vehicle. In most cases, all you have to do is connect your camera to your computer to download the photos to the hard drive. Then you're ready to post your ad.

What size mega pixel (MP) camera do I need? This depends on what you will be doing with the pictures. If you need large, high quality pictures, like 8X10 prints or a large display photo in the newspaper, you may need to purchase a 5 MP camera or better. If you will be printing the pictures for personal use or posting small photos in print ads in the local newspaper, you probably need a 3 MP camera or better. If all you need is camera to take pictures to be uploaded to the internet, a 2 MP camera should do the trick.

Remember this! If the picture you are taking will only be used on the internet, use the lowest quality setting that your camera has. Some cameras even have a setting for internet quality photos.

How many pictures should I take? There is no correct answer for this question. Just take as many as you need. A good photographer will take pictures from multiple angles as well as take duplicate pictures from each angle. If you have 20 pictures to choose from, you can easily find at least 5 high quality photos to post with your listing that show lots of detail about your vehicle. Then you can delete the unused photos so you're not wasting space on your hard drive.

What exactly should I take pictures of? You need pictures from opposite angles that show the exterior of the vehicle. Pictures should be taken of the engine compartment with the hood raised. More pictures should be taken of the interior. If your vehicle has expensive aftermarket accessories, take pictures of them. For example, take close ups of expensive mag wheels, custom artwork or painting, or a high-tech audio system. In essence, you want to convey the overall condition of the vehicle and any special features the vehicle may have with the pictures you take.

Where should I take the pictures? You need to take pictures of the vehicle in a place that has as little background detail as possible. For example, you don't want another car, a highly trafficked street, or a person in the picture at all. The best place to take the pictures would be near a plain brick wall, or in front of an empty field. You don't want any object, whether in the foreground or background, to distract the buyer from seeing the details of your vehicle.

Should I take the pictures in direct sunlight? In order to take a great picture with a mid- to low-quality digital camera, you need plenty of light. But too much direct sunlight can cause bright glares and dark shadows, neither of which is good. The absolute best time to take pictures of your vehicle is on a partly cloudy day when the sun is behind the clouds. This eliminates the harsh, dark shadows even though there is still plenty of light to draw out the true color(s) of the vehicle. If you must take the pictures in direct sunlight, always make sure that the sun is behind you (so it will be shining on the side of the vehicle that is facing you). Try not to take a picture of a vehicle when the side facing you is in the shadow.

If you normally take terrible pictures, remember this! It is much better to take a picture with a wider view that has all the details in it than to try to get a close up and cut part of the important details out. So zoom out to make sure you get a great picture.

Follow these steps and you will have high quality photos of your automobile for display in the car classifieds site of your choice. Look for the next installment titled "Sell Your Car Online: Step 2, Using Pictures of Your Automobile Correctly." Happy selling.

Derrick Walker is founder of http://www.vinclassifieds.com used car classifieds site. VIN Classifieds displays cars for sale by individuals and car dealers. Sell your car at http://www.vinclassifieds.com/sell_my_car.htm

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

By: Derrick Walker

>>The Mazda 3 Review, Best Compact Car of 2007

The Mazda 3 Review,
Best Compact Car of 2007

The Mazda 3 first hit the market in 2004 and quickly established itself as one of the most fun-to-drive compact cars around, even better than its closest rivals such as the Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Lancer, Nissan Sentra and Volkswagen Rabbit. The new Mazda 3 for 2007 has been unveiled as well, with its own hot new updates.

With many of its competitors having redesigned as well, how does the 2007 Mazda 3 compare to its new, souped up competition?

For starters, let's look at how the Mazda 3 has updated itself both inside and out. The new model has added two new grilles, a squarish housing for its fog lights, new alloy wheels and more aerodynamic bumpers. It looks like the new changes were made with an eye towards greater stability. Gone are the five-spoke alloy wheels from last year's model, which a lot of people were raving about, but the new wheels aren't so bad either.

The body also looks more rigid, adding to the greater stability factor, while its suspension was tweaked a bit for better handling and greater steering response.

More good news: the new Mazda 3 still has the same two body styles as before (the four-door sedan and the five-door hatchback) and the same two engine types (the "i" model's 148 horsepower, two-liter engine and the "s" model's 156 horsepower, 2.3 liter engine). The three trim levels are back as well -- Sport, Touring and Grand Touring, but the latter is only for the "s" model. Select Mazda 3 models also have antilock brakes, and front seat and side-curtain airbags.

The Mazda 3's interiors also boast of superior new quality. The "i" models come in beige or black interiors while the "s" model comes only in black. Of course, it's not all black and comes with red and grey plastic trim. In terms of interiors, however, the Honda Civic and Nissan Sentra, seem to have a more modern design.

All Mazda 3 models for 2007 are equipped with stereos with a CD player and a jack for MP3s. Air-conditioners are optional. Power windows, locks and mirrors are available for the Touring and Grand Touring models. The Grand Touring also has leather seats, automatic headlights, climate control and rain-sensing wipers.

The area where the Mazda 3 dominates the competition is in the way it handles on the road. It's agile, responsive and superior in steering. Try driving it on curvy roads and you can easily spot the difference. CarAndDriver.com ranks the 2007 Mazda 3 as the fourth quickest car of the year, zooming from 0-to-60 miles/hour in 7.3 seconds.

Ourisman Mazda is offering the Mazda 3 $1800 below invoice from now until August 31, 2007! Visit Ourisman Mazda Maryland Car Dealership to access their online inventory now.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

By: Rex Freiberger

>>57 Chevy - An American Classic

57 Chevy - An American Classic

When the 1957 Bel Air went on sale, nobody - not even Chevrolet - expected to make history. Instead, it became one of the landmark images in American pop culture; one of the most recognizable cars the world has ever known.

Today, automakers still hail the 57 Chevy as a perfect example of good design and great timing coming together.

What we call the 57 Chevy was actually 19 distinct models. All 19 models were based on a single frame or platform, the basic structure of the car. The 1957 models were the final year in that frame's life. It had been the backbone for Chevrolet's model line for the 55, 56 and 57 model years. The only other car Chevrolet sold then was the Corvette.

Ford and Chrysler had all new frames and styling for their 57 models. They should have mopped the floor with the aged GM model, but Chevrolet outsold Ford by 126 cars in 1957. It sold 1,522,536 units of the various 57 Chevy models and 6,339 Corvettes.

The best-selling 1957 model was the Two-Ten four-door sedan, with a base price of $2,174.00. The least expensive was the $1,885.00 One-Fifty Utility two-door sedan. The most expensive 1957 model was the Bel Air Nomad two-door station wagon with a $2,757.00 base price. It was Chevrolet's lowest-selling model. Chevrolet sold just 6,103 Nomads that year, trailing the Corvette by 236 sales.

Some of the options for that year included, seat belts and a racing-style over-the-shoulder security harness. Other options included a tissue dispenser, electric razor, wheel spinners, backup lights and a gas filter. The cars came in 16 solid colors and 15 two-tone combinations.

Many 57 Chevy's featured a prism on the dashboard. It was intended to refract light from traffic signals so the driver could tell when the light changed without learning forward under the nearly vertical windshield.

The cars came with a choice of seven engines; a standard 235.5 cubic-inch 140-hp straight-six; 162-hp 265 cubic-inch V8, and eight versions of the 283 cubic-inch V8 with power ranging from 185 to 283 horsepower. The 57 Chevy was the first American car with fuel injection. The optional 283 cubic-inch fuel-injected V8 produced 283 horsepower. It was the second American engine to develop one horsepower per cubic inch of displacement, coming a year after the 355-hp 354 cubic-inch Chrysler Hemi.

Ten assembly plants built the 57 Chevy Family: Atlanta, Baltimore; Flint; Janesville, Wis.; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Norwood, Ohio; Oakland, Calif., St. Louis, and Tarrytown, N.Y.

Many designers and car enthusiasts say they believe the 1955 Chevy was the best looking model, but the 57 model year brought more defined tailfins, bullet-shaped bumper protectors, bombsight hood ornaments and other elements that gave the bargain-priced Chevrolet just enough zing to grab buyers' fancy.

The 57 Chevy had style, the buzz born of racing success and demographics on their side. They hit the used-car market just as early baby boomers got driver's licenses and went looking for affordable wheels.

The 57 Chevy embodied the spirit of Chevrolet, great looking, groundbreaking and affordable.

Joyce Boulan is the owner of a website pertaining to the 57 Chevy, where you can find deals on all models of this classic car or find parts or accessories for the one you own. Visit http://www.57chevy-auction.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

By: Joyce Boulan