This page will explain how to go about setting up an account and then list a vehicle for sale on East Coast Auto Classifieds

Although it is quite easy to navigate this site, those of you that are not very computer savvy might find registering a bit complicated. Before you can list any vehicle for sale, you must register to create a username. Anyone wishing to just browse the site does not need to do this. Registering requires that you have a valid e-mail address as a confirmation e-mail will be sent to the address you choose and from this you must click on a link that will complete the registration process.

How to register at East Coast Auto Classifieds

So let's get started. In the bar beneath the site logo you will find a 'Register' link, click this and it will open up the Register page. You can also look for the 'Join Now' link on the left side beneath the 'ACCOUNT MENU'. When the Register page opens, you will find a number of boxes that must be filled out and some that are there for additional information about you. The mandatory boxes have an * (asterisk) and if not filled in will cause your registration to fail producing an error message indicating what is missing. When choosing a 'Username' you cannot have any spaces, so a two word name must have an underscore between in order to be accepted.

Our site uses cookies to keep track of your account. We also use cookies to deliver content specific to you.

There is one exception to the mandatory boxes, and that is the 'Password' box. You can leave this field blank and a random password will be generated for you. You will be able to change this when you log-in as you will be directed to a members area where you can find a link on the left to 'Change Password'.

Once you have filled in all of the boxes to your satisfaction, check the box that indicates that you agree to the Terms of Service. At this point you can then click on 'SUBMIT' and you are finished with this stage of the registration process.

Now wait a few minutes and check your e-mail using the same one that you provided. You might have to wait as much as 10 minutes depending on who your ISP is and the whims and vagaries of the internet. Once the message from East Coast Auto Classifieds has been received, you will find a link within that you must click on which will take you back to East Coast Auto Classifieds where you will be asked to now log-in with your username and password. You are now registered and can immediately start listing vehicles at East Coast Auto Classifieds!

How to list a vehicle at East Coast Auto Classifieds

No matter where you are on the site, simply look to the left side of the page under 'LISTINGS' and you will find a link labeled 'Add Vehicle'. Click on this and an Add listings page will open up somewhat similar to the registration page. From here you will fill out the necessary information pertinent to your vehicle. Nothing here is mandatory but the more information you provide, the more interesting your listing will be to people searching through the site. You will find a drop down list for a number of items for instance the Manufacturer, body style, number of doors and condition etc. Just choose the ones that match your vehicle and proceed on down the list till you get to the 'Features' box. This box has a large number of options that your vehicle might have, such as ABS, Air conditioning etc. To select more than one item, just hold down the Ctrl key on a PC or the Command key on an Apple and then click each item with your mouse pointer.

There are a number of fields (boxes) that don't need to be filled out for instance the 'VIN' and 'STOCK' numbers. One field that I highly recommend that you put some information in, is the 'Description' box. This is where text is displayed next to the listing picture in the 'Browse Listings' page. Otherwise there will be little to entice a viewer of the page to stop and pay attention to your vehicle other than just a picture if you have submitted one. At this point you can submit your listing and it will appear at the top of the page in the 'Browse Listings' page.

The importance of adding photographs to your listings

I can't stress enough how important pictures are when you are trying to advertise something, particularly on-line as everyone expects to see pictures. Listing a vehicle without pictures is almost a guarantee to elicit next to no interest unless your asking price is exceedingly low for the model and year. Even a poor quality picture is better than nothing. Obviously the better your pictures are and the better your vehicle looks in those pictures, gives you an advantage over someone trying to sell a similar vehicle with no or poor quality pictures. Try to take pictures of your vehicle with a decent digital camera, not a cell phone. Any point and shoot camera will do, just try to take the pictures during the middle of the day to take advantage of the lighting. Several from the side, front and back plus one of the interior is enough. Use a flash when shooting the interior shots.

Now that you have your digital photographs and have downloaded them to a computer, you will probably find that they are quite large in size. We don't need anything larger than 1024 x 1024 and 250 K in size. In fact anything over about 750 pixels will get resized anyway so it is best to keep your picture sizes fairly small. Having smaller size images will also take up less space on the server and will load quicker when the listing is viewed. This can mean the difference between someone with a slow connection getting to see all of your pictures or getting frustrated with the slow download and moving onto another car listing. I recommend that you resize the pictures using the software that came with the camera or you can also upload them to several web sites like Shrinkpictures and Webresizer that will do the job for you. These however do so one at a time. If you have five or six pictures to do this gets a bit tedious.

If you want to post more than just a couple of pictures, I suggest that you download this free Photo-resizer program that has built in batch processing which makes the work easy. Before you resize any pictures however, make sure that they are all upright in orientation by viewing them using Windows Picture Viewer and rotating them left or right to get the correct orientation. This way when you do the batch conversion or upload to a resizing web site it will be saved in the correct orientation.

How to add pictures to your listings

Pictures can be added to your listing at the same time as you create it. Beneath the 'Add vehicle listing' box there is another box labeled 'Add an image to your listing', there are three 'Browse' boxes which when clicked pop up a 'File Upload' box which allows you to find and select your pictures. There are three of these and you click and select a picture in each. When you are finished selecting pictures, click on 'submit' and the pictures will be added to your listing. If you want to add more than just three, just select more in the same way for up to six pictures for each listing.

How to edit your listings

If you find that you have made a mistake or want to change the price, it is easy to edit your listings. The easiest way is to go to your account page where all of your listings will be found and by clicking on the provided link, you are taken to an edit page where any changes can be easily made. You can use this to also add more pictures.

If you have a problem

Hopefully with the help of this 'HOWTO', you will not encounter any problems. But if you do, please do not hesitate to contact us here at East Coast Auto Classifieds.