Q) I liked the old version of the site, why have you changed it?

A) There are a whole raft of reasons, however here are the main ones. The old site crashed daily, sometimes several times a day as it could not cope with the traffic. With 15 million hits, 1.7 million page views and 175,000 visitors every month, the bandwidth usage alone cost over £6000 per year to provide you with a free service. The site made no revenue whatsoever. There was no search facility. The old site was not search engine friendly. Advertisers email addresses were in plain view for scammers and spammers. There was no upgrade path for new features and we now have many new features in the pipeline.........watch this space!

Q) I want to place a free ad but the site askes me how I want to pay, what do I do?

A) Please click on either payment method as this completes your advert, you will see that no payment is requested as the ad you have selected is free.

Q) I just placed an advert and it has not appeared, what has happened?

A) The only reason an ad will disappear is if it is a duplicate of one you have already placed. Duplicate ads are removed so as maintain the integrity of the site, particularly for those taking advantage of the search function. Should you require more exposure for your listing you might consider a featured ad.

Q) I just tried to register on the site but did not get a confirmation email, what do I need to do?

A) Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may block our automated email believing it to be spam or it may have been received into your junk mail box (please check it). In either of these cases your registration will be activated manually, usually within 24 hours at most. You will receive a personal email confirming this. Alternatively you could try registering with an alternative email address if you have one.

Q) How do I place an ad?

A) First of all you must register as a user which will only take a few moments. You can then log in, click on place an ad and then select an approapriate sub category from the drop down list. It must be a sub category as the main categories are just headings and do not allow ads. Once you have selected your sub category you will have a choice of advertising options, choose an option and simply continue to complete the details of your ad with pictures if you wish.

Q) I cannot upload an image, what do I do?

A) There are image upload restrictions on the server and in many cases your image file may be corrupt. To upload an image which is too big (larger than 2mb or potentially corrupt) you can download free tools to resize/re-format an image for you. The following link is from Microsoft. However there are plenty of others available.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

This tool (once installed) allows you to RIGHT CLICK on your image file and choose "Resize Pictures" a selection box will allow you to choose what size you wish. We recommend small or medium for speedier uploading.

PLEASE USE THIS TOOL TO RESIZE AN IMAGE THAT YOU HAVE HAD DIFFICULTY IN UPLOADING EVEN IF THE FILE WAS WITHIN OUR UPLOAD LIMITS. THIS TOOL WORKS EVERY TIME!!

Q) I have found an item I am interested in but cannot see the sellers contact details, what do I need to do?

A) To email a seller you need to register on the site so that you can log in as a user. Once registered and logged in you will be able to email sellers. To view their telephone numbers simply click on the sellers name and more details will appear.

Q) Why do I now need to register on the site to email sellers?

A) The main reason is that it greatly reduces the access of scammers and spammers to your email address. Most scammers and spammers harvest emails automatically from websites where email addresses are in plain view. By registering all respondents we can make our site more secure as email addresses are hidden.

Q) How do I edit or delete an ad?

A) Log in with your user name and password and a select modify ad in member options. You can then add or remove pictures and edit the text of your ad. You can also delete it entirely if you wish.

Q) Why have you started making a charge for some adverts?

A) Due to the immense popularity and traffic to racecarsdirect.com it has become a full time commitment maintaining & developing the site. Additionally, the hosting costs & expenses have gone way beyond the realms of maintaining it as a hobby web site providing free advertising to all. Charges are very competitive and ultimately, optional.

Q) How much traffic does racecarsdirect receive?

A) The site is now averaging over 3,500,000 hits per week from around 45,000 visits per week. March 2006 saw a new activity record with over 16,500,000 hits and very nearly 192,000 visits. These figures are correct as at June 2006.