Automotive Content Publisher Adds Millions of Searchable Used Car Listings
to its Network of Owned and Operated Automotive Destinations

PALO ALTO, Calif., Mar. 11 — High Gear Media, (www.highgearmedia.com), publisher of more premium automotive content than anyone on the Web through websites targeting key buyer and vehicle segments, today announced the addition of all-new auto marketplaces across it’s network of leading automotive websites.

The newly announced inventory listing marketplace provides car buyers access to more than 4 million used vehicles for sale in the United States and combines easy-to-use search and filtering tools with High Gear Media’s industry leading original and aggregated automotive content to enable targeted, best of breed used car experiences across its network.

“We’re creating premium original automotive content at scale, curating the best of the Web, and providing useful tools and services users need to get the exact car that suits them,” said Matt Heist, CEO of High Gear Media. “Giving our users access to millions of used car listings is part of creating superior experiences on all of our automotive destination sites.”

Each site in High Gear Media’s network, including destinations like TheCarConnection.com, MotorAuthority.com,  GreenCarReports.com, AllCarsElectric.com and FamilyCarGuide.com will now present searchable, sortable, used car listings including vehicle details, photos, vehicle history reports, live mapping features and links to related articles from around High Gear Media’s network.  Buyers can contact the sellers directly through the each site by email or phone.

High Gear Media’s used car experience in powered in part by Vast.com, a leading provider of vertical search and advertising technology. Vast’s platform will automatically present local area cars for sale that best match what the car shopper is seeking, along with detailed drill-down by make, model, and feature of over 4 million cars available for sale.

“High Gear Media’s unique model of producing rich, deep sites for different types of buyers and car segments offers Vast and our dealers a new channel to in-market buyers,” said Ben Cohen, General Manager of Autos at Vast.com.  “We are excited to have High Gear Media as a publisher in the Vast network as their websites help us maintain the highest standards in lead quality for dealers.”

Dealers who would like to list inventory or promote their listings on the High Gear Media websites can visit http://www.vast.com/info/automotivedealers.

About High Gear Media (www.highgearmedia.com)

High Gear Media is vertical publishing company publishing more premium automotive content than anyone in the world through websites targeting key buyer and vehicle segments.   High Gear Media’s owned and operated network of automotive destinations reaches well over 2 million visitors monthly and include its anchor site, TheCarConnection.com, its luxury and performance car site, MotorAuthority.com, green and electric car sites, GreenCarReports.com and AllCarsElectric.com, and its family-focused sites including FamilyCarGuide.com.  High Gear Media’s expert editorial staff and over 200 contributing car writers have written at publications like Car and Driver, AOL Autos, AutoWeek, Automobile Magazine, and Wired.  The company’s content is syndicated to partners including Yahoo! Autos, Huffington Post, NASCAR.com, and the San Francisco Chronicle.   Independent automotive writers and people who are passionate about cars can contribute content by visiting HighGearMedia.com.  High Gear Media is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. and received its funding from Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and DAG Ventures.

About Vast.com (www.Vast.com)
Vast.com, Inc works within the auto, travel, and real estate industries to create online marketplaces for the world’s most respected companies. Vast offers the world’s first search and advertising platform optimized to match buyers with ideal, available inventory and sellers with buyers who are interested in their unique products. Partners such as Yahoo!, Orbitz Worldwide, and AOL have integrated Vast’s custom platform into their portals to serve over 20 million consumers per month. For more information, visit www.vast.com.

Press Contacts:

High Gear Media
650.576.8371
http://www.highgearmedia.com/contact/
feedback@highgearmedia.com

Vast.com
Krista Glotzbach
media@vast.com

All you need to do is write about cars today by going here and you earn yourself a chance to win one of these:

That’s a “live” shot from the HGM HQ.

Here’s the description: Tapping into America’s love of cars and the massive car-customizing movement, RIDEMAKERZ offers kidz from 6 to 106 the opportunity to customize and “trick out” their very own RIDE.

So, pretty simple. Write about cars today, earn a chance to win an absolutely cool car kit. Give it away as a gift or, more likely, keep it for yourself and enjoy the awesomeness of RIDEMAKERZ.

You better get going quick!

High Gear Media rolled out a contest in the middle of February as something of an experiment. The deal was this:

* Most page views for a story (submitted through our open blogging platform) between Feb. 18th and end of the month – writer wins $100
* Story awarded as best by editors between Feb. 18th and end of the month – writer wins $100

Here are February’s winners:

Most Page Views: Gavin Shoebridge
Electric Cars Need Sex Appeal; the Tesla Roadster’s Got It

This piece has crushed 1,200 page views (and counting), received 14 comments (and counting), and even better yet it’s a great story. To top it all there’s a pic of January contest winner (test drive Tesla Roadster at the Tesla design facility in Menlo Park, CA) Bruce Richter at the top of the story.

Huge congrats, Gavin!

Editors’ Award: Aaron Kahn
2010 Nissan 370Z: Money Can Buy Happiness, It Turns Out

Aaron’s very first piece for High Gear knocked it out, huge congrats Aaron!

The contest was so successful (particularly with the rush of story submissions we got in its final few days) that we’re going to keep right on rolling with the same contest this month, which will run the length of March: $100 for most page views, $100 for editors’ award.

For both popular posters and quality crafters, you’ve got a great opportunity to write about cars, get involved with the fastest growing automotive community on the interwebs, gain exposure and recognition, and maybe even win some cash.

So, everyone get writing!

You can hear John in the clip starting at about 1:45.   John talks about where electric cars are today, where we can expect them to go — and how that will effect the way people drive.

You can read John’s reporting and analysis all over the High Gear network, most notably on GreenCarReports.com.

In short, we love the writing about cars coming in from all over and wanted to try a little experiment.

We’ve managed to pull a little budget (from the marketing team… shhh, don’t tell!) to kick off a new contest that, if goes well, we’ll turn into a regular thing.

Here’s how it works:

There are two ways to earn $100 at the end of the month.

1) The story published between Feb. 18 and end of the month with most page views – writer gets $100
2) The story awarded as best between Feb. 18 and end of month by editorial team – writer gets $100

Is it possible for the same story / writer to win both and get $200? Yes.

Topic can be whatever you like. Maybe you’d like to write about your earliest experiences with cars, the memories that really ignited your lifelong car fanaticism? It could be that, though it’s really up to you.

That’s it. Pretty simple, right?

Let me know if you have any questions: eric@highgearmedia.com.

Now get writing!

The good folks at RideLust recently published their “Top 25 car sites” list and two High Gear sites,  MotorAuthority and GreenCarReports, were on the list.

For the record, we agree.  Our guys bringing you both of those sites do an incredible job.  So check both sites out if you have not already.

Two other reminders:

1.  We have more great car sites.  Here’s where you can see them all.

2. YOU can write with us on one of our sites by submitting content after a simple sign in.  Join the conversation yourself today.

We’ll summarize his comments here as outlining what we sometimes refer to internally as “High Gear Media’s plan for world domination.”  Kidding aside, we’re focused on going “massively vertical” — creating rich, deep destination web sites in thick vertical categories.  John breaks it down for you in the clip below.

You can see John’s reporting and analysis all over the High Gear network, most notably on the mighty green machine:  GreenCarReports.com.

Huge congrats, Jon !

The deal was: write an article about cars and earn a chance to win Seasons 11 and 12 of Top Gear on DVD, plus a bunch of other Top Gear, well, gear. The more articles you write, the more chances you have to win. And Jon won!

Check out some of Jon’s latest automotive stories from around the High Gear Media network:

2010 Montreal Auto Show – Reflection on Automotive Accosting

2010 Lexus RX 350 – Soft, Squishy, Safe and High

There are many more exciting contests coming up soon, so stay tuned…

And meanwhile, you can catch Season 13 of Top Gear on BBC America.

Oh! And you can always write about cars for High Gear Media by going here.

Now, here’s the thing.  YOU can get one of these widgets for your site.   It’s all part of a full menu of tasty automotive items we offer up to newspapers and other media sites around the Web.  The menu:

1. All-new headline widget.  Example above — almost as good as the sushi we keep getting here in downtown Palo Alto. Get your auto news widget here now.

2. Unique on the Web “Meta Reviews” and Feature content.   We currently syndicate these to a variety of sources, including:  Yahoo! Autos, Fox News, NASCAR.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (we said they were friends) and more.  Our Meta Reviews blend editorial expertise from our staff of automotive gurus that have over 50 years of combined auto journalism experience with a snapshot of what the rest of the Web is saying about any one car.  You can read more about how we create our unique reviews here.

3.  If you’re still hungry — we can also create an entire automotive site for you.  We’ve done that for folks like NASCAR and NBC with more on the way.  This is made possible by our technology platform we like to refer to simply as “the magic platform.”  (Rumors that our platform also makes sushi are unfortunately unfounded.)

Congrats to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on their shiny new widget.  And, if you or anyone you know should be talking to us about getting your hands on any of the above, contact us.  We may throw in a sushi dinner.

Here’s the deal: write an article about cars using our open blogging platform between now and midnight PST on Friday, February 5th and earn a chance to win the following:

- Top Gear Seasons 11 & 12 on DVD
- 2010 Top Gear Calendar
- Top Gear mug
- $15 iTunes gift certificate (to buy Season 13 episode downloads!)

If you’re passionate about cars and have opinions, we want to hear from you. Here’s what you do next:

- You submit articles using our open blogging platform that publishes to our 75+ automotive sites between now and February 5th at midnight PST.
- On February 8th, our team will randomly select a published entry as the winner. Simply get your article published and have a chance to win. The more articles you publish between now and 2/5, the more chances you earn to win.
- We ship you the prize winnings, and you camp out in your den to celebrate whilst binging out on Top Gear season box sets.

What kind of articles are we looking for? Here are some tips:

- Write a review of a car you own or an article about how you decided what car to buy
- Give us your take on a new or coming model.
- Compare two cars and give pros and cons
- Write a “How to” or “Tip” article that relates to cars. Example: “How to Find the Best Truck”
- Create Lists. Example: “The Five Best Cars for Families”

All article submissions will be moderated for overall quality as we normally do. When an article is published, you’ll get an email telling you what site it has been published to.

For more tips on what to write about, check out this blog post from our recent Win a Chance to Drive a Tesla Writing Contest.

Here’s the trailer for Top Gear, Season 13:

If you’re a car fan and a latecomer to Top Gear, here’s what it’s about:

“Top Gear” takes extraordinary and ordinary cars to the limit and beyond to find out if they’re half as good as manufacturers claim. Full of extreme stunts, challenges, celebrity appearances and weekly features, “Top Gear” is far more than a car show; you’ll find no boring stats or impenetrable conversations about camshafts here. It’s the sharp wit of hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May that make it more than just a motor show.

Season 13 of Top Gear premieres on BBC AMERICA Monday, January 25th at 8/7C. All episodes will be available for iTunes download on Tuesdays, day after broadcast.

And here’s a preview of the coming season:

The world’s biggest car show is back for a 13th series. Hot on the heels of their epic challenge in Vietnam, which saw Jeremy, Richard and James travel the entire length of the country in just eight days, the boys are no less ambitious.. Richard goes to Abu Dhabi to test the new Lambo Murcielago LP640-4 SV; the boys buy three £1,500 rear-drive sports cars and somehow find themselves entered in a terrifying French ice race; film star Sienna Miller, King of Twitter Stephen Fry and chat show host Jay Leno are among the stars taking part in ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ and in a television-first, the mysterious Stig takes off his helmet to reveal just who he really is…

Also for some fun, check out this interactive map showing all the places in America where Top Gear has done cool stunts in past seasons.

So get going now!