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   A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from The Crime Prevention Website

Friday 18 December 2014

Dear Friend in Crime Prevention

Thank you for taking Newsletter Number 14 from the The Crime Prevention Website

Unusually for me this is a very short newsletter just to finish off the year and to say thank you for supporting us during these past 12 months.


 

   The Crime Prevention Website – how are we doing?

Visitor numbers

As expected our visitor numbers are down to around 7,000 a week at the moment, simply because people have other things on their minds other than their home security! (How dare they)  Each January they start to recover again as people begin thinking about the new garden fence and perhaps getting that alarm they’ve been thinking about.  Whether we hit new records next year I don’t know, but of course the more visitors we get the more we know that this crime prevention website is hitting the parts that other websites cannot reach – and that’s good.

Page ranking

We’re holding our own in terms of page ranking (Lots of number ones and page ones) and some of the new pages published this year have started to appear in Google searches.

New Links to the Crime Prevention Website

There’ve been a number of new websites linking to us during November and December and I’ll publish those details in the next Newsletter at the end of January.  Between you and me I’m waiting for news about links from two more police forces, but their decisions tend to take a very long time. 

Don’t forget that if you run a website and take this newsletter PLEASE think about linking your website to ours and we’ll link back.  Please remember that our site scores quite well in terms of something Google calls ‘authority’ and we’re also well ranked.  This means that your website could even benefit more from a reciprocal link than ours! It’s easy to link; just click here - http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/about/688/link-to-us/


 

   New Members of the Security Products and Services Directory

It’s been really helpful having a few companies listed in our Directory, because the presence of these highly rated firms and people adds a great deal to our credibility as an information site.  We hope to expand this area in the new year.

If you’re interested in advertising with us do please contact us at this link or if you know someone who might be interested please forward them this link and we'll get in touch

Current Directory list


 

   Website Updates  

Amendments and additions to the website's advice pages continue as normal and I've added several more links to documents and useful websites in the Library.

The following new pages have been added to the website:

Christmas Shopping tips

Under the Personal Security tab I’ve added Christmas Shopping tips, which can be used all year round when you’re planning a big shop in a busy place.  Feel free to republish the list on your Neighbourhood Watch sites, but don’t forget to credit The Crime Prevention Website with a link back to us – thanks. 

Commercial Premises and Security

If you click on the ‘Other Crime Prevention’ tab you’ll now see the beginnings of a whole new section for commercial security.  So far I’ve written a sub-section for boundary fences, walls and gates, but I hope to have the new section completed by the end of March.  I get a lot of enquiries from business people about commercial security matters and so thought this might be a useful thing to do.  If you have expertise in this area and reckon I’ve got something wrong or have missed something please don’t hesitate in contacting me so I can put it right.

Problem solving on the Crime Prevention Website

In Problem Solving, which you’ll find in the left-hand navigation column on the Home Page, you’ll already know that I recently published Neil Henson’s latest contribution entitled 'Negotiating the changes'. The new year will see the final three chapters published giving us his complete guide.  It’s been really kind of Neil to let us have the edited version of his problem solving guide and I hope that you police, PCSOs and Neighbourhood Watchers out there will make use of it.

Sign the e-petition to prevent theft of car number plates

Eric Tindall, the Chairman of Leicestershire Neighbourhood Watch, has recently put up an e-petition onto directgov.uk to gain support for a measure that will help prevent a huge number of vehicle crimes

This is what he says:

“Over 40,000 number plates are stolen from vehicle's each year costing over £15 million, but to fit security screws costs just 60p per vehicle.  

“Fitting security screws to car number plates at the point of sale, or when the vehicle is undergoing its MOT check, takes just a couple of minutes preventing YOU the POLICE and others wasting time effort and money - SIMPLES!!!

 “INDIA have done it already, so why can't we?”

We at The Crime Prevention Website totally support what Eric is saying and we would urge you to visit http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/68647 and sign the e-petition

Could you please also tweet about it and, if you are running a Neighbourhood Watch, please let your members know about this very important project.

Also, could my police followers spread the word to their colleagues and the public.

I’ll be tweeting about it regularly until the end of March 2015, when the e-petition ends, and we need you to help get it up to 100,000 signatures!

Adverts on the Crime Prevention Website

Two months ago we introduced Google AdSense onto our site to help generate a little income to pay for its upkeep.  Well, it’s doing okay and we’ll be keeping it going for the forseable future


 

   The Home Security Survey – the results

Those of you who pay regular visits to the site will know that we’re running another free prize draw competition with our friends at Switched on Products.  One way of entering the draw is to conduct the Home Security Survey and I’ve no doubt it has contributed to the extra 250 or so new surveys conducted sine we last wrote to you on 17 November.  I do realise that many people are only doing them so they can win a light switch timer, so I can only hope that by doing it and answering the questions honestly they’ll see that things will need to be done.

We would very much like you to take part in our prize draw and in fact you’re already in it because you take this newsletter, but what would make us very hapy is a bit of promotion.  You can find all the details on our competition page.

I had a quick peek at the league table today and here’s a list of the top ten counties appearing in the results. There’s been a lot of changes since the last top ten in November.

The Top 10 Counties in the UK for taking the survey this period are:

  1. London
  2. Lancashire
  3. Kent
  4. Hampshire
  5. Buckinghamshire
  6. Berkshire
  7. Essex
  8. West Midlands
  9. Surrey
  10. North Yorkshire

 

 Crime in the news

Here follows my most read news items during this period. Please feel free to copy and paste our news items into your newsletters as you see fit, but do show the origin of the story, which may be someone or something other than the Crime Prevention Website.

Most read news items this period (In order)

  1. Sign the e-petition to prevent theft of car number plates
  2. Lancashire Constabulary to link with the Crime Prevention Website
  3. Steep Rise in Telephone Scams
  4. Here are 12 things that will happen to someone this Festive Season
  5. Catalytic Converters and Lorry Batteries at risk in Hertfordshire
  6. New link with Gosport Neighbourhood Watch in place
  7. Win a Light Switch Timer
  8. Do Not be a Dead Drunk Pedestrian this Christmas
  9. Norfolk PACT helping the vulnerable victim
  10. Melton Mowbray Communities Against Crime links to TCPW 

Website pages most viewed via Twitter (In order)

Earlier, darker nights and Halloween certainly influenced my twitter followers these past few weeks, but interestingly the dark nights are also causing people to visit the Directory in search of personal attack alarms 

  1. Security Lighting
  2. Trick or Treat is not fun for everyone (News)
  3. Nuisance Telephone Calls
  4. Security for garden outbuildings
  5. Garden boundaries, fences and defensive plants
  6. Personal attack alarms (Directory)
  7. Home Security Survey - DIY
  8. Christmas Shopping tips
  9. Subscribe to our mailing list
  10. Competition Page

Website pages most landed on this period (In order)

A landing page is the page someone first arrives at when they click on a search result. The visitor may then go on to visit further pages. You can see from the list that this website is found across a wide variety of search enquiries. It’s interesting to see that the news page promoting the signing of the car number plate e-petition has entered the table this month. Also, my regular tweeting about using multi-point locks correctly has moved this page into the top ten.  Just shows how tweeting actually works! 

  1. Burglar Alarms Advice
  2. Anti-climb measures for fences and walls
  3. The UK law concerning fences, walls and gates
  4. Defensive plants, shrubs and trees (shrub fences)
  5. Security for the garage
  6. Sign the e-petition to prevent theft of car number plates
  7. Glazing for domestic security
  8. More things to improve door security
  9. Security shutters, grilles and door gates
  10. Multi-point locks 

And finally...

I came across this little whimsical by Australian writer Graeme King. I think it’s rather fitting for a crime prevention website at this time of year...

A chimney was locked with a chain
and Santa was wracking his brain
"The crime rate down here
gets worse every year
I don't think I'll bother again!"

That’s it – I said it would be short, but the full Newsletter will be back in the new year.

Have a Wonderful Christmas and a Very Happy New Year and Thank You for your continued support.

Calvin and Ben