Name of your website?Crime-Safety-Security for Women & Children
Your name?
Michael Edward Loftus, Sr.
Your Location (city, etc)
Sterling Heights
Please give us a short summary of your website.
All Crime-Safety-Security know-how is here to help keep you and yours out of harm's way. My main goal is to blow away the naïveté of the prey by showing hundreds of real-life examples of how innocent victims had clung to illusions that soften the world. Time and again, crime survivors tell me how they'd never thought it would happen to them in their "safe" little world.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
After preparing a book manuscript for 17 years (averaging 70 hours per week), I learned that 3 of 4 books never sell out their 1st printing of 10,000 copies - a brief run buried in the back of stores, then goodbye. But a web site reaches the entire world and can be updated instantly. I give it all away for free and charge fees for lectures (contact info coming soon). Books are dinosaurs - the Internet is the future.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
OutofHarmsWay.org in 1998. I let it die a lonely death. It was really just a little brochure touting my lectures - far easier than snail-mailing. My naïveté was fully exposed. It was done on a shoestring budget - and looked it.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I spent months researching the most in-demand keywords for my subject matter, and then put those up front. That makes it easier for the search engines to find me.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
If you'll forgive my immodesty, my breadth and depth is far, far greater than any other - reflecting my 17 years of obsessive research and constant polishing of my writing. Plus, the feedback from thousands of women in my lecture audiences taught me their hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, my childhood as a victim of domestic abuse and adolescence as a criminal gives me many insights other authors and sites lack.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
This IS my life - and always will be.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far, it's been all work and no play - and not much pay. But I can think of worse ways to spend one's life. I work on the assumption (or blind faith) that the very highest quality and integrity I can muster will eventually be recognized by people searching for exactly that. I count on people seeing past the endless hype on the Internet and realizing that I care - and know - how to help them protect themselves.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
My site would stay the same, but I'd hire experts to get me more exposure, thus more visitors. Even though I've just begun the 7th stage of a 10-stage site building process, I get visitors from all over the world - that gives me a kick. I'd like to travel all over the world for lectures (I track crime in 54 countries), and mix in sightseeing in interesting places.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Well, that'd be a welcome dilemma. I'd have to get more help and consult with experts to make my best moves.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Learning computers, the ways of the Internet, and HTML code. I had no clue in the beginning what a long, hard road it would be - and I'm still far from my destination.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Yikes! Where to begin? There's such a long list. I guess the biggest challenge has been not to get exasperated as each new challenge comes along.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I don't know - yet. I'm now trying to get more in-pointing links - considered by experts to be the Holy Grail of promotion.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I'm still building it, but so far running it has been a mad scramble to integrate a cohesion among pages - and avoiding broken links.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I began designing it August 17, 2006, and launched it on December 17, 2006. I'll be building it forever. It's too late to turn back now. This is IT! There is no Plan B.
What is your next step?
I have 118 pages so far (I have around 115,000 words – the average book is roughly 80,000). In the near future, I'll add another 15 or 20 (contact page, bio, bibliography, and so on), and also launch a free bi-weekly newsletter.
What is your website address?
Crime-Safety-Security for Women & Children
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