#there's also mark's mostly finished engineering degree of course

[chungledown-bimothy]

i love learning what full-time streamers/youtubers planned to do with their lives before they gave it up to Make Content

apparently my current favorite (non-markiplier) youtuber has a phd in biomedical engineering, but nah, he plays pokemon in fun ways for the internet

[andrea-lyn]

Oh no, another Malex prompt, an AU if you're into it: Michael is a young University (linguistics? sociology? engineering?) professor (alien or not, to be decided); Alex is the AF veteran using his post-secondary pay to go though University. They meet at a coffee shop/the library/used car lot,wherever but know better than to screw it up. But it's so hard.

“Dr. Guerin, do you have a minute?”

Michael is in the middle of grading a pile of papers and he’s regretting agreeing to take on Introduction to Engineering Materials of the Future, because in his entire class, there’s only about three promising students who are going to make it.

He glances up in the middle of marking up another paper in red to find one of those three students standing there. Student of course, being an accurate word, but definitely not one of the young ones that make him wonder daily why he signed up for this willingly.  “Captain Manes,” he says, shoulders practically sagging with relief to be handed a reprieve. “Please. Rescue me.”

“That bad?”

Michael doesn’t say that he’s debating firing up his spaceship and leaving the planet, but he’s definitely had a few of those thoughts in recent days.

Being an alien who’s come to earth to hold down a job and learn about their science and their culture had sounded like a good mission when Max had offered it to him. Now, he’s debating how many of the papers he’s had to grade he’ll need to make a giant origami middle finger that he can fly home to Antar.

“This paper is trying to convince me of the merits of jell-o,” he deadpans, which isn’t exactly promising.

As happy as he is for the distraction (both because Alex is one of his smartest students, but also he’s easy on the eyes and basically his age), he doesn’t know why he’s there.

“Are you here for office hours? Your last paper was excellent, same as your test scores,” Michael says suspiciously.

“Do you not want me here?”

The opposite, actually, but honestly, he’s been trying to ignore that flare of want within him. For one, Alex is a human. He’s also one a student, which isn’t so much of a problem because he’d enrolled after three tours, so he’s older, but he’s Michael’s student.

“No,” Michael hurries to answer when he realizes he hasn’t. “No, I’m surprised, that’s all.”

“I actually do want your help, but not with this class. I know I need to take the pre-reqs first, but I’ve been consulting on a project with the Air Force and I could use your help taking a look at the aerodynamics of the wings, if you’re feeling up to it?”

Michael shouldn’t.

He really shouldn’t. For one, it’s probably in poor taste to help a student with another professor’s class. It’s an even worse idea when the student you want to help is also a student you have a crush on. They’re about the same age, he knows, if for a few months difference, but he’s still Michael’s student until the semester ends and Alex heads off for his degree.

Yet, here he is, nodding. “Sure, why not.”

He ignores the pile of papers he needs to grade and spends the next few hours leaning over Alex’s shoulder to look at his work, rapidly tapping the paper as he offers his opinion, and drifting in to check his work to the point that he’s so close he can smell Alex’s body wash.

Michael exhales a hitched, stuttered breath, and forces himself to pull back before he gets in trouble.

Alex seems to be having similar thoughts. “I should probably…”

“Yeah,” Michael agrees hoarsely. “Yeah, I still need to finish grading,” he says, watching Alex stand and collect his books. He’s hovering close to Alex as he escorts him out, but before Alex leaves, he turns and presses his back up against the closed door to Michael’s office.

Student, he reminds himself. Alex Manes may be a Captain in the Air Force, an adult, and the tastiest snack he’s seen in these halls in years, but he’s still a student.

”Thank you,” he says, voice husky. He wets his lower lip as his gaze slides to Michael’s mouth.

Maybe kissing the hell out of Alex isn’t the right way to say ‘you’re welcome’, but it is the choice that Michael makes, as ill-advised as it might be. He backs him right up against the door, crowding his space as he tangles his hands in Alex’s hair, kissing him like he doesn’t plan to breathe again, like his only plan is to kiss Alex.

At least, that’s his plan until he hears a textbook thump to the ground, falling out of Alex’s bag.

Shit.

“We can’t,” Michael croaks out, the sense to say that taking every single ounce of his self-restraint. “If anyone finds out, we’d get in trouble, you could lose your scholarship, I could lose my job…” It’s telling how good the kiss had been, because Michael’s hands are still fumbling and holding tight to Alex’s shirt.

Still, the regret is clear in the way Alex’s lips curve downwards in the beginnings of a beautiful frown. “I know.”

Michael finally manages to let go, a soft sound torn from him when he does.

“Good luck on your project,” he offers, reaching to the side of Alex to open the door, using the threat of someone seeing as a preventative measure before they do anything else really stupid.

Alex bends to pick up his textbook, sliding it into his bag. “With the help you gave me, I don’t need luck. It’ll be amazing.”

Then he’s gone and Michael can breathe again.

Holy shit, he thinks. What did he just nearly do?

He didn’t, though. He’s not going to get fired and though he doubts he’ll ever sleep soundly again until he gets to kiss Alex Manes again, his job is safe, and he didn’t do something very, very stupid. It’s a shame his genius brain is currently lamenting that fact.

*

It’s a few weeks later, when midterms have been graded and returned to the students that he bumps into Alex again at a coffee shop. When his eyes slide over him, all he remembers is what it’d felt like to kiss Alex against his office door. Still, he marches right inside and tells himself that he’s a mature adult alien-human-something.

He can do this.

“Dr. Guerin,” Alex greets him. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Yes, it is,” Michael agrees, feeling like the awkwardness of this conversation might actually kill him. He’s tapping his fingers rapidly on the counter as his eyes slide over Alex, looking at the leather jacket he’s wearing that fits him like a glove. “How’d your project go?”

“A+,” Alex brags. “Thanks to you,” he adds, stepping towards Michael like he’s about to do something to thank him.

Michael’s heart starts to pound in his chest and as much as he knows he shouldn’t encourage this, he wants it. He hasn’t wanted anyone for years, not since he and his last girlfriend broke up because their interests and lives went in separate directions, not to mention cities.

Considering how Michael had shown his appreciation for Alex’s gratitude last time, he can only imagine what’s going to happen.

”Let me pay for your coffee,” Alex says, throwing him off his expectation, “in thanks.”

Michael exhales the breath he’s been holding in, beaming as he nods. “Yeah, that’d be…”

”And then we can take a walk while you drink it?”

There’s that other shoe.

The thing is, Michael really likes spending time with Alex, so even though he’s going to have to fight not to reach over and touch Alex, even casually, he’s not about to say no. He takes the piping hot coffee without a sleeve and cups his palms around it, like the pain will be a deterrent. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

They walk in silence for the first few blocks, mostly because Michael has no idea what the hell to say. He can feel the warmth of Alex’s body beside him, and it’s driving him crazy, because he wants it underneath his hands again.

“It was nice,” Alex finally breaks the silence, “you, helping me with my project.”

Yeah, it was, but Michael can’t say that.

Instead, he goes for honest truth. “Look, I want this,” Michael says, wanting to be blunt, “but you’re my student. That ends in trouble for both of us and we know it. I don’t want to throw away what I’ve got going on here, and honestly, I don’t think you do either, so nothing can happen.”

“For now.” Alex sounds smug about it, too, like somehow he’s smarter than Michael for figuring it out. They’ve come to a stop near a small set of benches, where students are on blankets studying, playing frisbee, and they’re in such a public place that they can’t do anything.

It’s simultaneously the safest they can be, but also a kind of torture that’s up there with watching Max struggle to learn to play the guitar.

Sure, Alex won’t be in his class, but he’ll still be a student.

Honestly? Michael’s not sure he cares that much.

”I was thinking when the semester is over, I might take you out on a date. If you’re into dating Air Force Captains and you might be willing to try that sort of thing.”

”I could be exclusively into that,” Michael hears himself saying.

“So,” Alex says, coming to a stop a few feet in front of Michael. “End of the semester?”

“End of the semester,” Michael hears himself agreeing. Either this is the best decision he’s ever made or the worst, but he’s going to quickly find out.

*

The final is six days away and Michael is counting down the days.

Lectures have become a painful thing, because Alex has taken to practically fellating his pen as he takes notes, running his lips and tongue over it, which makes Michael use the podium as a protective instrument to hide behind. He’s a complete menace, but seeing as Michael doesn’t intend to get fired from his job for even a hint of impropriety, he is going to behave.

Apparently, Alex Manes did not make the same vow.

“Captain Manes, a word after class in my office?” Michael says, clipped, as the students depart.

He can hear some of the first years making idiotic comments on their way out, but Michael collects his books and heads to his office, prying off his glasses (which he doesn’t need, but it’s good to throw people off the scent of some of other-worldly habits, like perfect health).

Alex ambles into the office casually a few minutes later, looking innocent as all fuck and even whistling nonchalantly, like he thinks this is a joke.

“Alex,” Michael pleads, the moment he closes the doors to his office. “Are you actually trying to kill me?”

“Seriously? Because of that?” Alex asks, waving his pen around. His eyes are bright and he lets his gaze slide over Michael. “Dr. Guerin, when’s the last time you got laid?”

His cheeks go furiously red. “That is not the p…” He grimaces, breathing out slowly, a frustrated sound on his breath vibrating his lower lip. Two years, says his helpful brain, because he’s been so busy with work and so uninterested in the options that he’s taken a sex sabbatical. He leans over and forcibly yanks the pen out of Alex’s hands to point at him with it. “Stop it.”

Alex smirks at him.

“Six days,” is all Alex says, reaching over to slide his thumb over the arm of Michael’s glasses, the pad of his thumb continuing to trace over the shell of Michael’s earlobe. “I should go. I’ve got a final in Engineering Materials to study for. I really want to impress the professor.”

Then, he’s gone.

Fucking menace, thinks Michael, and locks the door so he can jerk off before his office hours resume.

Four days later, his last class looms larger than life. Considering what he knows waits for him at the end of this class and the final, it drags like it’s got ten parachutes hurtling behind it.  

Michael finishes teaching his last class, spending the last five minutes literally watching the clock. When it ticks to 4PM, he shouts that everyone should get the hell out. They’re not home free yet, though, as much as Michael desperately wishes they were.

He has to stop himself from floating all the objects in his apartment about three times, as he vibrates with tension, on the morning of the final.

Luckily, he doesn’t have to wait long.

Twenty minutes after the exam for his course is over and Michael has packed up to leave (after he’s rushed through grading Alex’s final, shoving it into his TA’s hands so no one can accuse him of impropriety when he starts dating his student), he heads homewards so he can wait for Alex’s call.

He doesn’t even make it to his truck, though.

“Dr. Guerin.”

Michael whips his head around to track the sound of Alex’s voice, finding him leaning up against a tree. He’s wearing that leather jacket of his and Michael has upgraded him mentally from snack to meal.

“Are you free?”

Michael grins as he changes course, grabs Alex by the lapels, and pins his back hard against the tree. He rocks his hips up against Alex’s denim-clad legs, pinning him there as he tangles his fingers into Alex’s hair, fingers flexing and cupping Alex’s neck, tipping his face to the side to breathe before starting to mark up Alex’s neck with bites and kisses and the slow path of his tongue in a way that he’s been thinking about doing for months.

It’s only the start of his fantasies, but Michael thinks he’s never been happier.

“Well?” Alex asks breathlessly, cupping Michael’s face with both hands like he’s trying to hold onto this ride for dear life. “Are you? Free?”

“Exclusively,” Michael promises, before he kisses Alex in public the way that he’s been thinking about for months.

[hbostolemysoul]

Band of Brothers fluff alphabet: Carwood Lipton

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?)

The Army was a rough place, even if you weren’t a woman. You had met some genuine a-holes (*cough Sobel*). So seeing how Lipton treated the men was a breath of fresh air, Winters was a saint too, but there was something about Carwood specifically that drew you to him. He was stern when he needed to be (heaven forbid there was rust on anything), but he also had this sixth sense when it came to supporting the men of Easy. You almost felt bad for paying so much attention to a married man, but you figured a small crush that you kept hidden from literally everyone (yes, that includes you Luz) wouldn’t hurt anybody.

Lipton hadn’t noticed you for the first week of training at Toccoa, in his defense none of the other men realized there was a girl amongst their ranks until Sink inquired about your wellbeing to Winters. Safe to say the men were shocked, you had this uncanny talent when it came to flying under the radar. After that day Car couldn’t help but to notice you. Sure you were quiet, but you were determined and never complained. You took Sobel’s shit better than some of the guys, and if nothing else that was admirable. You also had this innate ability when it came to lifting the guys spirits, seeing you smile and laugh with them warmed something in his heart.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

When Carwood enlisted he had caved to the pressures of home and married his long-time girlfriend. It seemed proper as he was going off to war and should anything happen it was only right to make sure that she was taken care of. It was funny, he thought that being away from her would be harder, but he felt relief. As the war went on the guys would occasionally rag on him about his wife, and about him being married. This happened often when he would accompany them to one of the bars on rare weekends where they could keep their passes. It had never really bothered him until you became a permanent blip on his radar. Keeping his head down and you at arms length seemed to be the safest option.

It was in Bastogne that he received a letter from his wife. She was pregnant, which under any other circumstance would have been exciting to him. Except he had been gone for well…years. The divorce papers were signed through overseas lawyers. His marriage had dissolved, but he couldn’t find it within himself to take the ring off. It weighed his hand down like led, the cold metal itching his finger. It wasn’t that he was attached to the thing, or even to his ex-wife, but taking it off would bring about questions from the men and while his marriage ending hurt, he couldn’t take it upon himself to share something else unpleasant with the men. They deserved better than that. Regardless of how he was feeling making sure the men were in a good headspace was important. Making sure you were in a good headspace was important. It was in that moment he realized for the first time that his thoughts of you were not accompanied by the stinging guilt he was used to feeling.

You stumbled upon him not long after, sliding down into the fox hole next to him you asked if be was okay. Simply nodding he looked at you, and without thinking he told you about his wife…ex-wife, the baby, the divorce. You sat silently and listened. When he looked into your eyes there was a silent fury )how dare she cheat on someone as amazing, kind, thoughtful, selfless and selfless as Carwood). He placed a hand on your shoulder, breaking you from your thoughts. A small smile crossed his face, and that marked a shift in your relationship.

You had both managed to somehow keep your feelings hidden until Austria. Upon receiving news that the war was over a massive weight was lifted from everyone’s shoulders. The boys were running around the baseball field laughing and roughhousing, your eyes found Carwood’s smiling shyly you nodded at him before Bull picked you up and spun you around like a doll.

That night Carwood found you sitting outside your billet, looking up at the stars. He found a seat next to you, and like many other nights you two sat in companionable silence. His hand accidentally brushed yours and you both jolted then shared a laugh. You took the next step and placed your hand in his, instead of the possible rejection you were expecting his hand tightened its grasp on yours.  

You had been sent back to the States at different times but had managed to keep in touch through letters. Eventually you found yourself in Huntington, Virginia. A ring on your finger with a mother in law who adored you.

You found out you were pregnant around the time Carwood had finished his engineering degree at Marshall University. It hadn’t been much of a of surprise, well maybe less for you than him.

You two had talked about having children, and he had expressed some concern over his ‘ability’, the scar on his thigh a painful reminder of his insecurities. With some encouragement from you, he agreed to start trying. It had taken about a year of trying (not that either of you were complaining) but it was more than worth the wait to see the smile Lipton gave you when you shared the news.

On a cold January morning, you gave birth to baby Lipton. They were born on their due date, and in a staggering 9 hours start to finish.

(Baby Lipton was punctual AF)

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

Lazy Sunday mornings are probably your favourite time to cuddle. There is no urgency when it comes to waking up, you two can just hold each other as your slowly wake.

There is something so beautiful about seeing Carwood in the morning light.

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?)

You two like to see movies together. During the war it was one of the things you both looked forward to the most, and while its not quite the same without Luz shouting the dialogue in the background, you both still enjoy getting lost in the on-screen story.

E = Everything (You are my __ (e.g. my life, my world…))

“When I say I love you, I don’t say it casually. I say it to remind you that you are my everything. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me in this life”

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?)

Carwood knew he had feelings for you back in Toccoa, but they had been easy enough to brush to the side. His promise to his wife, and his duty to the men a motivating factor in trying to keep his head in the right space. These were sentiments you shared. You had been given conditions in which you had to follow strictly, for you to continue to train as an enlisted man.

Starting a relationship with an NCO was not an option. Not for either of you.

Things between you two didn’t change until Bastogne. While you had a good working relationship with Lip, you two tried your hardest to avoid any personal talk. It was easier that way.

When he opened up to you about his ex-wife, and the circumstances surrounding his divorce your body filled with white hot fury. Carwood was probably the best man you had ever had the pleasure of knowing, and the mere idea that someone would betray him in such a manner had you hating her almost as much as you hated the damned Krauts. His hand coming to rest on your shoulder, and the soft look he gave you reaffirmed the fact that in this moment you were so screwed.

You felt like the wall you had been building over the past few years finally broke open, there was no going back.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

Carwood is a fairly big guy, he has a lot of power behind his movements should he choose to use it. But he would never hurt you.

When your relationship is new Carwood is almost hesitant when touching you, almost as if he is afraid the force he is used to exerting while fighting will somehow come through and hurt you.

It’s something that you were worried about too. You had gotten into some unfortunate situations throughout the war and had to use your bayonet and fists to fight for your life a few times.

It was a learning curve for the both of you, going from using your hands to love versus survive.

But you both got there eventually.  

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?)

Both your hands are calloused and rough from the war. Holding his hand for that first time under the moonlight in Austria felt right, familiar.

The roughness and warmth of his hand in yours soothing every harsh memory and thought that had ever crossed your mind.

As time goes on your hands slowly begin to lose their roughness, as do Carwood’s to some extent. Although there is one particularly rough patch along his thumb that you find your fingers running along from time to time.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?)

He was surprised as hell to learn about a woman in Easy company. But in his defense literally every other member of the 101st had been surprised as hell.

He had been worried until he saw you building comradery with the men, and the way you blazed through training. You were a determined little thing, and he felt something akin to pride the first time you hit a home run in a game the companies played against each other back in Toccoa. Dog company had been angry as hell, but when he looks back on the memory with more focus he thinks that Captain Speirs may have given a proud grin, briefly of course.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

Jealous isn’t the right word, envious maybe. Carwood mostly felt this way during the war. Seeing you laugh and bond with the men brought him some degree of comfort in knowing that you had found your place among them. It also made him sad that he had to keep his distance, there was something truly beautiful about being the one to make you smile.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

You did. The men were stepping into the jeeps to be taken to the dock. Carwood and the other NCO’s and officers were there as well. Wishing each of the men all the best on the journey home. You were pretty sure Major Winters had steadily been passing out his mailing address in order to keep in touch with the men.

You had been saying your farewell to Captain Speirs when Carwood approached, Speirs shot you a knowing look before stepping aside to (scare the shit out of) say goodbye to Luz.

He gave you a shy smile, you two talked for a few moments until someone in one of the jeeps laid on the horn, the steady screech causing you and Lipton to jump briefly.  

Saying goodbye had been hard, and well if the look in your eyes matched Carwood’s then this was not the goodbye either of you wanted.

Grasping the strap on your duffle bag a bit closer you cleared your throat,

“Seeing as this is the last time I will see you as my First Sergeant would it be alright if I…kissed you sir?”,

A quick flush covered both of your cheeks, he gave you a shy smile before nodding.

“I think out of all the times in the past that I wanted to kiss you, now seems most appropriate Y/L/N”,

With a grin you stood on your tip toes pulling Carwood into a gentle kiss. The moment would have been perfect had the entire company not started cat calling the both of you a mere second later.

You both laughed and rolled your eyes as Carwood pulled you close to his chest. Peering over his shoulder you saw a peculiar exchange. In which you mean you saw a smug Speirs collecting cash from a grumpy Welsh and sputtering Nixon. Winters just shaking his head and laughing next to them.

Maybe the moment was perfect after all.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?)

He does. On his way home, his train happened to pass close to where you lived, he had figured this out a month or so in advance and you two had been able to work out that he would come visit you for a few days before catching his next train home.

Walking off that train and seeing you waiting there for him was one of the most beautiful moments from the last few years. Within moments you were in his arms, pressing soft kisses to his face as he held you tight.

The words flowed so easily from his mouth it almost didn’t feel like he had spoken at all,

“I love you, I’ve always loved you”.

M = Memory (What’s their favourite memory together?)

He has many. One of his favourite memories though has to be when you berated Speirs for cutting his hand on some, “stupid Nazi flower pot”. Speirs had muttered under his breath about “calling an officer sir”, all of which came to an end when you shot him a look nearly identical to the one Doc used when he was pissed. Carwood hadn’t seen anything phase the infamous Speirs up until that moment.

He was damned proud, and thoroughly amused.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

In the colder months Carwood’s cough comes back with a vengeance, and while the doctors don’t seem to be too concerned unless he spikes a fever, you are still plagued with the memories of almost losing him.

During these months you seem to collect or brew all manner of teas that are said to help ease a troublesome cough. While Carwood finds it amusing to see you, hair mused, trying to decipher a deeper meaning from the remedies Eugene has sent you, he feels touched that you care so much.

He is a lucky man.

O = Orange (What colour reminds them of their other half?)

You remind him of fireworks, something he find incredibly beautiful, but that at one point scared him based on the intensity of his emotions.

You are the brightest, most beautiful thing that has ever entered his life.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

Carwood calls you Hun, from time to time. It took you some time to adjust to being called something other than your rank or former last name, but Hun seemed to suit you just fine.

Q = Quaint (What is their favourite non-modern thing?)

Carwood had these old cufflinks of his dads. He has never worn them, but he keeps them in this small box inside your jewelry box.

He doesn’t have many memories of his dad, as the accident happened when he was still so young. But sometimes when your children ask about their grandpa, he will pull them out and share what little bits of memory his still has about his father with them.  

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

When it is just the two of you, you try to bake together. Granted neither of you are natural cooks, so more times than not the recipes turn out to be a disaster, but you have lots of fun regardless.

Once your family grows you two begin to bake with your children, but as your oldest grows they begin to teach you and Car how to do things proper. It is a pleasant surprise to have an up and coming chef in your house.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?)

Neither your or Carwood like to dwell on being sad, so you two often brew some coffee or tea and try and talk. Most of the time will be spent leaning into the other, the comforting presence of the person you love helping to heal those old wounds you both still carry with you.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

During the war you and Carwood would talk about the men, shitty weather, how Luz needed a haircut, war tactics, how Luz needed a babysitter, how Carwood was Luz’s babysitter, oh shit where was Luz?

After you two have settled into your life together your conversations turn more to mundane everyday things, how was work, are the kids doing alright, did you hear Luz is getting married?, Oh shit really?, she must be a patient woman, what do you mean Speirs is coming to visit next week?, wait why is half of Easy company going to be at our house on Saturday, you do realize I don’t have nearly enough pillows for all of them, shit we need to go and get more pillow. Like I said, normal, every day, mundane things.

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?)

Carwood likes to sit down with your children and do honestly whatever, board games, puzzles, homework. He just enjoys spending time with your children, giving them the memories, he didn’t get with his own father.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

Carwood is not a flashy man, unlike Nixon who is the embodiment of a human peacock, Carwood is content with being humble. He is just thankful that he gets to come home to his family everyday.

W = Wedding (When, how, where do they propose?)

His proposal came shortly after you came to visit him in Huntington for the first time. You had both discussed getting married and had come to the realization that it would happen soon. So, when he pulled out a ring and got on one knee you were as ready as you could be, even though happy tears stung your eyes.

You wedding happened to be a lager affair. With Carwood’s fanbase consisting of the entirety of Easy company, having a small wedding was nearly impossible. it also didn’t help that a majority of that ‘fanbase’ had been rooting for the two of you to get together since Aldbourne.

While you and Carwood exchanged vows, the men of Easy shed more tears that the both of you, Speirs would never admit it, but he may or may not have…had to tell the men to pull their shit together, tears were for the weak (before he turns away and rapidly blinks back his watery eyes. He knew he should have had his tear ducts removed during the war).  

X = Xylophone (What’s their song?)

Found - Trenton

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?)

Yes, Carwood has definitely thought about marrying you. He has been married before, and unlike last time he wants to make sure he does it right. That it is a day that both of you will remember and cherish. He doesn’t want it to be a rushed affair like it was the last time. You deserve more than that.

Although in your defence you would marry him in a muddy field if that was what he wanted.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?)

You two end up getting a dog, a neighbour of yours had a litter of puppies, and the way your two-year-old child giggled and wrapped themselves around the patient puppy kind of sealed the deal for the two of you.

(I think this is the longest fluff alphabet yet – 7 pages 3344 words- I have a problem)

[sclfmastery]

It’s Koschei’s birthday!          

************* 

 HIS BIRTHDAY PRESENT is one big box filled with all kinds of accessories and goodies; essentially an oversized care packaged, wrapped up neatly in gold wrapping paper (gabriel insisted, as he is the self-proclaimed “king of wrapping”). it has all of his favorite snacks, which may or may not be a subtle way of encouraging him to eat more. some very expensive jo malone cologne is also nestled in there, as well as a new laptop case because she can’t stand looking at the one he’s used so much he’s worn a hole in it. all this, and a velvet box, which contains a very tasteful watch, with an elegantly simple style that matches her own. rolex, of course. more significantly however, the watch is engraved with his initials: K.L.P. the same initials as her father. because all that time ago, she gave him her father’s middle name of “lucien”, in some small effort to start some kind of family tradition after her mother died. they are the initials on his adoption papers, and they are the initials that mark him as hers forever. a note in her familiar script reads sweetly.

          happy birthday, pup. i’m so grateful to have finally gotten the chance to see you grow. you make me so proud with each passing year, and even though you’re away at college putting everyone else to shame, you’re still, and always will be, my baby boy. love, mum.

The prodigy who’s finished his undergraduate theoretical astrophysics and engineering degrees in two years, and is now well into graduate school at the age of (as of today) 20, can be felled immediately by goodies from mum. Because mum is his hero. Mum is his model of greatness: merciless, ambitious CEO of the largest scientific corporation in the world.  And mum is just, well, the coolest.  

The years they spent separated by the circumstances of war were the worst of his life: survival in and out of psych wards and foster care homes that found his manifold mental health woes too great a challenge, on the streets becoming alarmingly proficient at major felonies, and constantly high.  Being rescued just after his seventeenth birthday those three Christmases ago, and reconciled to Dr. Pichiner . . . . he may never be able to articulate his gratitude.  He did try, just a few weeks ago, on her birthday.

Still, with eagerness, and a bit of greed, he opens the gold foil he recognizes as his adoptive father’s work.  He rolls his eyes good-naturedly.  Gabe’s grown on him.  Slowly.  Mostly because he’s so good to mum.  Even though he’s decidedly uncool.

He’s munching on some sweet and sour gummies while he opens the watch.  Dark clever eyes dart over the data provided: a Rolex like mum’s, with his initials.  He squints, and then his eyes widen with epiphany: has he ever learned his middle name?  Curiosity overcomes him and he hops up while distractedly reading the note. 

He dials Seraphina on his mobile. 

     “MUUUUUUUM!” he cajoles, when she answers, with the endearing entitlement of a child who has finally found a home in which asking for something, needing something, needing someone, is not a crime.  “What IS me middle name, ey?! Oh, and THANKS, it’s brilliant!  This cologne is WAY better than Dad’s!” 

[educations-blog]

Post-Graduation Courses You Can Choose after Finishing Engineering

After finishing engineering, some students start working while others prefer to study further and do their post-graduation. The reason to study further varies from person to person. 

However, mostly it’s either to get better job opportunities or to enhance their knowledge or skills. There are three post-graduation courses that not only add to your knowledge and skills but also provide good job opportunities in the future. Let’s look at them:

MTech (Master of Technology)

This is a professional, application-based program in a particular field of engineering. After two years of full-time studies and training students are provided with an MTech degree.

Usually, admissions in this course are done via the GATE exam. However, some institutes have their own entrance examination and interview as a part of their admission process. 

After MTech, you can work as an Engineering Technologist, Test Engineer, Product Development Engineer, Executive Engineer, etc. 

Companies like Google, Microsoft, Tata Motors, L&T, etc. hire individuals with MTech degrees.

MBA (Master of Business Administration)

MBA is a two years post-graduation course, which is considered a basic qualification for top-level managerial jobs. Considering the job opportunities this course brings, the graduates in the disciplines of Commerce, Arts, Science & Technology, BBA, and others pursue MBA.

You can choose from various specializations like Human Resource, Marketing, Finance, Sales, Business Analytics, etc. and upon completion of your MBA, you can work as a Finance Manager, Marketing Manager, HR Manager, Sales Manager, Operations Manager, Data Analytics Manager, etc. 

Companies like Philips, Nestle, Bajaj, Pidilite along with many banks like Axis, ICICI, HDFC hire MBAs.

MS (Master of Science)

This is a 1.5 to 3 years post-graduate degree program. You are required to have a minimum of 50-60% aggregate marks in your under-graduation engineering degree to be eligible for it. You also need to have a valid GATE score to be eligible for admission. 

MS can be done in various streams like Biological Science, Quality Management, Software Systems, Consultancy Management, and IT in Building Science. 

After finishing the course, you can work as a Research Scientist, Senior Research Fellow, Research Associate, etc. since MS is more research-based as compared to MTech or MBA.

You can work in both the private and public sectors with this degree. Private sector companies like Sapient, Accenture, Dr. Reddy’s Novo Nordisk, etc., and public sector organizations like ISRO, DRDO, National Physical Laboratory, etc. hire MS graduates.

Conclusion

Master of Engineering or Master of Technology is a great option if you want to further enhance your knowledge in a particular stream of engineering. But, if you are looking to acquire managerial skills and apply them along with your engineering skills, then MBA is a great option for you. 

Regardless of the course you choose, getting a post-graduation degree is always a good career move. It makes you more skillful and eligible for better job roles.

[admissify-blog]

Community college in the USA

The 2-year degree study abroad program in the US is otherwise called 'Partner Degree' (otherwise called moderate). The schools offering such programs are known as junior or community colleges. They are 2-year schools that give reasonable postsecondary training as a pathway to a 4-year degree in the US or in the top universities of the world. These universities are controlled by the state government or nearby locale in the direction of the state office. A partner degree carries 60 credits for a very long time rather than 120 to 128 credits in a 4-year program. The community colleges give programs wide base for example general schooling and concentrate upon the particular territory of study. There are around 1,462 junior colleges in the US.

2-year UG Degree or Partner Degree Divisions

The partner degree readies the understudies for a 4-year four-year college education. Understudies can acquire fundamental training at the junior college level and get moved to the College for additional schooling.

Projects in partner degree are partitioned into 3 sections: -

·         General Training

·         A concentrated zone of study

·         Electives (programs picked by interest)

·         Sorts of Community partner Degree

A.A. what's more, A.S. are otherwise called transferrable degrees and A.A.S. is the vocation arranged degree which takes after initial 2-years of the school where, alongside prime subjects, general training is likewise given. The understudies can move their credits to the 4-year college.

·         A.A (Partner of Expressions degree)

·         A.S. (Partner of Science certificate)

·         A.A.S. (Partner of Applied Science certificate)

Courses offered under each sort of degree -

·         A.A (Partner of Expressions degree)

·         A.A. primarily center around more extensive human sciences with center around: -

·         A.S. (Partner of Science certificate)

A.A. mostly centers around more extensive aesthetic sciences concentrating upon: -

·         Business organization

·         PC designing innovation

·         Ecological science

·         Bookkeeping

·         Biotechnology

A.A.S. (Partner of Applied Science certificate)

A.A.S. offers professional explicit abilities to the understudies which supports them for direct work after graduation. Understudies are prepared in these subjects – PC fix, electrical, hardware, development, and then some. A few regions to center upon: -

·         Engineering plan and drafting

·         Structural designing innovation

·         Nursing

·         Bookkeeping

·         PC data frameworks

·         The executives

·         Radiography

A few subjects, for example, English, Science, and Arithmetic are additionally important for the educational plan. Such a program causes the understudies to enter the work market quickly toward the finish of the investigations. Online classes are additionally held for the understudies who can't go to the classes or have different responsibilities as they don't remain close to the school. Crossbreed classes are additionally accessible for a mix of on the web and in-person prerequisites.

·         Application Interaction for Worldwide Understudies

·         Apply online on the chose community college's site.

·         Follow the cutoff time.

·         Present the necessary records on the location of the school.

·         Secondary School Record

·         Submit "Testimony for Help" Structure

·         Monetary Archives

·         A marked "Affirmation of F-1 Principles and Obligations"

·         Visa Photograph Page

·         English Capability Grade

Note: Requirements may change as per the school picked.

Advantages and disadvantages of Junior Or Community college

Junior school or junior college is where you can investigate your inclinations and study just those subjects which lie to your greatest advantage territory. There are preferences and detriments of everything. Junior colleges likewise succeed someplace and bomb elsewhere.

Referenced are the upsides and downsides of the community colleges in the US: -

Experts

Educational Cost

One of the significant reasons why understudies go to community college is low educational cost. Numerous lesser schools may even acknowledge under 2,000 USD per semester for full-time courses. Through Junior college, understudies get an opportunity to design educational costs for 4-year colleges if they take an exchange.

Little Homeroom Size

The class size may not be pretty much as little as a private school however oblige not more than 20 understudies. With lesser understudies in the class, the teacher might have the option to focus on a coordinated premise with all the understudies. Moreover, understudies may likewise discover their educator more open.

Adaptable Timetable

Community colleges in the USA offer classes in movements as per the timetable reasonable to the understudies. The understudies who can't go to ordinary school because of time requirements can go to Junior college. They coordinate night classes and more timetable choices.

Choice – Making

Numerous understudies may wind up dislodged while going to college. Some of them return and many don't. Going to community college gives a chance to realize what they need and get sufficient opportunity to choose about the subjects to be picked in 4-year college which will keep the understudies from dropping their investigations.

Cons

Restricted Educational plan

Community colleges offer the 2-year educational plan to the understudies through 4-year colleges offer more courses when contrasted with them.

De-spurred Understudies

Some students who study abroad take affirmation in Junior college since they have no place else to go. To separate such understudies from the ones who have promising futures, the respects program is dispatched as a pipeline to 4-year four-year college education programs.

No customary school insight

Life at community college is entirely different when contrasted with 4-year college life. Understudies have different freedoms and exercises to get included not at all like Junior college. Understudies here need more co-curricular exercises to partake in.

Not all classes are transferrable

There are specific classes that are transferrable to 4-year college programs. So ensure you think about the course at Junior college before taking affirmation.

You can also get in touch with the best USA consultants in Delhi or Guwahati. You may not know each and everything. So, concentrate on what you know and leave the rest to a Study Abroad Consultant. Find out the various means today. In this case, you should first search for the best study abroad consultants in Delhi. So, find out about the social and cultural situation from the best USA consultants in Delhi. Contact with Admissify and resolve all the doubts for studying abroad. We will assist you in giving all the possibilities.

[dipulb3]

2021 Audi E-Tron Sportback first drive: Slipstream SUV serenity

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/2021-audi-e-tron-sportback-first-drive-slipstream-suv-serenity-3/

2021 Audi E-Tron Sportback first drive: Slipstream SUV serenity

Make no bones about it: Audi’s all-electric E-Tron SUV may have received high marks from professional auto reviewers and new owners alike, but it hasn’t moved the automaker’s sales needle in the US. In all of pre-pandemic 2019, the Audi sold fewer than 5,400 E-Trons here — less than an average month of Q5 sales. It’s amidst this frustrating backdrop that the 2021 Audi E-Tron Sportback model whirs into dealers, its racier slope-back roofline hoping to catch both eyes and sales.

Based on visuals alone, the E-Tron Sportback has undergone the now industry-standard four-door-coupification process more successfully than most luxury crossover SUVs — EV or not. From the windshield header forward, the Sportback looks the same as its more traditional two-box sibling and indeed, it has nearly the same height. However, owing to its dramatically plunging rearward greenhouse and frameless windows that clean up its roofline, the Sportback looks simultaneously lower and arguably more stylish, adding in a dash of athleticism. The Sportback isn’t just slipperier to the eye, it enjoys a 0.28 coefficient of drag, 0.02 better than its boxier relation.

Audi E-Tron Sportback First Edition is one slick electric SUV

See all photos

Range and charging specs are only part of the story

On the performance front, the Sportback is all but identical to the standard E-Tron, but a number of incremental improvements across both body styles increase appeal. Among the changes, Audi upped the available battery capacity slightly, increasing the customer-accessible portion of this 95.3-kilowatt-hour pack to 86.5 kWh — nearly 3 more than first-year E-Tron models. This translates to 218 miles of range and EPA estimates of 76 MPGe city, 78 highway and 77 combined. (The rest of the pack is held in reserve to preserve longevity.)

When it comes time to juice up, the Sportback supports Level 3 150-kW quick charging, which can jolt the battery from 0% to 80% in around 30 minutes. More common Level 2 chargers (like those most EV owners install) can replenish an entire pack in around 10.5 hours. Each E-Tron also comes with 1,000 kWh of complimentary charging through the Electrify America network.

Speaking of filling up, the Sportback is available with dual charge ports, one on each front fender. Especially for city dwellers who live in condos or apartments with tight access to charge points, this unusual bonus feature could be a major quality-of-life enhancer.

This Plasma Blue E-Tron Sportback First Edition is one of 200 coming to our shores.

Chris Paukert/Roadshow

To be clear, the Sportback’s aforementioned range figures are unremarkable — a base, Tesla Model X Long Range Plus has a 351-mile claimed range, but starting at around $80,000, it’s nearly $10,000 pricier than a 2021 E-Tron Sportback (more on pricing in a minute). Of course, while smaller than the Audi, the Model Y Performance comes in at 291 miles for far less money (around $60K) and there’s a slower, less-expensive Long Range spec with 316.

In my experience, however, with both this Sportback and with previous E-Tron testers, Audi EVs achieve their range estimates with relative ease, almost regardless of driving behavior or ambient conditions. Conversely, Tesla’s stated ranges usually feel like best-case scenarios. As with all things, your mileage may vary, but the real-world range gulf between these rivals is likely far smaller for most drivers than these vehicles’ window stickers would suggest.

Performance beyond the numbers

I start with these performance comparisons if only to get them out of the way. For better or worse, it seems impossible to review a new premium EV of any stripe without acknowledging how they numerically stack up to offerings from Elon and Friends. That said, I’m likewise here to propose an alternate view, which I think delivers a fuller picture of luxury electric life in general, and this E-Tron Sportback specifically.

You’ve likely found that all EV reviews from the humble Nissan Leaf to the Porsche Taycan wax rhapsodic about the instant torque and silent running inherent in battery-powered vehicles. Especially for those coming out of a convention internal-combustion-engined (ICE) model, that’s certainly a valid first impression and it’s absolutely the case with this E-Tron Sportback. And while that notion speaks to the innate serenity of electric power, this Audi takes that sense of wellbeing to a higher level, both in the way this SUV goes down the road and the way its cabin and tech make you feel.

As is typical for EVs, there’s not much to look at under the hood. Lift that plastic lid and you’ll find the charge cord.

Chris Paukert/Roadshow

The Sportback’s two-motor powertrain routes 355 horsepower and 414 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels by default, rising to a temporary 402 hp and 490 lb-ft in Boost Mode. The latter setting is enough to whoosh this 5,750-pound softroader to 60 mph in a drama-free 5.5 seconds. That’s reasonably quick, but again, not headline- or Instagram-worthy stuff by today’s EV standards. What makes the Sportback impressive is the utterly placid manner in which this performance is conjured. Yes, it’s quiet. Yes, it’s linear. And yes, it feels endlessly repeatable without apparent degradation in performance during hard driving.

While it feels uncharacteristically new-age-ish (and somewhat nebulous) of me to say, the tactile quality of the E-Tron’s cabin materials and the precision of their assembly contributes to that aura of slipstream serenity. There’s no doubt about it, the fit and finish of the E-Tron Sportback’s interior is worlds more luxurious and of noticeably higher quality than something like the Jaguar I-Pace, let alone anything Tesla has ever made. The last new Tesla Models X and Y that I drove dazzled with their accelerative urgency, but their high-performance spells were momentary broken by surprising amounts of wind noise and the occasional mysterious creak or graunch from beyond the firewall and rear hatch area. By comparison, even with frameless windows, the Sportback is one of the quietest vehicles I have ever driven.

The E-Tron’s other performance attributes are tuned harmoniously, too. The standard adaptive air suspension is remarkably compliant over greater Detroit’s indifferently maintained roads, even riding atop this example’s upsized 21-inch tires. With the Drive Select controller set to its firmest detent, the E-Tron’s ride is more than livable and cornering attitude is flat, doubtlessly aided by the weighty battery pack slung low in the chassis. I prefer keeping the steering set to Sport for a heftier feel when charging down a winding road, but no matter the setting, the steering is precise but numb.

Like other modern Audi models, the E-Tron Sportback feels tech rich and very well assembled.

Chris Paukert/Roadshow

A word on omissions and creeps

A note about the braking: Audi worked particularly diligently to blend the EV powertrain’s regenerative braking with traditional friction binders and the results do nothing to erode the Sportback’s air of overall effortlessness. Unlike some EVs, they’re easy to modulate thanks to consistent feel.

However, there’s one key thing the brakes don’t do nearly as well as many other EVs: one-pedal driving. While Audi worked in a user-selectable setting with stronger regenerative braking than early E-Trons, it’s not close to being enough to enable one-pedal driving. According to company officials, Audi engineers deliberately chose to limit lift-off regen in the name of maximum efficiency. Admirable as that may be, lots of EV drivers tell Roadshow they quickly fall in love with single-pedal driving and not offering a driver-selectable setting to accommodate this popular customer preference feels like more than a minor exclusion — it feels both shortsighted and needlessly overbearing.

Similarly, it’s also odd that Audi’s coders haven’t made a forward-creep setting available. Manual-transmission cars aside, nearly every modern vehicle rolls forward slowly from a stop when the brake pedal is released, as when pulling away from a stop sign or inching forward in a left-hand turn lane. Not the E-Tron. You have to nudge the accelerator. You get used to this, of course, but if the goal is to make transitioning from a traditional ICE model as easy as possible, this is an omission.

The E-Tron comes with standard 360-degree, top-down camera coverage for easy parking.

Chris Paukert/Roadshow

Interior and infotainment tech

The cabin certainly feels a bit more intimate and racier, but that’s mostly when looking in the rearview mirror or if you’re seated in the second row. TL;DR: Plenty of leg, knee and toe room, but headroom is a bit tight for those over 5 feet, 9 inches and the windows don’t roll down very far.

As far as cargo volume goes, it’s largely unaffected by the coupification process. The Sportback offers 27.2 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats, or 54.5 with them folded (decreases of 1.3 and 2.0 versus the standard E-Tron, respectively).

Beyond that, the Sportback’s insides are pure modern Audi, which is to say impeccably assembled, tastefully decorated and rocking an impressive tech hand. Thanks to a trio of large displays, one for the Virtual Cockpit gauge cluster and two for the touchscreen MMI infotainment system, when the power is off, the E-Tron Sportback’s cabin look is almost eerily minimalist, particularly when rendered in darker colors like this one. That doesn’t mean it’s boring inside, though. By comparison, the Model Y’s pared-back dashboard and single display may nail the minimalist yoga-studio-on-wheels aesthetic, but thanks to its significantly cheaper materials and occasionally frustrating controls, Fremont’s finest doesn’t deliver the same sense of serenity and solidity as the Sportback. 

You take the Tesla. Namaste in this Audi, friend.

Second-row space is quite good, though those taller than 5 feet, 9 inches may want to slouch a little.

Chris Paukert/Roadshow

E-Tron Sportback model years and pricing

Earlier, I mentioned that the E-Tron Sportback sits between the Tesla Model Y and X in price and indeed, it does. That said, further explanation is necessary. Due to COVID-19-related production and shipping hiccups, both 2020 and 2021 model-year Sportbacks are trickling into dealers more or less simultaneously and unlike Team Elon, all E-Trons remain eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit.

A very short 2020 model-year run consists of two models: A midrange Premium Plus spec that include features like adaptive cruise control, 360-degree camera suite and 16-speaker Bang and Olufsen 3D audio for $78,445 (including $1,045 for delivery). The other choice is an all-boxes-checked 2020 Edition One like the example seen in these images. It adds the Prestige Package, which includes features like the aforementioned twin charge ports, head-up display, massaging contour front seats, full leather (including dash, armrests and center console) and even an air ionizer/fragrance dispenser. Just 200 Edition One models will be sold in the US and you’ll be able to spot them on the street by their special Plasma Blue metallic paint and the 21-inch bi-color wheels shrouding orange brake calipers. Price? A heady $89,540 with destination.

Interestingly, for the 2021 model year, Audi significantly retooled the E-Tron Sportback’s model line, enabling a much lower starting price. A new entry-level Premium trim starts at $70,145 delivered and it’s rather well equipped, including standard features like four-zone climate control and 20-inch alloys. Mid-trim Premium Plus models add ventilated 12-way power seats, matrix LED headlamps, B&O audio, wireless charging and a driver-assistance package, among other features for $79,045 delivered. Go whole hog on a Prestige to net nearly all of the features from the Edition One and you’re looking at $83,345 in your driveway before any federal, state and local tax incentives.

Modestly slicker than its more upright E-Tron sibling, Audi is hoping this Sportback can jumpstart their EV sales.

Chris Paukert/Roadshow

It’s worth noting that a base Sportback is $3,700 more expensive than a regular E-Tron, a strategy that’s in-line with the industry’s “four-door coupe” SUV pricing trend: Same vehicle + different style – usable space = more money. While this value calculus perplexes your author, consumers have been supporting this type of math since the 2008 BMW X6, so more power — and profits — to ’em.

Overall, the new E-Tron Sportback combines impressive luxury with a fluid, unflappable feel. What this SUV doesn’t really muster, however, is an experience that’s materially much different than the standard E-Tron. The idea that the Sportback is sportier is largely an illusion and it would’ve been interesting to see what might’ve resulted had Audi elected to give this model its own driving character. Regardless, if you’re looking for luxury, quality and serenity now, the E-Tron Sportback delivers like few vehicles — electric or otherwise. 

[dustbunny105]

Title:  Full Offense Fandom: Lost Light Pairing: Anolug Rating: PG Word count: 1805 Summary: Lug finds herself in the midst of Anode’s nonsense yet again, but this time she’s got the wrong idea of it. A/N: I’ve been sitting on this for weeks because I didn’t want to post another fic without a title when the last fic I posted still doesn’t have a title but. Eh. I kinda really wanted to queue this before I read the new issue.

.

"What we need," said Anode as she stared across the bar at a map to their latest objective, "is a diversion."

"What we need," said Lug as she stared across the bar at the heavily-armed-- and multi-armed-- behemoth of an organic who was currently in possession of the map to their latest objective, "is a new job. In a nice, quiet part of town on some nice, quiet planet."

Anode scoffed as she always did when Lug suggested settling down and threw back a swallow of her drink, face screwing up when she failed to get all of it past her tongue and directly into her throat. She gagged a little but kept it all down, leaning heavily on the table. Lug frowned at her, concerned but without sympathy. Still sputtering, Anode leaned heavy across the table and demanded, "Name one job that would fulfill us the way this one does."

Lug leaned back and crossed her arms, suggesting, "One that keeps fuel in our tanks and doesn't get us nearly killed on alternate weekends, is what I was thinking."

"We'd both be bored into stasis within a week, and who would feed us then?" Anode asked, practically crawling onto the tabletop to make up for the distance Lug had put between them. She shot a look back at their mark, who seemed to be haggling with a potential buyer, before settling her attention back upon Lug. "Listen, we've discussed this-- this job will keep us in energon for weeks, and that's after we've fixed our ship's engines-- or at least one of them. Or at least most of one of them. But not if we don't get our hands on that map!"

Making a disgusted noise, Lug leaned back even further and threw her hands up in the air, clutching for patience she didn't have. For the umpteenth time, she kicked herself for not grilling Anode about the job before going along with it. She was prepared to go into the umpteenth, "Then you shouldn't have taken the job!" lecture in lieu of having done the smart thing the first time, but cut herself off with a start when one hand collided with warm metal behind her.

Craning her neck around and then up, Lug flinched to find a glare cast down on her from a heavy-duty mech who looked as though he’d at least doubled his already substantial weight in additional armaments.

"Sorry," she sputtered, trying to scoot her chair forward and away from him but not making much headway with her feet so high off the ground, "I didn't--"

"Watch it, runt," the large mech snapped, shoving Lug so hard that she felt her back plating buckle under his hand at the same time her chest got dinged up on the table edge.

Anode's reaction seemed to happen in slow motion. She knocked back the rest of her drink without so much as a wince and tossed the glass aside to land where it may. In one smooth, fluid motion, she stood, took up her chair by its back and swung it over Lug's head. Lug didn't turn quickly enough to see it connect, but she did see the stranger stumble and fall to a knee, clutching at the new dent in his lip and pulling his fingers away pink.

Staring down at him, Lug couldn't help the thought, The furniture here sure is sturdy. Still in shock, she also couldn't help a short squawk of laughter, loud in the suddenly quiet bar.

As if she'd given a command, time sped back up. The stranger snarled, mostly engine, and lunged at Anode. The rest of the bar dissolved into chaos as though all they'd been waiting for was for someone else to strike the first blow. Lug hit the ground, careful not to look Anode's way lest her concern distract her, and hurried on her hands and knees. It was a good time to be so small, as she easily made her way between and around the feet of the other bar patrons towards the booth where their mark had been positioned.

Said mark was standing proud in the midst of the fight, two fists pounding their chest and two more holding aloft their struggling buyer while yet two more that Lug hadn't even seen punched said buyer in the head. Lug supposed that their negotiations hadn't gone well. In any case, she was far more concerned with the datapad still resting on the tabletop behind them, containing the map which Anode had started what was shaping up to be a full scale riot to secure. Trying not to pay too much attention to which pained grunts and shouts behind her sounded like Anode's, Lug risked getting her feet under her and, when the mark howled up at the ceiling in what she took to be glee, dashed forward and around them to snatch the datapad off the table.

If she'd realized they had eyes in the back of their head, she'd have been more cautious. As it was, she glanced around just in time to see those eyes narrow at her before they turned their head one hundred and eighty degrees and glared with their primary eyes.

"Excuse me," she blurted, scrambling back into the protection of the brawl.

Behind her, they roared, and the next thing she knew, the would-be buyer was sailing over her head to crash at her feet, stopping her short. Plating pulled so tight that it didn't rattle even as she shook from her engine outward, Lug half-turned to see the mark coming at her. Time seemed to slow down again, their every motion clear, but she was moving just as slow, she was too slow--

"Lug!"

And just like that, just like earlier, time sped up again. A green blur darted at her out of the crowd and then she was airborne, tucking the map away in her chest compartment and transforming on instinct. She bounced off Anode's back, systems hiccuping, before settling in properly and winding her straps tight around Anode's shoulders. She didn't have a good view of what happened next, but she sure felt it when Anode threw herself into a backflip and she felt the impact of Anode's heels on what she assumed from the grunt she heard to be the organic's chin. The world spun around her as Anode followed through, momentum not so much as hitched by the blow.

Then they were running, dodging around and jumping over the other combatants. The exhaust-thick air of outside was a blessing as the door slammed heavy behind them and they kept running. Anode twisted through back alleys and over fences with no apparent destination in mind. When at last she came to a stop, she skidded through trash and ducked into a shadow, tugging at one of Lug's straps to indicate she should get off.

"Did we lose them?" Lug gasped as she found her feet under her once again. "Did they follow us?"

"Where'd you run off to?" Anode spoke right over her, grabbing her close and looking over her for injuries. "You just disappeared-- in the middle of that mess! And you call me reckless!"

Lug gaped, then shook Anode off, indignant. "What do you mean, where'd I run off to? I was making good use of your diversion, wasn't I?" As if to prove herself, she pulled the map out and waved it under Anode's nose. As an afterthought, she added, "And you are reckless!"

"You got it?" Anode's eyes went bright and she snatched the datapad, switching it on and flipping through its contents to confirm. "This is what you ran off for?" Her smile went sly as she looked over it at Lug. "There's the adventurer in you!"

Lug's jaw worked around her bewilderment and she wondered if maybe she'd suffered some processor damage without realizing. More likely, she decided, it was Anode whose processor was on the fritz, after that brawl. She demanded, "What are you talking about? Wasn't I meant to get it?"

Anode's optics blinked through a reset and puzzlement lined her face, like it was Lug who wasn't making sense. There was no visible damage to her head, but then Lug could only see half of it and she'd always said Anode was hard-headed anyway.

"When you swung your chair at that jerk," Lug said slowly. "When you started the fight-- our diversion?"

"Diversion?" Anode muttered, then realization lit up over her. "Oh, right, our diversion!" She paid too much attention to turning the datapad off again before handing it back, stood too quickly and didn't look at Lug. "Right, of course, that’s what I did. Good teamwork back--"

"Hold it," said Lug, who was no fool despite what the company she kept-- and what that company talked her into doing-- suggested. She tucked the datapad away and put her hands on her hips. "If that wasn't meant to be our diversion, just what did you think you were playing at?"

"Well--"

"It hasn't been that long since you got into a fight," Lug insisted, "and you're not drunk--"

"He shoved you," Anode cut in, plating rippling even as her voice went hard. Her hands drifted back to Lug's chest, fingers skimming over the fresh ding and then walking around her sides and finding the newest dent in her back by touch. She leaned forward, tucking Lug against her chest, to peer at it over her shoulder. Quiet, intimate in their dirty little hiding place, she said against Lug's audial, "He dented you. You can't think I'd let him get away with that."

Unsure what to say, Lug wrapped her arms around Anode in turn, nuzzling reassurance against her shoulder. She felt Anode's fingertips open at her back, medical instruments assessing the damage. She could tell for herself that it wasn't that bad-- she just needed the dents popped out, really-- but still Anode's engine growled the low note of a predator. Lug tightened the embrace, silently imploring Anode not to dash back and finish what she'd started, before pulling away and shaking her off again.

"Come on," she said, taking Anode's hands in hers, the retreating instruments tickling her palms, and urging Anode to her feet. "Let's go to work."

Anode nodded and rolled her shoulders, casting a glare back in what Lug supposed was the general direction of the bar before twining her fingers in Lug's and heading off in what Lug hoped was the general direction of their ship. The fight they'd left behind echoed in the air, or maybe it was just that bad of a neighborhood.

"For what it's worth, if someone had struck you," said Lug, grinning at the eye ridge Anode quirked at her, "I'd've cheered you on so hard while you beat them silly."

[youinmyhoodnowson]

noun cut off mark for law

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[superlinguo]

Linguistics jobs - interview with an Apprentice Mechanic

I first met today’s interviewee in India in 2012, when he was about to start his first fieldtrip. We kept in touch for a couple of years, mostly because once you’ve been working on languages of this area for a few years, you tend to know all the other linguists eventually anyway. When I checked in with him again recently, I found out he had been through some serious thinking, and big changes, including a major career shift.  What did you study at university?

I studied linguistics and philosophy as my majors for my Bachelor of Arts, as well as minors in Spanish and French. I did an honours year doing research on a small language of northeastern India. I also studied for a master's degree in Linguistics, in the course of which I took an intensive, two-week summer course in Mongolian. Over the course of my degrees I covered every major field within linguistics to varying degrees, although I spent more time studying phonetics and phonology than anything else (my honours project was a phonetics/phonology project primarily). What is your job?

I'm currently an apprentice mechanic, second year. It's a fairly 'does what it says on the tin' kind of a job. I'm learning how to fix cars. BMWs, mostly. Although I will be leaving that to start an engineering degree at UQ this year. How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

I don't find my linguistics training helps me in my job in any specific way however there are a number of benefits I've noticed which are more incidental. Having studied linguistics I find myself more mindful of my own language use and that of those around me, which I feel has helped me communicate more effectively in the workplace. The abilities to analyse problems and work through things logically, as well as the ability to abstract away from the specifics, have helped me with my work as well.

Do you gave any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

I wish someone within the field had sat me down and had a serious discussion about career prospects and what it would take to achieve them. I don't mean the pep talk every first year gets so they give their money to the university, I mean a real, unbiased discussion with someone in the field. Any other thoughts or comments?

I guess for me I feel like I should bridge the gaps between seven years of academic linguistics, doing a mechanic apprenticeship, and then going off to study engineering. When I left high school I felt it was expected of me to go to university. I'd been in extended academic programs through most of my schooling and I'd done fairly well through it all. I had no idea what I'd do with a gap year and knew that probably meant I'd waste it so I determined to head straight into uni. I didn't have the marks for science so I went with philosophy, which had always interested me; and linguistics, which I didn't know much about but which seemed interesting. I wasn't thinking about jobs and my parents were wonderfully supportive and told me that it would all work out.

I thoroughly enjoyed university life and did very well out of it, being offered an opportunity to do an honours year including research overseas which was almost unheard of. I had a fair bit of stress come in from my family life and I didn't do as well as I'd hoped with my honours thesis. As a result I decided on a master's as a way of earning a PhD position as I was still very passionate about linguistics and wanted to pursue an academic career in the field. However the research master's turned into coursework as I found my enthusiasm drained by a combination of factors.

By the time I'd finished my coursework for the master's I was ready to take a break from study and re-assess my options. So I did. I took whatever work I could get with the idea that I'd just be having a year off study but when I was offered a position as an apprentice mechanic I figured I'd stay open minded and give something different a shot. Eighteen months later I was looking to change careers again. So I sat down, finally, and did what I should have done when I left high school. I asked myself what I really wanted to do, what would make me happy and what I thought I could go and do day in and day out for the next twenty years. What I came up with was engineering. While I definitely benefited from my years studying and working, and I don't necessarily regret them, I do regret not having done that sooner. I particularly regret not having had access to anyone who could help me do that, and would (the career counsellors at my high school were awful).

Previously:

Interview with an educational development lecturer (and linguistic consultant)

Interview with a client services manager

Interview with an English foreign language teacher

Interview with a speech pathologist

Interview with a computational linguist

Interview with a language revitalisation program director

Interview with a media language researcher

See the linguistics jobs tag on the blog for more.

[kashmiresims]

Ambition

First Post | Previous Post | Next Post

Leona Hillenburg wrote out the solution to an equation furiously, her wrist felt like it was going to break off.  It didn’t help that her PEMDAS professor was worked up and circling her like a hawk. Neither of them particularly wanted to be there on a Sunday afternoon but Leona had to make up her midterm somehow.

She took a pause and made a small groan of frustration before erasing a mistake she caught in her numbers.

“You know, you could be a little more grateful,” Professor Carr chided, “I didn’t have to let you make this midterm up.”

“I know, thank you,” she mumbled sheepishly and kept writing, making sure to add a cough in for good measure.

She had told him she had been too ill to come take her midterm the Thursday before. She really had skipped it because it was the same time that the only audition for ‘SimNation Idol’  in Kashmire was being held.

Leona had always been ambitious when it came to making a name for herself concerning music. Her instrument was her voice and she was a damn fine singer. While she didn’t want to fail out of university, her priority was to take every chance she could to achieve her goal.

Professor Carr wandered around the desk.  He erased some markings on the board that looked like some students had come into the lecture hall after hours to play a game of tic-tac-toe.

Leona did the math in her head for the last equation. It was an advanced string of operations. She flexed her brain, calculating the math and everything around her seemed to melt away as she focused. Why was she even taking mathematics? Did it do anything to advance her skills as a singer? No. It was because she had always been good at it and her parents encouraged her to get a degree ‘just in case.’

She hated to think that she could fail at her dreams of becoming a professional singer.  

Then the answer to the equation came to her as she finished up the last formula. “Done,” she chirped out with relief and set down the pencil.

Professor Carr whisked the booklet up and grabbed his coffee, “Leona, may I see you in my office before you leave?”

She didn’t see why she needed to go to his office. She was right there in the lecture hall and she was growing impatient. She had a meeting at noon she couldn’t miss. Nevertheless, she followed the professor to his office in the same building. It was a small space but had enough room to fit a couple of cozy chairs, a bookshelf, and a desk.

He dropped her test booklet on his desk, took a long drink from his coffee container, and then turned around to face her before setting it down. He had a distasteful look of smugness about him.

“Is there anything else you need?” she finally asked.

“Despite your lack of commitment to my class, it’s undeniable that you have a  knack for numbers, you could really take off in this area—even run equations for the SSU robotics programming team.”

Leona didn’t want to have anything to do with the robotics program. Her old flame, Antoine Thackery, was brilliant with robotics and the math that went with it. He was one of the few people who really understood her but he was gone now. He had since graduated and was off halfway across the world giving talks and demonstrations on the advancements he'd made. Robotics had taken him away from her indefinitely and though she had always thought her friend Illyana was ridiculous for her overdramatic grudges, Leona couldn’t help but to have one for those damned robotics projects.  

“Are you done lecturing me, sir?” she nearly snapped. Professor Carr frowned, “I know you weren’t sick on Thursday.”

She couldn’t hide her surprised stare, yet still acted like she didn’t know what he was talking about and kept silent.

“Someone uploaded your SimNation Idol audition to social media,” he went on, “and I’d hate to see you waste your potential. Now, I could automatically fail you for missing your test for no valid reason but that doesn’t benefit anyone.”

She frowned, so he thought she was wasting her time trying to amount to something? What the hell did he know? She didn't understand what he wanted from her and he could see it plain on her face.

“Join the robotics program, run their equations and I will give this the grade it deserves.”

Carr was the faculty advisor for the robotics program. Of course, he could stand to benefit greatly if she joined and her formulas proved to be an asset to the team. There were prestigious college-level robotics competitions and now that Antoine had left the college scene, victory was anyone's game.  Leona filled her cheeks with air in frustration, still a frown of contempt pasted on her face. If she failed the midterm, then she’d go on probation. She had missed a lot of work due to chasing auditions her agent had told her about. She was barely scraping by.  

“Fine, I'll do it,” she let out her breath, sending a curl of hair blowing outward. “Where and when do they meet?”

“Saturday Nights, six o' clock in the engineering facility” he replied. 

Really? They have nothing better to do on a Saturday night than sit around and play with robots? She thought with annoyance but then supposed any college student had their own way of going out to socialize and have fun but robotics didn't fit her idea of fun.  

She gave a curt nod, obviously displeased about the deal, but it was her only option to stay off probation at the moment, "All right."

"Have a good day. See you tomorrow," Professor Carr said dismissively and Leona wasted no time in leaving the building and the professor behind.

Joe's Boxcar Diner was an unassuming little establishment in King's Station, a section of Scandalica City that contained mostly food-related businesses. It was lunch time and there was already a line of hungry patrons waiting to be seated. Leona wasn't there for food, though; it was excitement, not hunger that rumbled in the pit of her stomach. She scanned the room and found her agent already had secured a small table.

Naomi Drake was as shrewd a negotiator as any talent agent. The woman had told Leona to meet her at this diner because she had some news, hopefully regarding an audition or a new gig. Naomi was in the middle of re-applying her lipstick in a hand mirror when Leona approached the table. Her dark eyes roamed upward and she smiled in greeting, "Hey there, how did the SimNation Idol audition go?"

"It was fine, they seemed really impressed anyway," Leona replied then threw up her arms, reminded of the advice Naomi had given her when she told her that her midterm was the same day, "But my professor found out that I skipped my midterm to do it and now I have to join the robotics program or else he'll fail me."

Naomi laughed and put her lipstick back into the purse at her side, "That's a drag. I got some good news for you, though. You better sit down, girl."

Leona promptly took a seat and sat forward with interest, "So what's up?"

"I didn't tell you sooner because I didn't want to get your hopes up but I heard Edric King's reps were looking for some fresh-faced back-up singers for his show in Pandora. I took the initiative and submitted your demo the other week and well, they called this morning and they want you!"

Leona's smile momentarily faltered—she wouldn't be center stage but—at least it was a start! Edric King was a big deal. He had two top 20 hits, was played on the radio, he sold albums and performed at concerts. In fact, she bet that a bunch of teenage girls had posters of him plastered on their walls at this very moment.

"That's great! So is it just a one-time thing? Or will I have to tour with him?" 

"It's a trial basis. If they like you enough, I can negotiate a deal. Either way, this is a good boost to your career."

Leona leaned back in her seat and put her arms up and nodded in agreement. Wow. Singing with Edric King. That really was an opportunity! The more she thought about it, the less she worried about how she was regulated to the background. If she impressed anyone else, it would open more doors for her. She didn't even care to ask how much she could be paid. Naomi would make sure she got the money and take her own cut either way. The money didn't matter to Leona as much as the chance to make progress in her singing career.

"So when is it? The concert in Pandora?" Leona asked.

Naomi swiped through her phone calendar, "It's next Saturday night at the Sunset Amphitheater, he takes the stage at nine-thirty. I'd advise you make a trip out of it and try the casino down there. Also the six-hour drive there and back in a day is no fun.”

Leona nodded but then suddenly felt an awful nagging at the back of her mind. The robotics program met on Saturday nights. Plumbbobs, what an inconvenient time for a stupid extra-curricular group to meet! She grew furious thinking about it. There was no way she was going to throw away this chance! If she made it--if this was the last nudge she needed before she took off--then it wouldn't matter if she were in college or not.  

"I'll do it," she said resolutely.  

There were certain logistics to work out still, Leona realized as she was heading back to her apartment on the SSU campus. Transportation was something of an issue. The bus took twice as long and could get expensive for out-of-city destinations like Pandora, the desert town in southern-most Kashmire.  

Leona didn't even have her driver's license, she grew up in the city where she walked nearly everywhere. llyana, had a jeep, though....

An idea struck Leona then and she called her two best friends to invite them over and break the amazing news.

Alarie Thackery sat on Leona's bed and Illyana was perched on the microphone speaker, both young women wondering what Leona was going to say. They wondered what was so important to have them come over and be left in suspense?  

Leona closed the door behind her and turned around, looking as if though she was going to burst from happiness. "Edric King wants me as a back-up singer at his show next weekend!"  

Alarie squealed and she and Leona were suddenly in a tizzy of excitement.

"Who?" Illyana asked. She didn't listen to the pop station that often and was out of the loop, looking a bit dismayed.

"You must be living under a rock," Alarie snorted, and leaned forward in amusement, "Everyone knows who Edric King is. He's that hot pop singer guy with the hair."

"Well congratulations then," Illyana rolled her eyes, more at Alarie than Leona. She really was happy for Leona now that she understood who she was going to sing with. She probably had heard him on the radio at one point, and just didn’t know it was his song. Illyana's cheer was still very subtle, though. Leona could tell Illyana was still bummed about the break-up. That was the other reason Leona wanted her there.

"So, I thought...maybe we could all go down there next week and have a girly weekend or something since it's Fall break," Leona said, testing the idea.

Alarie perked up, visibly concurring it was a great idea.

Illyana looked...hesitant until realization dawned on her, "You just want me along so I can drive you?"

"No..well yes, I would like you to drive but I would pay for gas and the hotel room" Leona admitted, "Also, I think it'll be good for you. It's warm and sunny down in Pandora. Plus you could get lucky and try your hand at the casino."

"Or you could get lucky and snag yourself a rebound," Alarie wasn't one to mince words and went straight to the point as she leaned back onto Leona’s bed. Illyana could benefit from taking her mind off Adam and focus on someone else, if only for a few days. Pandora was not without a myriad of high rollers—young businessmen and professionals who came to gamble on the weekends from the metropolises of Kashmire.  

Illyana mulled it over, still looking hesitant, but finally nodded with a small smile, "Fine, I'll drive you guys there. What kind of friend would I be if I left you high and dry?"

Alarie and Leona returned the smile and then looked at each other knowingly, next weekend was going to be unforgettable.

[industry5566-blog]

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Corrugated box design is the process of matching design factors for corrugated fiberboard containers with the practical bodily, processing and finish-use necessities. The  straw packing machine machine market is aggressive and the distributors primarily compete based mostly on elements comparable to worth, expertise, and options. 4 Rolls of kraft paper for corrugating can be found in many sizes to fit the manufacturing tools at different corrugating crops. We persistently carry out our spirit of ''Innovation bringing growth, Extremely-high quality guaranteeing subsistence, Management selling profit, Credit attracting clients for Automated Powder Auger Filler Packing Machine, The product will provide to all over the world, comparable to: Curacao , New Delhi , British , We only supply high quality merchandise and we believe that is the one approach to maintain enterprise continue. In fact these flutes only describe single wall bins - while you see a box that claims ‘BC Flute' or ‘AB Flute' this is when a double wall carton has been specified, the first letter is the fluting of the top layer of board and the second letter is the bottom layer. Since their invention, corrugated containers have been primarily used to pack and transport food and beverage products. Take a look at the infographic under that particulars a field's production lifecycle. A report from GlobalData states that just about 70 % of consumers all the time recycle their packaging boards and 50 % of consumers avoid excessively packaged grocery products. For sure, the corrugated market can all the time rely upon the fact that the breakdown of shipment from crops or manufacturing services versus the sheet plants or converters stays unchanged. Even with the volatile worth of the wood pulp, the price of cardboard box stays relatively identical. It's also possible to discover other packaging and printing options such as packaging machine, packing machine, carton machine with competitive worth. Cardboard bins are in fact one of the core merchandise of the packaging trade. China and India dominated the corrugated box making machine market in APAC. Leading packaging companies are already working paper mills that make contemporary, clear kraft paper by de-inking and pulping used containers. Our CORRUGATED BOX MAKING MACHINERY import information solutions meet your precise import requirements in high quality, quantity, seasonality, and geography. To supply nation degree evaluation of the market for phase by software, product kind and sub-segments. Good packaging permits the a number of usage of the field with out dismantling it. This can cut back losses occurred throughout the dismantling of a field and mainly advantages prospects after they choose to return the product. A: We now have a particular QC department answerable for products quality. The increasing recognition of good packaging in the e-commerce business shall be one of many latest developments that may gain traction in the corrugated field making machine market in the course of the next 4 years. As a box or carton plant, we give you the very best high quality field making machinery. Provided are automated and semi-automated box makers for the manufacturing of slotted bins from single, double or triple wall corrugated. The e-commerce trade is rising and will almost definitely proceed for the next decade, so if you're planning for a cardboard box manufacturing enterprise, you ought to be good for the subsequent few many years and if the marketing is correct, you may be an enormous player within the industry. There are 57,074 carton field making machine suppliers, primarily located in Asia. A warp test determines the flatness of the field blank, insuring that each blank will journey smoothly via the flexo machines. Kolbus AutoBox have been producing quality equipment for over forty years. All Machines consist superior know-how, excessive velocity and higher output manufacturing. We will present our prospects with essentially the most high-finish machines and one of the best after-gross sales service. These containers permit the delivery containers to also act as retail packaging. All of the settings can be set through a touch display screen, and operators do not should be geared up with any experience in carton field production.

One roll of cardboard is corrugated and then glued between two different layers. We're fanfold cardboard factory with international trading property, that is to say, we are able to produce the fanfold cardboard and we can export to prospects by ourself. As a result of highly effective manufacturing capacity, low-cost labor, and reliable provider, our carton field machine value may be very aggressive. As customers are moving in direction of purchasing as a subscription, thereby receive totally different products each time, the e-commerce companies have began producing specifically design bins with a novel and hanging design to draw extra prospects. All our packaging products are fabricated from recycled fibers. Committed to engineered high quality and manufacturing reliability for over 35 years, BestPack supplies price effective and highly environment friendly automated and semi-automated case sealers, box erectors & box formers in addition to excessive speed case sealing machines with its distinctive tape sealing machine purposes encompassing a wide range of industries, together with meals and manufactured items. Out of both of these processes the Kraft is either used there and then and as talked about earlier than is darkish brown in color, or bleached in the course of the pulping process to provide a white Kraft. A finished piece of corrugated cardboard is comprised of a single corrugated layer sandwiched between two liners. Then, when a plant receives an order for containers, a product engineer specifies the mix of medium and liner to provide a cardboard to match the shopper's requirement. One roll of cardboard is corrugated after which glued between two other layers (liners) by the same machine. Since the crash of 2008, the corrugated cardboard field market has increased steadily. This can improve the demand for corrugated bins for packaging merchandise. BestPack is the innovation and customization expert for the packaging trade throughout the globe, offering among the greatest case sealers, box tapers & box erectors accessible at this time. We offer a big selection of paper processing machines, together with ice cream paper cone machine, automated paper punching machine, paper cone cup machine, etc. At the end of the corrugator, the cardboard is trimmed and lower into massive sheets, or field blanks, which then slide into a stacker that loads them onto a platform. Clients acknowledge that outsized cardboard boxes aren't environmentally pleasant and it has been identified to influence return gross sales. If I have to call 3 greatest companies in paper product machine class, I would certainly decide SPB machinery for its sheer quality, dedicated support, and top-notch performance. Moreover, products ordered by means of online platforms requires packaging at multiple phases together with the seller and the website. Moreover, the manufacturers are expected to see increasing demand for top-high quality graphics, customization, and distinctive field designs. The top supplying countries or regions are China, Malaysia, and India, which provide 99%, 1%, and 1% of carton box making machine respectively. Many begin-ups are already incorporating advertising content material on their packages and consumers agree that branded packaging has a constructive impact on their product alternative. The global inexperienced packaging market is driven by government and American consumers who now have elevated environmental awareness for all products together with paper packaging items. The first course of in the manufacturing of cardboard box including process the raw materials. Oct 08, 2019 (The Expresswire) - World Corrugated Box Making Machine Market complete analysis of the enterprise fashions, key methods, and individual market shares of a few of the most outstanding players during this panorama. For example, in the US, the Department of Transportation has jurisdiction and published requirements in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations Corrugated containers are described in 4G necessities. Thus recycling of waste paper is in demand, which can be used to produce products like paperboards, binding sheets, sweet field cartons and other packing cartons.

Uncover a broad vary of sustainable, strong and protecting packaging services and products tailored to your wants. air pressure auxiliary cardboard drop, before the back and front of the cardboard field. A educated packaging specialist works with a customer to find out the strength required for the corrugated cardboard container being deliberate. The process begins by making corrugated board on a corrugating line, a long collection of linked machines totaling the scale of a soccer subject. After being glued, the cardboard will likely be conveyed to be formed and picked up to be auto calculated as the preconcert quantity and auto mark withouot stopping manufacturing, construction: Control unit, paper feeding unit, paper transfer unit, glue spreading unit, forming unit, amassing unit. Cardboard or cardboard box manufacturing business is a profitable enterprise within the USA, especially with the ever-rising e-commerce stores. GMS Internationals is China's leading skilled provider and producer of corrugated machines. When the hot paper passes between the corrugating rolls, flutes entice and bend it to form the middle of the corrugated cardboard. Cardboard containers are the most affordable sort of packaging; furthermore, the prices reduces when corporations buy cardboard packing containers in bulk from producers. eight. Prices in machinery and tools, raw materials and the promoting prices of the finished products and many others., are typically prevailing at the time of preparation of the challenge profiles and may fluctuate depending upon numerous components. QINGDAO AOPACK focuses on the on-demand packaging solutions and has developed a series of field making machines with our personal Patents. Our straightforward-to-use machine is capable of producing up to a hundred totally different box kinds, giving your business flexibility on orders. Corrugated packing containers are lightweight and easy to deal with and transport. The feeder transmits the pre-printed and minimize cardboard from the paper shelf to the convey chain and the sends it to the shaping mold, in the course of the procedure, the cardboard has been glued an you can regulate the place of the gluing, the volume of gluing will be measured while in progress withour stopping phrase. Peterson, VPK's Scandinavian packaging division, has launched more particulars of its new manufacturing web site in Halden, Norway. From the flexo, the finished boxes are mechanically stacked and sent to a banding machine to be wrapped for delivery. It affects the varieties of equipment available to manufacturing traces, the measured laboratory efficiency, the sector performance, and the flexibility of end-users to easily and safely open the field. Just lately subscription boxes have caught-up within the eCommerce industry. Kite Packaging have grilled its technologists to tell us precisely what the process is for cleaning the raw materials and processing them to make the cardboard packing containers you buy each day for your business. Paper and paper merchandise are versatile industrial raw supplies with all kinds of application in this period and as a consequence of scarcity of softwood, wood packing instances are increasingly more changed with corrugated board- packing containers and cartons. Nevertheless it's simple to forget that the cardboard boxes you use frequently had been as soon as a not-so-humble tree. The opposite prominent distributors available in the market are Acme Machinery, Related Industrial, Field On Demand, DING SHUNG MACHINERY, EMBA Equipment, MarquipWardUnited, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Natraj Industries, Packsize Worldwide, Serpa Packaging Solutions, Shanghai PrintYoung International Trade, Shengli carton Gear Manufacturing, SUN Automation Group (Langston), SUZHOU KOMAL MACHINERY, T-ROC TOOLS, Valco Melton, and XINTIAN CARTON EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING. gives 10,610 carton field making machine prices products. Their analysis and evaluation focuses on rising market tendencies and offers actionable insights to assist companies establish market alternatives and develop effective methods to optimize their market positions. Many folding carton producers are working to incorporate know-how to combat theft and counterfeit products.

Thanks for choosing BestPack, your whole tape sealing, carton erecting solution supplier, field erector provider and case sealer answer provider. Finally, batches of completed bins are banded together for transport to the food processor, toy maker, vehicle parts distributor, or any of the thousands of companies that depend on corrugated cardboard packaging. MDPI assures great efficiency for very small-amount corrugated bins of many various sizes. Corrugated cardboard is a stiff, sturdy, and light-weight material made up of three layers of brown kraft paper. The FEFCO (European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers) guide is the bible of corrugated cartons, and descriptions each fashion you can imagine - with a number of categories including 01 categories for business rolls and sheets, 02 for slotted-sort packing containers using one piece of glued board, 03 for telescope model packing containers consisting of multiple piece (normally a backside and lid design), 04 for folder type packing containers similar to e-book wrap mailers and 05, 06, 07, 08 and 09 which include more sophisticated kinds. The foremost market driver for corrugated box making machines market arises from the fast growth in lots of African countries, which is anticipated to increase the demand for FMCG and electronics merchandise, owing to the speedy growth in middle-class inhabitants and general disposable incomes. You get the advantages of over forty years of box and corrugated cardboard experience, providing your organization with the tools it needs to fulfill buyer calls for - regardless of the type of box, pallet or carton they require. We have provided the very best level of equipment to tons of of box plants around the globe, as well as enabling finish-user companies to take management over their packaging and get monetary savings. Available to cope with urgent requires corrugated packing containers. Automated Carton Erecting Machine with agency structure, top quality, low noise and high effectivity. The demand for retail-ready corrugated bins is predicted to extend by 7 % each year making up to $3 billion by 2020. The rising urbanization and the growth in center class population that led to the increase in gross sales of products from various industries will subsequently rise the demand for corrugated containers. As quick and medium-run machines, the AutoBox or Boxer take the load from excessive speed converting equipment, allowing lengthy-run machines to work with out interruption and with maximum efficiency. This shift amongst shopper demand has pressured manufacturers to take significant measure to make their packing containers atmosphere-friendly, on the same time letting consumers know of their efforts to attract customers. Other than the talked about info,progress rateof Corrugated Box Making Machine market in 2025is also explained.Moreover, kind wise and utility clever consumptiontables andfiguresof Corrugated Box Making Machine marketare additionally given. Having recently invested in further technological advances within the manufacturing space CartonPack is well poised to have the ability to meet the changes wants of your production requirements. Paperboard packaging is created from recycled products and is better than fossil gas-primarily based plastic packaging. We have a number one organization in offering a supreme quality assortment of Carton Field Making Machineto our prospects. With rising urbanization and development of the middle-class population, the demand for varied products throughout totally different industries is expected to develop through the forecast interval. Paper Board 200-600gsm; corrugated board paper with thickness not exceed 1.5MM. Gigantic, square buildings up to 600 ft lengthy (182.88 meters), these machines comprise a wire mesh during which the paper is initially shaped. World demand for cardboard boxes is ever increasing with almost 60% of all paperboard packaging products getting used within the food phase including beverages, dairy products, dry foods, frozen foods and so on.

Research analysis on the worldwide corrugated field making machine market identifies that development in e- commerce trade will be one of many major elements that will have a optimistic impact on the growth of the market. If you're willing to get into the cardboard box manufacturing business, we imagine it could be a profitable venture. Corrugated packaging is finest fitted to transport and transporting various merchandise which can be fragile in nature. 80% of industrial packaging is done by carton bins as a result of effective cushioning, light weight, simple to fabricate, easy for storing, straightforward for disposal, no strapping essential, printing and advertising advantages, must in export market, recyclable etc. We concentrate on corrugated packing containers, custom shows, labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons, rigid bins, moving and transport provides, and specialty and protective packaging. As a result of corrugated cardboard is such a flexible packaging material, tens of millions of tons are used annually to guard and show merchandise. Situated in Faridabad (Haryana, India), we're a Sole Proprietorship agency engaged in offering a high-quality range of products. Boix delivers tray forming machines in Europe and is the market leader in forming and gluing each corrugated and stable board packaging. It begins by pulping wood chips utilizing a kraft process; the preferred tree for the kraft paper is a pine tree. This manufacturing line consists of three units:Printing Slotting Die-reducing Unit, Folding Gluing Unit,Stacking Unit(optionally available). T-ROC's automated box making machines are designed to create custom on demand bins of any size eliminating the necessity for packing peanuts, bubble wrap and different pointless fillers. Autobox is a subsidiary firm of Kolbus AutoBox, which began life in the UK, and was established to deliver field making machines to North America. To analyse the Corrugated Box Making Machine market based on varied factors- worth analysis, supply chain analysis, porter 5 pressure analysis and many others. This industry is without doubt one of the significant consumers of paperboard, producing boxes and cartons for practically all kinds of trade in the market. Vertical columns provide the very best box efficiency whereas interlocking patterns of packing containers considerably scale back performance. The corrugated box market within the US primarily witnesses demand from the food and beverage trade. Like EMEA, the Americas witnessed a sluggish progress in the demand for numerous services and products owing to the financial slowdown throughout 2012-2015. The Corrugated Box Making Machine industry report firstly introduced the Corrugated Box Making Machine Market fundamentals: sort functions and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost buildings, raw materials and so on. Carton box making machine merchandise are hottest in United States, Mexico, and Bulgaria. Furthermore, it is a B2B enterprise, so, you must have the ability to produce a lot of packing containers to fulfill giant orders from businesses. 7. The information equipped is predicated on a typical type of producing exercise utilizing conventional methods of manufacturing at optimum level of performance. With a turnover of over 200 crores, SPB Equipment offers paper related machines for a wide range of products. Nevertheless for high-quality boxes virgin Kraft continues to be used. Solarco Equipment was founded in 1990 and specializes within the manufacturing of boxmaking machines designed for mid and quick runs. The beginning of 2016 witnessed a gradual enhance in the demand for corrugated box making machines owing to the rise within the demand for packaging supplies,” provides Gaurav. For partition boxes the half slotted boards are used which may conveniently be produced over a partition spotter machines. Our staff of in-house experts provides specialized services that can bring your model to life. International Corrugated Field Making Machine Market 2019report provides key statistics on the market standing of the Corrugated Box Making Machine Manufacturers and is a beneficial source of steering and direction for companies and people interested in the Corrugated Field Making Machine Business.

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Kyrik, Earl Norem, Stormbringer RPG, Denny O’Neill

T.V. (RMWC Reviews): In 1973, Tsuburaya Productions released several shows as part of the company’s 10th anniversary. The first one to see release was Fireman (or Magma Man in some markets), which began airing on Nippon Television on January 7, 1973, running until July for 30 episodes.

Warfare (Aeoli Pera): The typical special forces trainee who passes selection has a higher rank (officers were far more likely to pass than enlisted), at least a bachelor’s degree, high general personality factor with extremely high conscientiousness, no children, and verbally tilted IQs averaging in the 120s. This study looks at Ranger school but it’s true across all special operations services in the Western world. Please note that, except for measuring the ability to do pullups, these exact predictors could be used to select head girls for graduate departments in the humanities and social sciences.

Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): Interested in superheroes? If you’re reading this post then there’s a good chance you do! But how much? Check out this new bundle of hero books compiled by immortal SF author Kevin J. Anderson. The offer is for a limited time, so don’t miss out! The description for the bundle is as follows: The Up, Up and Away Superheroes Bundle – Curated by Kevin J. Anderson: If reading is your kryptonite, I’ve put together a superpowered StoryBundle—thirteen books with marvelous heroes, supervillains, secret identities, mutant powers, and extraordinary gentlemen (and ladies).

Popular Culture (Legends of Men): Why do these guys virtue signal? They’re saying this type of thing to other readers of S&S and REH and the pulps. The entire readership obviously enjoys these genres with as much or as little diversity as they already have. Past works cannot be changed and what made them popular once is more likely to make them popular again than changing the nature of what they are. So do some readers feel the need to virtue signal to other readers?

Reading (DVS Press): How many times have you seen a movie and though, “Man, the book was so much better,” or had a friend who read the book say the same to you? I can definitely say that the cases where the movie is better than the book are far outweighed by the reverse – probably in the range of 20:1. In fact, the only writer whose work seems to function better on screen than on paper is Stephen King, and even then there are plenty of books in his exceptionally large canon that are much better than their cinema counterpart (anyone remember The Dark Tower? I hope not).

Science Fiction (John C. Wright): Sometimes in this life we see justice done. The Nebula Awards have just honored Gene Wolfe with a Grandmastership. The honor is overdue, and all lovers of literature should rejoice. Gene Wolfe is the Luis Borges of North America. He is the greatest living author writing in the English language today, and I do not confine that remark to genre authors. I mean he is better than any mainstream authors at their best, better in the very aspects of the craft in which they take most pride.

Culture War (Kairos): This is why they hate Japan. This the material manifestation for why they can’t handle the Beautiful and seek to degrade before they destroy; the humiliation is intended as much to assuage the abuser’s amygdala as it is to afflict the victim’s, a “No You, Christcuck!” retort as they rip the beautiful apart before finishing the job. The cruelty is part of the process by design. The shitlords–God bless you all–at /pol/ noticed that this applies to all of the cultural attacks.

Art (DMR Books): When Earl demobilized, he went into magazine illustration, mostly for the “Men’s Adventure” mags. Such magazines have also been called “men’s pulps” and “sweat mags”. Essentially, they were magazines that somewhat carried on from the actual pulps–which died out in the 1950s–but were printed on “slick” paper. A significant percentage of their readers were veterans of World War Two and Korea who were looking for manly stories featuring action and beautiful women.

Comic Books (Diversions of the Groovy Kind): As most of you know, Groove-ophiles, Denny O’Neil, one of the most influential writers of the Groovy Age passed away at the age of 81 on Friday, June 12. Much has been written about O’Neil during the past week, and that’s how it should be. During the 1970s, O’Neil changed the way we would think about Batman in particular and comics in general forever (in tandem, naturally, with artist Neal Adams, mostly, but also with a host of other artistic luminaries from Irv Novick to Mike Kaluta to Jack Kirby to Mike Grell).

Robert E. Howard (Don Herron): Something I didn’t know much about, was a bank robbery that had occurred in the little town of Cisco on December 23, 1927, over 80 years earlier. The so-called Santa Claus Bank Robbery was a story I had heard about, of course, but the Kris Kringle business had conjured up images of a gang comprised of members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the Bowery Boys. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

RPG (Black Gate): Chaosium’s Stormbringer! was a licensed product based on Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné secondary world fantasy series. The game engine used modified Basic Roleplaying mechanics; in particular, magic worked very differently in Stormbringer than in Runequest. Characters could come from a wide variety of backgrounds; power-gamers preferred certain back-grounds over others because there was no pretense of game balance between them.

Heinlein (Black Gate): It’s almost impossible to discuss Robert A. Heinlein’s The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes without revealing and thus spoiling the plot devices of it and its 1980 prequel/sequel, The Number of the Beast—. Heinlein, first Grand Master of the SFWA, for decades acclaimed as the Dean of sf, no longer pleases everyone. Some readers, especially academic critics, have denounced both books as grossly self-indulgent and even worthless. Others, like the brilliant Marxist professor H. Bruce Franklin (in his important 1980 study Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction) catch the feel of Beast: “a cotton-candy apocalypse — frothy, sweet, airy, mellow, light, festive, whimsical, insubstantial” (199).

Sword-and-Sorcery (Ken Lizzi): I’ve read a few of Gardner Fox’s Kothar books. So when I saw his name on the cover of Kyrik Fights the Demon World I didn’t hesitate to snatch up the book. No one will claim that Fox was a master stylist. Take this paragraph from page one of Demon World. And so Makonnon quested through spatial emptiness into lands that had known him, long and long ago. He sent his mind across unfathomable distances, seeking, hunting, searching for that which so infuriated him.

RPG (Cyborgs and Sorcerers): Vancian Freeform Magic. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms.  It isn’t.  You’ll see. I love the idea of free-form spell systems because they allow for endless creativity, and for me, creative problem-solving is the biggest source of fun in RPGs.  In practice though, people often come up with a few favorite spells they cast over and over.  This system was designed to prevent that by continually varying the tools in the free-form spellcaster’s toolbox. It’s a noun-verb system like Ars Magicka, except the nouns and verbs are not skills you’re permanently trained in.

Tolkien (Tolkien and Fantasy): The details of Tolkien’s epistolary friendship with the US editor, writer and sculptor Sterling Lanier (1927-2007) are difficult to ascertain, and various accounts differ as to the chronology and extent of their correspondence.  In 1973, Lanier wrote that “it began in 1951” and amounted to some “dozen or so letters we exchanged over the years.” In a 1974 fanzine profile of Lanier by Piers Anthony, it notes that Lanier had had “ten years of correspondence” with Tolkien. In 2016,  a book dealer had for sale six letters from Tolkien to Lanier, plus one from Tolkien’s wife.

Science Fiction (M. Porcius): I enjoyed my recent look at the 1950 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories with Leigh Brackett’s “The Dancing Girl of Ganymede” and Henry Kuttner’s “The Voice of the Lobster,” so, to take a break from my rereading of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, I propose spending some time reading more stories by Brackett and Kuttner from Thrilling Wonder (we might end up checking out some Thrilling Wonder contributions by Brackett’s husband, Edmond Hamilton, as well.)

RPG (Swords and Stitchery): I have used & abused B4 The Lost City adventure & its inhabitants  for years now a venerable pulp  module created by Tom Moldvay.  “”The Lost City” (1982) was the first adventure written entirely for the second edition Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1981). No surprise, then, that it was written by the author of that set, Tom Moldvay. ” Today I’ve been thinking about specifically adapting this module as perhaps a starter to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition as an introductory module.

History (Outlook India): Tucked into Pakistan’s remote northwestern hills, along the border with Afghanistan, is a cluster of three villages whose residents are still trying to preserve their language and culture in the face of advancing modernity and religious conversion. The tribe, known as Kalash, is said to have descended from soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great who travelled this way in 324 BCE. However, many scholars deny the story even though it has not been established finally yet how these people, their language, dress, and their nature-worshipping culture—in marked contrast to the Islamic culture that surrounds them—evolved and survived through the centuries.

Fiction (Dark Worlds Quarterly): I used to use the words “Pulp-descended fiction” and it was the source of RAGE m a c h i n e Books. I wanted to capture that feeling that good Pulp writing gives you. What that really means is I grew up on authors who wrote during the Pulps and those who followed, they too influenced by those five decades of magazine publishing. The world has since moved on, with television and paperback novels, comic books (now called “graphic novels”). Despite this, Pulp remains with us. Not in the packaging but under the surface.

Sensor Sweep: Kyrik, Earl Norem, Stormbringer RPG, Denny O’Neill published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[aftubes4]

The Advantages and Benefits of PTFE Lined Marked Tube

Polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE lined marked tubes, also commonly known as Teflon is a wonderfully versatile opaque plastic fluoropolymer; it is usually made by a method known as the free-radical polymerization of many tetrafluoroethylene molecules and is suitable for a wide range of applications in industries such as aerospace. But it uses are not limited to the aerospace industry only, as it also serves food and drink industry, pharmaceuticals and telecoms.

Properties of PTFE Lined Marked Tube -which makes it indispensable for most Industries

The melting point of PTFE is around 327°C, and the pure PTFE tube fittings are completely chemically inert, and insoluble in most solvents or chemicals, and it is temperature resistant and can be used between -200 degrees C and +260 degrees C without degrading. Other properties of PTFE that set it apart from other tubes are its high flexural strength, which can stay put even under extremely low temperatures, dielectric strength and high electrical resistance to water and add to that low coefficient of friction. PTFE’s density is pretty high as well, at 2200 kg/m3 it seems pretty impressive. The Advantages and Important Properties of PTFE

We know that PTFE is an extremely versatile pipe and the range of applications and its use in a wide number of industries is phenomenal. The use of PTFE and its benefits can mostly be found in manufacturing and engineering, so it is not only about making tubes or liners for storing or transferring corrosive chemicals, but it also increases the shelf life of bearings or screws and also the machinery they are part of. A PTFE-coated screw is resistant to corrosion, because of PTFE’s ability to repel oil and water, and lubricated by the material and enable it to smoothly drive into whatever surface it is fastened to. This helps in reduced friction and also less wear and tear on the screw and the surface, both and flaunts a longer-lasting secure finish. The main factors with bearings are friction, and a PTFE coat can boast of similar benefits quite similar to coating screws of course also providing the additional advantage of the coating is heat-resistant. A machine can be longer lasting and boasting of higher-performance parts can add to the efficiency of any machinery,  will not require constant replacement of its essential parts, save money and also improve the time and efficiency as well as reducing waste, all thanks to quality PTFE lined tubes. So, it will greatly reduce, or rule out, any expensive manufacturing downtime due to any niggling faults or repairs. The frequencies of cleaning of equipment can also be drastically reduced in some cases all because a PTFE coat is non-wetting, enables self-cleaning of certain parts. Another great advantage of PTFE is that it is non-toxic and humans do not get affected by polymer fume fever if the temperature of any Teflon-coated pans reaches 260 degrees centigrade. The fact that it is also FDA approved and food-safe makes this material really advantageous to us.

[seattleseo1]

The Definitive Guide to Successful SaaS Marketing: Grow Your SaaS Business the Smart Way

Just a few years ago, businesses were skeptical about Software as a Service (SaaS). They associated it with security risks, but a lot has changed in the course of time. According to research by Intuit, approximately 85% of small businesses are willing to invest in SaaS.

Changes in technology have influenced this change. The reliance on digital and mobile devices will see many businesses adopt SaaS solutions. The prediction is that by 2020, 25% of organizations will run their core systems on SaaS.

You don’t want to be left behind as businesses become more adoptive of SaaS solutions. This definitive guide will show you how to grow your SaaS business using SaaS marketing strategies.

Keep on reading to learn more!

What is SaaS Marketing?

SaaS is a concept that refers to Software as a Service. It allows users to connect and use cloud-based apps on the internet. More explicitly, businesses hire an application so that the users can connect from different locations.

The internet is a requirement for the successful connection by the users. If your business provides software as a service, you need strategies for marketing. SaaS marketing refers to the approach you use to get the SaaS to your clients.

There are several strategies that you can use to get the highest level of returns possible.

The difference between SaaS businesses and product-based businesses is that there’s no tangible product to offer. Convincing a user to buy a software tool is more tasking than persuading them to buy a computer.

Marketing a digital product should be no different from promoting a physical one, but it is. A physical product depends on a single sale to generate revenue. Most SaaS solutions, however, depend on ongoing subscriptions to generate more revenue.

Many SaaS products follow a specific three-step process

Acquisition of new users

Monetization

Retention

Many businesses mostly focus on the acquisition step. This would be a massive mistake to SaaS-based firms.

Price Intelligently analyzed the impact of improvements in each of the three stages. They found that 1% improvements created more effect at the monetization and retention stages. Acquiring new clients is essential, but not as monetizing and retention.

Any SaaS marketing strategy you adopt should take into account the three steps for more effectiveness.

Getting Started with SaaS Marketing Strategy

If you don’t have a strategy for earning and retaining customers, you’ve come to the right place. Here are five steps that’ll lead you in the right direction. You can be sure that they take into account the three stages of online marketing into account.

1. Create Appealing Content for Your Audience

Content marketing is one of the approaches that most businesses use to attract new users. You want to provide your target audience with the information they want to read. You should know what your potential clients search for online.

Depending on the search engine results, you can tailor your content through SEO to suit what they’re searching. Strive to optimize your content so that the searches convert into leads. You can experiment with various content formats to determine the one that works best.

You should do more than just publish posts every few weeks. Remember that you compete with many SaaS businesses. If you want to remain relevant, you must put in extra effort in SaaS marketing.

To make money at the monetization stage, communicate to your clients using case studies. It’s easier to convince them if they can see the impact of the SaaS solutions. You can identify customers from your user base who are willing to be case study subjects.

Get some background information about their business. Combine it with data related to the SaaS success, and you might have winning content.

Remember that you can also use content for retention. Have a tutorial section where you encourage users to invest in video. After your clients have bought your Saas Products, they need help with getting the most out of it.

2. Create a Value Proposition

If your content has no value proposition, you’re doing something wrong. You need a clear explanation of what problem your solution solves, and who should buy it. The statement also convinces the reader why they should buy from you.

Without it, there’s a pillar missing from the foundation of your marketing efforts. Sending out email campaigns or buying ad words, without a value proposition, don’t have any impact. Much of your SaaS marketing budget will be going to waste.

One tip in creating a value proposition is that it should have a long shelf-life. This means that you can’t keep changing it every few months. Your clients will lose track of your business message, and you’ll definitely lose them.

However, a value proposition is not cast on stone. As the market trends change over time, you should adjust the message you put forth. New market trends make mainstream buyers displace adventurous buyers.

New competitors will also come into the market, changing the expectations of buyers. A feature that was once a strong selling point may no longer be novel.

Keep in touch with your customers to know when the value proposition needs to change Talk to them on a regular basis. Find out why they’re buying, who is making the decision, and why they are buying your solution.

A few open-ended conversations done monthly or quarterly will provide a lot of information. Pick the crucial bits that will point you towards the need to change your value proposition.

3. Provide Product Trials

Product trails are crucial in lead generation in SaaS marketing. Customers want to test products first before they can commit their money in purchases. The trials work effectively if your target market is tech-savvy and wants to experience the product.

One advantage of product trials is that they continue to generate leads with little market investment.

However, you should ensure that users have a positive experience in the product trial phase. Consider providing support in case the product has some degree of complexity of use. Your audience should be able to make one-to-one calls or participate in group webinars.

Product trials are a reliable indicator of the intention to purchase. Investing their time to learn your product means they are likely to buy. Track such clients very closely.

Strive to strike a balance between showing them the value of your product and overwhelming them. Do this in a cost-effective and light-touch manner.

Success with product trial doesn’t mark the end of the road. You have just won half the battle. The other half is getting your audience to purchase and activate your SaaS solution.

It’s more than sending emails to remind the users when the free version will expire. Create a strategy to encourage users to move to the activated version. Track the actions that a user hasn’t taken up with the trial product.

The aim is to make them become familiar with the entire product while it’s still free. At the end of the trial period, they’ll know what they’ll gain by becoming paid subscribers.

4. Work on Your Pricing Strategy

If you prefer the traditional sales model, pricing may not be a marketing strategy to you. In SaaS marketing, pricing goes hand in hand with the sales model.

Converting trial version users into paid subscribers is a huge part of SaaS marketing. Pricing has a very significant role to play.

Using a pricing model can help you establish a steady flow of revenue. Your success depends on how well you can generate ongoing subscriptions. Getting clients to sign up on an annual subscription basis is the best-case scenario.

It’s advisable to do a few experiments with the pricing strategy. This will help you establish the best way to present the agreements to the audience. The time you invest in the trials will be worth the effort if the subscriptions pay off.

5. Use Referral Marketing

Referrals happen to be effective lead generation strategies. They are typically low cost and tend to close relatively quickly. Unfortunately, many businesses lack a referral program despite knowing its importance.

Think critically about the approach you will use in the referral program. If you do not incentivize, you might get no referrals. If you incentivize too heavily, you might end up with low-value referrals. Begin by testing what works for your SaaS business and work with that.

Before you focus on optimizing the referral program, you need first to launch it. You can create a landing page on your website where people make referrals. Alternatively, you can use software that powers the program from start to finish.

Explain to your audience what makes a good referral. It could be the industry, the size of the company, or the job title of the referral. Remember to be clear about the incentives you’ll give.

The marketing team can make it easy by drafting the referral template to use. It’s most important is to make it easy for the sales rep to ask for referrals.

6. Use Social Media

You’d be surprised to know how many hours potential clients spend on social media. If you already have a presence there, make it stronger. Ensure that you’re visible in all the channels where buyers are likely to see you.

Social media allows you to target ads to your target audience. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are very effective as lead generation platforms for local marketing. You can also use valuable content on these platforms to attract visitors.

7. Use Co-marketing Strategies

Have you thought of collaborating with other SaaS businesses to run a co-marketing campaign? You can team up with a company that completes your product. More broadly, consider one that shares a similar approach to business and marketing.

Co-marketing is when two businesses come together to enhance their promotional efforts. Both companies have the responsibility of promoting a piece of content. The results of the promotion are shared between the two companies.

Co-marketing campaigns, if well implemented, can deliver more leads, awareness, and buzz with much less effort.

There are no fixed rules about co-marketing. Generally, the idea is to create a piece of content as a team. For example, they could come up with an e-book, or published research findings.

Another idea is to host a webinar. Each of the companies brings their contribution to the table. It creates an opportunity for the companies to leverage each other’s following.

There’s potential for each business to reach a different audience.

Depending on the alignment of the companies, co-marketing can be very useful. There should be an understanding of the expectations at the beginning to avoid conflict. When deciding on co-marketing, the purpose of the partnership must be similar for both parties.

It can be a challenge to work with a partner whose needs are different. Goals might crash if your partner wants to increase sales while you want to optimize our site. It’ll be hard to find a project that can meet both requirements.

Co-marketing is a cost-effective approach to generating leads. You can also demonstrate your leadership through what you contribute to content creation. Examples of companies that have effectively co-marketed are HubSpot and LinkedIn.

SaaS Marketing – Take Away

SaaS marketing does not have to be complicated. The concept may sound foreign, but the actual process is something you can do with ease.

Factors like acquisition and lead generation cost matter, but they mean nothing without a great product. A unique product will make the process of acquisition, monetization, and retention easy and doable.

Great content will play a great role in generating leads, but not without great customer support. You can also optimize your content to increase its chances of popping up among the top searches.

Your SaaS marketing strategy will get better with product trials. Buyers want to know what they’re getting before they buy. Add a good pricing strategy, and you’ll be on your way to getting paid subscribers.

Do not forget social media and referrals. What you post on social media can break or make your business. If you do all these right, you’ll see your SaaS business grow.

Do you have any nagging question? We’re here to help you; just contact us.

The post The Definitive Guide to Successful SaaS Marketing: Grow Your SaaS Business the Smart Way appeared first on TopSpot SEM Online Marketing Services Seattle.

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TF*IDF for SEO: Test Results and Tool Comparison

You may have seen the term TF*IDF being tossed around in the last year or so, but no one could blame you if you haven’t started paying attention yet.

A lot of SEO fads come and go, and some of the most interesting ones just end up attracting penalties, later on, right?

But TF*IDF is something a little different.

It’s not a manipulation of search engines; it’s a method of analyzing the topics in content, and it’s built on the same principles as the search engines themselves. Because of that, it has amazing potential for SEOs who need a truly objective method to measure and improve content.

I just recently wrapped up a case study into exactly what it’s capable of, and the results are quite interesting.

In case some of you are where I was only a few months ago, I want to make sure that I cover what I learned about TF*IDF, and how it’s used before I get to what I learned from my personal experiments with it.

The crash course starts in the next section, but if you’re an experienced user already, you can find the results of my personal tests and some comparisons of the top TF*IDF tools near the end.

Looking forward to your questions and comments.

What is TF*IDF?

So what is TF*IDF? An acronym? An equation? A really obscure text emoji?

It’s at least two of those things.

In literal terms, it means Term Frequency times Inverse Document Frequency.

TF*IDF is an equation that combines those two measurements—the measurement of how frequently a term is used on a page (TF), and the measurement of how often that term appears in all pages of a collection (IDF) — to assign a score, or weight, to the importance of that term to the page.

I know… nerd alert, right?

We’ll look at why this is so important to SEOs in a bit, but first, let’s look at where it came from.

The equation has a very long history in academia, where researchers in fields as diverse as linguistics and information architecture have used it as a way to analyze massive libraries of documents in a short amount of time.

It’s also used by information retrieval programs (including all search engines) to efficiently sort and judge the relevance of millions of results.

There is an important difference between what you want to do and what the search engine wants to do with this same information.

The search engine wants to consider a collection made up of all the results on the web while you want to compare one page or website to just the sites that are out-performing it…. namely the top 10.

Let’s look at TF and IDF in more depth…

The Equations that take you to TF*IDF

You need to do a little more math to get both of the measurements involved, that is TF and IDF. but I promise it won’t be difficult. Depending on the application, the equations for TF*IDF can get a lot more complicated than the examples I’m using below.

Simplified or not, you generally don’t want to be caught doing this work by hand if you’re trying to optimize a site. These equations will help you understand how TF*IDF functions, but it’s the tools I’m discussing at the end that really open up the potential.

Solve the first one, Term Frequency, by doing a raw count of the number of times a term appears on one page. Then, plug that number into the equation below:

Term frequency = (raw count of terms) / (total word count of document)

Alone, the TF score can tell you whether you’re using a word too rarely or too often, but it’s only really useful when weighed against the other measure.

Calculate the Inverse Document Frequency by dividing the number of documents the term appears in by the total number of documents in the chosen collection, like so:

Inverse Document Frequency (term) = log (number of docs / (docs containing keyword)

With the IDF score, you can now measure the importance of a phrase to a page, not just its number of uses. This is important because it’s putting you in the mindset of the people who are building search engine algorithms.

Why does it Matter to SEOs?

The end goal of being able to fill out this equation is to be able to give an actionable relevance score to your content. Using the TF*IDF tools available now, you can then compare your scores to the scores of the top-performing pages for any term.

By grading pages on this measure, you can nearly pull back the curtain on how Google might grade sites dedicated to the same topic.

It’s unknown if Google is using TF*IDF in their algorithm, and if they are, is it a mutated form of it or not? That said, there have been some private correlation studies that I’ve been privy whose data suggests that it’s likely.

TF*IDF analysis allows you to optimize the balance of terms in your content according to what is already being rewarded by the algorithm.

That’s huge for SEOs because it marks the return of something all the old hats knew and…loved?

Keyword Density Returns?

Nope. No one loved the days when keyword density reigned.

However, TF*IDF could mark a return to the primacy of phrases and keywords as an important marker—just in a very different way.

The thing is, Google never even relied on keyword density as a measure of value.  It just appeared as if they did to people who didn’t understand how the algorithm really worked.

Instead, keyword density strategies were an early attempt to game out how Google was really using TF*IDF for its indexing and recall.

People were trying to keyword stuff, so then algos and filters came out to combat it (hi, panda).

So, in a way, keyword density is back.  It ran away from home as a surly teen and has returned as a mature adult with a degree in the sciences.

Keyword density was an early, limited tactic that mostly encouraged bad habits. Measuring term usage with TF*IDF will give you an idea (at least as far as the top results are using them) balance. It reveals what is considered natural, in a very precise way.

Using TF*IDF to enhance Keyword Research

TF*IDF goes a step further than keyword density in the way that it opens you to insights about whole families of words on a website.

For example, imagine that you’ve already completed keyword research to optimize a page for “DUI lawyer Chicago”. Most keyword research tools are going to spit out keywords like “DUI lawyer in chicago”, “chicago DUI attorney”, etc.

When you use the TF*IDF tools that I’m covering later on, you’ll also be able to find related non-SEO terms that are being used by the top-ranked pages that you would have never found before using normal keyword research. Terms like “legal”, “experienced”, “rights” and “practice”.

These words wouldn’t have shown up in keyword research tools because the articles themselves aren’t ranking for them, yet they’re needed to tell the story of the search intent.

Let’s put the equation to use.

Fortunately, you won’t need to do it by hand for your sites. There’s always a tool to use, and you’re only a few scrolls from seeing the ones I’ve tested for results.

Putting TF*IDF to Use

At this point you may be having high school flashbacks, twisting around in your chair looking desperately for the wall clock that will tell you when you’re free.

Don’t worry, this time, I’m going to do the math. Immediately after this, we’ll get to the juicy stuff—How to put TF*IDF to use.

Let’s take a look at the equation in action…

Say that a document, such as a client’s landing page you’re examining, contains the term “PPC” 12 times, and is about 100 words in length. If you wanted to begin analyzing this piece of content, you would begin by plugging that into the term frequency equation from earlier.

TF (PPC) = (12 / 100) = 0 .12

Now, say that you wanted to understand how this usage compared to the usage of this term on the rest of the web. From a sample size of 10,000,000, at least some of these pages are going to be about web services and will include references to PPC. Let’s say, 300,000 of them.

We can use those numbers to finish the Inverse-Document Frequency equation.

IDF (PPC) = log (10,000,000/300,000) = 1.52

Now you score your page based on that term with the TF*IDF equation

TF*IDF (PPC) = 0.12 * 1.52 = 0.182

That’s a great score. Or is it?

The truth is, it’s not really a matter of meeting a limit. You want to bring your score for targeted terms into balance with the best-performing URLs on page 1.

A high score for a certain term isn’t necessarily a good thing (12 uses in 100 words is a lot, after all).

What about Common Terms like “the” and “of”?

You may be wondering, what about the noise?

What about all the common words like “of”, “the” or “and”? Because of the way the equation is structured, this noise isn’t really a problem.

The entire set of documents uses these words frequently, so the prominence of those words is scaled down considerably.

Let’s go back to the equation. To really illustrate the difference, we’ll say that there are as many uses of “of” on the page as there are of “PPC”.

TF (OF) = (12 /100) = 0 .12

But look what happens when we finish the IDF equation with the knowledge that the vast majority of results are going to contain the word “of”, say 8,000,000 of them.

IDF (OF) = log (10,000,000/8,000,000) = 0.09

That would make the final TF*IDF value:

TF*IDF (OF) = 0 .12 * 0.09 = 0.010

The TF*IDF value increases proportionally to the number of times the phrase is used in the document, but in this case, it is so offset by the frequency of the word throughout the rest of the collection, that its value score is cratered compared to the last example.

In other words, the more common the word is, the smaller IDF becomes.

What about Phrases?

Search engines tend to give an outsize weight to multi-word phrases over single terms.

This is especially true when the natural quality of language is being considered.

Naturally, you want to carry these considerations over to how you perform your TF*IDF assessments.

Fortunately, that takes no extra effort on your part. Most TF*IDF tools are capable of calculating keywords as 2-word and 3-word versions.

When TF*IDF was used exclusively for academic and research purposes, terms were already calculated as either 2-word sets called bigrams, or 3-word sets called trigrams. That same practice was adopted by search engines, so it’s important to analyze your content the same way they do.

Using the example of a PPC page from before, let’s look at a phrase that might appear on that page, and what the phrases may suggest about the topic.

“A PPC campaign needs many ads”

Each set of two words in this phrase could be calculated as a set of bigrams.

A PPC

PPC campaign

campaign needs

etc.

When a third word is added, it becomes even clearer how much important context is added when longer phrases are considered.

A PPC Campaign

PPC campaign needs

campaign needs many

etc.

Not all TF*IDF tools are capable of handling more than two combinations. I’ll go into more detail into the capabilities of each in the tool comparison located further down.

How to use TF*IDF

TF*IDF fits neatly into the content development process of almost any SEO.

It’s a method of learning more before you’ve started building content, and then knowing where and how to perfect it again.

Once you’ve chosen a tool, only it’s a step-by-step process to get more insight into each keyword choice. If you have not chosen a TF*IDF tool yet, you can find the data from the tests I performed with them in the next section.

1) Write content

Write content to the highest standards you know, or refer to a piece of content that you’re optimizing for a client. Create a list of one, two or three-word topics that you want to cover and take it to the TF*IDF tool that you’ve chosen.

Your goal here is to target keywords and the URLs of the top domains that target them to reveal what topics you are missing, and what topics you aren’t covering in enough depth.

2) Plug into a TF*IDF tool

Each tool works in a slightly different way, as you’ll be able to see, below. They also track different information, but the most useful ones are geared toward helping you understand how your competitors are finding success with their use of keywords.

Take advantage of any features your chosen tool has to help you discover terms that are associated with the top 10-20 top-ranking URLs, and then produce scores that reflect the weight of each other term they’re using.

3) Re-optimize content

Now that you have a complete idea of the topics covered by each of your competitors and an understanding of how frequently those words are used, you can use that information to refine your own content.

Take a second pass at the content and look for natural ways to introduce topics that you haven’t covered yet. Remember, your motivation is not to stuff unnaturally, but to restore natural connections where they’re currently missing.

4) Publish

Publish the content updated with the insights that you’ve recently gleaned from your searches. From here, you can continue to analyze it, and any changes in the ranks.

5) Show before and after TF*IDF graphs

One of the rewards of TF*IDF is that it allows you to track performance at a very minute level. Before and after each adjustment you make to your content, you can produce graphs of how the balance of topics on your pages has changed. These are useful to clients who are interested in seeing specific metrics for changes you’re making in their content.

Now, we’re ready to get into the part you’ve been waiting for!

I’ve had a chance to play with all of the biggest TF*IDF tools on my own sites, and I have a lot to show you about what they can do.

But first, let me share some results I’ve gotten from testing TF*IDF in the actual Interwebs.

Testing Results

I’d like to preface this section by saying that I’ve actually been testing TF*IDF for over a year.

Ever since I first looked into niche-based semantic density algorithms, the concept struck a harmonious chord with me.

And although the right mindset going into any kind of experimentation is agnosticism, I really wanted TF*IDF to work.

That said… for a very long time, I got lackluster results.

And then things changed.

I’m about to walk you through the timeline, but first, let me describe how I tested it.

Identifying Testcases for TF*IDF Experiments

Creating single-variable test structures is quite challenging for this particular scenario.

What is a single variable test?

In a super controlled test environment, you would have two groups of testcases.

One group would be the control group.

In the control group, you don’t change anything.  You’re simply getting a “baseline” result to compare against the experimental group.

The experimental group is completely identical to the control group in most regards.

The web pages might have the same types of backlinks, they target the same keywords, etc.  All these variables must be similar and constant between each other, or else the test is flawed.

However, with the experimental group, you change one thing.  This is the “single variable”.  And in this case, it would be TF*IDF optimization.

For the websites in the experimental group, you would perform TF*IDF optimization, let them sit, and then compare the results against the control group.

The challenge with SEO testing is that you can never control all the variables.  There’s always noise coming along in the form of backlinks, traffic, competition, algorithm changes, etc.

You know how SEO is.  It’s noisy AF.

One way people like to create SEO tests is by using gibberish words.

Let’s say we create 10 inner-pages on the same domain, all targeting some made-up word like “flubblegoblin”.

They’d take up the entire first page of Google since there’s no search results for “flubblegoblin” (yet).

These pages would be very similar in length, optimization, etc.

You could then optimize three of them with TF*IDF, let them sit, and then if TF*IDF works, they should start ranking #1-3, right?

But this approach is flawed from the start.

You’d have to optimize their content with respect to all the other pages you’ve built, which were already created similarly to each other.

Thus, if you set up the experiment correctly from the beginning, there would be no optimization possible.  They’re already identical.

So dead end here too.

Alas, I went with the following approach to testing.

I would isolate multiple pages on multiple live websites that had the following characteristics:

Static rankings for at least a month’s time

Not receiving any backlinks or internal link juice

I would then apply TF*IDF optimization and let them sit for about 30 days and look out for increases or decreases in rankings.

I’m not entirely happy with this approach as a lot of “noise” can enter in this experiment structure from algorithm changes, the websites aging themselves, etc.

So, I decided to combat this inaccuracy, by testing over multiple phases and many different pages.

Now onto the show.

Phase 1 – Between December 2017 and March 2018

Aka, the dark ages.

Optimization tools:

My first experiments with TF*IDF optimization were run between the dates mentioned above.

I ran experiments on three different occasions, on 12 different URLs, and tracked 36 different keywords (3 per URL).

In each case, the results were left to settle for 45 days (just in case).

Here are the lackluster results:

Whomp whomp.

There didn’t seem to be much effect in either the positive or negative direction.

After so much testing and results like these, why did I continue?

Because, as I mentioned before, I was really into the concept and I was (to be frank) quite surprised it didn’t do anything.

I started doubting my testcase integrity and the tools I was using.

Eventually, I just told myself I would continue to test this periodically just to “checkup” on things.

Phase 2 – April 2018

For this second round of testing, I decided to stick to Text Tools for the analysis and optimization.

Why?

For one because the software allowed for in-tool adjustments, so I could edit my text and re-evaluate on the fly (I’ll be doing a tool review later in this article).

And two, because the owner gave me a free license (thanks Michael).

I was surprised to see the following results the 2nd time around.

On two of the three testcases, we experienced positive movement.

It wasn’t groundbreaking movement, but enough to show a trend.

But here was the kicker.

During this point in time, a core algorithm update was released.  It happened in March to be exact.

The two sites that showed positive movement were currently getting beat-up by this algorithm update.

And while all pages on the site were experiencing a loss in rankings, the pages where I was testing TF*IDF either held their ground or gained rankings.

And then I found articles like this…

If these algorithm updates were really about relevance, then what better indicator of relevance than the damn words that show up on web pages.

The coincidence was enough to peak my interest.

Was it enough for me to completely sign off on TF*IDF and add it to my standard operating procedures (SOP)?

Absolutely not.

Only more testing could do that.

Phase 3 – May 2018

Nothing changed in this experiment.

I continued to use Text Tools as my software of choice.

The only thing different was new testcases and a different date.

The trends remained the same as in phase 2.

This time I dug into things and noticed some patterns.

Results typically get worse before they get better

In 61% of the keywords I was tracking, the keywords got worse before they got better.

Only after 22-24 days after the initial kick-off and re-caching of the new optimized text did the rankings start to turn the corner.

By optimizing one keyword, you might deoptimize another

I do a lot of affiliate SEO, so most of the pages I was experimenting with were review pages.

So, when deciding which keywords to analyze and optimize for I would typically go for “best ___” keywords like “best protein powder”.

Yet, for the testing, I was tracking a wide range of keywords such as “protein powder benefits”.

Those keywords that aren’t really related to review-oriented queries like “best protein powder” or “protein powder reviews” were more likely to experience negative movement.

Phase 4 – August 2018

This time around I decided to use a different tool: Link Assistant’s Website Auditor.

I switched things up from Text Tools as there’s (what I believe to be) a flaw in its implantation, which I’ll discuss later.

Here’s the results:

At this point, I started to feel comfortable enough with the results to warrant writing this article and to start incorporating this technique into our SOP.

Especially with results like these that required zero link building:

Tool Comparison: Website Auditor vs Text Tools

Here’s a comparison of two of the most popular tools on the market which can be used for TF*IDF content analysis and optimization: Link Assistant’s Website Auditor vs Text Tools.

TF*IDF Tool Comparison

ToolPlatformUsabilityAccuracyCostOur Choice

Platform (Winner: Text Tools)

Text Tools is run in the cloud.  You log in to their platform and all the analysis is run server-side.

Obviously, this is the way most of us like to run our software these days (if possible) so we’re giving our vote to Text Tools when it comes to platform.

Website Auditor is a downloadable piece of software.  The free version of it includes TF*IDF analysis.

It’s a pretty solid tool, as you can see below.

Nonetheless, we still prefer to work on the cloud so the vote goes to Text Tools.

Usability (Winner: Text Tools)

Right off the bat, Website Auditor has a big strike against it since you can’t save projects.

This is a feature which is unlocked when you upgrade to the paid version of the tool, so I guess it’s a moot point, but I just thought I would throw it in there.

Going back the other way, Text Tools is kind of glitchy on Chrome.  At least the version I’m playing with right now.

For the life of me, I can’t switch between the various tabs in the analysis mode on Chrome.  I’m stuck in overview mode and can’t get into the juicy stuff like “Compare” where you analyze your URL vs the analysis of the competition.

That said, on Firefox everything is fine.

But where the scale clearly tips in Text Tool’s favor is in the optimization phase.

I envision a productive TF*IDF workflow to work like this:

Analysis of the competition

Comparison against your content

Optimization of your content

Re-comparison against your content

Publish

Text Tools allows you to copy and paste your page’s text into the tool itself.  If you make changes to the content, you can simply edit the content in the tool, and re-analyze to see how you’ve done.

Website Auditor only compares against URLs.  You either need to make changes to your live content or publish your content in a Google doc and have the tool analyze that.

It’s not a deal breaker, but it takes time and its annoying.

I mentioned this to Website Auditor’s staff, and they say they “added it to the queue”.

Let’s see.

Accuracy (Winner: Website Auditor)

As my team and I were playing around with Text Tools, we started noticing something strange.

Let’s say you analyze a term like “keyword cannibalization”.

When comparing the result vs my article on keyword cannibalization, you’ll find a result that looks like this:

You’ll notice that for the word “strategy” my content (yellow line) gets a zero because I don’t have that word on my page.

But what you’ll find is that even though it appears that the average is about 3.4, I would just need to add the word “strategy” once to jump up to adequate numbers.

I talked to the developer Michael Kaiser about this (lovely guy by the way), and he said his tool denotes the y-axis as a “weight”, calculated internally.  And a lot of the time, adding a word once to an article is enough to satisfy the weight requirement.

This is fine, but I’m more looking for actual guidance of how many times each word should appear in the article.

Website Auditor delivers that.

It will break down based on phrases or single words, exactly how many times the competition is including your words, how many times you include it, and whether or not you might need to add or remove some.

Such as with the word “strategy”:

Cost (Winner: Website Auditor)

Unfair competition.  You can’t compete with free.

Our Choice: Website Auditor

Text Tools has a lot of things going for it.  I’d much rather work on the cloud and perform my edits inside a tool so I can do a quick reanalysis.

But at the end of the day, I’m looking for guidance, on a granular level, of the niche average keyword density for each phrase and word.  For this reason alone, we’re going with Website Auditor.

Here’s a quick video on how to use Website Auditor for TF*IDF analysis, whipped up by LeadSpring’s own Anthony Lam:

Conclusion

I hope this article has helped clear things up regarding the extremely useful, yet often misunderstood, TF*IDF analysis.

You’ve not only learned the mathematics behind it but also how it applies to SEO and creating relevance in your articles.

You’ve also seen some test results of how optimization shows up in the SERPs, as well as a comparison of the most popular tools on the market.

If you have any questions, please use the comment box below.

This content was originally published here.