Stolen Motorcycle Registry

ReycleBill

ReycleBill

Part Time Tyrannicide
XS650.com Supporter
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Location
Greensboro, North Carolina
Ever had your motorcycle stolen?

Ever bought a motorcycle in good faith only to find out the hard way that you bought a stolen motorcycle?

My partner in http://stolenmotorcycle.net/ was a victim of motorcycle theft. He never got his bike back. I once lost a bundle when I paid a guy for a bike with a "lost title" when in-fact the bike was stolen. I returned the bike to its rightful owner but every time the thief gets out of prison he ends up going back before I get my court ordered restitution.

And to add insult to injury: bikes are cleared from most insurance industry data bases in 5 years or less even if they're never found.

So we looked at what's out there and built something better in the hopes that some of you don't have to go through what we went through. And we're giving it away for free in the hope that advertising revenue and personal donations will foot the bills. In the meantime we're footing the bills out of our pockets and the pockets of the businesses we own.

The site is brand new and nothing is listed until the rightful owners of stolen motorcycles list their bikes but when we collect enough info on stolen motorcycles then http://stolenmotorcycle.net/ will become a great tool to use in the recovery of stolen motorcycles.

Listings are free, remain online until the rightful owners ask they be removed. Searches are free and require no registration. The only data we collect is the data necessary to list stolen motorcycles and aid in their recovery. If your bike was stolen and you never got it back then feel free to list with us.

Lastly, depending on where you are and how soon you read this message, you might see a parked domain page instead of the site you're looking for. If so, you can always view the site here: http://recyclebills.squarespace.com/stolen-motorcycles/

There will probably be a few bugs but if you report them to me I'll get them fixed.

Thank you for being our beta testers and thank you for helping us recover stolen motorcycles and return them to their rightful owners. Questions?
 
I think this is a great idea but if you really want to have this thing take off, remove all the ads and references to your other websites at the top and create a big StolenMotorcycles.net logo. Right now, it looks like a big advertisement and not a serious website :twocents:
 
Travis,
You make some good points. We're on a tight budget so we added the site to an existing site to help control costs. If and when StolenMotorcycle.net can afford its own bills then we'll make it a stand alone site.

As to advertising: I can't help but notice that http://www.xs650.com/ also has what appears to be paid advertising along with an e-bay affiliate search box-- do you also object to that advertising or just our advertising?

As to how serious our efforts are: My partner still wants his stolen H-D panhead back and I still want the A**Hole who sold me a stolen bike to pay me what he owes me-- does it get any more serious than that?

We believe it will become a great free tool if and when people start using it but until then it's simply another website.

Thank you for your imput. -Billy
 
Billy, advertising is key, but you have to time it right in my opinion... I didn't put any advertising on this site until it had about 250,000 page views per month. If I remember correctly, that took about 10 months. So my point is (and was), keep it clean and simple and that will help get the site off the ground. Then once it's successful, you can put a few ads up to help slowly recover the costs. If the site is good, people won't mind a few ads to help pay the bills. FYI, I'm still in the hole with this site! :laugh:

I realize you guys are serious about the site, I was just saying that the website doesn't look serious because of all the distractions. Not trying to be a dick about that either. I just truly believe that you have a better chance of being successful with the site if you keep it simple and clean until it is established.

Also a nice logo to help people remember the site. And for now get the VIN of your buddy's stolen ride into the system so people see how it will work. Just trying to help so I hope you don't take any of this the wrong way. I do like the idea.
 
I just did a google search for Stolen Motorcycle Registry and a few established sites came up. I think you guys need find a couple of reasons why your registry is (or is going to be) the best and promote those.
 
Travis,
Thanks, I'll keep your advice in mind.

After I posted I realized that my comments might look like I was fighting-- all is well, I appreciate your input.

As for being in the hole-- I used to earn a living online but since 2008 my various online projects have all turned into money pits, every one but the house is paid off and the scrap yard I manage takes very good care of me so I give away 100% of the royalties from the books I have in print and keep trying to dream up new ways to make the world better. They don't always work but I keep trying.

Thanks!
 
Travis said:
I just did a google search for Stolen Motorcycle Registry and a few established sites came up. You guys need find a couple of reasons why your registry is (or is going to be) the best and promote those.
Click to expand...


The first problem with most I've found is that they require those who search to register before they can search-- the only information we collect is what is necessary to list a stolen motorcycle and verify a claim. I see no need to ask searchers to register unless the site is in the business of mining information-- we're not. Fact is: We believe there is simply too much information being bought and sold and don't want to become that type of business.

Other sites rely on insurance companies to add to their data base but not all insurance companies participate. And the uninsured motorcycle that gets stolen will never be listed on an insurance based site.

At my business we get police reports from several area cities but because those reports are usually 3 months old it's usually too late before we get the report.

No tool is 100% and neither is ours but our idea is to build a faster tool that can be used by citizens and police departments. There's nothing on our site that would stop any police officer from adding his or her cases to our listings in the hopes that some motorcyclist somewhere might decide to drop a dime on a thief.

We also allow owners to post an award if they wish.
 
Bill...

Directnic.com is a web name seller and hosting company. They charge $15/year to maintain the website name (.com/.net). Directnic.com offers "Bannerless Hosting" for an additional $15/year in case you wanted to build a website and let them host it.

I have several website names "parked" at directnic.com plus one active website that I use in my business. I use the bannerless hosting for the addtl $15. You can upgrade to their premium hosting for $3.95/month. They also have free hosting...but then you have to put up with "banners" that directnic feeds into your site (not too cool).

But, for $30 a year, you can have a website you can easily upload to, make changes, etc.

They've been around for quite awhile, and I like them. But, I'm sure you could find website hosting for cheap when you eventually cut over to a dedicated site.
 
How Are We Better? Let me count the ways.
I was thinking about what Travis wrote,"I just did a google search for Stolen Motorcycle Registry and a few established sites came up. I think you guys need find a couple of reasons why your registry is (or is going to be) the best and promote those."

And so I decided to do some comparisons.

1. No registration required to search. That means we CAN'T spam you just because you wanted to search.
2. For those who wish to subscribe, we have an RSS feed that will alert you every time a motorcycle is reported stolen. No one else does this.
3. Unlike Insurance company listings which usually last 5 years or less, our listings stay online until the rightful owner, police or DMV asks us to pull it down.
4. Want to keep up with the numbers? Our system will make available how many of each brand has been listed stolen.
5. Unlike stolen bike registries that use insurance company data, you can list your bike as stolen even if it wasn't tagged and insured. How many owners of CS650 Yamahas have their bikes insured against theft.
6. You can e-mail your search results and your stolen bike reports to anyone who can figure out how to click on a url. For example.
7. We recommend you use every stolen motorcycle registry you can find. We even link to other stolen bike registrys at the bottom of our homepage.
8. Some sites limit you to 5 searches per day. We have no limit at StolenMotorcycle.net
9. Some of those other sites are run by people who could care less about motorcycles. My partners and I have been bikers since the early 70s and know exactly what your bikes mean to you. We've also been victims so we know how it feels.
10. We will NEVER charge for our online services.
11. Because we don't collect data, we won't sell your data. We only collect enough information to help you get your bike back and as the following link shows, we only share as much as is necessary to return your motorcycle to you. http://recyclebills.squarespace.com/stolen-motorcycles/1a81768h4.html
12. We don't care if your motorcycle was stolen today, yesterday, last year, 5 years ago or 100 years ago, if you're still the rightful owner we will list your bike provided you reported your stolen motorcycle to the police.
13. Yes, we do plan to open a "Stolen Motorcycle Store" in the future with plans to sell t-shirts and stickers and stuff bearing our logo when we finalize the design for our logo. But we will sell our stolen motorcycle products as cheaply as possible.
14. If you can design and sell your own stolen motorcycle products we'll be more than happy to allow you to do so and we won't charge you a dime-- not even a cent. All we expect is that your stolen motorcycle products bear our domain name, StolenMotorcycle.net . If you use our domain name we'll even add your link to our store page to help you sell more. Just let us know.
15. Unlike sites that depend on police or insurance companies to list your bike in 30, 60, 90 or more days, we'll list your bike as soon as we possibly can. Any if we ever make enough money to hire staff then we'll guarantee same day. (You see, at the recycling center where I work I get notified by police and insurance companies as to the stolen vehicles in my area but the lists are usually 3 months old.)
Thank you Travis. Now if it's okay I'm off to create a page of links to motorcycle forums to add to our website. And yes, XS650.com will be on the list near the top of the page.
 
More Reasons We're The Best!

We can add pictures of your stolen motorcycle. After you report your bike to us we will send you an e-mail to verify your listing. When you get that e-mail you can reply back with pictures to be added to your listing. Who else does that? Probably some but not most.

Police officers can also use our data base and are not limited to 5 searches per day.

Also, searches can be done by make, model, year, state, name of police department, police report #, date stolen etc, etc, etc...

Our data base is world-wide-- try that with any insurance data base.

Anonomouse tipsters can leave tips on each and every listing. Warning: Just in case you think it's cool to leave fake tips, a police internet expert who is a friend of mine (We grew up together and he was a motorcycle cop before he made detective.) promises he can and will track you down with a vengeance as the site has all the goodies to make it easy for him to do.

And finally, until I can add more features that make StolenMotorcycle.net the best stolen motorcycle registry in the world, the data we make public is sent out to thousands of websites, search engines, news feeds and other RSS equipped technologies around the world which increases the odds that someone will stumble upon your stolen motorcycle.

And Travis, I've now got a graphics person working on logos and a banner to top the pages.

Thanks again. -Billy
 
Travis said:
Billy, advertising is key, but you have to time it right in my opinion...
Click to expand...

I always wonder if or how sites make money at all. For example I can't see how Facebook could be doing anything except losing money like water down a pipe. And a few years ago when Google bought some site I don't even know the name of now for some crazy (to me) sum I was floored. I know nuts and bolts web programming including things like php and javascript and I'd turn it loose if I thought there was anything to be made in it. Yet there must be.... I think the big time sites must really be some kind of financial game that I don't know the workings of rather than something turning or planning to turn a profit for service, etc. I mean really - how many "clicks" worth pennies or fractions thereof would it take to pay a building full of employees for a year? On the other hand, the way my hosts file is fixed, there might be a lot more ads than the few I see :)

Ebay on the other hand, is collecting a percentage of members' sales and so on. That's a model that makes sense to me. As does online ordering and various other web interfaces to a regular business.
 
xjwmx said:
I always wonder if or how sites make money at all. For example I can't see how Facebook could be doing anything except losing money like water down a pipe. And a few years ago when Google bought some site I don't even know the name of now for some crazy (to me) sum I was floored. I know nuts and bolts web programming including things like php and javascript and I'd turn it loose if I thought there was anything to be made in it. Yet there must be.... I think the big time sites must really be some kind of financial game that I don't know the workings of rather than something turning or planning to turn a profit for service, etc. I mean really - how many "clicks" worth pennies or fractions thereof would it take to pay a building full of employees for a year? On the other hand, the way my hosts file is fixed, there might be a lot more ads than the few I see :)

Ebay on the other hand, is collecting a percentage of members' sales and so on. That's a model that makes sense to me. As does online ordering and various other web interfaces to a regular business.
Click to expand...

Data mining is the #1 moneymaker on the web. Facebook and Twitter are in the data mining business. Facebook got their venture capital from a CIA shell company and Twitter is encouraged (paid?) by the CIA to collect and relay certain forms of data. Google sells ads and data. Amazon sells products and data. Ebay and PayPal sell data. Data can be anything from personal information to e-mail addresses to customer buying habits. As a matter of fact, Google is so good at it that if you go to google.com and search for say, motorcycles, then go to my site, BloggingPoet.com, you are very likely to see a motorcycle ad in the Google Adwords advertising in the left column even if there is no mention of motorcycles on the page.


Data is more valuable to multinational corporations and governments than gold.

For example: Here's data on a site we both use. And that's only the tip of the Databurg.
 
I'd heard that before about Google. My thought was if it didn't start out with those kinds of ties, you can be sure it has them by now :) So either way...


How much can you make with Google adsense or whatever it's called? A couple years ago I read it's a good thing to pursue in the THird World, where money goes a lot farther, and is harder to come by.
 
If you change StolenMotorcycle.net in your signature to an actual link, it will help with your google rankings (help make your site show up higher in search results). I doubt Travis would mind, since you aren't here to spam links to the site.
 
xjwmx said:
If you change StolenMotorcycle.net in your signature to an actual link, it will help with your google rankings (help make your site show up higher in search results). I doubt Travis would mind, since you aren't here to spam links to the site.
Click to expand...

I tried that before but couldn't seem to make the link hot... someday... Anyway, thanks for the advice, it's always welcome.
 
Just in case anyone noticed (and not many did) StolenMotorcycle.net was down for a few days while we moved it to a free Blogger template. Anyway, if your motorcycle ever gets stolen or if your motorcycle has ever been stolen we'll do what we can to help you get it back.

Look above in this thread to see how we're the best stolen motorcycle registry in the world.
 

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