Automotive Journalism Feedback

[paulh]

Hi All,

I have been looking to get into automotive journalism for a while now and I have finally took a small step into it. I have teamed up with a photographer and created a website to publish our work on. It is very early days, I'd like to ask for your feedback please.

First of all I like to say that I am one you, I had my first saxo in 2004, it was a mk1 1.1 in green I had that for about 2 years, then got my dream a mk2 VTS also in green which I kept for another 2 years. I loved it. I sold this on to a friend and I still see it about from time to time.

I would love to build a automotive website similar to Speed Hunter, Auto car or Piston Heads.

I would like to know what more do you want out of an automotive car review/feature website?

What would encourage you to visits the site?

What cars/features/topics interest you as a reader?

I would also like feedback on the website, it is still development and may change completely. Tell me what you would like to see please.

What do you like/dislike?

Here is the domain address.
www.oversteeraddicts.com

Many thanks in advance.

Paul.

[dondan]

Site looks good, just having a read through now but is currently exceeding expectations :)

[paulh]

Thanks for the initial feedback dondan. I would be keen to hear what you additional functionality you would like to see?

Paul.

[wadoryu]

It does look rather snazzy indeed. The thing I think keeps people going back to sites like piston heads for example is a good forum. Keeps people discussing topics ect. Defiantly on the right path and you never know could be the next big thing.

[Brettles1986]

One thing I would say is to try and review realistic cars that most can afford or stretch to. Obviously chucking a few supercars in there every now and again is a good thing to do but keeping it relevant is key I would say.

[GolfJay]

Its a great idea but one quite a few people have had. There's plenty of these sites out there, all trying to do the same thing.

Saying that, the one thing that makes Speedhunters so well known is content. They seem to get pretty much unrestricted access to just about anything within the motoring circuit.

You mentioned two very different sites. AutoCar is a... "normal" car website. They bring you news within the motoring industry but not so much the aftermarket side of it. Speedhunters focuses on racing, modified cars and things a little less mainstream. Is there a particular one you're wanting to focus on?

The website looks smart. It looks modern while not looking like just another blog. It might be a good idea to approach people with stand out cars. Going into forums, progress threads and then list them by rating. This way you get the most viewed/highly rated cars that people actually want to read about. Send then a PM and see if they fancy being featured. Most people with that sort of car will be happy to be featured.

My only (constructive) critisism is that you have no content (yet) that cannot be read somewhere else. Its general Automotive news that I'd normally read on Pistonheads. Same with the "Driven" articles, Piston heads already has them.

The website has potential. But the one thing it needs to stand out is content, exclusive content.

[m4tt274]

Get a blog together and a website, then i would try your hardest to get onto a Journalism course at a Uni near you. Then with your degree and blogs start applying for jobs with the bigger names.

The blog is key! Word press is free and easy to use. For an assignment at Uni i started a cooking blog on there, talked about how to cook eggs etc, got like 5000 hits in a week after some twitter sharing and facebook links etc.

[m11ler]

Jay nailed it. It needs to be different. I personally couldn't give a shit about how the latest Porsche drives, although exclusive coverage and photos from the latest round of the BDC, driver interviews etc, that would get me interested.
Basically what Speedhunters are doing, but small scale. You need to feature the weird and the wonderful.

[paulh]

Thanks for the initial feedback dondan. I would be keen to hear what you additional functionality you would like to see?

Paul.

[GolfJay]

My personal opinion is that there's no point chasing Pistonheads or SpeedHunters. There fan base is just too big. Same with AutoCar.

Exclusive content is the only way you'll ever get anywhere. A blog is a bad idea. There's a million and one of then out there trying to do the same thing. Keep the layout you have.

Go straight to the heart of the scenes. Almost every show winning car has a progress thread now and that gives you direct access.to the owners of some of the most famous cars around. The only website (off the top of my head) that covers that kind of thing is Stanceworks.

People like to read about cars they have seen. Read about it and see how certain things were done, details you missed when looking at it. THIS (http://www.stanceworks.com/2013/06/tom-heaps-mercedes-300ce/) is the perfect example. Tom Heaps Merc dropped jaws at Early Edition this year. It was spotted, photographed and posted on Stance works within weeks.

[paulh]

Thank for all the feedback guys, its great to here everyone perceptive on the current setup. I would enjoy more feedback if possible.

@wadoryup - We have designed a forum that will be linked to the site in the near future. Are there any particular elements to making a the forum a success that believe to be key.

@GolfJay - With regards to what direction we wont to take the site in we are currently just testing the water. Car wise we are interested in interested in many different types, not necessary all expensive cars and we do have soft spot for the classics cars. I also like the car/motorsport culture in general as the cars would mean nothing without the people around them.

What kind of interaction would people like with an automotive website. We can implement a forum, article comments sections and create opportunities for people contribute to articles. But what other options would people like?

How important is the photography to the site? Would people like to see a gallery with a continuous trail of pictures taken from articles and events?

Do people have any insights to different ideas they would like to see covered in a automotive website?

Paul.

[wadoryu]

Couldn't comment on a forum layout, wouldn't have a clue where to start XD
Gallery would be an awesome idea. Have the picture so it fills the whole page and a simple one click to go to the next.

[Viper]

There's no point doing a forum yet. Build up interest on the site and Facebook pages etc and let a forum follow on as a progress step.

[Stissy]

get a facebook page going. if you can manage that, then your forum will go through the roof. Once you've got 2k+ 'likes' then you can start posting things like:
- single pictures with links to the full article on your website
- small write ups of events with links to the full article on your website
- galleries of events you've been to.

IMO, Without a facebook page you're going to struggle to get people to go to your website without begging them. Plus you can get a rough idea of the audience. If your page isn't getting many likes then people aren't interested, if you do a feature on a saxo and it gets around 200 likes, then you do a feature on an evo and it gets around 2,000 likes. then you know what sort of things people prefer and you can tailor yourself around that so you're not wasting time.

It depends what you want to get out of it though and how far you want to take it. Make sure you have a good photographer and if you do make a facebook page please don't become one of those shitty annoying pages that post shit all day long like "good morning" with a picture of a car they've found when googling 'slammed' haha. Keep it to your own work and keep it quality :)

Thats my two cents anyway. :y:

[paulh]

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your feedback. We have studied every aspect of the feedback given and it is a lot more positive than I could have ever expected. The feedback has been really helpful.

As Mentioned before the site is currently in developments so we have the opportunity to change things very quickly.

Anyone who would like to follow us on twitter for when we make the webpage public please follow us @oversteeraddict.

Thanks again,

Paul

[Jay_]

As a punter I really like using StanceWorks as a site. The home page has articles that are really well written, high quality photographs to accompany it and the whole thing seems to just have a good feel to it.

You can tell Mike Burroughs, for instance, really does love cars and the entire culture that comes with them.

Not sure if that is any help though :oops: