The project is a culmination of things. It is meant to offer auto shoppers a more private way of obtaining purchase information from local auto dealers and retailers. The site also offers dealers and retailers a social networking platform to promote their specials and cultivate high-quality prospects.

AC features a marketplace similar to Craigslist but rather than having dealers and merchants post ads in a market, shoppers are expected to post requests to which dealers and merchants may respond. The service is free for everyone.

AutoConverse.com supports communication in the format of a blog or forum which is visible to the public or in the form of private messaging which is only visible to the designated members. In either case, the Shopper is not forced to give up his or her phone number and email address in order to have a conversation with dealers and merchants. This is how the site provides a more private way of communicating.

This is how the site provides a more private way of communicating.

The site offers four different member types for people to distinguish one another – Shopper, Dealer, Merchant, or Agent, each containing its own unique set of links that can appear on the member’s profile. An Agent would be someone who represents multiple dealers or merchants, or a webmaster using the site to promote his own automotive sites and interests.

Members can optionally link to their Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare profiles along with links to their blog and website. Dealers have the ability to link people to dealer review sites like Carfolks.com or their dealership page on DealerRater.com.

Dealers, Merchants, and Agents can then create Merchant Sites which are WordPress-based microsites meant to promote a dealership or other brick and mortar storefront, or a website. These members can create as many merchant sites as they like and whatever content they publish to their merchant sites also appears on the AutoConverse.com activity stream.

This is an abridged version of the original press release which has further detail and quotes.

This technique is not limited to the use of iFrames as you can and probably should use Hana Code Insert to display any large amount of HTML, but this is a good use for Hana Code Insert. You will probably need to watch the video in addition to reading the instructions below so you have a visual reference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To begin, look for the Hana Code Insert plug-in which is accessible from the Settings tab in your WP Dashboard. There you will see space for a “New Entry” where you can copy/paste your HTML code and label the insert. Then press SAVE or UPDATE which will create the instance of this Hana Code Insert and displays it at the bottom of all other Hana Code Inserts you have created. Now grab (copy to clipboard) the Hana Code Insert from bracket to bracket which should include the words “hana-code-insert” plus your label and looks like this:

[ hana-code-insert name='YOUR LABEL' / ]

Next you go to the Page or Post you wish to create or edit and paste the code from bracket to bracket into your entry. You can paste this code in the Visual editor or the HTML editor. Doesn’t matter. You can also insert text, images, and other copy as necessary above or below your insert.

Now press PUBLISH or UPDATE or SAVE DRAFT to finalize this entry and when you preview it you should see your code appear just like normal. It’s that simple.

1. The first step is to obtain the URL to your RSS feed. In this case, we went to a Nissan dealer on web2carz.com and obtained their URL.
2. The next step is to log in to your WordPress site and go to the Widgets section under the Appearance tab.
3. Then, while in Widgets, add the widget for RSS feeds and click on the “Edit” link. Be sure to add the widget to the desired sidebar if you have more than one sidebar.
4. Now paste the URL feed in the appropriate field, give your widget a title if desired, and set any of the optional parameters. Most importantly set the number of items you wish to display.
5. Finally, press “Save” and your new widget is live.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have any questions regarding this you may leave your comments below. Alternatively if you require assistance or wish to schedule one-on-one training then please contact us.

You can preview a feed on a dealer blog by visiting this Pennsylvania Toyota Dealer Blog. Look for the list of vehicles towards the right labeled, “Browse Our Vehicles”. Notice there are no vehicle images appearing in this display. We are curious to see how visitors respond to this.

To preview a W2C RSS feed on a Squidoo Lens try this Nissan Dealer near Cherry Hill (NJ) Lens. Notice there are thumbnails appearing there.

By the nature of RSS, when users click on a listing displayed in the feed they are brought to the vehicle display page of that listing on web2carz.com. The result if one inquires is a true third-party lead however by design it was the dealer’s blog or lens that ultimately produce the lead.

Web2Carz.com is one of the few auto classifieds sites broadcasting RSS feeds of inventory and they have been doing it for a couple of years now. We recently begand posting our Dealer Subscriber inventories here because there is no cost to the dealer and we see tremendous value in the RSS broadcast of inventory.

If you have any questions about this technique or wish to learn more, please contact us or visit our online discussion forum.