Blatant Commerical Posting

A number of Forum members have been helpful to me in developing a product which I hope will be useful to those who love to visit lighthouses. These individuals have provided suggestions and feedback on this new product.

You can take a peek now at the new product:

Lighthouse Journal featuring Lighthouse Stickers

www.LighthouseStickers.com

I'll have 50 of the 25 page Lighthouse Journals at the San Diego Regional -- with the Desert Lightkeepers receiving a portion of the proceeds from sale of these 'first editions.'

Those who will not be at the Regional will be able to order Journals starting August 1 at the new web site. Lighthouse Stickers will be available to order starting not later than August 31. At that time, I'll have stickers for at least 200 of the best-known and best-loved American Lighthouses.

By the end of October, I'll have stickers for all 674 American Lighthouses that still are standing.

Some Collector Forum members are receiving compensation through the use of their photographs, others will soon be asked. You can see which photographers are participating at the web site.

It may appear (as of now) that I will be a major contributor of photographs. This is not going to be the case. It just appears that way early on because I am using my own photos to create test images. I doubt that more than a dozen of my photos will be among the over 600 images to be used.

Among the participating photographers who are NOT members of these forums are Bruce Roberts and Sandra and Bob Shanklin.

Bruce is well-known as the photographic have of the duo who wrote the series of Lighthouse Guides published by Globe-Pequot Press.

Bob and Sandra Shanklin are "The Lighthouse People" who have been to and photographed every US lighthouse -- including many I've never even heard of!

You comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

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I'll be leaving for San Diego Thursday morning and won't be able to check email -- or probably read these Forums until I return late on Monday.

How great is this? I currently journal most of my trips to lighthouses in a little spiral bound book with a lighthouse on the cover. If I don't write up my trips in there it is because I post the entire write up on these forums and/or the Lighthousing.net forums. Then I just print out a copy for my files.

I really like the sticker idea and perhaps organizing my trips by regions and states. I'm thinking that organizing like that for me might be a little difficult with a bound journal versus a journal with removeable pages as I don't visit all of the lighthouses in a region or state on any one trip. And with big handwriting it would be hard for me to tell how much space I should leave between the sections. I'll have to think about how I would do this.

Fantastic!

What a great idea...can't wait until I can get mine!

I can even see using this with my grandson!

Judy

Shirin...

With the Lighthouse Journal, you could use one SHEET (front and back) to record your visit to a particular lighthouse, use a sticker, collect the USLHS rubber stamp, perhaps add a small photo of the lighthouse that you took, and write some notes on your impressions, date, time, weather, etc.

At some future time, you can 'unwind' the coil binding, rearrange the pages based on region, state, etc. and have them rebound in a different order or even into different books that collect the sheets into geographic regions.

There will be stickers that name 'regions' such as 'Outer Banks' or 'Long Island' or 'Cape Cod' as well as stickers for each state so you could even cover over 'American Lighthouses' image with one of these regional stickers.

Most any Kinkos and many other quick-printers can do coil binding. The charge would probably be about $2-$4 to add a new coil to a book.

However, there are different size holes and slightly different positionning of the drilled holes for the coils, depending on the size of the coil. Bigger diameter coiles are slightly 'fatter' in size.

Your comment leads me to think I'll need to offer separately sets of front and back covers, punched, but without insert pages. Or perhaps with a 'Table of Contents' page so people can do just this reorganization after the fact.

Judy...

Having a separate journal for your grandson would be a nice memento of his lighthouse visits with 'gramma'. You could use the Lighthouse stickers, let him create a picture of the lighthouse in whatever artform he is into at each age, scan and reprint that in a size that fits in 'his' journal.

He might appreciate you 'taking dicatation' writing his thoughts and impressions to encourage his journaling. That is until he can 'write on the lines'...

Perhaps I need to think about a special 'Kids Edition Journal'. How would that differ from the one you see at the web site? A question for parents and grandparents of younger children.

Even better! I can see this as something that could fill up fast. Adding expandable features is an excellent idea.

Question? Will sales of these after the Regional, also benefit Desert Lightkeepers? I,for one, certainly would support that!

Judy

Benefitting Desert Lightkeepers after the Regional?

Not directly. As noted in the thread title, this is a 'blatant commercial project'. However my donations to the Desert Lightkeepers above and beyond dues will continue.

Individual lighthouse giftshops ("Why did John want to know which lighthouses have giftshops?") will also benefit by being able to buy multiple sheets of stickers of 'their' lighthouse at wholesale and sell them to visitors at a profit.

The stickers are 2x2" in size and some lighthouses may find turning these into fridge magnets or keychains, or bookmarks can increase the profit.

I'm bringing some 'stickers-turned-fridge-magnets' to the regional. The cost of the magnet material, sticky on one side was $11 for a 2' x 1' piece at Michaels. That should be able to make 72 magets at under 16 cents each + the sticker and protective spray coating.

I've asked a couple of educators to consider developing course material for elementary and middle schools on "Lighthouse History". This might be tailored to specific states and, of course, would come complete with a supply of Lighthouse Stickers.

Different states require state history to be taught in certain grade levels, so tailoring this course material to the state and age-grade level would be a natural.

John, I really like this, and have printed out my order form and putting it in the mail today. Can hardly wait to order all the stickers I need and start the journal

Joyce

Great Idea John. I hope you do well with it. I will see if I can work this into my budget. I think Diana would like one so if I get to San Diego, I'll pick one up there for an anniversary (25yrs) gift.

Dale

I have a pretty photo of Sea Girt that you may want to use. If you need it, you can PM me.

Do donators of photos recieve a complete set of journal and all stickers free or at discount?

A 1"x2" magnet is awfully small John. The smallest of mine are 2"x2" and 1 7/8" x 2 7/8". Any smaller than that I'd have to squint to see the lighthouse!

WOW this is great !

This is a great idea. I believe I would keep my journal on a shelf in my lighthouse cabinet. I look forward to all the Northwest stickers.

Great idea John! I look forward to getting one in the near future.

Thank you for the comments, everyone. The sales went a bit slow, but satisfactory at the CA Regional.

Mombo - the stickers are 2x2" not 1x2".

Gee's there is never and end to what can be thought of and I think this is awesome! Can't wait to order one. Thanks John

The order form(s) are now working. You can order one or choose the group order form and order 12 or more shipped to the same address for free shipping.

I have both size journals on hand. I'll acknowledge your order by email with a link to a paypal account or you can mail in a check or money order.

www.LighthouseStickers.com

First 10 stickers will be free. You should be able to order stickers on or before August 31.

I received over 125 slides from Bruce Roberts today and there are many that you'll be seeing on Lighthouse Stickers in about a week.

Thanks for your continued support and ideas on this project 'o mine.

I have many lighthouse photos from New England... if you need them. There are some rare lighthouses in there, and they are quite nice. I usually sell my photos through the local artists guild. Let me know if I can help. This is a great idea!

http://www.lighthousestickers.com/photographer_pages/roxie_zwicker.htm

You can see some of mine here! Very, Very Cool! I am excited about this project!

This is definitely a good idea, John. Nice work! Glad I could help out, there are some damn good photographers there already!

looking forward to making my purchases. Are you going to continue to develop the stamps by having second and third shots of the more popular lights. For example, your Avery Point, CT prototype has the complete lighthouse. It may be interesting to have a stamp with the lighthouse in the condition it is in now with the lantern room down and the bricks falling out. Then one when the renovations are complete.

I hate to mess you up, but shouldn't Mobile Bay actually be Middle Bay?

Love the passport idea. We got a national parks passport when we visited Cape Hatteras last year.

Lou - you're right the name (along the side) should have been "Middle Bay". The location (along the bottom) is "Mobile Bay".

Anyone else see errors, please let me know.

Peter - I'm working on some 'before and after' series stickers and Avery Point will be among them.

These will appear at here.

One other one. Usually Sand Island is claimed by Dauphin Island, AL. It's actually visible from there. You can't begin to see it from Gulf Shores. I'm not sure what historians would call it.

Also, if you need a Cape Hatteras after the move picture, I have several good ones.

Thanks again, Lou - I'll change that one too.

I've mentioned in the past that the real stickers are so much better than the images on the Internet.

If you'd like to see some sample free stickers, just Click here and fill in this form and I'll mail you out a sample strip.

The stickers are truely much better in person. I picked up a couple of freebies at the LI Regional of the Cedar Point and Avery Point lights. Very nice! I cannot wait to start my journal project. But I have to wait until winter, I'm still working on finishing up all of my lighthouse trips for the year.

Could you tell us how they are helping to be a fundraiser for the ALF - just curious. BTW, I got my thank you for participating postcard and I was very happy to see my shot of Marblehead on there!

Can we submit more photos for lighthouses after dark - I have some nice sunset shots....

100% of the profits I make from sales of the "American Lighthouse Passport" will be donated to ALF. (Profits = difference between the cost to me to print and the amount I sell these for.)

Some of these items will be sold direct through the website with about $4 going to ALF from the $6 sale price for each one sold.

Others will be wholesaled to Lighthouse gift shops and preservation organizations (including some ALF chapters) who will resell them, presumably further benefiting their ALF lighthouse or ALF affiliated club.

Some will be wholesaled to commercial gift stores and ALF will benefit by about $1 for each one sold by me to the resellers - whether preservation groups, clubs or commercial stores.

View the American Lighthouse Passport here.

ALF's logo, address, phone number and website URL appear on the Passport along with a statement of their mission objectives.

thanks, John for the preservation before and after stickers. Hopefully, the Avery Point after will be available soon now that work is going on

I bought my first lighthouse sticker at Fire Island after the LI regional.

They are far better in person than what you view on the internet.

I filled up my old lighthouse passport on this trip so I'm ready to start with the "New American Passport".

Thanks, Lorie...

Of course you don't need to fill up your old style passport with rubber stamps. You could put stickers on the pages.

John, did you ever receive my private mail? I am interested in discussing with you lighthouse lesson plans for middle grade schoolers

Don't recall it, Peter. Try emailing to: chidester@lighthousekeepers.com

Shirin, you STOP lighthousing in winter?!?!?!?!?

Seagirt, the problem is I haven't stopped lighthousing for months now not that I don't want to go lighthousing in the winter. I cannot remember the last time I spent a weekend at home. And now my body is catching up with me big time! For the past two weeks I've felt like a zombie! I'm barely able to stay awake at work (and that just doesn't look good) and at home forget it, I'm out by 8pm most nights and that is after at least an hour nap. I made it though the regional last weekend thanks to a couple of friends - sugar filled jelly beans and caffeine filled sodas. A couple of days this week I almost fell asleep while driving home (at 3pm) and this afternoon I fell asleep at my computer. So, I'm at a point where I've realized I need to stay home and rest up a little more between trips. I say this now as I'm dead tired. Let's hope I learn from this and don't go nuts with trips once I'm feeling better again.

Shirin - you are a tireless Lighthouse warrior! Somehow I believe you'll find your way to a lighthouse or two over the winter!

We received our samples in the mail today and all I can say is:

John is the shopping cart still in the works? I just tryed to make an order and couldn't get it to take more than one Passport. And couldn't get to a payment point.

It did appear to still be fourthcomming. But you know what a dummy I am at computers, so it could just be me!!!!!!!! :rolleyes:

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((¸¸.·´ Shortcake -:¦:-..·´
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I'm still installing the shopping cart program. It should allow you to add items to the cart, then increase the quantities when you get to the 'check out' page, but it's not set up for credit card payment yet. (That will be handled through PayPal -- you won't need to be a PayPal member, however, to use a credit card.)

On the checkout page, you can choose payment by check and print the cart page and send it with payment.

However. I hope to have it all working by this weekend.

I will be off next Saturday - Wednesday for a business/pleasure trip to the Oregon coast.

I just got my samples in the mail. They are great. Very high quality.

Good work, John.