Launched: How to Make a Halloween Chandelier

Halloween chandelier at night.

Well, it finally happened… 5 years after being tossed overboard from Squidoo and landing on HubPages, I built my first hub. Not just any old hub, it’s a Halloween how-to hub! Now you can discover how to turn an old light fixture into a Halloween chandelier.

This was inspired by a fun project that I did to give our old dining room chandelier new life as a cool prop for my Halloween graveyard. Fortunately, I thought ahead about publishing this and took pictures throughout the process. It covers all you’ll need to know including where to find an old light fixture, tips for painting and where to get the right flicker bulbs.

I hope you enjoy it and please let me know how your Halloween chandelier turned out!

Launched: Tackle Fantasy Football

The latest group of lenses/hubs I’ve moved off of HubPages are my prized fantasy football lenses. These now have a home on my new blog, Tackle Fantasy Football.

This is the second step in my strategy to move lenses to their own sites. It’s also the biggest move affecting eight of my fantasy football related lenses. That’s nearly 8% of my active lenses when Squidoo ran aground and includes my only “Lens of the Day” winner. In addition to the old stuff, I’ve also written several new articles for the blog.

The main reason for moving this content off of HP was freedom. Freedom to write and format as I want; link to other sites and products that I want to; and not be concerned that a minor update will result in the content being unfeatured by HP. No concerns about an unexpected sale or shuttering of the site, either.

There are a few other lenses such as Fantasy Team Name Ideas that apply to most fantasy sports and a couple football ones that will remain as hubs for now. My hubs about other fantasy sports will also stay as hubs.

This project took longer than planned. I way underestimated the time involved to convert each hub into a blog post. Plus the time spent on logistical and technical issues with managing my own site.

The effort is worth it because my content is now fully under my control and the old lenses provide a solid foundation to expand and grow in the future. So please check out the new site when you’re looking for some good fantasy football advice!

Image Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District, used under Creative Commons.

Charting A New Course

It’s been three years since Squidoo ran aground and our lenses were transferred to HubPages. While I don’t miss the frequent rearranging of deck chairs that SquidHQ required of lensmasters in its last two years, I do miss the revenue and freedom to publish curated lists.

My annual earnings on HubPages have been less than what my typical monthly earnings were on Squidoo, even in its final months. This is mainly because my hubs don’t get anywhere near the amount of traffic they did as lenses and HubPages tightly limits the number of Amazon and other affiliate links.

To make matters worse, you never know when editing a hub will cause that hub to become unfeatured (meaning it won’t be crawled by search engines or featured on other hubs). That’s because editing a hub sends it through the arbitrary quality assurance process where it may get dinged because of a new interpretation of what makes a quality hub, even if it’s been featured for over three years with no issues. This can effectively discourage authors from maintaining their hubs by fixing broken links, adding content, etc…the opposite of what HP staff should want.

So I’m finally doing what a lot of other former lensmasters had been recommending, moving some of my content to my own sites. Not all, only those pages which don’t fit HubPages’ rules, particularly on number of Amazon links, or content that can justify and support being on its own site. Particularly content that I want freedom to format and update how I want without wondering if an edit will cause it to lose featured status.

My first launch of redeployed lenses is the Lost Books List featuring much of the content from my lenses on the TV show Lost. Being a book list, the pages had more shopping links than HP permits and had been unfeatured for a while. I’m a fan of the show that enjoyed watching for new books and researching them for the list so I wanted this to have a new home.

Many of my other hubs will remain on HP. The hubs that are on HP’s niche sites generally do a little better than those on the main site. I may even add new ones there since HP is still a platform to publish stand alone articles on a topic and I tend to get writing ideas on a variety of subjects.

I’m moving another group of lenses/hubs to a new site of my own that I expect to announce soon. And I have a few ideas for other moves.

Unfortunately, several of my hubs will be left to rot in unfeatured or unpublished status. They don’t fit HP’s model and aren’t worth the effort of moving to a stand alone single topic site.

My new course is set and the journey continues…

Lens Launch (Squidiversary Edition): LOST Gifts and Gun Stickers

7 year trophyToday is my 7th Squidiversary on Squidoo! Here’s a shot of my new 7 year trophy.  It looks suspiciously like the 6 year trophy. Maybe HQ figures that any lensmaster this old is color blind by now.

Two new lenses launched in celebration of this milestone.

The first is Gifts for LOST Fans. Yes, the tide of interest in the TV show LOST went out a long time ago. This had been on my lens idea list since before the show ended. It was now or never time to build and I wanted it to complement my books seen on LOST lens.

The second new lens shot from idea to creation in a few days. It’s for people looking to buy gun window decals and stickers. I see lots of bumper stickers on my daily commute and the gun themed ones are usually funny.

Lens Launch: Five Guys Burgers & Fries

Pregnant at Five GuysDo you love eating at Five Guys? I do.

And now there’s a lens where fellow fans can vote for their favorite things about Five Guys. You’ll find a description and poll for each thing that makes Five Guys deliciously unique. There are also mouth watering photos to get your belly growling.

This lens took months to build. Partly because the Flickr fiasco hit soon after I started, but mostly because when I started working on it, I’d get a sudden craving for a bacon cheeseburger and order of fries.

Image credit: brownpau, used under Creative Commons

Lens Launch: Signs and Symptoms of a Stroke (My 100th Squidoo Lens)

One hundred lenses. Finally. It took a long time to reach this milestone, nearly seven years. Although it’s a symbolic one, I wanted to mark it with a lens that meant something.

Both my grandmothers died as a result of stroke. Both my grandmothers-in-law have suffered a stroke and are dealing with its debilitating effects on them.

The damage caused by a stroke can be reduced if it’s caught early. Everyone should learn how to recognize a stroke. That’s why my 100th lens is on the warning signs of a stroke.

Yes, there are already lots of websites and publications with this information. No, it won’t rake in big earnings. That’s not its purpose. Hopefully, someone somewhere will read it and be prepared to recognize when someone near them is suffering a stroke and get them the care they need in time to make a difference.

This is the most personal lens I’ve written. It’s dedicated to my wonderful grandmothers and grandmothers-in-law.

Time to go work on lens #101…

Lens Launch: Anti Stick Figure Family Stickers

We Ate Your Stick FamilyWhile driving home recently, I spotted a stick figure family sticker on the car in front of me. Only this was different. The stick figures were running.

At the next stop light I realized they were being chased by another stick figure in a hockey mask wielding a chainsaw! Underneath were the words, “Nobody Cares About Your Stick Figure Family”.

I laughed. It was the comic relief I needed driving home from a long day at work. A few days later I saw a zombie version like the one pictured.

Stick family stickers were kinda cool when they first came out but now it seems that every other car has one. These “nobody cares” anti-stick family stickers are a funny way to tell the world that the stick figure family trend has reached its peak.

What lens ideas have you gotten while sitting in traffic?

Image credit: darinrmcclure, used under Creative Commons.

Lens Launch: Fantasy Baseball T-Shirts

Buy at Art.comOpening day of baseball season is just over a month away. That means fantasy baseball players have started joining leagues and preparing for their drafts. A fun way to impress your league-mates is with a fantasy baseball t-shirt.

I searched through lots of different baseball shirts. This lens features the best and funniest that I found, including some shirts and onesies for the kids so they can share the fun with their parents. These t-shirts also make a cool gift for your favorite fantasy baseball player.

Image: “Mickey Mantle, 1956”, available at Art.com

Lens Launch: Jet Age Review and Fantasy Football Trophies

Two new lenses launched from the harbor in time to catch the last tide of 2011.

Buy at Art.comThe first is a book review of Jet Age: The Comet, the 707 and the Race to Shrink the World. The book covers the true story of the race to start flying jet powered airliners after World War II. It’s a great overview of the history of commercial aviation up to the early part of the Jet Age.

For readers who want to learn more, the lens includes some cool old videos I found featuring the Comet and 707, the two main aircraft in the book.

This season I won my second fantasy football championship! Unfortunately, that league doesn’t give its winner a trophy. For fantasy leagues that do, I put together a selection of fantasy football trophies. There are even some funny gag trophies for the losingest team.

These two bring my total to 96 featured lenses. I’m slowly getting to 100.

Have a happy New Year!

Lens Launch: Graveyard Ghoul Costumes

BOO!

Did I scare you? Probably not.

Grave Ghoul Adult CostumeBut if I was haunting a graveyard on Halloween in a graveyard ghoul costume like this one, you’d be scared.

There are lots of costume lenses on Squidoo so it helps to put your own spin on a genre. Otherwise your lens gets lost in the crowd.

I chose graveyard ghouls because it complements my existing Halloween graveyard decoration lenses.