Our Getting Started Guide will help walk you though the process and offer some handy-dandy tips and tricks to get the most out of your car show listing.
Introduction
First and foremost – Welcome to the Car Show Radar! We’ve designed this site to help you promote your car show in the most effective and fun way possible. Our goal is to help you make your show a huge success, especially if your show is a fund-raising effort. We love cars, car shows and car people, so let us help you create a listing that helps drive your show down the road of success!
Okay, bad puns aside, let’s get started!
What Comes with a Listing?
Unlike other car show sites that only give you a text listing and a link or two to your show website, Car Show Radar builds a webpage just for your show listing. On your unique show page you get:
A large photo header at the top of your page that you choose from your own files.
Your show write-up that you control because it’s in your words. Who knows your show better than you? We give you all the space you want to promote all the activities and events surrounding your show. This is your chance to really go for it and let everyone know why they need to participate and attend your show!
Links, of course, to your show’s website, or Facebook page, or however many links you want to add. Go link crazy because that helps the Internet find your show page all the more.
A map showing the location of your show people can click on to get driving directions. And this feature works across the board – on computers, tablets and smart phones!
Your show flyer, if you have one, that you can upload so people can hone in on the identity you’ve created for your show. If you don’t have a show flyer, then upload another photo of your choosing. We suggest photos from past shows you’ve done. Or if this is your first year and you don’t have show photos, upload a photo of a really cool car. (Maybe it’s your car, maybe it’s someone else’s car, it’s up to you!)
A Facebook posting on the Car Show Radar Facebook page welcoming your new show posting to all our social media fans. From there, you can interact with our Facebook page, link it to your Facebook page, you name it! And we love it when you invite your fans to “Like” our Facebook page because that really helps spread the word about your show!
A Twitter posting on the Car Show Radar Twitter page welcoming your new show posting to even more of our social media fans. You and your show’s fans can interact with our Twitter feed to help drive more traffic to your show before it runs and during the event itself. It’s like #SocialMediaCrazy at the Car Show Radar!
A Weekly Email Blast. This is the big one here! We send out an email to our members each and every week about new shows that have been posted and reminders about shows previously posted. Your show will be included in each week’s email until it runs! So, all our members in your region will get weekly reminders of all the cool shows posted on Car Show Radar! You’ll get one too, since you joined the Radar when you signed up to post a show, so forward your weekly email blast to everyone you know and get them to join the Radar so they can get our email blasts for themselves!
Man! That’s a lot of marketing stuff for FREE! Your own show page with photos, a map with driving directions, Facebook and Twitter posts and a weekly email blast to Car Show Radar members? Who does that?
Car Show Radar, that’s who!
Getting Started (before you list)
A little organization goes a long way toward making your listing as good as it can get. So, here’s a simple checklist that will help:
Your Show Website – We love to link your show posting to your website. If you don’t already have a website, getting one is really easy these days. There are a lot of template sites available at little or no cost that you can use to put one together quickly and easily. Or heck, use Facebook as your show page website. Even better, do both – a website and a Facebook page – and put both links on your posting! AND, if your show is a fundraiser, then by all means add a link to the charity or organization benefited by your show. Spreading the word is spreading the love and people love to help when they can!
Flyers and photos – If you have a show flyer that you or someone has created, you can upload it in jpg format. Same for photos. So cull through your photos and pick a good one to use for the large image at the top of your posting page.
Show Write-up – This is where you get to boast and brag, so don’t hold back. Let it all out about why people should enter their cars in your show or why people should be attending your show. Don’t forget to put info for participants like registration times, award times, etc. The more info you put, the better your posting will look.
Adding a Car Show Listing
We’ve made this as easy as possible. Simply:
Fill out the fields
Upload your flyers and photos, and
We do all the rest! You can view your new posting page right away.
If you want to make changes, here’s how:
Click on Dashboard in the dropdown menu found on the upper left corner of the website.
Click on Edit on the right side of your show listing column.
Make changes to as many of the fields you want.
Click Update Listing.
Bam! You’re done, your show posting is live and everyone can see it. It really is that easy to Get on the Radar and Get Seen!
A couple “tricks” to get the most from your listing
We want you to get the most from your Car Show Radar Listing. Here are a few “tricks” we highly recommend when posting your car show.
1. Tag both the city the show is in AND the nearest metropolitan city.
So, if your show is in Richardson (a Dallas suburb), Tag the show as BOTH “Richardson” and “Dallas.”
2. Use a wide image (1140×500 or bigger) as your featured image (the banner across the top).
This image should make your show look great. It’s best if it shows people and lots of cars–not just a single car in a grassy field by itself…
3. Make sure to use large, compressed images.
Large images look great when they’re viewed on a desktop, but they’ll make your listing load a little slower on mobile devices. You can have both a great-looking image and a small file size, if you go to Kraken, select “Lossless” and just drag & drop the image into Kraken (which is free), and upload the resulting, smaller image to Car Show Radar.
4. Promote your listing on Car Show Radar.
It might sound like circular-logic, but promoting your listing on Car Show Radar will drive traffic to it which drives traffic to your show. Let me explain. Once the system sees your listing is getting popular, it’ll start to give your listing a higher ranking in our “Search the Radar” search results. That drives even MORE traffic to your listing which drives EVEN MORE traffic to your show.
Have Questions? We Have Answers.
If you’ve got a question, need some some help or have an idea on any features you’d like to see added to the site, email Randall Cass at randall@carshowradar.com.
If you’re having some trouble posting a car show listing and it’s really getting on your nerves, email Randall or contact our digital agency, JDM Digital, via their support form.