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elisaphoenix13 · 3 years

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Once Upon A Summer (Ch.1)

This first chapter is for @chocopiggy (thanks for the commission, and hope it's to your liking)! This actually won't be connected to the Mama Bear AU, but Stephen will always be a mom in my heart. 😂

It all started because of an alert that Tony received from Friday. It wasn't one that told him that Peter was in danger...just that something had happened with his suit. Maybe a malfunction? Friday couldn't tell him either but she made sure to let him know that the teen was safe. When Tony checked Peter's location, his eyebrow shot up.

"What the hell is he doing out of Queens?" He mumbles to himself.

When the little dot shows no signs of moving, Tony walks over to his balcony and suits up to go check on the teen. Peter never really left Queens and if he did, it was to visit Tony. Well...until now that is. Peter now permanently resided in the tower penthouse with Tony and now the roles were kind of switched. He patrolled on the way to Queens, stayed there for a few hours, and then made his way back to the tower. Then again, Greenwich Village wasn't really out of the way. Maybe Peter followed a perp in that direction and...got lost.

Tony was even more confused when he landed in front of a building that he knew housed a couple of sorcerers he only really knew about. He never actually met them but he supposed now was as good a time as any if his tracker was accurate. He stepped forward and knocked on the door, and the door opened to let him in.

"Great. Place is haunted." Tony says as he walks in.

"It took you long enough." A voice says and he looks to the side to find one of the sorcerers.

He was the first thing Tony noticed because press photos didn't do Stephen Strange justice. He was much more attractive in person and Tony could feel butterflies in his chest. Not his stomach, because that would just mean he was nervous, but his chest...it warmed. It had a tingly feeling that was nice and unconcerning for a change. Stephen's eyes were beautiful and it was even more attractive to see him make butterflies fly around...a baby? A baby wearing the Ironspider suit…

"What did you do to my kid?!" Tony accuses immediately.

"Not me. Another sorcerer." Stephen dispels the butterflies he had been keeping baby Peter occupied with. "He was caught in a crossfire of spells and this happened."

"The enemy tried to turn you into a baby?" Tony asks.

"I have no idea. Possibly. Or he was hit with a different spell that affected him differently."

Stephen carefully picks up Peter, who looked to be about six months old, and carries him over to Tony. He wasn't sure what to do with a baby, but he took him regardless and Peter cooed as he reached for Tony's sunglasses.

"Why haven't you changed him back?"

"This is something that needs to wear off on its own." Stephen replies with a sigh.

"How long will that take?" Tony asks suspiciously.

"Anywhere from weeks to months."

Tony balks. "What?! No! I'm in no way qualified to take care of a baby. At least for that long! You're a better option Doc."

"I'm a neurologist Stark. Not a pediatrician."

"I'm sure you've made the rounds though." Tony says and moves his head back a little to keep Peter away from his sunglasses. "This is partially your fault."

"He'll be fine." Stephen huffs.

"What if there are some magical side effects?" Tony counters. "That's apparently your area of expertise and you have to help until he's back to normal. I swear if he grows a tail-"

"He's not going to grow a tail."

Tony could practically see the thoughts running through Stephen's head and he watched as the sorcerer finally sighed. They both knew Tony was right and that Stephen had to take some kind of responsibility for what happened. If some magical side effect came up, Stephen would be the one to deal with it, and he kind of was a better choice to take care of a baby. Tony was willing to do what he could, but there was very little he knew about babies.

"Alright. I'll check in every day." Stephen acquiesces. "Fortunately it seems his powers are dormant so neither of us will need to pry an infant from the ceiling." He points at the baby. "He's been diapered and fed but he'll likely be hungry again soon. I'd get baby supplies if I were you."

"Guess we're going shopping, Doc."

"...we?"

"Who's the medical doctor here?" Tony huffs. "I know less than you do about child rearing. I'm not sure what to feed him or anything like that!"

Stephen answers with another sigh and nods. With some magic, he changes into some normal clothes and walks over to the front door. It was enough of an answer for Tony and he followed Stephen out of the Sanctum and to the nearest store that sold baby items. From food to furniture. Which happened to be a Target. To Tony's relief, Peter was old enough to sit up by himself so he could sit in the shopping cart and Tony's arms could get a break. Stephen simply led the way to the furniture items first and both men looked at the collection apprehensively.

"Am I the only one who feels like we stepped in some strange land?" Tony jokes.

"Good to know it's not just me." Stephen mumbles. "I may have worked with babies before but that doesn't mean I know what half of this stuff is."

"Bare essentials then." Tony grins and grabs a set of plastic keys that they walk by and he hands them to Peter. "Here you go kid."

Peter babbles as he accepts the keys, immediately stuffing them into his mouth, and both Stephen and Tony watch as some drool drips from the baby's mouth.

"Bibs." They say in unison.

"Oh, you know what those are?" Stephen asks immediately after and Tony rolls his eyes.

"Oh very funny wizard."

"Sorcerer...and it's Stephen."

Tony smirks. "I know. I like watching your eyebrow twitch when I call you wizard though."

"You would." The younger man scoffs.

"So what's the bare minimum I need? Crib?" Tony asks, changing the subject.

Stephen shrugs. "I suppose you could buy a portable changing pad to change him on instead of getting a table."

Tony winces. Right. Peter wasn't currently potty trained anymore and the thought of changing him made him a little uncomfortable. He didn't know how to change a diaper in the first place and he didn't raise Peter from birth. His kid was just a temporary baby…

"It's going to have to happen eventually." Stephen says, as if reading his mind.

Maybe he was.

"Maybe a playpen too. It's portable and it can keep him out of trouble if you have to take your eyes off of him to make dinner." Stephen continues.

"That's definitely coming." Tony says as he grabs the box to throw in the cart.

Stephen, meanwhile, stands in front of Peter and gently sticks his thumb in the baby's mouth. Peter babbles around the sorcerer's finger and Tony watches curiously as Stephen gently opens his mouth. It was clear the doctor was looking for something, but before he could ask, Stephen removed his finger, earning an audible protest from the mini human. When it became clear that Peter wasn't getting the finger back, he turned his attention back to his plastic keys as Stephen grabbed another toy off the rack.

"He's at the age where his teeth are coming in." Stephen finally explains. "You can put this in the freezer and also get some teething gel to numb his gums. You might be in for some long nights."

"Not like I have a regular sleeping schedule anyway." Tony bemoans.

"If you're lucky, a little gel before bedtime should do the trick."

They finish up in the baby department by grabbing some bibs, toys, burping cloths, bottles, and even a sippy cup before heading to the area of the store with the food and diapers. Stephen showed him what size diaper Peter would need, the cereal and fruit purees he could try feeding him, and also grabbed formula. It was still important at his age since it had the nutrients a baby needed. Once they finished by grabbing some wipes, they had to go back to the previous baby section because they realized they had forgotten to grab clothes. Onesies, pajamas, tiny shirts and tiny pants...Tony couldn't decide whether to freak out, tear up, or laugh when he saw the socks because it was a reminder that Peter was currently tiny and fragile and was relying solely on Tony (and Stephen) to survive.

He considered buying bubble wrap.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this...but kids are expensive." Tony remarks as they wait in line.

"Incredibly. People do it multiple times too."

"They can't be trusted." Tony jokes. "Anybody who puts themselves through that over and over again are closet sadists."

"You're an idiot." Stephen rolls his eyes as Tony unloads the cart onto the belt.

The cashier, and even a few nearby customers, gave them both a curious glance but nothing more was said. Probably because it was him buying baby stuff and was accompanied by another man. Fortunately they were in a day and age where for the most part, people didn't bat an eye when they saw a child with a same gender couple. Of course, Tony decided that he was going to have fun with it and looked over at Stephen who had grabbed a magazine to flick through.

"Honey, can you grab the keys from-" The billionaire is promptly interrupted when Stephen rolls up the magazine and smacks Tony with it before tossing it on the belt as well.

Peter found it hilarious and laughed which made Stephen smile and Tony to get that fuzzy feeling in his chest again.

"You can pay for that too since I had to resort to ruining it." Stephen huffs and gently takes the keys from Peter.

It was a quick ordeal. Peter had the super strength that every baby seemed to have when they didn't want something taken from them, and when Stephen finally won, his lower lip wobbled dangerously. The doctor held out the toy so it could be scanned without the cashier having to touch the drool covered keys, and then given back to Peter before his fussing could turn into full blown crying. Stephen may have some experience with children but it was like he was made to be a parent.

It kind of turned Tony on.

Which was weird? Sort of. He appreciated both men and women, and he and Pepper broke it off for the final time a while ago so it wasn't like he was in a relationship. But he barely knew Stephen. All he knew was what the tabloids had of him on his work, his car accident that ended his career, and then his supposed disappearance. Tony only knew about Stephen's new "career" because of chance. They very briefly fought together when Stephen had a mystical threat to take care of and Tony had been in the area, but everything happened so quickly that he didn't get a proper look at the sorcerer or a proper conversation.

Tony didn't mind looking at all.

"Do you mind?" Stephen suddenly asks, holding up a chocolate bar.

Tony motions to the belt. "Not at all."

"We should get water too. I didn't feed Peter so I'm sure he's getting hungry." Stephen says as he places the chocolate on the belt and grabs a couple of water bottles from the small fridge nearby.

"Oh, yeah. Good idea. I don't think those keys will keep him occupied much longer."

It didn't take long for the items to get scanned and for Tony to pay, but when they got outside, he realized his predicament. He flew to Greenwich Village in his suit. He couldn't fly back with a baby and all of the items he suddenly accrued. But then Stephen directed him to the side of the store where they would be out of sight and opened a portal. To his kitchen at the tower from the looks of it. Tony was a little uncomfortable with the idea of using magic to get home, but it was efficient and he didn't want to be caught in the middle of New York with a baby in the dark. The sun had nearly set.

So he takes a deep breath and gets the purchases through the portal as Stephen carefully pulls Peter out of the cart and walks through the portal. Tony had the mind to return the cart to a nearby corral before following the sorcerer through, and he watches as Stephen looks around the penthouse as the portal closes behind Tony.

"A playpen was a good idea." Stephen finally says. "This isn't exactly a baby friendly environment."

"I should probably set that up." Tony says. "I have a feeling holding him doesn't feel too good on your hands."

"Let me make him a bottle first."

Stephen hands Peter to Tony and digs through the bags on the counter to fish out the needed items to make him a bottle. Tony made sure to watch closely and listen to the amounts Stephen said to feed Peter and soon enough, the sorcerer took the baby back and sat on the couch with him where he handed Peter the bottle. He fortunately didn't have any trouble holding it himself and was able to drink from it while Stephen held him on one of his legs and Tony set up the playpen and the crib. The latter he was told to set up in his bedroom.

When he finished (to his enormous relief, there were some things he never cared to put together again), he exited his room to find the tv on a child friendly cartoon and Peter bouncing happily on Stephen's knee while he watched the pretty colors fly across the screen. What was surprising was seeing the younger man looking so content as he wipes Peter's mouth with one of the burping cloths. No irritation. No expressions to betray that he hated every second of this. In fact, Tony was pretty sure Stephen was enjoying it.

"Want to stay for dinner?" Tony blurts out and Stephen's head snaps up in surprise. He recovers quickly and shakes his head.

"I have things I need to do. Thank you though." Stephen gets up with Peter and holds him out for Tony to take. "I'll come by tomorrow."

"Alright," Tony replies, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "See you then."

"Good night."

And he was gone through another portal. Just like that.

"Bud…" Peter looks at him and Tony smirks. "I think you're going to end up being my little wingman."

#ironstrange #stephen strange #tony stark #baby peter parker #peter parker

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nintendroid · 3 years

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What if I told you the best toy line this year wasn’t produced by Hasbro or Mattel but Dollar Tree? No, this isn’t a joke.

Yesterday afternoon, I was browsing my dashboard and came across a post by a thrift blog I really enjoy, @thriftrescue. They posted a picture of the toy section at their local Dollar Tree with unusual enthusiasm for a line of toys called “Final Faction”. The enthusiasm threw me off so much that I had to see what the buzz was about. I’ve been on this earth for over 30 years now, and I can’t tell you a time past the age of 6 where I was excited for any toy that came from the Dollar Tree.

A search led me to Dollar Tree’s website with an entire page dedicated to this line of toys. Character profiles, the action figures and cheesy backstory wasn’t anything phenomenal, but was done so well, It kept me interested. On the same page was a cartoon featuring today’s subject. I went in expecting to turn my nose up snobbishly and laugh at how bad it was but something happened; it wasn’t bad!

The cartoon is full of corny jokes and action and at six minutes long, doesn’t wear it’s welcome out. It has a vibe of Starship Troopers meets Halo and to me, that’s a good thing. The Halo influence is strong here, if you can’t tell by just looking. The aliens and their weaponry look like something right out of the Halo series..

..Is it just me?

Dollar Tree really went all in on this outing and it’s so out of left field that you have to commend them for such a bold effort. If you grew up low-middle class like myself, you had several toys from the Dollar Tree and while they did the job, they were never on anyone’s ‘favorite toy” list. They were cheap, generic and flimsy and most of the time served as underlings or faceless bad guys for your good toys to stomp to dust.

I was sold and since I had some shopping to do that day, I went to the Dollar Tree at the local mall and picked up a buttload of figures.

The figures look slightly above normal ‘Dollar Tree toy” standards and they’re already winners on that merit alone. The packaging is just as much a star of the show here.

It should be noted the heroes come in these yellow/orange cards, while our villains come on purple cards. The artwork is clean and bright with the character’s names featured under them.

The back features a character profile cutouts with stats and a quick bio ala G.I Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That’s friggin’ cool and that’s not all!

Under the awesome synopsis of the series and featured character’s in this “series”, there’s a QR code on the back that takes you to the first episode of the cartoon! The cartoon let’s kids know “Hey, this isn’t just a generic group of sillynannies, we’re legit heroes.” Smart marketing.

Ok, packaging and presentation is great, but are the toys themselves good? At the end of the day you can cover dog poo in ice cream sprinkles but it’s still poo. Fortunately for us, this isn’t dog poo.

Final Faction is legit, y’all. I wish I had more pictures but given the short notice I just took these two. The paint jobs aren’t perfect but they’re not too sloppy. The accessories attach to ol’ Shift’s back well and yes, they’re removable and interchangeable with alien weapons (I didn’t mention that they’re weapons packs available). She holds her weapons well and nothing about her feels flimsy. These suckers are built for playtime.

Now I hear you toy snobs out there with your NECA collections, snickering and nudging one another. Look at it from this perspective. You’re a family with little pocket money for Christmas this year. Most figures at Wal-Mart and Target are over ten bucks. If you got ten dollars to your name, do you buy an overpriced figure with no accessories, or take five bucks, buy two heroes and two aliens with a weapons pack? For the budget and quality, Final Faction is a home run.

I never thought I’d give a glowing review of a line of toys produced by the friggin’ Dollar Tree but here we are. I want to see this line succeed and I hope they do more lines like this down the road. in a decade from now, you’re going to see a cult following pop up for these guys, I’m certain of it.

I’m not a guy that brags on his deeds, but I donated the rest of the toys I bought to a local charity, because I really feel like these are cool toys worthy of passing on. Many strange things happened in 2020, the strangest being I became a fan of Dollar Tree toys.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there.

Final Faction on Dollar Tree’s website

#final faction #toys #dollar tree #nintendroid #action figures #christmas

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katalyna-rose · 3 years

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Kat’s Rat Shopping List

I’ve gotten a few requests for a shopping list of my rat setup (tagging @collapseofthesky because they requested this, specifically, but I’ve had a few others message me), so I thought I’d give it a try and also add a few explanations for why I do some things the way I do. As such, this is going to be a very long post and is therefore under a cut. There will be a basic shopping list without all the explanations at the very end of the post under TL;DR if you don’t care about the rest or whatever.

I had a lot of fun with this and spent way more time on it than I meant to, and might be open to doing more of this kind of thing in the future.

Cage

First up, the cage. Obviously. I’ve said it before but it’s a Double Critter Nation and a Single Critter Nation with the side panels removed and zip tied together. These are sometimes sold in pet stores (the locally owned pet store I prefer has them in stock). I bought mine online because of a really good sale, but you can sometimes get really lucky and find them for resale on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for super cheap. I love this cage because the whole front opens up and that makes it super accessible and easy to clean, decorate, and get to my pets wherever they may be. It’s also huge!

US minimum for rat cages is 2 cubic feet per rat, with a minimum of two rats because rats cannot be housed alone as they are extremely social animals. No, human companionship is not enough, rats need same-age, same-species companionship at all times. Please be aware, as well, that minimums are not the ideal to strive for. Whatever space you intend to dedicate to your rats, fill it! Fill it all up! And if you don’t have enough space for a large cage, don’t get rats. My setup, with the Home Depot/Lowe’s large cement mixing tubs in the bottom, is roughly 45 cubic feet of space. If we’re looking at minimums, this means I could house 22 rats! There’s no way that 22 rats could ever actually be comfortable in my setup. It would be insane, chaotic, and extremely messy. So why would 2 rats be comfortable in 4 cubic feet? They wouldn’t. More space is always better, hard stop.

Also remember that wire cages with bar spacing of no more than an inch for adult rats and no more than half an inch for small or young rats is a must. Tanks are absolutely not recommended for rats due to poor ventilation, which will cause respiratory issues and allow ammonia to build up much faster.

Bedding

This is different from nesting. Yes, it is. Bedding is the substrate used at the bottom of the cage or on shelves to catch errant droppings and urine, and is generally left where it is by the rats because they have no interest in it.

My main bedding is pine wood horse stall pellets. They are as dust free as the alternatives like shavings or paper pellets, and combine the best aspects of both those types of bedding with the ammonia-neutralizing effects of wood shavings and the compact, easy-to-clean nature of pellets. I love them. I also get them super hilariously cheap from Tractor Supply Co, so despite it being a little bit of a drive for me (about an hour round trip) the fact that it’s half the price of the next cheapest option more than makes up for it. I buy a bunch all at once and currently have a few bags left in my trunk because I didn’t have enough closet space for them. It’s great stuff. It crumbles when wet so it helps me keep track of how much and where they’re urinating, and it’s easy to spot clean those areas in between deep cleans.

When choosing a wood, if that’s the route you want to go, remember to check what is safe to use. Pine is only safe when it’s kiln-dried, since it contains fragrant oils that can cause respiratory issues in rats, mice, and hamsters. Some people will advise you to stay away from it entirely, and that’s fine, but since pine is often the cheapest option it’s not always viable. Aspen is a safe wood, but harder to find in pellet form and slightly more expensive as shavings. I use aspen shavings in my litter trays. Cedar wood is NEVER safe, no matter how it’s treated. I don’t think cedar is ever safe no matter what for any animal it’s marketed to, actually. It’ll cause respiratory distress in rats, mice, and hamsters, and guinea pigs and rabbits should never be on shavings regardless though I’m pretty sure they’ll still experience respiratory distress. The oils naturally in the wood are not safe, do not use cedar. Also make sure your bedding is as dust-free as possible, also for respiratory reasons. If you have a small animal, their respiratory system is extremely delicate, and that’s just a fact of pet ownership that you should have learned before getting a pet when you were researching how to care for it.

Since I have two shelves in my cage and they are both shallow to the point of not even having a lip (Critter Nation’s only flaw is the trays that come with the cage), I line my shelves with fleece over an appropriately sized bath mat. Fleece makes a great shelf liner, but I don’t recommend using it in the entire cage because it gets dirty really fast and most rats will chew it up, so you’ll both be changing it every other day and going through it super fast as it is destroyed. However, it makes great shelf liners, especially when very little of the shelf is actually available to the rats like in my setup, where the shelves are mostly covered in other things. Remember that fleece must always be lined with an absorbent layer underneath because the fleece itself allows liquid to pass right through it. That’s the point: the fleece stays relatively clean and dry while the absorbent layer takes all the gross stuff away. Towels are generally not recommended for this because rats can get their nails stuck in the fabric and rip them out, which is painful and distressing for the rat and also you. Anything super absorbent with a really tight weave will do lovely here, hence the low pile bath mats I use. I get them for one or two dollars at Ikea and wash them every week. I keep several around to rotate through. The fleece I use is also a fleece blanket from Ikea for a couple bucks that I cut into four sections because that rendered it the perfect size to tuck around the shelves. This makes my bedding extremely cheap, and that makes me happy because I can spend that money on enrichment instead.

Nesting

This is the material that the rats like to push around, dig in, and sleep in. It’s important to provide soft but preferably absorbent materials for the rats to nest in because it’s enriching, comfortable, and helps them regulate body temperature. Multiple types of nesting are recommended for enrichment purposes. Rats like texture! I use unscented, unlotioned tissues as a main nesting material for within their hides because they’re cheap, safe, absorbent, and soft. I bought 30 boxes of 100 tissues each for super cheap online, but you can also buy dollar store tissues or whatever you have access to. Just make sure they don’t have scents or lotions, because those are not safe for your rats’ delicate respiratory systems. The empty boxes (plastic removed) can also be given for the rats to chew up and play in, or you can save them up to DIY some fun toys later, which is what I’m doing.

I also have two dig boxes, which will also go under the enrichment section. The bins I got for cheap from Target, but obviously you can get bins wherever you want to get bins. Just measure to make sure they fit in your cage properly. The only dig box I want to talk about in this section is the hay box, because the dirt is not actually a nesting material but rather an enriching one. So, hay. My girls love this stuff so much that they drag it all over the cage to shove it into all their sleeping areas. They build actual rat nests in the box, tunnel through it, stash food in it, shred it for fun, and generally spend as much time as possible with the hay. I use oat hay for the seed heads that provide additional enrichment and snacks because the rats have to get to the seeds in order to eat them. If you are feeding a low-quality diet to your rats, do not use oat hay because they’ll fill up on seeds instead of eating their nutritionally-balanced food and that is not good. My rats love their food so much that the seeds are a sometimes snack that I don’t need to regulate because they do it themselves. Any good quality hay will do for a hay box, however, and timothy hay tends to be the cheapest option. Just make sure it’s not super low quality, because low quality hay tends to be dusty. As mentioned previously several times, rats have delicate respiratory systems and dust is bad for them. I buy my hay from Small Pet Select because I like supporting small business, ethical business, and businesses that provide excellent products. They are, however, primarily a rabbit site. I keep hoping they’ll expand the other sections of their shop. Also, make sure your rats aren’t trying to eat the hay. This is highly unlikely because rats are smart and know what’s edible and what isn’t, and hay is not edible for rats. If for some reason your rats are eating hay, do not give them a hay box.

Other nesting options I’ve used in the past include cut up bits of fleece, cut up old clothes you might have lying around, and generally just bits of fabric. Just remember to change out/wash them regularly. Ammonia will build up, and once again that’s bad for your rats’ respiratory systems.

Hides and Hammocks

Rats are prey animals. Surprise! As such, they need plenty of places to hide and feel safe. Rats love small, dark places to rest in. Much like many introverted humans, myself included! Make sure to include plenty of hides all over the cage. Variety is excellent here for enrichment reasons. My rats absolutely love Space Pods! Lixit makes the ones I use, but there’s also a brand called Sputnik that’s basically the same thing. I’ve never seen them in stores, but they’re all over the internet. For rats, make sure you get the large size. Honestly I wish it was larger than it is, but oh well. The girls love it anyway. I kept getting sent only the bottom halves, which is why I have two half space pods in my cage. I got a refund or replacement on both because it’s not what I paid for, but, like… I received the usable half, so I’m gonna use it. The girls don’t like to sleep in them without the covers, but they’ll hang out in there and clean themselves, and they climb through them to get from one spot to another.

In addition to the space pods, I also have various other hides. Lixit also makes a pill-shaped plastic hide that I keep on the shelf over the dirt box. They used to use it a lot more than they do now, and I’m not entirely sure why. Even so, they still use it! I also have a woven grass tent that they enjoy, and a cork log. Neither of those are really for sleeping, but they do hide in them sometimes and generally like to hang out there.

Hammocks are great, and also available in wide variety all over the internet and in stores. My favorite banana hammock was just retired, but I intend to get another. The girls loved it and so did I! Hammocks come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and can pull double duty as both a place to sleep and a way to break up the cage so there aren’t any dead drops where your rats can fall from a height and hurt themselves. Fill your cage with hammocks! All the hammocks! Support small creators by buying homemade hammocks! Learn to make them yourself! They’re cheap and easy! Hammocks are great.

Enrichment Part 1: Levels

Rats are climbers. Rats need vertical space as well as horizontal space. Rats are sometimes clumsy idiots who fall off of things. As such, all vertical space must be filled with all kinds of fall breakers. As mentioned before, hammocks are great for this. So are ladders, bridges, ropes, and that Ikea tie hanger I have strung across the back of my cage. If your rat falls from anywhere in the cage, make sure there’s something to catch them!

Also make sure there’s something to do on all the levels of the cage, even if that thing to do is just get from one level to the next. Rats are dexterous and adventurous. Ramps are boring because they’re easy. If you have sick or injured rats, absolutely use ramps! Accessibility matters! If your rats are of sound body, however, make them work for it. Lava ledges and bird perches make great alternatives to ramps. Screw them into the cage walls and watch your rats hop around! They love it. Ladders are also fun, especially if they’re not used the way ladders are meant to be used. Suspend them from things, put them at weird angles, just make sure they’re secure. I get a lot of my levels from the bird aisle at the pet store (or virtual pet store). Be aware that sometimes your rats are going to prefer to climb directly on the bars of the cage. That’s normal! The bars are there, so the rats will climb them. That’s all there is to it!

Climbing frames like the wooden wine rack from Ikea that I have in the bottom of my cage are also good to have. My girls love it, and it does double duty as a chew toy.

Enrichment Part 2: Chewing

Contrary to popular belief and old science, rats do not actually require chews to keep their teeth trimmed. Rats trim their own teeth by bruxing, or grinding their teeth together. This does not, however, negate the need for chews. Rats like to chew! What your rat likes to chew best is entirely subjective. Some rats love wood and sticks, some rats will always chew fabric over anything else, some rats will never chew fabric. Every rat is different! Try as much variety as you can and keep stocked up on the things your rats like best. My rats really like woven grass, and I try to keep at least a couple different kinds around for them. I keep a grass mat on a shelf that they like to pull apart, and the woven grass tent will likely have a short lifespan, as well. There’s a woven grass tunnel thing that they’ve put into the dirt box and are slowly but systematically shredding. My girls also like willow sticks, so I’ve got a couple hanging toys of willow that are very slowly being chewed because there’s so much else to chew. The wooden bridges see a fair bit of chewing, and even the lava ledges get chewed on the edges. My girls also love destroying rattan and wicker balls. I bought a bunch of them for cheap and toss a new one in there about every week or so. They love them. I also got a couple things from Small Pet Select like a pine cone, a bit of natural loofah, and a dried okra pod. So far the okra pod has seen the most action and is shredded halfway to infinity. I think they like that it has seeds inside, but the others get chewed sometimes, too. There’s enough variety in my setup that everything lasts a decently long time. Except the rattan balls.

Enrichment Part 3: Digging

As much as rats like to climb, they also like to dig. That’s why it’s highly recommended to have a dig box. Safe substrate is important here. If you’re going with potting soil, make sure it’s just dirt and doesn’t contain any fertilizer. Personally, I found potting soil to be kind of annoying a little expensive. I prefer coconut soil. I use Exo Terra terrarium soil, which is sold in compacted blocks that you have to hydrate. I use two thirds of the recommended water because my rats don’t need humidity. I use three blocks per dig box, and replace the soil every month because the girls will do their business in it sometimes, leave food in it, leave bits of tissue or hay or various shredded chews. Basically, the dirt gets dirty in bad ways and needs to be replaced sometimes. It can also grow things if left too long because of the humidity (which will be a problem regardless of the type of substrate being used). So every deep clean, both dig boxes get emptied, wiped out, and refilled.

The hay box gets an honorable mention here, since it pulls double duty as both nesting and digging. Triple duty, really, since it’s also a forage toy.

Enrichment Part 4: Misc

Yeah, I didn’t know what category to put this under, so here we are. Litter boxes! No, seriously, this counts as enrichment. Training your rats, whether it’s to do tricks or just poop where you want them to, counts as enrichment. Rats are incredibly smart! They’re at least as trainable as the average dog, especially if they come from an ethical breeder who breeds for health and temperament (let me just slide a reminder not to buy live animals from pet stores that source from highly unethical breeding mills in right here; please support ethical breeders and rescues), and will happily take to any training. Remember that positive reinforcement is the only ethical way to train an animal. Treats are great for this, and your pet will love you even more because every living thing loves food. My rats actually didn’t require much training for their litter trays. Make sure that whatever you’re lining the litter trays with is not the same as their normal bedding. If you’re using aspen shavings in the main cage, use pine in the litter trays, or literally any distinct safe bedding. I use shavings in my litter trays and pellets in my main cage. This helps the rats distinguish the litter trays from the rest of the cage and makes it easier to identify where to do their business versus where not to do so. When you first put the litter trays in, just go in at least once a day and toss any poops you see into the tray. If you see your rats using the litter tray, offer a treat while they’re doing so. Rats are extremely clean animals and they like their mess contained as much as you do. It would not be possible for me to only deep clean once a month if I didn’t have litter trays that I clean out about twice a week (or more, if necessary) to get rid of the majority of the mess and smell. I’d be deep cleaning every two weeks at least without them, so the litter trays are a great investment overall. Your rats will never be perfect about using them, because they’re still rats, but they’ll help a great deal.

Also under this section are forage toys! Do not feed your rats from a simple bowl, it’s boring and encourages stashing, which means you’ll never know when they’ve actually run out of food because they’re just going to pick it up and take it somewhere else and have a great big hoard that you’ll find on deep clean day. You can definitely scatter feed, that’s enriching as well because it makes the rats go looking for their food, but forage toys are the ultimate way to feed your rats, I think. I mostly don’t get my forage toys from the small animal aisle. I do have one that’s small animal specific, a little ball that they roll around the get the food out. I also have some marketed for cats, and some marketed for birds. Having multiple kinds is really helpful. I’ve also noticed that while some stashing still occurs, it’s greatly reduced. I refill the toys as they empty and everyone’s happy.

Food/Water

What you feed your rats is extremely important, obviously. Many commercially available pellet foods marketed for rats are actually extremely not good for rats. The same is true cat and dog food. It is a sad fact that the companies that make these foods tend to be far more interested in their bottom line than the health of your pet. As such, do your research! Always do your research! Know what’s in the food and what your animal should be eating, and try to match those two things up as closely as possible. In the UK rat owners typically will avoid pellet foods and prefer homemade mixes for these reasons, but making your own mix is not always feasible and can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing. Most US rat owners tend toward pellets because it’s a lot harder to mess up the balance of nutrients when it’s done for you. Also, the UK does not have Oxbow, which is one of the most popular brands of healthy rat food. It’s the brand that I use, and my rats adore it. Mazuri is another popular and healthy option, but my rats prefer Oxbow over anything else. I kind of want to try making my own mix at some point, but I’m not sure I ever will. Like with most of my rat supplies, I buy food in bulk because it’s cheaper. A 20 lb bag of Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat food runs me about 40 bucks. Be careful to buy adult rat food, even for baby rats, because any food that says Young Rat and Mouse is not going to have the appropriate balance of fat and protein even for young rats. Adult food will do just fine for babies, too. If you want to add some extra protein to their diet, try a boiled egg or bits of meat every now and then, but it’s probably not necessary as long as they’re getting enough food and some extra fruits and veggies now and then. If you want to try making a mix, do so much research before you try it, and make sure your ingredients are good quality.

Rats should also receive other foods in addition to their pellet or main food. Rats are omnivores and love fresh veggies, fruits, milk, eggs, and meat! Make sure you research safe foods before giving them to your rats, as not everything is safe. If you adopt your rats from an ethical breeder, they should have resources available to you on what’s safe and healthy. If you rescue, you can still reach out to established ethical breeders for tips and tricks, or find lists online as you do your research. Some veggies are only safe cooked, some parts of certain plants are unsafe while others are safe, and some foods are only safe for males or females but not the other sex (citrus and mango are the ones I remember that fall into that category). Just do your research and try to keep processed foods away from your rats. Sodium is also not good for them. Any raw meat or fish should be frozen and then thawed before being fed to your rats to kill any potential contaminants. Like always, do your research first!

Rats obviously require water, as well. Water bottles tend to be the most widely accepted way to give rats water, because they don’t evaporate and are easy to keep clean. I, however, have a terrible time with bottles, and they always leak or break. Thus, I have opted for water bowls instead. The girls love them more than the bottles I’ve used in the past, and they’re a little more enriching, as well. The only downside is that I have to wash them out daily. But since I spot clean daily anyway, I don’t mind at all.

First Aid Kit

Any responsible pet owner should always keep a first aid kit around, no matter what kind of pet they have. Pet owners who have particularly vulnerable pets should especially be careful to make sure they have a well-stocked first aid kit. This should include single-use sterile syringes without needles, gauze pads, vet wrap, infant/toddler ibuprofen or acetaminophen, medical tape, cat nail trimmers, and probiotic powder like Benebac. But most importantly, it should include the phone number and location of a vet that will see and treat rats. Have a vet picked out that you have confirmed will see and treat your pets BEFORE getting pets. If an emergency arises and you’re suddenly scrambling for a vet last second, not only do you waste precious time getting your pet the help they need but you may find out too late that the nearest rat-friendly vet is too far away. That means your pet will suffer unnecessarily and you are an irresponsible pet owner. Hard stop. If there is no vet within reach that will see rats, do not get rats. Rats will require a vet trip at least once in their lives, since all rats are extremely prone to respiratory illness. Sometimes this happens for no reason at all, because all rats possess a bacteria in their respiratory systems called mycoplasma. There’s no way to get rid of it and nothing you can do about it except make sure your rats live in a clean, well-ventilated environment with safe bedding and materials. Even with all this, sometimes your rats will get sick. That’s normal! Just make sure you can take care of them when it happens. As such, make sure you have a vet fund at all times of at least a couple hundred dollars, in addition to a well-stocked first aid kit and the name and location of an appropriate vet.

It’s also beneficial and enriching to syringe train your rats. What this means is putting a liquid treat like baby food, yogurt, or apple sauce into a syringe and giving it to your rats. This teaches the rats that the syringe is a good thing so that if you ever need to give them medicine from the syringe (rat medicine tends to be oral and dissolved in a liquid solution, so those needle-less syringes will be necessary) they’re more likely to take the medicine with minimum complaints.

Storage

Maybe it goes without saying, but you also need places to put all of the things for your rats. Keep your first aid kit in a box to itself so you always know where it is, and organize your supplies appropriately. I really like Ikea bins for my bedding and food and other dry bulk items, and I keep a lot of my smaller stuff on a shelf at the foot of my bed. Work with the space you have, and plan appropriately.

And thus concludes this extremely long explanation of the bare basics of healthy rat living. Really, this is the bare basics and not even remotely comprehensive of the options available. Be creative when shopping, and definitely look outside of the small animal aisle at your local pet store because it will not contain anywhere near all of what you need.

TL;DR: A Basic Shopping List of My Specific Setup

-Double Critter Nation

-Single Critter Nation

-Zip ties

-2 Large sized cement mixing tubs from Home Depot/Lowe’s

-Pine wood horse stall pellets

-Low pile bath mats, enough to rotate while washing

-Fleece blanket, cut in quarters to fit shelves, enough to rotate while washing

-Bins to hold digging substrate

-Oat hay from Small Pet Select or Oxbow

-Exo Terra coconut fiber terrarium soil

-Lixit Critter Space Pods, large

-Lixit Small Animal Hideout

-Woven grass mat

-Woven grass tent

-Woven grass tube

-Rattan/wicker balls, lots

-Willow stick hanging toys

-Natural loofah

-Sanitized (and therefore safe) pine cone

-Dried okra pod

-Dog ropes

-Wooden bendy bridges

-C-clips, both the kind meant for shower curtains and smaller ones marketed for kids, for hanging things

-Hammocks. All the hammocks. From everywhere hammocks are sold.

-3 (sometimes 4) Ware Scatterless Lock-n-Litter Small Animal Litter Pan, Regular

-Ikea tie hanger

-Ikea wine rack

-Ikea storage bins

-Forage toys

-Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat food

-Ceramic (and therefore tip-proof) water bowls, and/or bowls that can be attached to the cage

-Sterile single-use syringes without needles

-Gauze

-Vet wrap

-Medical tape

-Infant/toddler ibuprofen/acetaminophen

-Cat nail trimmer

-Probiotic powder like Benebac

-The phone number and location of a rat-friendly vet

-A vet fund of at least a couple hundred dollars

A final note before the end: Always remember to do your research before getting pets, do not get pets if you cannot provide a good life for them with MORE THAN the bare minimum requirements for safe and healthy pets, do not buy live animals from pet stores unless it’s part of a rescue program, don’t take the word of just one person as law, don’t be afraid to ask questions respectfully, and always seek new ways to improve your pet care. This has been a PSA from your friendly small animal enthusiast.

#fancy rats #pet rats #my rat setup #rat care #rat care advice #pet care #long post

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amoveablejake · 4 years

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Jake Reviews, Subject One: My Green Jacket

Thats right, this week’s long form piece is about a jacket. Stay with me caller.

A little while ago my girlfriend suggested that I introduce a segment on the blog where I review an assortment of items and things that I enjoy. I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while trying to think what would earn its place as the first piece to be cast under the spotlight and well as autumn truly has hit now, I thought my green jacket would be a fitting choice.

Now, this green jacket. Lets be a bit more specific. It is a Swedish military jacket from the 60s/70s, and the one I own is actually a prototype for what would later be the real thing. The pockets on my jacket are placed slightly differently to the ‘real’ model and the buttons on mine were quickly changed once it was discovered that they rusted when exposed to the elements which is not ideal when you’re creating something for military issue. The jacket itself is a relatively long one coming down to my mid thigh (contain yourselves), it does indeed have those slightly rusted buttons (I’ll change that to aged, that sounds better) it also features a very high collar that I more often than not turn up, I know, I’m James Dean I can’t help it. It has a wide array of pockets on the outside, the back and on the inside, it is built to withstand all elements especially the wind, its green and it actually has arms that are long enough for me. In other words, its a dream and I can’t help but feel our union was written in the stars. Who would have guessed it, Swedish military clothes suppliers have finally found their target audience. Other than the army that is.

So, how did I stumble across this jacket I hear you ask. Well, a couple years ago when I was in Berlin, oh boy do I miss that city, one Sunday morning my comrades and I decided to walk to a local flea market. I should say that before we continue that flea market was quite something, in the shadow of a local football stadium it had a wide assortment of goods and if our hand luggage would have allowed we would have brought a great deal of it back with us alas, that was not to be. But I’m not too heartbroken because, spoiler alert, a certain little green jacket was waiting for me. In fact, it found me straight away. Immediately after walking into the flea market we stumbled across a military surplus store huddled under a gazebo which also extended to being inside the back of a van. A gazebo and a van, the clear signs of a great fashion establishment I know. Whilst my aforementioned fellow travelers tried on their own jackets they had found, I locked my eyes on a lovely little green number. And little is the operative word there because when I tried it on, I looked ridiculous. Well, I didn’t actually get a look at myself but my friends laughing informed me of what I needed to know but whilst I slipped off a crushed dream the owner of the shop (a la gazebo) said to me ‘hold on’ and disappeared into the van. Before I knew what was going on he was reappearing holding a new green jacket, at first I wasn’t sure what was happening, was he going to make me wear an even smaller one to laugh at. Happily not, as he passed this jacket to me he said ‘bigger’ and this immediately made my day. I knew this was going to fit perfectly and I won’t toy with you here, it absolutely did.

Now, obviously here we would expect a twist. And that twist should be the price, after this wondrous salesman found me the perfect jacket and from the hidden depths of the van no less, I was sure he was going to slap a hefty price tag on it. And I was, well, I was wrong. He sold it to me for five euros. A modest sum that he said was because it was a prototype which needless to say made it all the more sweeter for me. I should mention here that my lovely relationship with this man was slightly soured when as I was leaving I spotted that he was also selling Sainsbury’s jackets. I pointed to them and laughed as they were in the military section. He then looked me up and down, zeroing in as I’m sure he knew the game was up and insisted they were military. Fearful that he would take my lovely new buy back I slipped on the jacket and quickly made my departure. I didn’t need to argue with him. I knew they were Sainsbury’s jackets. They were the right colour, the right cut and perhaps most importantly some would say, they had Sainsbury’s emblazoned on the back. Whose to say who was right.

Even though the rest of the trip in Berlin was unseasonably warm, I couldn’t help but keep the jacket on. Yes, I may have been slightly warm however, it felt perfect to wear it around the city and when we were walking around Berlin at night and I watched my compatriots shivering, well who was laughing then (I can’t leave it like that, we were all laughing, all the time, except for when one of them took a road light but thats another story for another day when the statute of limitations is up). Now, as I’ve had the jacket for a little over two years it is more special to me now than ever. It makes me think of a wonderful trip but not only that, it is a fantastic jacket that I wear all year round and it always has my back. That Sainsbury’s jacket wouldn’t, it may have looked cooler and tougher but it wouldn’t give me the same support. There are a few items throughout our lives that transcend the usual level of usefulness and we end up forming quite the bond with them. These items can be very silly, and perhaps meaningless to anyone else but to us they are truly special. Luckily for me, the green jacket is a joy for all and if you called it meaningless then some Swedish designers from the 60s will come to get you.

As this is a review I suppose I should give the jacket some sort of score but how do you quantify true love. Well, lets try at least...If I had to score my jacket on a scale of a song written about Berlin I would give it a ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie. Thats right, ‘Heroes.’ ‘Heroes’. That should tell you all you need to know.

A disclaimer: We will never see that score rating again, don’t add it to the canon.

- Jake, a man who the moment he felt a slight chill in the autumnal air started wearing corduroy trousers and is painfully aware how rock and roll he is, 27/09/2020

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maevefiction · 5 years

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Your Light in the Mist - Chapter 50

Luke and Simon finished up their move on November 30th, and we closed on the penthouse December 2nd. I’d been busy getting things sorted at the office, and though Tom had begun packing there was still much more to do before the company we’d hired to relocate all our worldly belongings showed up on December 15th. We figured that would give us just enough time to settle in before Christmas, which Diana would again be hosting this year. There were boxes everywhere, and at nearly seven months pregnant my ability to navigate tight spaces seemed to diminish a little more with each passing day. Since we’d been back there’d been intermittent discussions regarding what to name Prog, but everything we came up with just didn’t seem to fit. Roland had always been my first choice, but that fucker Simon had beaten me to it, and while I could technically still use it, I harbored zero desire to have to listen to him calling me a copycat for the rest of my natural life so it was officially off the table. Tom’s first choice was William, but almost immediately after mentioning it he recalled that was my ex-husband’s name and into the ‘nope’ pile it went. By the weekend of the 10th we’d gotten to the point wherein we were wrapping and packing our collectibles, AKA the socially acceptable term for adult-owned toys, at least in our case, anyway. Tom had donned his Indiana Jones fedora after finding it in the spare room and was humming the theme on and off while wielding a tape gun as if it were a weapon. I’d flopped down on the bed, at which point he’d decided to see if he could land the hat on my belly. One toss was all it took, which wasn’t surprising because an easier target would have been a challenge to establish, and I just let it remain there because removing it would have required entirely too much effort on my part. Prog decided to give it a kick, and with that, just as I’d know he was a boy, I knew his name. I sat up, hat in my hand, eyes wide. Tom stared at me, concerned.

“Everything all right?”

Nodding, I waved the fedora at him. “This is it. The name. His name.”

Tom’s left eyebrow rose as his head tilted to the right. “Fedora?”

I rolled my eyes. “Really? No. Not fedora.”

He pursed his lips, one hand rising to stroke his jaw. “Surely you don’t mean to call him Indiana. Though, that is rather cool, if I’m honest…but it sounds awful in conjunction with Hiddleston, doesn’t it?”

I sighed heavily in exasperation at his lack of comprehension, be it genuine or a ruse, as to where I was going with this, shaking my head as I lowered my chin to my chest briefly, then turned my gaze back to him.

“No, Tom. Not Indiana. His name is Henry. Henry Thomas Hiddleston.”

His hand shifted from his jaw to cover his mouth, nearly concealing a gasp of surprise. He walked around the bed to kneel in front of me, fingers grazing my belly as he leaned forward. “Oh. Oh my. That’s it, you’re spot on. Henry. Hello Henry. Wow. Okay.” He looked up so his eyes met mine, a huge smile spreading across his face. “Guess we’ll call the dog Indiana, then.”

“Cat. We can call the cat Indiana.”

He pouted. “A house isn’t a home without a dog, Maude.”

“You know what? You’re right…a house isn’t a home without a dog. A hot dog. Which is what I want, like, right now. Help a girl up so she can go grab one out of the fridge, m’kay? All cold and salty…mmm…”

He obliged, taking my hands and providing a gentle boost. “I’d be more than happy to cook for you, you know…”

“Thank you, but…nope. Cold hot dog. Maybe two. Or three.” He stuck his tongue out, shaking his head in mock disgust. I shrugged. “Can’t be helped. What Henry wants, Henry gets, you know?”

He kissed the top of my head. “Oh, I know. What ‘Henry’ wants, is it?”

As we entered the hallway, I punched him in the arm. “Listen, I’m going to milk this whole pregnancy thing as much as possible. It’s the first time in my life I’ve had a legitimate reason to behave like a diva on a regular basis.”

“You’re no diva, love. You’re a goddess…my goddess, thank the stars…and should be treated accordingly.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.”

He smirked. “Well, I feel as if I’ve achieved what I’d always thought was an impossible victory.”

“Whatever. Hush up and fix me my hot dog.”

“Hmmm, I thought Henry was the one who…”

“Is that how we treat the goddess, Tom? Is it?”

Bowing deeply, he took my hand and brought it to his lips as he gazed up at me. “No. No it is not. Shall I make it up to you by delivering your meal to the couch so you can sit back and elevate your legs?”

I patted him on the head as he rose. “That’s more like it. Also, yes please. And thank you.”

“C’est mon plaisir, Maude.”

“Oh god, not the French.” I’d developed a bit of a kink for it over the past month, which he’d graciously accommodated. Rear entry was really the only position that worked well for us of late, and my libido had tanked considerably. Him talking dirty always got me in the mood, though, and when he spoke in French it was like my stupid maternity pants just fell right off. Once he’d discovered that saying literally anything in that particular language got me fired up, even if I had no idea what the fuck it meant, he began making a habit of interjecting it into our conversations when I least expected it.

“Votre chaud chien vous attend.”

I recognized a good bit of that, especially the words for ‘hot’ and ‘dog’. “Pretty sure hot dog in French is just…hot-dog, Tom.”

“That’s not nearly as erotic as chaud chien, is it?”

I groaned. “No. No it’s not. You suck.”

He grinned. “We’ll see.”

****************************************

Once all our stuff was in place and put away, it became apparent that the penthouse was downright vast as far as space was concerned. The sofa and chairs blended in nicely with the modern design, and the tree of life rug looked perfect in front of the built-in white shelf that ran the length of the closed stair railing, but they seemed so much…smaller. Even the dining table was dwarfed by the openness, though it was, at least in part, sort of freeing…less cluttered living. The bar-style island required the purchase of new chairs so we could eat there when we felt like it, and I insisted upon the kind with backs as opposed to bar stools because I knew I’d end up ass over teakettle otherwise. Admittedly, there was an awful lot of white cabinetry throughout, but the floor to ceiling windows let in so much light it seemed much more New York flat-ish as opposed to New Orleans house-ish. The entry point was on the lower floor, within the rectangular portion of the building. Just inside the main door and to the left was a guest half-bath, with a hall door that led to two large bedrooms with full en suites. In the entryway, next to the door to the bedrooms, was a hall closet. Directly across the entryway from the closet was the double-door entrance to the circular portion of the building. Straight ahead through the doors and on the right-hand side of the circle there was a staircase to the second level, and to the left was a door to another small hallway that led to two more en suites, one average-sized rectangular bedroom and a a second three-sided bedroom comprised of two traditional walls and one curved measuring twenty-seven by eleven feet overall. Down past the staircase and on the left was the entrance to the twenty by eighteen-foot master suite, with a full quarter-circle glass wall on one side overlooking a forty by nine-foot terrace. The bath was also quarter-circle in shape, and the dressing room rectangular. We sacrificed some of the dressing room square footage in order to put in a door to the other semi-circular bedroom, figuring it would be an ideal location for Henry’s nursery. The upstairs footprint was identical to that of the lower level, though wide open except for the small wall that served to support the kitchen cabinetry. There was another half bath just off the kitchen in the squared-off dining room area, as well as sliders to the large private outdoor deck that overlooked Regent’s Park. Where to display our book collection was our biggest conundrum…the only section of appropriate public wall space was in the living room opposite the television and stairs, but the couch was backed against it so they’d have to be above and behind us, which would make it impractical to peruse them easily since they’d be difficult to reach. There was space for shelving downstairs just before the staircase, but not enough room for everything. The entry area was also an option, but still, not enough room. We decided to store them in the smallest bedroom until we’d grown accustomed to day-to-day living in the penthouse and had a better feel for the flow, especially since there were more pressing issues that required our attention at the moment. Issues like ‘holy fuck, what actually, like, goes in a nursery anyway and where do we buy this shit’.

The answer to ‘where do we buy this shit’ was simple…the internets, thank you very much. As it turned out what goes in a nursery was also answered simply and included a.) place for the baby to sleep, b.) place to dress the baby and conduct baby-waste removal and related clean-up activities, c.) place to store the things required for item b and finally d.) a rocking glider which was sold under the pretense of baby feeding and baby rocking but was more than likely a spot for the parental units to collapse because they were too exhausted to walk another fifteen feet to their bed after completing all of the aforementioned tasks. Things got complicated when the morons with minimal baby experience attempted to choose the design style for the nursery components while trying very, very hard to be mindful of the form over function rule but wound up falling down the ‘oh, we might need this too’ rabbit hole. There was the Baby Bay, a white three-quarter crib that attached underneath a mattress so there could be co-sleeping without the danger of rolling over and suffocating the infant, which seemed like a great idea since I’d decided I’d give breast feeding a go. Next was a tripod bassinet for upstairs that came complete with a curtain to block out light in case Henry needed to crash out while we were doing Adult Things. It looked like a teepee, and I questioned its stability but Simon said it was perfectly fine and that he’d ordered them for their old place above the office, which would function as a family-friendly home-away-from-home for him and Luke going forward. For when Henry was awake, a baby lounger was evidently required, and I chose a 3-in-1 bouncy-recliner model with a light wood base and a micro-fiber seat, finding myself left bitterly disappointed that such things, if available, were not easy to find in an adult size. All of the furniture was either white or grey, or white and grey, other than the clear acrylic rolling bookshelf, which looked like it was straight out of Magneto’s prison cell. The crib railings were white and the sides grey, and the nightstands and dresser/changer combo mimicked the same design, both sporting grey sides and white drawers. The glider was oversized...really oversized, and I was pretty sure Tom and I would be able to squeeze into it together when I was no longer a sci-fi movie sized dinosaur egg with appendages. It was grey mock-tweed, as was the ottoman, both with brushed chrome bases. We’d found a Mima Xari aluminum and black stroller that screamed ‘Maude! Shiny! For baby!’ but was priced at a ludicrous $1700…after watching several videos and evaluating the cost of the individual components we’d still need to purchase if we went with a different model, I gave in, reassuring myself that this was one of those rare instances wherein function and form melded perfectly. We copied Luke and Simon’s car seat and baby wrap choices since they’d been researching prior to the actual conception of the girls, and other than incidentals like diapers, clothing and bedding, Tom and I felt we were prepared for Henry’s arrival. Or at least we felt as such until we thought of yet another ‘oh, right, that’, which, for me, was a significant indicator that no one is ever fully prepared for such a momentous event and that parenting would probably be like everything else in life…a total ‘fake-it-‘til-you-make-it’ scenario. Shit happens, you deal with it. Which just happened to be my specialty.

Christmas at Diana’s was peaceful, joyful and chock full of hilarity. No painful family secrets to be revealed, no anger, no resentment…a simple gathering of people who’d endured a great deal of ups and downs over the past twelve months and were feeling incredibly blessed to be in each other’s company while not-at-all politely competing for the title of Scrabble Champion. I knew that trying to keep the fact that I was carrying a boy under wraps would likely be an epic fail, so once we’d settled in on Christmas Eve Tom mentioned that we’d learned the gender and since we might slip up we’d prefer to tell everyone prior to such an occurrence. James wept at the news, beaming with pride as he strode toward me. I could feel myself bristling initially, but when he kissed his right palm and then placed it on my belly and said ‘first a granddaughter and now a grandson…how fortunate a man am I to see this come to pass’ I realized I’d read his reaction entirely incorrectly and felt like a huge jerk until I was distracted by a plate of scones being circulated among us.

As part of her gift to us Diana asked if we’d allow her to paint a mural in the nursery, which was a fantastic idea, but drew attention to the fact that we’d yet to choose a theme. This was unacceptable in parenting circles, apparently. Worse, even, than not having a birthing plan that laid out every detail right down to the specific piece of music you wished to play as your baby emerged from your womb. Every theme we’d considered left us feeling ‘meh’ at best…they were either too gendered, too boring, too busy, or just plain fugly. Dr. Seuss had been a viable option for a day or two, but the more I stared at the bedding the less interesting it became and boom…suddenly, meh. On Christmas morning, after all our other gifts had been opened, Diana left the room briefly and returned with a large box wrapped in red foil and set it on the floor in front of the sofa Tom and I were lounging on. From her expression I discerned that she was both excited and nervous about us seeing the contents inside. She smiled sheepishly.

“Now if you don’t have use for any of this, please don’t think I’ll be offended. And please don’t you be offended by my presumptuousness…it’s just that Tom was always very fond of…well, I’d best let you open it before I spoil things, shouldn’t I?”

Inside was a plastic tub, which Tom lifted out and placed beside the gift box, jaw dropping as he removed the lid.

“Mum, my god…is this what I think it is?”

She nodded. “I saved all of your layettes and other special items from when you were babies, both because I love to look at them from time to time and because I thought you might want them for your own babies someday…” She trailed off, sniffling.

Tom began removing onesies, rompers, footed pajamas, tiny t-shirts, shorts, and overalls…all of them bearing at least one character from the Winnie the Pooh series. I watched them pile up on his thighs until one in particular caught my eye. I reached for it, surprised by the fact that it was in such beautiful condition all these years later. It was a jumpsuit, the sleeves, collar and and ankle cuffs a cream-colored cotton, the rest a green, brown, yellow and cream plaid flannel with four white decorative buttons down the front. To the right and towards the bottom was an embroidered Pooh raking leaves, and to the left and near the shoulder was an embroidered Tigger appearing to be leaping out of the jumpsuit pocket while tossing leaves into the air. I couldn’t stop staring at it, Diana’s voice when she spoke sounding as if it was emanating from another room.

“I’d always loved Winnie the Pooh, and so did Tom, right from the start. He’d get so excited when I’d sing him the theme song, even when he still fit in those clothes, his legs and arms flailing about…”

Sarah snorted. “That’s still how he dances, to this day.”

I smiled because she sure as shit wasn’t wrong, but could also feel myself tearing up as my fingers traced over Pooh and Tigger and the softness of the flannel, picturing Diana singing to Tom while he was wearing it, then imagining myself singing to Henry while he was wearing the very same garment. The tears began to flow, running down my cheeks in spite of my best efforts to not cry. I looked up at Diana and found her frowning, concern in her eyes.

“Oh goodness, I’m so sorry, I didn’t…”

I smiled through my tears. “No, no…please don’t be sorry. This…these…all beautiful…I just…I don’t have any of this sort of stuff and I’m so grateful that you do and that you’ve chosen to share it with me. With us. It means more than I can ever properly express. Thank you, Diana. So much. I don’t suppose that mural can be a scene from the Hundred Acre Wood, could it?”

She gasped, her own tears glimmering with flashing colors, reflecting the tree lights. “Really? Well what an unexpected and perfect gift for me…yes, yes. I have one in mind already, actually…”

Tom leaned in to wipe my tears with his thumbs and kiss my cheek, grinning. “That’s our theme problem solved then, eh?”

I nodded, snuggling into his side. “Yep. Only one thing left on our list, really.”

He draped his arm around my shoulders. “And what’s that?”

I patted my belly. “Convincing Henry to exit the premises as scheduled.” He laughed, and I pointed my left index finger in his direction. “It’s a legitimate concern.”

“It’s not uncommon to go past the due date, is it?”

I shook my head. “No. But I’m crossing my fingers that l he’ll take after me as opposed to you in regard to timeliness.”

As he began to speak Diana interrupted him. “Maude, perhaps it will ease your mind a bit to know that Tom was the only child I bore that wasn’t late. All downhill after that though, as far as being prompt goes, I’m afraid.”

Tom attempted to speak again, only to be interrupted by me this time around. “So there IS hope after all…even if it’s fleeting, I’ll take it.”

****************************************

Tom opened and held the Bull & Last’s heavy wooden entry door for me so I could waddle my way inside. Though I was now officially five days beyond my due date, we were out and about on a Friday night to meet Luke and Simon for a Tom’s day-late birthday and early Valentine’s Day celebration dinner. It was their first time out of the house together sans children since Persephone and Esmerelda had arrived on December 28th, and probably Tom’s and my last for a while. I’d covered the Prosper office from that point until Luke had returned on February 1st and I’d wanted to keep working, but Tom very gently suggested that perhaps I should take some time off to relax before Henry joined us. An argument ensued and I may or may not have called him a sexist asshole prior to discussing the matter via phone with Dr. Phillips who agreed that it was probably best to take it easy since I’d begun experiencing some edema, which he’d mentioned a week earlier but I’d decided to ignore. I considered calling him a sexist asshole as well, but Tom had clicked the end call button before I had a chance to properly evaluate the situation. After he retrieved a bag of truffles from the kitchen for me we’d had a little chat wherein we attempted to establish why I might be feeling the need to keep working, during which I stared him straight in the eye and said very matter-of-factly that there was a human growing inside me and it was going to come OUT of me and there was nothing I could do about it but maybe if I just kept going things would stay just as they were forever. AKA, I was scared shitless about the entire process, I felt powerless, I didn’t like feeling powerless, so I did something that made me feel powerful as a distraction so I wouldn’t have to face reality. Classic Maude, Impending Motherhood Edition. The fear had remained until three days ago when Henry did a somersault that nearly knocked me off the couch and I began having to pee every forty minutes or so. A few hours into that fuckery I was willing to try anything to get labor going, but when I’d gotten up this morning I’d found myself in a state of quiet acceptance. I’d gotten my wish…I was going to be pregnant FOR-EV-ER.

We spotted the free birds at the corner window table, all the way at the back of the main room to the left of the fireplace. My black leather boots, which Tom had kindly put on for me since my feet and I hadn’t seen each other in four weeks or so, clunked as we made our way across the wooden floor. As we drew closer Simon stood and clapped.

“Oh honey, I love that dress…” His clapping ceased as he tiled his head from one side to the other. “Maude. You’re waddling. Which you weren’t doing when I saw you Tuesday. Wowza.”

“Yes. The waddling. I’m aware. Also, I can’t wear pants anymore and this is the only dress I could squeeze into that was suitable for public consumption but, you know, yay that you love it, I guess.” It was a tea-length black mock-turtleneck sweater dress, the merino wool blend making it possible to go without a coat, which was necessary since none of those fucking fit me any longer, either. I sighed as Tom pulled out the chair nearest the fireplace for me, then lowered myself down like a sloth. There was no need for him to push me in because my belly was already mere centimeters from the table. Simon was directly across from me, and he walked around the table and squatted next to me, tapping on my stomach gently.

“Henry, I’m sure it’s cozy in there, but you really need to come out and play with us. Your friends Seph and Ez can’t wait to meet you.” The girls were, not surprisingly, gorgeous…both blonde, Seph with Luke’s brown eyes and Ez’s eyes a shade lighter than Simon’s grey ones. I’d held them both, separately, which was terrifying enough, thank you very much, but every time it was Ez’s turn Henry became far more active than normal. I’d even made a point of testing the theory, and it totally panned out. Seph, nothing. Ez, kicks and shifting aplenty. I had not a clue what the deal was, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

I patted the top of Simon’s head. “I appreciate your efforts, kind sir. But I think he’s just a tiny bit…dare I say…stubborn. And I have no idea where he gets that from. Certainly not from me.”

Tom sat, pulling his chair forward. “Not from me either. It’s an unsolvable riddle, in my opinion.”

We all laughed as Simon returned to his seat, took a sip of his wine, planted a kiss on Luke’s cheek, then lifted his glass high. “Cheers, dear friends. To laughter, love and life.”

Tom and I raised our water glasses and Luke lifted his very full beer mug carefully, all of us clinking in the middle. The waiter arrived with menus, and I stared at mine for entirely too long trying to find something that appealed to me. All of the entrees were a no, so I ordered sides – a bread basket, Buttermilk Chicken & Aioli, and Triple Cooked Chips. Tom opted for the Chargrilled Onglet, Simon the Chargrilled Aged Cote de Boeuf, and Luke the Beer Battered Haddock. Halfway through dinner I reached across to snag a piece of beef from Simon’s plate and felt a pop, then a rush of warm liquid between my thighs. I froze, and my expression was presumedly cause for concern because, in unison, the three of them asked if I was all right. I took a deep breath as I put down my fork and leaned back into my seat.

“Well, I’m pretty sure my water just broke, so…I mean, I don’t know?”

Tom whipped his phone out of the back pocket of his black dress pants, and I heard him greeting Dr. Phillips as I pondered my predicament. On one hand, I was thrilled, and on the other, frightened. Weren’t there supposed to be contractions first? Because I’d yet to have any, so did that mean something was wrong? I’d read about labor over and over but my ability to retain information had declined considerably throughout my pregnancy, which was a common occurrence. I shook my head.

“But yet I remember that relatively unimportant fact in a rather ironic fashion.”

Tom told Dr. Phillips that he didn’t recall me mentioning anything about it, then passed me the phone. He was white as a sheet, and I could tell he was trying very, very hard to not freak out. I took it from his shaking hand and held it up to my left ear, Dr. Phillips’s tempered Scottish accent causing me to envision Sean Connery, as per usual. He resembled him, really, though shorter and much rounder. Grey hair, bald on top with a closely cropped beard and piercing dark brown eyes. Kind of like a cross between Santa Claus and James Bond, in the business of delivering presents and a being a huge hit with the ladies.

“Maude! Finally some news, eh?”

“Uh-huh. I felt a pop, then a sploosh…but I haven’t had any contractions…is that normal? I know I knew the answer to that but I just…don’t anymore. Oy.”

He chuckled. “Hormones wreak unexpected havoc, don’t they? Yes, it’s normal. But, you should head to the Portland tonight to check in. Labor usually begins within twenty-four hours after the amniotic sac starts leaking, and being in hospital reduces the risk of infection. Which is quite minimal, mind you. So, Tom said he couldn’t recall you mentioning any pain. Be that as it may, I’ll ask you in any case…have you experienced any pain?”

“Other than my lower back screaming at me, no. And that’s nothing new. I mean, it does seem worse today than usual but…oh, shit. Back labor. Is this back labor, do you think? Also, as I do for all medical professionals forced to interact with me while I’m experiencing any sort of pain, I’m going to go ahead and apologize now not just for this singular instance of the use of profanity but for the hundreds of others you’ll likely be hearing until this whole birth thing is done and over with. So, sorry. Anyway…back labor?”

“At what point did the intensity of the pain increase, Maude? A general timeframe is what I’m after here, so precision isn’t essential.”

Throughout the entire duration of baby-harboring I’d kept as active as possible, doing yoga, walking outdoors and on the treadmill in our new gym, dancing when the spirit moved me…and I’d only gained twenty pounds. Up until four weeks prior I hadn’t felt constrained in any way, really, but by then I’d gotten so large that yoga was no longer possible and once the routine stretching ceased the muscles in my lower back became stiff and sore. It was most noticeable when I was standing for long periods and eased when I resumed a sitting position. When Tom and I had gone grocery shopping last night the pain had definitely been more pronounced, and it had continued even when I was in a horizontal position, trying to get some sleep between bathroom trips. I hadn’t thought anything of it because, frankly, I expected random physical components to begin failing the longer I continued to schlepp Henry’s estimated nine-plus pounds around. I squeezed my eyes shut as I answered the question, embarrassed by my ignorance.

“Um, almost twenty-four hours ago.”

There was a long pause, followed by Dr. Phillips first inhaling, then exhaling deeply. “All right then. As I said, next step is getting you to the Portland. May I speak with Tom again, please, Maude?”

I laughed. “You’re going to tell him that I’ve probably been in labor for a whole day and we need to bust a move so I don’t give birth right here or something, aren’t you? Sure, you can talk to him…but I’m going to put you on speaker, okay?” I tapped the button, then handed the phone back to Tom, who wasn’t quite as white but still far paler than normal. He cleared his throat, then spoke.

“I’m here, Dr. Phillips. We’re about fifteen minutes away from the hospital. Will that do?”

“Get there just as soon as you can. Maude, if you begin to experience contractions, be sure either you or Tom track the time between. I’ll make sure everything is ready by the time you arrive. If things escalate quickly, call emergency services first, then me. All right?”

Tom nodded, then remembered Dr. Phillips couldn’t see him. “Yes. Thank you. We’ll be leaving immediately.”

Dr. Phillips assured us that everything would be fine, wished us luck, then hung up. Simon, who’d remained refreshingly subdued during the exchange, began babbling as Luke sipped his beer.

“Ohmygod, okay, this is happening. It’s happening. Do you need us to drive you? We can drive you and bring your car down later. You have your go bag with you, right, Maude? In the car? Have to remember to get that on the way out…”

I covered my face with my hands, my voice muffled as I spoke. “No. I do not have my go bag. My go bag is sitting in the hallway at home, where I put it so I’d remember to ask Tom to put it in the car when we left. It was in the car, but I decided to reorganize it for the hundredth time yesterday. Hence why it’s sitting. In the hallway. At home.”

Tom gently pulled my hands away from my face and held them in his own, placed a kiss on each palm, then released them. “We’ll figure it out, love. First things first…we need to, as you said previously, bust a move.”

Luke stood, and Simon followed suit. “Simon can use our vehicle to go back to the Atrium and pick up your bag, I’ll drive you in yours and we’ll all meet up at the hospital.”

Just like they’d transitioned to a family vehicle, Tom and I had purchased a Range Rover Sport right after the holidays. I wasn’t a Jeep, but I’d deemed it acceptable, at least in the gunmetal grey body color. What I wasn’t prepared to deem acceptable was someone chauffeuring us in it on our birth pilgrimage…we’d decided that it would only be the two of us in the delivery room, hospital staff being the only exception, and I’d assumed it would be only the two of us on the way there as well. As I pushed down on the table and began to stand with the intention of stating that we’d be fine on our own but I’d really appreciate them picking up the enormous bag of shit I probably didn’t even need and dropping it off at the hospital, my first official contraction hit me like a freight train. I’d read that they were supposed to feel like menstrual cramps, but to me this…this felt more like food poisoning cramps on steroids. Once it passed I realized I had no concept whatsoever of how long it had lasted, or whether or not I’d remained silent. I didn’t recall having spoken, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t uttered some sort of reflexive primal scream. With the pain gone I was able to stand fully erect, and as I glanced to my right toward the bar no one was staring back at me so I figured I was in the clear as far as making a spectacle of myself went. For now, anyway. I turned to Tom, who was now standing as well, his eyes wide. The flash of utter terror I saw in them before he smiled at me changed my stance on being chauffeured.

I nodded. “Luke, that sounds great. Thank you. Simon, you have the key, right?” He nodded in turn. We had a set of keys to their place and they had one for ours, just in case of an accidental loss, lock-out or in the event of an emergency situation. I would have thought the latter wouldn’t be the first time they’d be needed, but hey, the universe is full of surprises, isn’t it? Fucking A it is. The sensation of something crawling down the inside of my left leg diverted my attention downward, scanning the wooden floor and hoping I wouldn’t see any droplets of amniotic fluid. Nope, so far so good…but the chair I’d been sitting on hadn’t been so fortunate. It was shiny, as if it had just been wiped with a wet cloth, which it had been, in a way…but it was a woolen wet cloth, also known as my dress. I grabbed my napkin and dried the wood as best I could, then found myself wondering what the fuck to do with the soiled square of cloth. Putting it back on the table for our waiter to pick up would be super gross, and I’d left my purse in the car. Tom took note of my dilemma and reached out, grabbed the napkin and stuffed it into his front pants pocket. He was wearing a maroon sweater over a white button-down, and in that moment I loved him so fiercely it startled me. A sense of renewed energy and an almost absolute power flowed through me, and I took two steps toward him, then grabbed on to both of his forearms.

“I’m ready. Let’s go have this baby.”

He inclined his head in the affirmative, and I released him, then turned around and began to make my way toward the heavy wooden doors, pushing the one marked ‘exit’ outward. Tom was right behind me, close enough so no one would notice if there happened to be a dark spot on my dress…not that I gave a single fuck. I waddled my ass out into the night and down the sidewalk toward our car, my love in tow and my mind set on one purpose, and one purpose only…finally meeting our son.

#your light in the mist #chapter 50

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papatonyinsandiego · 6 years

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Toybag Tour, Thud vs. Sting: Floggers and Whips and Such

What would you say is a good implement scale for impact play? Like, the farther up the scale the more intense it is.

Funny that you should ask. I periodically design toys for FlogMeBaby.com - I have NO financial connection with them. Not a single penny. I do this work because I want new Sirs to build their own toy bag with solid-quality toys without having to go broke doing it.

I invented a two-sided scale for them that shows where a particular toy fits between STING and THUD. You can see it on the upper left, in pink.

That scale has proven to be a very practical way to make valid shopping decisions without being able to actually try out the toy first.

I admire craftspeople who hand-craft exquisite, expensive ($300-$500) floggers. I have owned a bunch over the years. However, I like to recommend toys that are high-quality, but inexpensive. It’s awkward for a newbie Flogging Top to learn proper practices by guess and by golly, with a huge, awkward flogger (or a wimpy one, shown below) sold at the local porn emporium.

That’s why I always steer folks toward my flogging instructional video, and recommend good starter toys that will last a long time, without eliminating the Grocery Fund for a month.

I can’t tell you how many new Sirs that I have met with outrageously rough, inappropriate Instruments of Torture that they thought that might be a good choice, and then no subs will let them go for more than a few strokes… The actual goal is perfect, thrilling power-flow that fluctuates smoothly as the circumstances allow.

This is my leather toy bag, which is a tiny subset of my larger toy collection. I carry the bag with me when I am attending parties. It is also what the slave brings upstairs when he arrives and sets up the scene to my specifications. This is because it contains my collection of favorite, most useful toys. Today, we are ignoring the paddles, crops and canes, and discussing the floggers and whips.

I have arranged a few of my toys to illustrate the range of sensations caused by various toys along the spectrum of "Thud" on the left, and progressively more intense with the "Sting" selection on the right.

Explaining the tall socks

When you have a bunch of floggers in a bag or a wheeled, carry-on piece of luggage, the skinny tails can make quite a mess of tangles. So, have the submissive clean up after the scene by pulling a tall sock over the forearm until there is a "sock puppet:"

Use the "mouth" to grab the ends of the flogger tails, and then use the other hand to pull the sock over the entire flogger. Long socks like this can be found at the Junior Miss section at your local Target or Walmart.

The Bunny: Very Thuddy

Starting at the far left of the "Thuddy" side of the scale, the Bunny is made of lengths of rope, covered in bunny fur. It's at least three decades old. How did I keep it in such great shape? I kept it away from young dogs. They ALL want to shred it!

It's a very exaggerated toy. I would never use it on a person with a slender frame. I wouldn't want to break their ribs! The ideal bottom for this is somebody with a wide, well-padded back.

I throw it with a two-handed, "baseball bat" throw, from the side, striking against the UPPER back. Stay far away from the lower back. This one is for piggy bottoms who can't stand Sting, but adore Thud... the heavier the better.

The Big, Heavy Flogger

Moving one notch away to the right. This category is VERY typical of high-end, more-expensive floggers that are everywhere on the market. The one shown in the picture above cost me $350.

My recommendation for such a toy is the Mister Thuddy. I helped design it years ago. I just checked: it costs 45 bucks. Not a good beginner flogger (I have trained many hundreds of Flogging Tops), but a very nice second flogger. This is what the result looks like, after using it.

My Favorite Flogger - Medium Weight

This is the Thumper, and it comes from FlogMeBaby. I didn’t design this one, but if I had, I would not change a single thing about it. I have raved about them, in detail. If I had ONE toy in my possession, this would be the one for me, hands down. I demonstrate many, many ways to use it, here. This photo shows a nice aftermath.

If you are going to learn how to use it, start by practicing the Loose Grip, shown in the video that I just linked to. I’ve been using it for forty years, and it is the reason why my wrist and forearm don't hurt after a long night of playing with a dozen eager subs in a bar.

This next section is the kind of flogger that I avoid:

Wimpy, Flimsy Floggers

I snagged this image off of the Internet, because I would never own floggers like these. If I win some in a raffle basket, I donate them back. You see tons of these in the local “Lingerie and Dildo” stores.

Using a lightweight toy like this in an Impact Play scene would be like using a cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels to beat somebody. There’s no release of kinetic energy, followed by increased endorphins.

On the other hand, if your goal is to get in a fight with a toddler that leaves you both giggling, these floggers are pretty nice.

The Tommy Tomcat

Going further to the right side of the scale. I designed the Tommy Tomcat for FlogMeBaby, based upon a very expensive toy that somehow disappeared from a play-party, a few decades past. I imagine that there are many hundreds of Tomcats in the world, as a result.

Imagine that you are at a kinky play-party. There is one piggy bottom that is being flogged by every Top in the building, and is still going strong when the Doms are all worn out. That is a very strong signal that it’s time to switch over to Sting as a tactic. Every time that I have tested that theory, I have been rewarded with a VERY happy bottom.

If you follow the breaking-in instructions on my page, then you will have the most accurate toy in your entire collection. I never strike any further away than a quarter-inch or so from my desired target when I am using it. It’s amazingly precise. This photo shows the aftermath of a heavy scene.

This video always gives me a thrill. Frankly, I get turned on, watching how well I use that Tomcat. I don’t usually get to see myself from such a different angle.

The Dragon’s Tongue

My two Dragon’s Tongues were hand-made by a buddy. I would love to find a more durable replacement. I will be investigating the purple and red ones that FlogMeBaby sells for twenty bucks each. Mine have been through hell, as you might imagine. I use them a lot.

They are deceptively mild as you warm up the sub, but a sharp “flick” will raise some serious welts. Definitely not to be used on beginners.

Singletail Whip

We have now arrived at ONE of the ultimately “sting-y” toys (not counting fiber-optic floggers - Those will be featured in a future article). The one in the picture above cost me three or four hundred bucks. It’s an Axel whip. Other Tops will stop me when I walk by, and they will say “Oooh! That’s an Axel, isn’t it?” It IS exquisitely made, and it throws like a dream.

HOWEVER. Again, the average beginner can’t seriously buy something like this, and trust that it’s right for them. Singletail whips are DIFFICULT to learn by yourself, to the point where other people trust you to throw whips around without damage to yourself and others.

Luckily, I have posted a Singletail 101 instructional video, for just such a purpose. Once you know how to achieve a perfect spread of singletail strikes on a pillow, you are a good bet to able to do a really good job on a human being.

For those on a budget, I have designed am inexpensive singletail that I can happily recommend. It is called the PTSM - The Papa Tony Signature Model. I just checked. It’s eighty bucks.

Again, I get no special considerations of any kind from FlogMeBaby. I just want to see more safe, fun kinky play happening in the world. It’s the Approving, Kinky Grandpa in me.

Coming up: Paddles, Crops and Canes.

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weaselle · 6 years

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THIS IS WHAT BOILS AWAY INSIDE ME EVERY MINUTE, MAKING THE TEDIUM OF EVERYDAY LIFE AN UNBEARABLE TRAP - THIS IS WHY I CAN NEVER STAY AT A JOB OR DECIDE ON A CAREER. EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT THESE THINGS IS BORING AND FRUSTRATING ________________________________________________

I have researched and want to write pre-historical fiction exploring my personal theories about early human development, which are wild but entirely possible within the total evidence we have available. I’ve done probably tens of thousands of words in notes on it over the years; finished, it would probably be at least a trilogy in length.

_________________________________________________

I have written some songs, and I want to get a couple of friends with a good voices to sing them, and then get some musician friends to write/play music for them on analogue instruments, pair that with the singing as whole songs that they perform live somewhere, then record and give those songs to some other friends to make like, an electro-funk remix album of it, and then get some DJ’s I know to spin that shit at a party, take footage of the whole process featuring the live band performance and the party DJ's strongly, ask some dancing/choreographing people I know to create a couple of kick-ass matching dance routines featuring all the people who worked on the project, reach out to some video and animation folks, and make a small series of music videos out of the whole dang thing.

_________________________________________________

I want to change how we experience death by creating a personal website for individuals featuring a kind of A.I. social media bot that users set up and activate which will, upon their death, continue to like and reblog things based on patterns of preference in their posts while alive. These bot/A.I.s would be able to be interfaced with, so, after I died, someone could get to know me - they could ask AfterKie “what movies and TV shows did you like?” and if I had set it up with access to my netflix/hulu/youtube info, AfterKie could tell you which movies and TV shows I rated highly, which ones I watched more than once, read you any positive reviews about them, read you my tweet “idc what anyone says, Ghostbusters is the best movie there has ever been” etc. And the reposting algorithms would A: let me reach out from the beyond to remind people “oh, true, Kie probably WOULD have like that tweet about caterpillars” and B: even if they were not perfect the reposting algorithms would allow for an approximate continuation and growth, so that I could even be seen as developing new interests after my death “Have you heard from Kie lately? He’s gotten super into Swedish architecture ever since he died, it’s like, most of what he talks about now”. I could map my face onto an avatar and use some voice matching software and put myself on a screen on my grave stone that would be linked, so you could literally walk around a graveyard getting to know the people who were buried there, asking them questions about their life. ________________________________________________

I want to build a Pet Mech, a small robot that could be controlled by small pets walking on a rollerball surface housed in the floor of the “head” with a sleeping/snacking den in the “body”. So your rat or guinea pig or ferret or lizard wakes up, climbs up into the control room, the floor of which is the direction pad. Which ever way the pet walks, the robot goes. Your pet is a little closer to your face, safe from the cat, won’t get lost under the couch, and can move around with you and to the extent of it’s capabilities be a social participant in the family it belongs to. ____________________________________________________

I want to sell puppies that owners will come visit in my facility for the first couple months, then take them home one weekend a month, then two, then three, then every weekend, then by the time they are a year old the dog lives with it’s person/people but continues to spend one weekend a month at the facility for an additional year. The facility would provide full socialization and training. A lot of dogs wind up in shelters because in one way or another their owners do not know how to teach them to be a functioning member of the household/society. Just the other day, I heard a lady talking about getting rid of her two year old dog, because "he's getting on my damn nerves, I don't know what to do with him" which A: it is our responsibility to teach dogs how to be an acceptable fit in our households, and B: having never been taught that in his formative years, this dog will have more trouble learning it from even someone who knows exactly how to do that. Modern Americans typically lack the resources and/or proper knowledge to accomplish what could best be done for them by trained professionals who went to collage to study animal behavior and development etc. This way, the dog would have a realistic chance of being a good fit for the owner, and the owner would have clear methods of achieving behavior they require, as well as having access to a support facility for boarding, exercising, trouble shooting problem behavior, etc. At first, it would be very expensive, and I would look into a pairing program, where every dog purchased and trained would pay for an additional dog to be available for families with lower incomes. Additionally, you could defray the cost by predetermining your dog to be trained and available for dog-jobs for hire from the facility as adult dogs, to pay for their early care and training; jobs such as visiting senior homes or hospitals, sniffing things in labs (like tumors) finding lost people, working with livestock at high school Agg programs, etc... so a few days a month until they paid for themselves, these dogs would have jobs, which is fulfilling for many dogs and would help a family afford one of these canines. As facilities expanded, costs would go down, and the facilities would make great shelter alternatives, eventually allowing kill shelters to be closed and possibly getting access to shelter subsidies. Then, as more and more dogs were properly trained and socialized, and more and more families with dogs had access to support services, less and less dogs would be given up, further reducing both the need for shelters, and the number of dogs euthanized each year. __________________________________________________

I have a plan that might allow minimum wage workers to build equity and become property owners while having more free time, in a communities designed as entrepreneurial incubators that allow small businesses to develop in extremely low-risk environments. I’m pretty excited about that one. __________________________________________________

I want to start a store that focuses on local sourcing, and competes with stores like Target and Walmart. This store features a permanent farmers market, a suplimentary onsite greenhouse and nursery, and a large industrial kitchen attached to a small bistro and bakery. The greenhouse and nursery would focus on any produce not represented by local growers. The unsold produce from the farmers market would be given to the store as a substantial portion of the farmstand rental fee, keeping the cost low for the farmers and letting them get value out of produce the public doesn’t buy, and the bistro would sell food made from it. Additionally the industrial kitchen would process the remainder into things like mustard, tater tots, microwaveable chicken pot pies, frozen breakfast burritos, bbq sauce, etc. Instead of buying new tools from the tool section, there would be a large tool library, and a 3-D printer for printing high density ceramic tools in case a specific kind is not available. The ceramic would break down faster than tools of other materials, but since it’s loaned and not purchased, that is fine, especially as the ceramic material can be broken down and re-printed into new tools. Instead of Hallmark and Harlequin novels and Homemaker magazines... cards, poetry chapbooks, works of fiction and independent publications all from local authors. Instead of new toys, franken-toys made out of second hand toys, with a build your own franken-toy workshop open to the public and staffed with someone to assist children. Instead of an electronics department, a repair shop that also offers lessons in electronic repair, and a workshop and tools for public use. Instead of clothes made in overseas sweatshops, a fabric and second hand clothing store staffed with local tailors and would-be clothing designers, doing repairs and adjustments on the second-hand clothes and using them with the fabric to create whole new pieces of clothing. Our offer to the public: bring in any item of women’s clothing from anywhere, and we will add two functioning pockets for free. It would be a club, like Costco, with a small monthly fee that would help cover things like the workshop tool use, as well as encourage regular patronage. __________________________________________________

I want a genetically modified cactus or succulent that glows from bio-luminescence, to use as a night light in the bedroom or bathroom. I don’t know how to make this happen, but I keep looking into it, because MAN do I want this to happen. ___________________________________________________

Instead of people going to big sales, I want to throw a Black Friday make-your-presents party, where instructors and materials are provided for DIY christmas present projects. Tickets are sold in advance, are specific to the project (functioning as a sign-up) and the ticket price covers your materials (costs are averaged so ticket prices are all the same). The idea is, you show up for a party, head to your project space, get taught how to make the thing, and you make like, ten of them in two hours. Then you spend another couple hours eating, drinking, and trading gifts with people from the other projects, giving you a selection of about ten different gifts. ____________________________________________________

I want to make a computer-assisted table top RPG that keeps track of all the numbers and equations character movement speed and position on maps, so you can focus on the role-playing aspect (you still roll dice, but on a mat with sensors that track the result and apply your bonuses etc) ___________________________________________________

I want to do all this and so much more. I have some really cool alien fiction ideas - not the stories, but the aliens themselves, designed the right way, by creating a set of planetary conditions and then hypothesizing lifeforms likely to evolve therein... I have some energy creation process designs that utilize combinations of natural forces (like gravity/solar/tidal plants, that use all three things in a unified power production technique) which I’d love to look into further. I have a line of small pet housing I’ve sketched out, featuring tunnels connecting small pet environments in each room of the owner’s house. I have a video game I’ve outlined and done character development for that I’m writing up as an RPG sourcebook...

___________________________________________________ I'm not saying this is genius stuff (I’m also not saying it isn’t tho) I'm just saying pursuing these thoughts is the only thing in life that commands my interest.

What I’m super tired of is trying to make my brain do anything but run on at full speed about this kind of thing, because it pretty much refuses to do anything else anyway.

I don't even care if I make any money from any of it, I just want to make it happen. ... I mean, money would be nice too, of course.

So, anyway, now if I die in my sleep at least this much of any of it is out in the world in some form. Meanwhile, I’m just a few days away from going live with the website I’ve put together to showcase my progress on this stuff and help find funding for development. A central location all of it can live and get updated. I should probably get back to working on that, actually

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micromanclub · 6 years

Text

1999 Interview with Iwakichi Ogawa, Creator of Microman

The following interview was translated from the fantastic 1999 Tokuma Shoten publication, Roman Album Hyper Mook 6: Henshin Cyborg and Microman Victory Project

President and Representative Director of Russell, Ltd. Iwakichi Ogawa

From here on [in this section of the book], we’ll introduce the inventors behind the history of creating the Takara original SF toys. Iwakichi Ogawa, having been involved in the development of Henshin Cyborg and production of Microman himself, is a living witness to the history of the Takara SF toys. His eyes shone like a young boy’s as he shared with us the behind the scenes story of these two major heroes.

--Ogawa-san, you handled making prototypes, right?

That’s right. I was originally in my college’s economics department, with a focus on marketing, and nothing to do with development work, one might say. But you know, I loved doing it and learning everything after joining Takara, so that by the time of Cyborg and Microman, I had begun to sculpt my own prototypes by hand.

--You only started creating models after you had joined Takara?

Precisely. I had a subordinate, a nice guy who had been in his university’s art club who I told, “teach me, too.” (laughs)

--That must have been nice, getting to paid to learn on the job. (laughs)

You mean playing every day from morning to night, and getting paid for it, right? (laughs) Oh, I played, all right. When establishing the (Japanese localized) rules for “The Game of Life”--adapting this thing which came from America--it couldn’t be anything but fun coming up with the “directions for each space”. If someone complained at the time, “oh, all you’re doing is goofing off,” I would answer, “no, this is work, you see,” but that was a lie. (laughs)

--Well then, please tell us about the time Henshin Cyborg was created.

As you are aware, the forerunner to Henshin Cyborg was Hasbro’s GI Joe, which began around the time I was on “The Game of Life”, so I was not directly responsible for that. “GI Joe will do well” was Takara president Yasuta Satou’s insight. So soon we were all on GI Joe. It was at a point when sales had declined a bit that I remember one fellow suggested, “let’s make a transparent one”. So the molding section at the factory followed up and produced one. Once it was assembled, the reaction was “hey, this looks pretty cool.” It had thick areas where the screws were inside it, right? From the side, it had a really amazing look to it. Though parts of the joints were made out of nylon, I could work with that.

The young guy responsible (he was around 24-25?) had incredibly good sense. Being transparent was just how it started, with it being plain and hollow, of course we needed to make the insides. But at the time, Takara was focused mostly on producing games and Licca-chan dolls, so there was no separate department yet for boys’ toys. Therefore, I wound up taking some kits of motorbikes that the model companies Tamiya and Arii were making at the time which had chrome-plated parts, and put those bits inside. So the first Cyborg we previewed at an industry trade show had a motorcycle engine for his innards.

At that time we stated the head was still under development, and just used a metal spring inside it. When the actual design was made, it was created by Dan Kobayashi (known since for creating Gaiking and Danguard Ace among others).　He did all the prototyping for the head and the finer detailing. Though the prototype was made in wax, I noticed quickly that it was green. Normally the wax is brown but when I asked him about it, he said, “sorry, that’s my secret.” It was a custom mix of waxes that was extraordinarily fine and easy to texture and tailor. I managed to get some and started using it in my own prototypes. Kobayashi-san worked with me on the prototypes for Microman as well. The prototypes for the Microman breastplates were made from a kind of plaster. Kobayashi used this plaster because silicon was expensive in those days.

Well, it’s actually called “rebase”, and it’s what dentists use to repair crowns in their work. It hardens quickly, making it easy to work with. Come to think of it, when we were doing Microman Command’s capsule later on, I forgot how it happened, but the mold wound up with a small “Ogawa” (小川) inside it, and I believe you can find it in there. (laughs)

--Well that’s… (laughs) I’ll check later when I get a chance (later on I confirmed that it can be seen molded into Command 3’s capsule). So, speaking of Microman, can you talk about how that began?

In fact, it started with GI Joe. GI Joe sold incredibly well at first, but eventually not so well, which was when my superior Wakase-san said “we should make these smaller.” He had worked in steel manufacturing, a very talented man. “You can’t produce vehicles when they are this big, so make them smaller,” was the advice of my boss from back then. We were still producing the original flesh-colored GI Joe at that time. Yet at that point it was totally undoable, with joints already smaller than you’d find on your own pinky finger. So, after trying anyway using insect mounting pins, I said “this isn’t viable (for production)”, to which Wakase-san answered, “ah, well”. Later, Cyborg became extremely popular. But both GI Joe and Cyborg were still too big to make vehicles for them to drive. So once again I confronted making the “miniature poseable figure” with the desire to make it possible at whatever cost. In any case, we needed to solve the joint problem, so I tried many different methods; using a beaded key chain to try making small ball and sockets, and other such ideas. But these would come apart after repeated use by a child. This was the biggest issue Microman would face. Then, with a portable folding ruler I found something—a tiny rivet, only 2mm wide. I began to hunt for it. It came from the shop making Licca-chan backpacks. I learned they had a machine that could install 2mm rivets automatically, so I checked, but while the rivets were 2mm in diameter, they were much too long. There’s no choice but to make the rivets shorter. After confirming it was possible, I asked Kobayashi-san for about 3 test sample bodies. With that, we assembled them with the fresh rivets, and the heads of the rivets looked quite cool. “This is good,” I thought as I could now put a request in with the boss which would only require a single mold casting. Nikkou Toys (a tin toy maker at the time) or such ought to be able to take the order. When I thought about the potential to use it with translucent parts, I was dumbstruck. Well, once I put these connections together in private, I actually cried. It had been over a year since I had first embarked on this project.

--That’s quite a while, isn’t it? How was it received in the end?

In those days of labor guilds, in spite that there were some who would think heavier was best, others felt “No, lightweight is good”. And with the oil shock of the following year, with the rise of the era of energy conservation, this was a potential selling point (laughs). And see, you could put a Microman on a matchbox, and now it’s a vehicle, right? Or an ashtray can be a flying saucer. When I showed it to sales, they too were, “Yeah, that’s good”. Then, for a company evaluation meeting, we took an electroplated frying pan and put a clock inside it so just the second hand axle was exposed and affixed a Microman to it. That way each time the hand ticked, the Microman would move. This had an incredible effect. “That’s it!” they said (laughs). Not much later this would become the counter display.

(Earliest known discernable photo of Microman prototypes being displayed, via Minoru Sashida.)

--For Microman, the play mechanics were quite novel, weren’t they?

Indeed they were. I put a lot of thought into how to make the series stand out as unique. This was “Episode 2” of Microman’s creation for me (laughs). At that time, Lego blocks were becoming the next big thing, and I had bought a set for my daughter, too. However, living in an apartment housing complex back then, things turned when neighboring children from the third and fourth grade came to play. “So, this is what I got.” “I wouldn’t buy that, it’s like a baby toy.” “But aren’t you playing with it too?” “Sure, it’s fun, but we’re elementary schoolers now.” I felt that they were the target. So the block was shaved down into the form of a wing. These days, blocks come in all forms, but back then they were only in the square form of bricks. And when we manufactured Jaguar, we used 3mm joints of ABS plastic for attachments. Blocks are fun, but for babies. So you have to make it in a form that is clearly not for babies. And if you make them into a science-fiction form, it begins to become interesting. (laughs) So while the figures were ready, the release schedule was repeatedly pushed back to “It will be available when it’s ready”. (laughs) Honestly, I already had something kind of like Robotman worked out by then. But nothing like vehicles yet, on the other hand. So for that I came up with the term “Material Block”. Since the 3mm pegs seemed to break easily, I figured, okay, let’s go with 5mm. From that point onward, Takara has used the 5mm gauge for all their product’s molds ever since. When we went on to create “Steel Jeeg”, we were able to incorporate the 5mm parts with magnets, too. So you could say that 5mm interchangeability started out as the basis for playing with Microman.

--That was profound, wasn’t it? It even became a hit abroad.

At first, when the president and department manager went to try to sell it in America, their efforts failed. Around then, a certain agent in California asked for “a percentage of the royalties if successful”. A half-year later, it became an explosive hit in Japan. When that happened, the company “Mego” was approached. When we showed them, they were interested and agreed. Then it became a huge hit there and his share turned into hundreds of millions. (laughs) When I visited his home after that, even though it was still back in the day, he had a giant projection TV, a home theater. A pool, too. Yet I was still some kind of salaryman. (laughs)

--Even though you’re the real father! (laughs)

The suspension that holds the hips would have broken were it not made from metal. I tooled it on a drill press and welded a hook onto it. It was fully my idea. (The book’s editor suggests comparing with a replica Microman figure release for reference here.) But I didn’t patent it. Back around the turn of the century, a similar design was filed to make wooden artist’s mannequins, so it wouldn’t have passed.

If the owner of that patent challenged us, even if they were wrong, it would have ended everything. But even today, GI Joe is using the same structure as Microman. Yet I was the one who designed it…

--By the way, how did it become called Microman?

It was originally codenamed internally as Microman --it was micro-sized, thus Microman—but it became the brand name in the end. The same for Acroyear which was “’akudoi yarou’ (‘vicious brute’), so we went with “Akuroiya”, or such (laughs).

--Was the story yours, too?

Yes. To sell them individually, we wanted to present them in a clear box. And, I started to think about how we could make the clear box itself a desirable feature. So I had read and researched a lot of science fiction by that point. I didn’t really agree with the theory of evolution. My own fancy was that living things could spontaneously change overnight. I hadn’t seen any fossils of transitional forms. So, I came up with the idea that the alpha H7 gas drifting in the galaxy would cause evolutionary change whenever it came into contact with life, and when MicroEarth exploded, it had a different effect by chance. Back then, there was the notion that Atlantis used crystal energy which I found interesting. Crystals that return the same frequency when exposed to electromagnetic waves. So the setting was created by combining these ideas. That’s what I recorded to a mini-cassette when it hit me in the middle of the night. (laughs) I contacted Design Mate, and gave it as the pitch. Suguwara from Design Mate (see page 80 [of this book]) then edited it and it turned out quite good. I spent a couple extra hours that night on the telephone. “Am I ever going home?” I thought (laughs). I’m sure I was annoying them too (laughs).

--I would imagine you always carried a Microman with you?

I always did. I made a ring for myself, you see. I placed the head of a Microman inside clear acrylic. I really wore it. However, as I gained weight, I had to shave out the center over time. (laughs) It was a lot of trouble to keep shaving down that acrylic.

--Still, it seems like you could put that on the market, now.

You think so? I guess I’ll take it to Takara and find out (laughs). But lately Microman has been getting a good reception from a lot of respectable folks these days, hasn’t it? However, I had gotten rid of most of mine. Such a waste, isn’t it? When it came about, I was “Ah, so that’s how it goes, huh?” (laughs) But, seeing the resurgence in popularity has been fun, you know? Seeing everyone joining in and putting them up on their home pages and such. Sometimes I wonder if I should drop in and introduce myself. (laughs) Ah, well…

--What kind of work are you doing next?

As a person who lived in the toy industry, you could say I wish to make a new “toy launch”. Without an anime launch, a toy that is a hit, becomes a game, then becomes an anime. Right now, I’m planning toward that goal. I’m about 60% there. This is a toy’s true essence! –is what I want to be able to express. That would be something like a new Microman for me. So now, I’m really fired up! (laughs) What’s it about? ….that’s a secret (laughs).

Iwakichi Ogawa, born August 24, 1942 in Fukushima Prefecture Former head of boy’s product development division at Takara. Current President and Representative Director of toy development company Russell, Ltd.

#microman #micronauts #pre-micronauts #pre-transformers #takara sf land #ミクロマン

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makingmoneyonlinemethod · 3 years

Photo

14 Ways To Make Money With a Website!

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~ The 14 Ways Most Websites Make Money ~

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Personally I think your first steps would be to ask your audience what they want to know more about and then create a product around that and sell it!

Next time you email your list include a survey of potential product ideas and ask for feedback.

When it comes to selling any product of your own, I recommend using SamCart for your checkout page, upsells and affiliate program. They have a free trial, so make sure to try it out.

Benefits:

· Affiliates send you traffic, build your business.

· Passive income because of affiliates promoting it.

· Great for building your brand and authority.

· Big Money Earner.

Drawbacks:

· Time consuming to setup.

Special Note:

At IncomeDiary we make most of our money by selling our own online courses and software, plus other people’s products as an affiliate. But there are lots of different ways to make money online.

It can take a while to work out how to best way for you to make money with your website. Patience is a virtue. If something doesn’t work, try something else. Don’t give up.

The main reason people fail at blogging and website creation, isn’t that their idea or website is no good but because they give up too soon.

4. Sell Advertising Space

While I am not a huge fan of this myself, one of the easiest ways to make money from a website is by placing ads on it. Google AdSense is one popular way to get ads appearing on your website fast. But make sure to abide by Googles Rules – you cannot click on the ads that appear in the hope of earning a commission.

We all know what ads look like, but did you know that they function in many different ways such as Pay Per Click, Pay Per 1000 Views or Pay Per Time Frame.

The biggest downside of website adverting, is that most people know what they look like and avoid clicking them.

When selling advertising, you typically have two choices:

1. Find and work with advertisers yourself.

2. Work with a middle man who takes a cut for bringing you advertisers.

It all depends on you…

Is this a business for you or is this just an opportunity to make a bit more money?

I always lean towards finding advertisers myself. In my experience you get paid more, build better partnerships and can do a better job for them.

Advertising sales makes up only a small portion of my earnings but it’s nice to know that money is almost guaranteed to come in each month.

Be warned: Google does not like the practice of buying and selling text links.

People buy text links because Google rank sites better based on quantity and quality of links.

When you link to someone, you are telling search engines that you trust this site and you are giving them some of your authority.

Google likes this to happen organically.

Please don’t you buy/sell links on your site for the purpose of SEO and gaming the search engines. If you do this and get caught, Google will punish you by slapping your site down in the rankings. It is not worth the risk.

BuySellAds is another company that makes it easy to sell advertising space on your website or blog.

Benefits:

· Often guaranteed income.

· Little effort to monetize.

· Saves you a lot of time.

· Great way to connect with others in your industry.

Drawbacks:

· Takes away from user experience.

· If you set a set price per month, you can’t make any more even if you double your traffic.

· Advertisers come and go, you have to spend time editing, adding, deleting and finding more advertisers.

5. Do Product Reviews

I know a good number of bloggers who review products on their blogs. It makes for great content and if the product you are reviewing has an affiliate program, can make you can earn money.

You can review anything from software, to bikes, cars, hotels, holidays, food, anything you could think of and it can be tax deductible (I believe) if you buy something to review.

Check this post out about How To Start a Review Blog.

I personally want to review one product a month, it’s not so many that readers will be turned of but enough that it will make up a high proportion of my income. Doing small amount of reviews means you can pick all the best products and don’t have to speak about negative ones.

Special Note:

Occasionally, especially when your blog becomes more popular, you will get sent products free of charge in the hope you will write a positive review. If that happens it is important to declare that you received a free sample. Frankly, your reader may well think that in any case – and I find it best policy to always be transparent in these matters.

Additionally, your review should remain fair and impartial. Don’t make it a glowing positive review – well, not unless it deserves that!

Benefits:

· Great source of income.

· Converts higher then banner ads and email promotions.

· Often free products are sent to you for review.

· Connect with industry leaders.

· Get noticed as a top affiliate.

Drawbacks:

· You can’t always say nice things.

· If you say bad things, the company may not send you future free samples.

· Products become irrelevant quickly in some industry’s. (content becomes dated and needs replacing)

6. Selling Services

Selling services is a very popular technique people use to make money from a website and is often the reason for them building a blog in the first place. They want to get more clients, to do that they need to get traffic and blogs are great for that!

The easiest way to start selling your services on your blog is to create a new page within WordPress and call it services. Here you can put in the information about what you offer, testimonials and a buy now button.

To collect payments, your best two options is either PayPal or Stripe.

Benefits:

· High converting, they see your blog and want more!

· Highly profitable.

· Easy to deliver.

· Low refunds.

Drawbacks:

· Exchanging time for money.

· Customers are always right (which we know isn’t true).

· Can be periods of time where you have no customers!

7. Create a Job Board

This works like this:

People looking to hire someone will post a job on your board and readers will apply for the job. This is a great method of monetizing a website which I have seen done by a lot of authority websites.

On the other hand, I have seen smaller blogs try to do this and completely fail because it’s competitive and if you can’t send them anyone to apply, it’s pointless for them to post a job. Jobs can be anything from, writers to trainers.

As for what software to use, I recommend you check out Fiverr. They have a selection of freelancers who specialize in creating job board websites.

When it comes to marketing your job board, you will want to use some of your advertising space to promote the job board so that readers will see it and apply for jobs.

Charge a low price at the beginning so that you can attract a lot of customers and when they get applications and customers they will be happy to return.

Problogger is a fantastic example of a Job Board.

Ask yourself, can I create a job board for my niche?

If you can, it can become a very good source of income.

Benefits:

· Completely hands of, you don’t have to do anything.

· Adds to credibility

Drawbacks:

· Doesn’t work for small blogs

· Very competitive at times.

8. Offer a Membership Site or Premium Content

This technique has become more and more popular over the last few years.

The idea is simply, people come to your website because they want to read your content. They love it and want more. So you offer them even better content, for a price.

Your first step should be to work out what you’re going to offer. Then, you will want to go ahead and create a membership area for them to login and see the information you’re selling.

Once you have set it up, you will want to focus on marketing it. For best results, I recommend focusing on email marketing and adding an advert at the bottom of every page, mentioning that if they liked what they have read so far, they should take a look at your even better paid content.

Another option would be to release an affiliate program for your membership site. This not only will increase sales but will bring you even more traffic.

For billing, checkout pages, upsell pages and affiliate program software, I recommend you use SamCart.

If you want someone else to setup your membership website, you can hire someone to do this on Fiverr.

Benefits:

· Continuity income, keep making money, month after month.

· Can be set and forget, if you time release.

· Affiliates will send you traffic!

· Can be a huge earner, it accounts for over $90k a month for Tutsplus.

Drawbacks:

· Can be a lot of work to set up.

· Regular work to release more content.

9. Sell Paid Directory Listings

This isn’t very common but I believe it should be.

I see it as a smart way to sell advertising, you see instead of putting adverts on your sidebar, you have a directory on your blog where you link to different company’s and websites in your industry and charge a premium for the listing. If you charged a monthly fee, so for example, say you had 1000 people listed in your directory and charged $7 a month, you would earn $7000 a month in continuity.

In some ways, this is actually beneficial to the reader, say you have a website about becoming a model, in the directory could be a section for photographers, where photographers pay to list their services. Models will come and look for the right person to take pictures of them for their portfolio, helpful and profitable.

Just like a job board, I would add adverts to my blog, promoting the directory to make sure customers are happy with the number of people seeing their ad and the traffic they get. To start with, I would even advertise on other sites to get people to list in your directory, as well as reaching out to people and company’s to buy a listing.

Benefits:

· Highly profitable.

· Useful to readers.

· Makes you stand out as your doing something different.

· Nearly guaranteed income.

Drawback:

· Costs to setup.

· May not work well for smaller sites

10. Host Webinars & Sell Something

Webinars are great at selling high price products, either a the product owner or as an affiliate.

Alternatively, you could set up a free webinar that you replay once a week, teach something and then at the end you sell them into 4 more webinars. Once you complete the webinar series, you now have a product that you can sell as a home study course

Here is a great introduction to how to sell with webinars.

Benefits:

· High priced, low amount of customers, so low support.

· Readers want to connect with you.

· Highly beneficial to those who buy.

· Great way to teach.

Drawbacks:

· If your doing live webinars, your exchanging time for money.

· Investment for software.

· People have to turn up at a specific time, hard for different time zones.

11. Write Tutorials & Promote Something

Another thing I don’t see often, but I love to do!

Content is what everyone is after, that’s why they come to your website, so create content which includes them buying something so that when they do buy, they buy via an affiliate link, and make you money!

What I do to create a tutorial, is I start with the product, find one that you are using and you get a lot out of, it of course needs to have an affiliate program. Then do a tutorial about doing something using that tool.

So for example it could be a post about Photography and take a specific type of photo but you need this lens to do it.

Benefits:

· Makes great content.

· Good for search engines.

· Profitable long term.

· Quick to produce.

Drawbacks:

· Finding enough products that have affiliate programs.

· Some people may not be interested because they don’t yet have the product.

12. Publish a Book

A lot of people want to write a book, however they have no audience.

A blog can bring you branding, can help you connect with other people in your industry, help you understand what people like to read about, more importantly what people don’t like. Here is an article we published on writing a best selling book.

A lot of people don’t consider a book because you only get a couple dollars a book but that’s not just what you earn.

Publishing a book can allow you to then launch a product because people always want more, also a more exciting prospect is being paid to speak. If you are published, you’re automatically seen as an expect, it doesn’t matter if you never sell more than a dozen books, this means you can charge to speak and charge a lot more for consulting.

There’s so many different ways to go about publishing a book, most choose self publish but if your blog is successful, either they will find you or in my case, a friend connected me with his published and told me I should write a book. Someone in your industry who blogs, will also have published a book, help them and they will help you.

Benefits:

· Authority.

· Long term earnings.

· Increase your charge for consulting.

· Paid to speak at events.

Drawbacks:

· Timely or expensive if you have a ghostwriter.

· Doesn’t make you a lot of money on it’s own.

13. Offer Live Training and Workshops

Just like selling consulting and services, you could also use your blog to sell live training, workshops and seminars.

People read your blog but I wouldn’t be surprised if over 80% don’t act on what you say. Having a workshop means they learn from you and implement with you, this is a very attractive offer to some people and they are willing to pay high prices to do it.

You don’t just make money from the price of the ticket but you can also make money from selling follow up workshops and masterminds. If you bring in speakers, then you also collect 50% of everything they make if they sell from stage at the end. Another thing to consider is recording the event and then selling that as a product on your blog.

Putting on an event is a daunting thing, however it really isn’t to hard. Ring up a hotel, book a conference room, now you have a date, write a blog post and send everyone on your mailing list to that page.

Mention your event every where and keep hustling! Apart from that, all you NEED to do is create your slides and turn up. Some of my friends even hire people to run everything for them so they don’t have to worry about the event side of things.

Benefits:

· Can make you a lot of money.

· Can be made into a product.

· People will invite you to speak at their events so that you can sell yours.

· Makes you an authority.

Drawbacks:

· Time consuming.

· Selling can sometimes be hard.

· Stressful for first timers and often the pros. You think the deal is done and then it falls apart at the last minute.

14. Sell Your Website – The Ultimate Way To Make Money Online

My favorite of all the above and also the one that pays the most.

Transforming your blog into an Authority Blog or website will give you one of the biggest pay days ever.

Typically, websites sell for 12 – 24 months revenue, however if your site is old, has something unique about it or is the authority in your industry then you can expect any figure you want. I have seen some blogs go for over 200 years revenue and it didn’t even make $100,000 a year.

Work hard and it will pay off.

It is important to remember if you sold your site for 2 years revenue and it made $5000 a month, you would get $120,000. To earn that amount of money it could take you 6 or 7 years because of expenses and taxes. You also have to factor in how long it took you to build your business. If it took you two years and you sell for $120,000 – then it would be like earning an extra $60,000 a year.

Where can I sell my website?

A lot of people use Flippa.com. With over 200,000 buyers looking to buy your website or online business, Flippa.com is the go to place for both buyer and seller.

Flippa is good for smaller sites making under $100,000 per year in profit – although they do handle larger transactions.

However, if you have a more profitable online business, we would recommend using a website broker – the personal touch can go a long way in extracting the maximum website value.

Benefits:

· Large amount of cash.

· Can be sold within a month.

· Enough money not to need to work for years.

Drawbacks:

· You lose an asset.

· You lose an income stream.

If you are already at the stage where selling your website is an option, read this post on selling your website and this one How To Sell A Website For The Most Money Possible

That’s it.

Our top 14 ways to make money from a website.

#make money as an affiliate #makemoneyathome #how to make money #make money 2021 #make money online

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Power Rangers “Reboot Universe” Is Exactly What The Franchise Needs

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In the early 1990s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers burst onto the scene and quickly became one of the hottest kids shows on the planet. Millions of toys were sold, ratings went through the roof, multiple copycats were created, and a big budget movie was put into production. Power Rangers’ place in pop culture was cemented and secured a long future for the franchise.

However, as the years went on and Power Rangers continued on television its fame slowly evaporated. It fell into the background; successive seasons of the TV show were enjoyed by new generations of kids and hardcore fans but never captured the public consciousness again like it had in the ‘90s. Multiple attempts were made to try and bring it back into the spotlight but they all had little success in the grand scheme of things.

The most recent attempt, the 2017 movie, was deemed a disappointment at the box office despite making its budget back and pleasing many fans. The TV show has mostly stuck to the same formula for the last ten years and has suffered slow erosion in its ratings. Still this isn’t the lowest point in Power Rangers history at all (arguably the rock bottom ratings of Power Rangers RPM.) There have been several successes recently, including the Power Rangers comics and Legacy Wars mobile game.

However, new franchise owners Hasbro want Power Rangers to be a massive success. They didn’t pay half a billion dollars to collect license fees and take up a small section of the toy aisle. They want Power Rangers to be big, to be its own cinematic universe… but after over twenty-years of attempts can Hasbro reinvent Power Rangers?

They’re about to try. Hasbro has tapped Jonathan Entwistle, known for his work on I Am Not Okay With This and The End of the F***ing World to “shepherd new film and television adaptations of Power Rangers.” Adaptations of Power Rangers that, a press release pointed out, will be “non-kid.” In addition they’re planning an animated Power Rangers and some form of continuation for the “kids-oriented” series whose 28th season is currently in production.

A movie. A “non-kid” TV show. Some form of animation. A kid TV show. That’s four major Power Rangers projects that have all been announced or discussed in the past few weeks. Not only that but Entwistle told Insider that what he’s working on is a “reboot universe” and a “whole new world” for the franchise.

This is by far the biggest push Power Rangers has ever received to bring it back into the spotlight and reinvent the franchise. Hasbro is betting big on Power Rangers and looks to be taking the franchise in directions it’s only brushed up against in the past. What do they all mean? How will they relate to each other? What does this mean for the TV series that’s been running for so long with one (mostly) continuing universe? Let’s break it all down because there’s a lot to discuss here.

The New Live-Action Power Rangers Movie

With Hasbro’s acquisition of Power Rangers and the 2017 Lionsgate/Saban Power Rangers movie’s lack of success, it was inevitable the new movie wouldn’t be a follow up to that film. We know for sure that the film will be live-action, Titans writer Bryan Edward Hill has been tapped to write the script, it will be more mature than the TV series and Entwistle will be directing.

We aren’t sure if the story of the new film will follow the plot originally mentioned in reports back in December of a new team of Ranger time-traveling back to the 90’s. That movie was in the works with Hasbro and Paramount but Paramount hasn’t been mentioned in any of the recent press releases so it’s unclear if that story is still in play or not.

The “Non-Kid” TV Show

We know very little about this show but Entwistle will direct at least some of the episodes. What’s fascinating is how much the press release made a clear distinction between this project and the currently airing Power Rangers Beast Morphers. Specifically it stated, “in addition to the new non-kid projects under Entwistle, Power Rangers-inspired kid series Beast Morphers is currently in season two.��

Power Rangers Seasons We Never Saw

By Shamus Kelley

The Top 54 Power Rangers Episodes That Will Make You a Fan

By Shamus Kelley

If a Power Rangers TV show isn’t for kids, who will it be for? Besides the 2017 movie, which was aimed at a more general audience, Power Rangers was always first and foremost a show for kids. Even at its zenith the show never tried branching out into programs meant for teens or adults.

A mature Power Rangers was in fact something that previous owners of Power Rangers were starkly against. In 2015, director Joseph Kahn and producer Adi Shankar released the fan film Power/Rangers, a decidedly violent and sexual take on the franchise. Within hours the short was removed after a copyright claim from then franchise owner Saban Brands. The film was only allowed back up with extensive disclaimers noting it was a fan film and was not affiliated with Saban.

This new show could be targeted to teens or even solely for adults. We suspect it’ll probably be more teen/young adult focused (think the Arrowverse shows) for maximum audience potential but you never know. This alone could help Power Rangers redefine itself. By removing all the strict restrictions that come with making TV for younger audiences, Power Rangers would finally have the room to reinvent itself and explore new dramatic territory. It could shake off the monster of the week combined with moral lessons format and go in any direction it wanted. It could take the form of a bingeable “prestige” series, where it’s allowed to fully explore its characters and world to depths previously only dreamed about by fans. We could see a Riverdale style show (let’s call it “Angel Grove”) that focuses more on the characters’ romantic relationships with one another, something the series up to now has shied away from. It would even allow the show to have more intense action, the legendary stunt team able to go all out instead of pulling their punches for fear of their action being copied by children.

Power Rangers could be anything it wanted.

Will The Movie or TV Show Use Japanese Footage?

One of the hallmarks of Power Rangers is its use of footage from various Japanese Super Sentai series for some of its fight scenes and megazord battles. It’s been both a blessing and a curse to the show, saving it tons of money but also locking the show into themes or stories depending on the footage.

While so far no one has commented on whether the “non-kid” show or film will use Sentai footage, we’re fairly confident they won’t. It’s tough to reimagine the franchise while still being forced to use whatever Sentai is given to them. As much as fans love seeing how Power Rangers utilizes the footage, it does keep Hasbro from making exactly what they want. If they’re going to invest the money into a show and film, they want to have full control over it.

The footage from Sentai is also for kids and it’d be tough to add that to even a teen program and get the general audience to take it seriously. Power Rangers fans, after years of exposure to the franchises over the top nature, sometimes miss that, to an outsider, the action of Power Rangers is silly and takes them out of the story. That’s one of the delightful charms of the show if you’re a fan but to outsiders it’s a massive stumbling block. Without it, Power Rangers can finally grow and change in ways it hasn’t been able to in years.

Plus, the art of cutting up Japanese programs and reselling them to America in drastically altered states is archaic at this point. It’s a relic of the ‘90s that somehow managed to survive in Power Rangers. It doesn’t need to continue.

Power Rangers “New Animation”

As reported by No Pink Spandex, Casey Collins (Senior VP, Global Consumer Products, Hasbro) stated on Oct. 6th at the Europse Festival of Licensing event that Hasbro is exploring content for the franchise, which includes “new animation.” Entwisle also stated in the Insider interview that he’s working on animation for the franchise.

Unlike the movie and general audience series, there was no statement regarding what age group the animated series would be aimed at. The only thing we know for sure is that Entwistle is overseeing it.

In its 27 year history there’s never been an official Power Rangers animated series. Some pitches have been leaked and various people associated with the brand have spoken about the possibility in the past but nothing official ever came to light.

Power Rangers: A Guide to the Multiverse

By Shamus Kelley

Power Rangers and How It Adapted From Super Sentai

By Shamus Kelley

The possibilities for an animated Power Rangers series are endless. With animation you can do anything you want and you certainly wouldn’t (and couldn’t) use Japanese live-action footage with it. There’s an infinite canvas, whether they want to tell stories that flesh out the world and characters of the film/live-action show, a totally separate story, or a series that skews towards adults akin to Castlevania on Netflix. They could even use it to dive into the continuity of the kid show… although some comments from Entwistle make us suspect that won’t be the case.

Speaking of…

The New Reboot Universe

Entwistle stated in the Insider interview, “I am now running the new Power Rangers reboot universe from scratch… I’m mapping out a whole new world of movies and television and animation.” Calling it a reboot universe makes us 99% certain these projects will break with the continuity of the kids TV series and create something that completely stands on its own.

This wouldn’t be the first time. The 1995 film, though taking many elements from the TV series, was in its own continuity. The 2017 film also served as a complete reboot, starting the universe over from scratch. The TV show itself contains seasons that are set in alternate universes. Even the current Power Rangers comic books, though trying to stick to key events of the show, take place in their own universe.

Hasbro has a key interest in building “entertainment universes” around their core properties (as stated in a recent press release) and doing that with a franchise like Power Rangers is a smart move. The thought of abandoning the 27 year old continuity may anger some fans but it’s the right move. It makes sure no one in the audience feels left out and it avoids the admittingly messy continuity the show’s developed over the years.

All this doesn’t mean we’re seeing the end of the Power Rangers kids TV though.

The Kid Show

With all this talk of new universes and projects, fans have been wondering what will happen to the Power Rangers TV show as we know it. Currently the 28th season, Power Rangers Dino Fury is in production and its first season will air on Nickelodeon next year.

Past that, things start to get hazy.

We know that Dino Fury will have more than one season, thanks to a report from Worldscreen (via NPS.) Olivier Dumont (President of Family & Brands, eOne, which Hasbro owns) stated that they are working on “the first season of Power Rangers Dino Fury.” However, Power Rangers is only guaranteed to be on Nickelodeon through 2021. After that, no one knows where the show will end up. It could potentially move to another network (or streaming service) but this means we’ll have Power Rangers through 2022. That doesn’t mean the show will remain untouched by Entwistle or Hasbro’s new plans for the brand.

As reported by NPS, Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner stated in a Third Quarter 2020 Eagnings Conference Call that Entwistle is handling, “the kids-oriented TV show that’s in its 27th season.” This raises a ton of questions. What is Entwistle’s level of involvement with Dino Fury and will it tie into the new reboot universe? Will he continue to handle the show going forward after Dino Fury? Will it keep using Japanese footage? There’s also the strange distinction made in the initial press release about these projects where Beast Morphers was referred to as a “Power Rangers-inspired kid series.” What does that mean? What makes the kids TV series “Power Rangers-inspired?” Is this some kind of new legal or corporate distinction to keep the kids show separate from the new projects?

It’s hard to answer any of these questions without more information. We can only speculate that perhaps the kids show will continue on in the “original” continuity (along with the Sentai footage) while Entwistle will simply make sure it somewhat matches the tone or aesthetic of the other projects. Another possibility is that the kids show will take place in the new “reboot universe” and it will completely drop the Sentai footage.

The Future of Power Rangers

To quote the final line of Power Rangers Time Force, “the future looks pretty bright.” Of course some of these projects may not get off the ground. That’s Hollywood, but seeing how committed Hasbro is to Power Rangers with multiple shows in the works gives us a lot of hope. They’ll be different from what fans are used to, no doubt, but that’s what Power Rangers needs right now. Becoming a teen or adult show/film that doesn’t use Sentai footage may be off putting to hardcore fans but it’s the kind of move that’ll draw in a whole new audience. It could reinvent what people think of Power Rangers and that’ll help it grow after years of relative stagnation in pop culture. There’s been a lot of great work for the fans done over the years (the 2017 movie, the recent Boom comics, the Legacy Wars mobile game) but to really make a splash in the wider entertainment world, Power Rangers needs to do something bold and these new projects could be just that.

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For over 20 years Power Rangers has tried to recapture the success of the original MMPR and never succeeded. There are many reasons for that but perhaps the announcements of these new projects show that Hasbro is finally done with trying to reach that zenith. Instead, it’s forging a new path. One that could bring Power Rangers a new level of success in a totally different realm. We’re fascinated to see how it goes.

The post The Power Rangers “Reboot Universe” Is Exactly What The Franchise Needs appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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cnexportbusiness · 4 years

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5 Benefits of Using UV light air purifier

What are UV light air purifiers,

UV lighting is a special type of radiation that can’t be seen by the naked eye because it’s part of the invisible section that makes up the electromagnetic spectrum.

To be precise, its wavelength is from 400 nm (750 THz) to 10 nm (30 PHz), shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays

It causes sunburns by destroying cells, and this cell-destroying ability is what makes it effective for destroying air impurities, specifically mold and mildew.

Ultraviolet light is a form of light that rests just outside the visible spectrum for humans. The wavelength of UV light is shorter than visible light, but longer than X-rays. It’s estimated that UV light makes up about 10% of the sun’s output.

What also makes UV light unique is that it’s divided into three sub-bands, UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C.

You’ve probably heard of UV-A and UV-B light before because they’re heavily marketed on sunscreen lotions.

These types of UV lights are the ones that come from the sun and cause sunburn and skin cancers.

UV-C light, on the other hand, is a powerful form of radiation that’s harmless to people, but excellent at killing microorganisms, such as germs and viruses.

In fact, a recent lab test was performed where non-critical patient care items were exposed to two 30 sec. UV-C light cycles and the number of bacteria on 40 out of 51 target sites were reduced to below detectable levels

Of course, UV light is also created artificially, by technologies that include arc welders, tanning beds, black lights, and some forms of air purifiers.

UV air purifiers are designed to use short-wave ultraviolet light (UV-C light) to inactivate airborne pathogens and microorganisms like mold, bacteria and viruses. They have the same ultimate goal of all air purifiers: to reduce indoor air pollutants. The technology is also referred to as UV germicidal irradiation, or UVGI air purifiers. This is different from other air purifier technologies that contain UV light technology but do not use it directly against air pollutants.

On the market, UV-C air purifiers are currently sold as stand-alone, freestanding devices or as systems installed into pre-existing residential or commercial HVAC units. As air is forced through the device, it passes UV lamps, which directly attempt to disinfect the air by means of germicidal irradiation. The biggest safety concern is that ozone may be generated during this process.

Rarely a stand-alone product, UV-C light air purifiers often require additional systems for full effectiveness and are most often included in larger High-efficiency Particulate Arrestance (HEPA) air filtration systems. In fact, the EPA says that a UV-C air purifier does not seem effective as a stand-alone unit because it cannot trap or remove particles.

Olansi K08C Air Purifier

How do uv air purifier work,

As air passes through the air purifier, it eventually goes through a small internal chamber that exposes the particles to UV light.

The light is not emitted into the room, nor can you see it.

A UV light purifier works by disrupting the core DNA of these pathogens.

This prevents them from multiplying and causing you to become sick.

As you can see, UV lights are the king of killing all unwanted bacteria, germs, and viruses.

When combining this type of technology with a HEPA filter or Ionic generator, you can rest assured that wherever you decide to place the air purifying device, you’ll have the cleanest, most sterile air possible due to the use of a UV light cleaner.

5 Benefits of Using UV light air purifier

Olansi K06A Air Purifier

In the day to day, we are faced with several problems that can affect our respiratory health and ours. However, the use of an UV light air purifier can end up making our lives much easier. But, there is the basic problem: people do not know what benefits this device gives us. Well here, we will list about 5 benefits that will make us understand, how good this device can be for our health.

1- Filter Pet Hairs and Dandruff

Our pets leave hair and dandruff everywhere. Cat dander is especially small and sticky when deposited on a surface. The UV light air purifiers have a prefilter that filters the hairs in suspension and the HEPA Filter filters the dandruff.

2- Eliminates odors

As we have said before, UV light air purifiers mostly have an active carbon filter. This filter is responsible for trapping fundamentally organic compounds present in the air and responsible for the bad smell. We can call this filter the odor filter. UV light air purifiers for smokers are very useful since they not only purify the air they breathe but also eliminate the smell of tobacco.

The smell of food, the smell of moisture, the smell of your pet … Active carbon is an extremely porous material that attracts all these bad smells and eliminates them.

3- Cleaning Reinforcement

When we do the cleaning of a room, there are always particles in suspension that when we have finished will be deposited again on the floor, furniture and finally, on any surface. An UV light air purifier serves to filter these particles constantly. If you remove them, they are not deposited and if they are not deposited, we do not have to clean them! This does not mean that you are going to release the mop and the dust cloth so that it will undoubtedly be a support for cleaning.

4- Mold-free spaces

Mold proliferates in humid environments; this is a reality. It produces small spores invisible to the eye that are deposited on any surface, toys, carpets, curtains, etc. Mold is a common trigger for allergies and asthma. What does this mean, Well, he is responsible for making them worse and that is why sometimes we listen I am allergic to mold.

UV light air purifiers are effective in removing mold spores from the environment, their HEPA filter captures mold spores and removes them.

Now we recommend that if the humidity in the environment is very high use a good dehumidifier and root cuts the problem. If you reduce humidity, mold will not find its comfort habitat and therefore will not proliferate.

5- Improvement of respiratory health

There are many particles in the air that cause damage to our respiratory health, especially if we are allergic. Pollen and dust become our worst enemies, any presence of them ends up generating a lot of cough and discomfort. An UV light air purifier will be mainly responsible for keeping us calm in that aspect, helping to filter dust and pollen giving us a healthier air to breathe.

For more about uv air purifier,you can pay a visit to olansi at https://www.olansi.net

Source: 5 Benefits of Using UV light air purifier

#Purifier – Release Quality Products To Let Global See

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top1course · 4 years

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AMAZON FBA PRODUCT RESEARCH | HOW TO SELL ON AMAZON FOR BEGINNERS COMPLETE STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL

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What is up internet is Kevin with that lifestyle ninja and I’m back again today to teach you how, how to sell on Amazon FBA, but more importantly to teach you how to figure out what to sell on Amazon FBA to make sure that you are free, first product is a homerun, i guess I’m not going to waste your time and teach you a step-by-step exactly how to walk through setting up a Seller Central account it’s pretty, the intuitive and has lots of art tutorials out there, yes I did register for my Seller Central account with my LLC, but you don’t have to do this, what I am going to teach you however is a super simple three-step process that I used to select all the products I sell on an, amazon, to make sure that you feel super confident about those products, there’s no guesswork involved and to make sure that the very first product that you choose to sell on Amazon as an absolute home runs, I got so Step One is definitely make sure that you don’t waste your time, sign up for a good product research Software System right I use jungle Scout on they have both a web app and a chrome, extension I use both of them I’m you can try out one of the other but I suggest just signing up for both because, they have free trials and they have a super generous refund policies to just take the dive do it now there’s no excuses, set it up and we’re going to walk through it together I’mma teach you exactly how to find a product that’s going to, hit it out of the park, like I step two is about reframing your thought process to think about every daily life scenario, In the context of Amazon, and what I mean by that is just the other day so I was over at my friend’s house and his dad’s a big cigar guy right so he has, collection of Cubans in all these different cigars, and so he’s showing it to us and I’m saying, price of wow that’s actually kind of an interesting little product the cigar holder and which I later found out was called a humidor but at, at the time I just rode out of my phone to the super quick note to myself, research cigar holders on Amazon in my vehicle practice l, i’m or even just today so I was meeting a friend at the at a restaurant a little Mexican restaurant on I’m over in Denver where I live right now, and while we’re waiting for our food they are bringing us the menus and the menus actually came in these cool, A little plastic slip kind of like menu covers.

So again I just jot down a quick note of my phone, check out menu covers when you get back to your house and you know some of these products are good some of them are total failures but you never know until you check it out, has really about his reframing your mentality to always be in the thought process, a finding winners on Amazon and that’s the best way to do it, hi guys in step 3 and probably the most important step, is by using a method that I called the itrak system, answer this is a method that has kind of been around for a while but, am I kind of created my own little twist that I found a lot of success with, it’s so basically what this method does is allow you to see actual sales data of real, Editor’s and other sellers on Amazon, i’m at 7 something that not a lot of people know is it all of the product tracking software like jungle Scout unicorns, master all the different competitors, they’re just estimating nobody has true Amazon sales data besides Amazon they don’t really, reset publicly they have no access the other API, so all of these product tracking and product research software tools are really just estimating based on daily BSR, i’m in so what you have to do is use what I call the eye track method, to actually get real sail data and I’m going to teach you guys exactly how to do that it’s the number one thing that I used to, make the decisions about which products that I’m going to pursue and which products that I’m going to leave, All right. So I’m going to do this life for you so I apologize that it’s not, you know edited and as smooth as some of my other videos but I want to I want to really try to duplicate and show you exactly my, thought processes behind all this, and I’m doing this all live there’s no premeditation for any of this, so you’re going to get really be seeing exactly how I do my own product Greaser so I hope it I hope it helps you guys, i’m so this is the jungle Scout mainedashboard so this is the service I use, i’m personally so they have the different marketplaces here they have on the Friday of different filters you can filter it by, you know FBI mapa if it’s actually sold by Amazon things like that right so the first thing I like to do, and it is research in the US market so one of them are Advanced tactics that will go over I’m a little bit later in this video, Is looking at some of the other products because, it’s a little bit more difficult you have to deal with that value-added taxes things like that and I actually think of, that has kind of a good thing, i’m some of the products that I’ve launched in the UK Market have just been absolutely insane cuz you can pretty much charge whatever you were, want cuz there’s no competition there, the review barriers are significantly lower and things like that we’ll talk about that later so the first thing I like to do is take a, look at the category section so there’s some things that you want to stay away from right, appliances, automotive right like some of the things that are, more complicated more expensive expensive isn’t always a, Thing that I stay away from butt.

I tend to stay away from Electronics, books, the margins on books are incredibly low and less you have you know a huge, stock and you can get, books are basically pennies-on-the-dollar so, does the same time I’m going to show you that the categories that I’ve figured out, do my own research and a lot of quantitative analysis, are the best so if you want to just trust me, feel free to do so but if you want to take a look for yourself I always encourage people that Tinker around, i’m so Home and Garden, coleman kitchen, toys and games Sports and Outdoors, pet supplies patio Office Products, so these are the categories that I like the most so some some people don’t like industrial scientific, so you can, click this off, health and personal care some of the beauty products are going to be gated, Which basically means you have to provide Amazon with, three invoices to prove that you’ve already been selling these products outside of Amazon is basically a way for them to, i’m kind of help vet people before that they can just you know sell whatever they want like a skin cream it’s made of, you know, hydrochloric acid, that’s a little intense but you know it’s just, i’m so the filters that I like to use, as follows, so a lot of the gurus and things like that say that you should always sell a product over $20 in the reason that they’re saying, it’s because with FBA fees with storage fees, you know what shipping fees and also obviously your cost of goods from your manufacturer, you know dis is, kind of the minimum price unless you’re basically getting your cost of goods sold for, For free that you can make a profit kind of worth the time invested to launch a product, it’s a lot of people put 20 here I like to put 1997 1995 next 94 you know something like this just, kind of stay one step ahead of people on potentially C products that they would not see because they set it at 20 so I like, 1993 hair, estimated Revenue so this is monthly Revenue, i found that you kind of want a product it’s, you know five or six thousand, monthly revenue for is it going to be worth it, so this is the most important part in my opinion guys reviews, so you want, reviews are incredibly hard to get on Amazon, they have a very vigorous system for catching, are people using their friends and family and I suggest staying away from that so, getting reviews is really the toughest bar, So, let’s start with 49 reviews here, so listen quality is one that I like to look at 2, listen party is out of a hundred right so, this this factors and things like, you know number of pictures whether or not they have full, bullets, list it out for their, products to see if they actually are maximizing keywords things like that so I have to set this at, 74-73, something like that again you know a lot of people are choosing 75 so you want to maybe see a few more products that other people wouldn’t by being you know just one step, i’m in the last thing that I like to do is rating so this is a rating out of five so this is if you get, you know 10 reviews and all of them are five stars then you have a 5 rating here, you want to kind of Target, Products that.

You know potentially have some room for improvement cuz then you can take a look at the reviews, and see if there’s something that you could maybe make better and, yam things like that, so once you’ve done all of this go ahead and hit search, i’m one of the thing I like to do is get more results per page, so while it’s working, the first thing I do, is that you can see there’s a, honda products here, which means that my, my, variables here are a bit too broad so let’s let’s step it up a little bit, what’s 211 thousand Revenue, and let’s make this 39, what’s research, so ganas, a ton of products here, like I said reviews in my opinion are the most important thing so let’s let’s move that down again, that’s still a lot of products, 14, mm, Results well, all right, what’s, 24000 Oz gold on a 19, so definitely move it, down a bit, 859 results, as you can download it as a CSV if you want, but I kind of like to just look through a couple of them, nC, you know my thoughts on things, so this one has 19 reviews, what is the, a ballet workout bar, got interesting I would never in a million years of thought to a cell that, shuffleboard right so this is expensive this is over $2,000 and this isn’t, surly a reason to stay away from something, but unless you have a lot of startup Capital this is going to be, a bit prohibitive right because you want to buy enough to get a low enough price for yourself to make a healthy profit, i’m so here is some electronic stuff, pool lights, alright so this is $550, if you have experience with electronics definitely go go ahead and jump in on something like this right this is an interesting one, Actually you know I’m actually going to be doing this research for myself so I’m going to be saving somebody’s products oh, hang in there with me, pro Hair Removal device, pretty cool hot flash, pretty cool hot, istorage, 38 Grand a month, i just realized that I set the reviews, the opposite way I intended to so let’s let’s look at the least reviews rather than the most, where’s the North Face you obviously want to stay away from these brand named items, amazon’s pretty strict about that and you just don’t want to be in a situation where, you’re going to be, you know having a deal with getting your account shut down for, patent infringement or anything like that to stay away from those big brand names, i just didn’t want a lot of people say stay away from glass but, You know if you follow what everyone says then you’re going to get the results everyone gets so I don’t I don’t listen to what, you know that’s just me and I’m going to tell you guys straight up what I think about everything so I hope, i hope your, on my side at least, taking it that I’m being honest is definitely will and always be honest with you guys for For Better or Worse, this, right so that’s kind of a weird one, swinbig brand, filament spool, house zero reviews, doing 60 Grand a month, the $600 again prohibitive kind of on the on the maybe the first order, so let’s, since most of the people are going to be starting out let’s, kind of set this, 2, a price that, people are going to be realistically, able to kind of start out on their first one, Here we go so now we’re down to 82 right so this is the number that we can definitely digest and really dive in deeper on.

So NFL you want to stay away from, write a bifocal reading glasses I don’t even know how they’re doing that with, prescriptions, this is great, suck a little funny teddy bear, wearing a shirt that says you’re going to have to or whatever, so humor is always something that I like to incorporate in any of my products right novelty, gift items, gift items are really important in my opinion right because something that a lot of people may not think about right away but, but is important kind of down the line, is, return rates right so someone just, from a psychological perspective is much less likely to return a product if it was given to them as a gift, Which is one of the things that I don’t really share with people cuz I want to keep it to myself but I’m staying with you guys, it’s something that I look for a lot in the products that I’m choosing, dymo labelwriter, 107000 look at 0 reviews + 107000, images so sometimes I’m not sure exactly what’s happening maybe they, purposely Miss categorized, their category and Amazon shutting them down so you kind of get this no image available, inflatable bathtub while this is beautiful, inflatable bathtub right so you can ship this is taking up zerospace 0% breakability, incredibly easy to find a manufacturer for this, it’s definitely one we should take a look at, kY Jelly, under Armour, and towels, metals, fidgets, i have absolutely no idea, animal grab one more and then we’ll kind of take a deeper dive into it and, all the kind of show you guys exactly what I’m looking for on listings, You know doing some brainstorming seeing if we can, beat him easily by just taking better product photography and beating them out on better copy you know some of, some of these listings are put up pretty quick VIP by Chinese manufacturers and you can kind of tell from their broken English the, you can, potentially do a better job just simply from a keyword and listing strengths from a copy perspective, goat store, brand goat story I’m not sure what that is, forgot skip that one, so it just as a as a side note so you guys, these type of products are doing crazy numbers right 26000 only 12 reviews, but their band on Amazon right now so how these people get away with it is they intentionally Miss categorized, right like you probably wouldn’t categorized, twisty glass blunt as being part of the kitchen, Ashley miscategorized an Amazon eventually catches them and shut them down right so they’re making, you know a ton of money but, now they’re risking their account health and it’s just not viable for the long-term, amazon never does shoes 2, i’m legalized those then potentially it’s something that you could explore, all right this is my be an interesting one, all right look at these two, alright so once we have all of these, kind of, taps look at then we’re going to take kind of a deeper dive so let’s let’s get into it, alright so our first item, all right take a look at this hobbydude, absolute garbage rights and normally this would say something like, perfect, for storing all of your wine needs in aesthetic, pleasing way, and then I would have like a, paragraph after explaining you know how many bottles you can store, Why it’s so amazing and white love at the next the next blind mice say.

You know I only made with premium mahogany wood, shine to a beautiful finish that would look great in any home, right until they have placement desktop, so obviously you could definitely hit them here, they only have one picture right and it isn’t even that great of a quality, picture you can’t even zooman right so it’s not high def, i must take a quick look at the customer reviews, impossible to put together right so that’s a good one maybe you can make a more, intuitive design with better instruction manual, and be able to, no potentially, how to make a better and bigger better bottle in that way, i’m so, doesn’t even look like this is actually song, single cell, yes if this actually isn’t even trying so for this example I’m not actually going to add this one, So we’re going to move on, art’s this is another good one, go Barre ballet workout Barre by gofit, so it looks like you get a CD, you got a calendar, you got, whatever that is and you got a ball, and get the ballet barre right to this is $150 to this is this is a great example of a bundle right, and so a bundle is a way to differentiate a product, probably the best way to differentiate a product, you know whether it’s, a cigar holder and your, throwing in like I said of whiskey glasses or something that you think that your Target demographic me, also find Value from, that your competition isn’t doing, translate they do a good job here they have the training manual they have the DVD for you to follow along, but like I was saying before right so look at it look at their coffee includes USA Hardware Bar, Rights of this is not what Amazon Shoppers are trying to see they want to see, perfect size for your beautiful like ballerina, or perfect size for any ballerina and then explaining you know, all the different benefits that you’re getting from it, the next one might say something like and you know cuz I’m just doing this live so I don’t, i don’t have all the best copy written but you know sitting down, an hour you can whip something out five paragraphs that just would put this absolute of Shame, brighten so they have one picture looks like they also have a video, specific sellers that have been around for awhile have access to videos on there, listings, close look at it really quick, or maybe let’s not, play, quick look at the customer reviews, So somewhat recent, today is January 31st, 2017 so this was, in a couple months ago, people are buying it, pros bar to my 10 year-old 15 minutes to assemble rights with easiest setup, impressment, how stable and adjustable the bar is so not bad, so let’s take a look at some of the negative reviews, extremely disappointed, there’s no ball Resistance Bands DVD or limited would forfeit came with that the box is damaged on arrival, would not recommend this, very very unstable, the wobble in a civil rights, so maybe you put together a bundle make sure that you’re actually including all the items, and you make a bar that has a bit more stability right so that might be a good one so let’s, add this one, to our car, every time that you identify a product that you think might be interesting go ahead and out of the car and I’m going to explain to you guys as, Exactly why we do that in it at the end of this video.

Alright so this one, 48% one star that is absolutely ridiculous, trying to find more so I replace these to my phone replaced if they’re going to my pool, 5 billiards in 5 years right so bad products or not lasting so maybe you can go ahead, and get a sample from a manufacturer, right so you could go on Alibaba which is the main source that everyone is searching for, you look for, it’s a white one of the main cure to this you maybe look for, standard pool light right and so then they’ll have images of what they sell, and then you want to make sure that you get a sample and really beat the crap out of hit and make sure that is actually working, Underwater and you know it’s lasting for you before you decide to make an investment in it, so this is kind of a cool one right so this is the main one that it’s on when you’re adding the car and there’s variations like this, whichever one that defaults to so for example of this is the one that default to see when you came to this link, go ahead and add that one to car, britain’s I’ll do a few more of these guys I hope your kind of getting the thought process behind this, again, terrible terrible copy this one of the few more pictures, right either hide FCI was zooming in like that, you want to have me you want to make sure that you have high def, definitely the most important thing no question for a buyer is the product photography rights of your phone, Photos are the number one thing that you guys want to be making absolutely sure that you’re doing, the best job of do not skimp on that, since was a deadline that we got from Jungle Scout, terrible copy, not eligible for Prime so this one is actually, what was called fbm, so this is for example flashforge, has, a warehouse that they owns not affiliated with Amazon and every time they get an oil they ship it from their warehouse to where, never that water came from on Amazon Amazon takes its fee, but it’s not eligible for Prime which means it’s not too late shipping, which is a absolutely huge factor that buyers consider before making a purchase, again not out not eligible for prime, you may be an a****** but you’re my a******, i like this one, just because it’s funny and I’m a sick demented, prison like most, What’s up, so couple more broken links, we figured premium fidget Spinners relieve your stress anxiety HD, 4 minutes, boy, actually love this one, it’s tiny right so this is going to cost nothing, the ship, that’s made of metal, it’s not going to break, great price point right 4995 let’s look at some of these reviews really quick, brands of dip, what the movie don’t recommend that the Finish is nice, not at the park dozen, barbara and her cheap in the ball doesn’t fit is Chris Wallace, so if you know spend some more time with the manufacturer and made sure that they’re actually, you know measuring it out and making sure that it was spinning with the proper, wait, so that it didn’t feel like it was wobbling to any side, people care about, definitely a good one go ahead and have a scar, dan awful copy I mean terrible is a terrible listing, Writing your selling trash bags okay.

Really people don’t care, but, you know everyone needs trash bags I buy everything off Amazon your toothpaste, toilet paper trash bags everything, right and you know, people in my generation are definitely if the if not already doing it are trending towards it so, you know it’s not sexy but I always tell people and I always let you know harp on this, the selling of products that aren’t sexy is, is smart right because the people who are starting out they want to sell something, cool right they want to sell a laser pointer, or TV or something that, you know what they say want to talk about but it doesn’t really it doesn’t really make a difference right, if you’re if you’re making money which is what I’m doing, and what I intended to do on Amazon to be able to travel and do all the things that I want then it really doesn’t matter what I’m selling what are the trash, Trash bag, or in a Tyrannosaurus Rex, i’m so, weak and tears easily rice and maybe make these double ply, i’m done, brand name is not in the title so I wouldn’t worry too much about people actually searching for you know specifically plastic, replace gallon trash bags, close take a look at this, right and so that is Method number one, i’m so mad the number to we’re going to jump right into a pre-loaded this for you guys the example that I was talking about being at my friend’s house, house when his dad was the major cigar fan and he was showing me his collection, and he had his beautiful little box that they were stored in, and at the time I thought it was called a cigar holder and so I asked him and he told me that I was actually call the humidor, And so this is the second way that you can use jungle Scout to do product research this is the Chrome app what we were previously use, is the web apps use go to junglescout.com for the web app, for the Chrome app, which is also downloaded from junglescout.com it just forms as little button appear in Google Chrome, and when you come to any page on Amazon, i’m it shows you all of the different statistical estimates, in kind of a nice little area, so the first listing, here it is so this one’s doing almost $40,000 a month right, aladdin sane, i’m until it gives you an estimate of the FBA fee right which is based on weight which is based on size, If 7 items oversized then you get charged you know more or less depending on a variety of factors and Amazon has, has all that just Google search FBA fees oversized standard, sundown really simply on it’s pretty easy to follow along, so, the cool thing about, the web app that you can actually look at any product right to the web, are sorry that the Chrome extension, the web app is good for finding products that you know you weren’t really thinking about, but using method to which is you know reframing your mentality to kind of sea life, through the Amazon lens, but the Chrome extension is perfect for that right so you just go to the normal Amazon website you type in humidor, and this is what pops up right so this is a bunch of different listings all for humidors, and you know if you get to the end of one page you just go down here quick, Quickly quickly just click extract next page.

And, the most interesting and definitely the most useful portion, the Chrome extension, is the filter option right to again using the same filters that we were looking at in the web app, but you can do it for any product right so this is these are the ones that you’re finding your daily life that you’re, hearing about, and things like that, so what am I to do the same things 39 reviews, you know maybe it looks start with 6000 Revenue per month, let’s go ahead and fill to that, list. Of time right but there are some so it means that, you know on the 1st, 3-4 Pages there’s for products that meet our requirements let’s take a look at why, let’s look at all for these just so I can really just died even show you guys exactly I’m thinking about all of this, Interactive the first one, so this one’s making, about $7,000 a month with only six reviews right so that, that is definitely you can definitely talk that, premium lager, bona, luxury humidifier and hygrometer box set of two items in their most ideal snow, working conditions, i’m right so this is it this is finally an example of a listing that is well done, right so they have, clear, they’re clear headers, cigar Aficionado best friend a humidor you can be proud of right so appealing to, end of the human aspect people who you know, people who are the target buyers of humidors, they want to brag about the cigars they care about it’s important to them, if the guards were important to you then you wouldn’t buy him what are you just buy a cigar and smoke it origin, Throw in the garage and never see it again, so look at it, all of these are, all these are high-definition right these are fully polished, this listing is a great quality right and that’s why it’s making almost $8,000 a month with only 6 reviews, so this is this is definitely one we can look at, dragon eye., alright so this is an interesting once of this, this person decided to take the route, actually providing the solution for cigar humidifiers, so I assume that this is something to do with maybe, not having moisture, if antifungal all right so this is, this is something that you’re, using as a, a compliment to the humidors and I’ve seen this all the time guys right so people focus entirely on the main product, and not the complementary products that, you know most people require with the main product, And that’s definitely something you always want to be looking at, what size is a car, so this is maybe a larger capacity obviously this listing is, terribly done, not eligible for prime, but maybe if you want like kind of the, portability, avit, i’m in again you know I’m doing this real-time so I can’t always tell you exactly but I would assume that this might be interesting, because you can actually transport it kind of in its own little briefcase maybe if we’re going on a trip, answer me like that so it’s definitely something to take a look at, the new Air, 400 count, so this is if you’re like the maximum, cigar, freak, but if you just live and die, cigars, repels cigar beetles, yeah so you definitely don’t want cigar beetles all up in your, keep this coupon has, safe who’s this is a reasonably well done, Listing this is you know this is for the this is for the true cigar.

Aficionado, it’s something we can look at it definitely a high-ticket again it would kind of be prohibitive, depending on whether or not, you have a large amount of start-up Capital but it’s definitely something that we can still take a look at, another way that I like to do a bit of research is using a tool called Merchant words and so what, merchantwords does, is it gives you, similar phrases buyer oriented phrases that people are actually typing in on Amazon, and it’s giving you those in a pre easy-to-use way, sOS let’s take a look through some of these, retro they have a free trial as well everything everything that I’ve shown you so far as a free trial so there’s no excuse his start now at 4, promise you it’s worth it I did it in three months and if I can do it I can definitely assure you that you can do it too, I’m so humidor cigar humidor humidor for cigars rights of these are all kind of the same thing, media cabinet, maybe this is a larger version rice you always want to use different quantifiers, you know large small, black white you know depending on what the what the different products are, just using those initial kind of suffixes that change the overall, an aspect of the product, is something that you want to look at, price of these are brand names, i need to go right so this is the, propylene glycol humidor solution so this is what we saw before so there was only one listing, and a very few reviews and it was making you sick Seven Grand a month and so, You know laugh at all $6,000 a month from one products when you know a second or third in your, amazon you’re making you know 15 $20,000 a month, you know that’s that’s serious money so you know you definitely want to consider, products that, wouldn’t necessarily be what, you know., conventional Amazon Guru would tell you, to Target butt, you know Stephanie a way to do it and so add three products that are making five grand a month rather than you know that one home run that has a ton more, competition making 15 random on, and you know you’re you’re slowly and quietly killing it while everyone else is, fighting the competition to the death in, ruining their profit margins and you know things like that, so here’s one, cheap cigar humidor, travel humidor, let’s look at this one, travel humidor, i hear you got so this is the one this is similar to the one that I was looking at that we saw before right, Yes is Hikaru this is the same brand, so do you guys specifically targeted a niche of the original product this is a beautiful illustration, of what we were talking about right, so they’re going after, the person that wants to take cigars with them on the go right, so this is this holds three cigars are charging $25 for it, ben 10 grand a month, 42 reviews, brighten so. You know that took us 10 minutes and I’m doing this all live, this is a perfect example of how you can just kind of stumble, in two different variants and using different you know, qualifiers like big travel I’ma go black you know different different words really open up different, avenues that you maybe you didn’t think of, and you know merchantwords are Google Keyword Planner, and things like that really are great for that type of thing, Like I said that his method to I hope you enjoy both method to and Method one.

I know it’s kind of a lot but I hope it was helpful for you and now I’m going to show you the absolutely most important part of all of this the eye, i got, all right guys are step, read, final step in this magical process that we have gone through together, i’m just at 3 after we put everything into work looking at before right, i’m so just open up an Excel sheet right I use Google Google Docs but obviously Excel works fine, as well, the first thing I do is go ahead and take the title right to this is just something that you can kind of, keep yourself so I destroy a 60 gallon trash, i also included the link, It makes it easier in the long-term to include the link just trust me on that when you get, you know 50 or a hundred different products in a spreadsheet, you want to have the link just to make sure that you can get back to the products you know, a week or month online so just trust me on that so 60 gallon trash bags Z car travel, these are all the different products do you looked at down to the globe are ballet barre, and now what you’re going to do and this is this is the secret got this is what everybody, it doesn’t know needs to know and I’m sharing with you guys because I just want everybody to gain the Financial Freedom, that I was lucky enough to get myself so, what we did right here is, one, rights of showing one here I click 10 plus, just like that so I’ll do it one more time so everybody can see, One, i took this is the default, quick one, 10 + 999, as a what this is showing us guys, is it the seller has a 635 of these available, so we Mark that down for today, change it back to one, and go on to the next one, brightness is a perfect is that a sign of this is a, absolutely perfect, activity for your virtual assistant to take care of if you do have one, right because obviously this is a bit tedious but trust me guys you do not want, 500 unit sitting in an FBA Warehouse you know accumulating storage fees when you could have just spent, $20 on a VA to do this for you for a week or just going to do it for yourself, trust me trust me trust me please if you’re going to trust you on anything just beyond doing this it will help you I promise, I’m so this one is the car so I don’t actually have to do it cuz it says it right here one in stock, this is a little bit boring but you know it is what it is, so this one’s actually, i’m in stock on February, v, but it has two available if I’m not sure why that Sean, morissette that one, so the premium La Cubana, as foreign stock it says it right here, so go onto we fidget, so we figured has 495 in stock, and I can tell some of the some of the start. They’re probably you know, kind of see where we’re going with this, today they have this much tomorrow they have, you know, state to last five last some amount last, so you know for sure and this is the only source of data that shows you exactly, How many products your competitors are actually selling.

On a daily basis, and you want if you want to make sure that you’re doing it for like 5 p.m. 3 at the absolute minimum but you really want to do it for 7 days, and let me tell you why, these these numbers can be skewed for a number of reasons, i’m for example if Amazon is Shifting inventory between some of their, fBA warehouses, you might see this number jump from 600 to $400 a my p700 the next day because, you know this this brand or this seller sent in 70 more units, rice you want to do it over a 7-Day. So that you’re pretty sure based on the pattern that you’re actually getting the data that you’re looking for, the next one is funny teddy, you are an a****** b**** oh my soul, 92 left, 92, safavieh, 16, you want to reset these cuz, sometimes you’ll get an error that says your car only has the additional space of, you know 500 units is it only that you have 999, units of all the combined products at once so there’s two left of the say word, and the last one, barre ballet workout bar, rest of your car has an additional space for 949, which means they probably have more than that but, let’s just make sure, i was just saying some other products that I’ve been looking at I don’t have her meet us all good, 954, my math is not good, what’s the, if I’m actually able to so this means that their Prime which means they’re in an FBA Warehouse, and they have a hundred and, they have over 950 units in stock, that either means that they’re absolutely insane, or it means that this product is selling and they they thought that it was you know based on their inventory forecast it was worth it., To send this many units to be sitting on Amazon warehouse alert, they either are crazy or it’s selling a lot, the one way to tell, you know which it is, whether they’re clinically insane or they’re just sending in a, you know a bunch of units is using a product called camelcamelcamel, is a ridiculous name, obviously, but it’s pretty useful, so let me show you why so what I just did there, is I copy and paste of the Ace in which is a unique identifier Amazon uses to track products, it usually says products and it has a send it normally touch, the bee and has a, send a text to decimal, am letters after it, so I just places that in here, and the product shows up, and then used car sales rank, I’m so what this does obviously Owosso yasso this this product launched on August, in August, right and so it was it was very deep in the catalogs of the BSR which is the best sellers rank, but right as it launched, you know it went pretty high up there, and you know these are periods where you know potentially they might have, what are the stock, or something like that but you can see, did it averaging about seven thousand, all the different, hundreds of thousands, products, i’m sold on Amazon right so this is, this is Andy, this is Sports and Outdoors this is number 52 in Sports and Outdoors is obviously a huge section, you know, you can be pretty darn sure, that this is selling, a great deal right so I like to see these numbers, just to be absolutely sure but if you kind of do the research you’re looking at the listing itself right it’s obviously pretty high, In a very.

Competitive, large category, nail 29000 in Sports and Outdoors has an entire category, 52, i’m in Sports and Outdoors during the cleaning set yet so it’s 52 out of, the home gym section, i’m so you can be pretty sure based on that camelcamelcamel average BSR charts, combined with its overall ranking in such a large category, so for these ones I just do not 9 plus, so I’m going to pause a video now and I’m going to start it up tomorrow and then we’re going to take a look at the numbers, and I go from there, alright guys so since I want to get this out quicker I’m just going to kind of go through some of these numbers and just, explain my thoughts on them, i just kind of go through it as a demo right over here the first one to 60 gallon trash bags, Original numbers that we looked at 6:35 right so, the next day it was at 6:30 so it’s old 5, 100 case of you’re looking at a minimum order quantity from, a manufacturer, i’m for this specific product would probably be pretty high cuz you know it’s a trash bag not like a, you know expensive humidor holder and that is holding a hundred scars or something like that, but you’re selling a hundred a case even if you have 5000 in your minimum order quantity and you’re selling five, set of 100 a day that’s 500 a day, you know and you get to that you get to that minimum order quantity in about 10 days, which is obviously, incredible, and if you’re ordering that many trash bags are going to get a price that is very good right so, 100 case 3285, I mean that’s crazy that’s like 30 of 33 cents a trash bag which I guess I don’t know much about trash bags, but, he’s definitely something that is worth looking into obviously because of this listing is absolute, trash as well, the next day it jumped at the 947 so don’t panic when you see stuff like this guy, all it means is that they probably just restocked, so there you know constantly sending in more inventory and, you know they don’t send in a thousand at a time, or are more because they don’t want to pay those long-term storage fees to hit you after 6 months, and if you have questions about that right I’m going to make more videos about long-term storage fees how to avoid it inventory forecasting things like, that I’m in a ton of info on all of these topics in our Facebook groups of definitely make sure you check that out, After the video, play 947 on a 900 ride so this is insane so if it’s selling 47 units a day, 100 pack, you know that’s, 4700 4700 trash bags a day, i’m in Seoul, you know you’re looking at another 55 minutes a day, i’m so this is definitely one to look at right so you might need a few more days of data, i’m you want to make sure that this wasn’t like, you know some type of fluke or maybe they’re doing a giveaway the kind of, yeah booster BSR maybe get some more reviews and things like that so, maybe a few more days of data here but it’s definitely one that is worth looking at so we’re going to we’re going to start this one, all right to the next one is the zika travel, so this one was the humidor, i’m just not a ton of data here I can start with one, And so you know it’s going down 0-0-0-0 so you definitely if you’re interested in this one on one.

You got to take a look, at a little bit more data once they do get back in stock, so does he kar98 15 Sol, i’m sorry that wrong, indyCar 815s, tutu tutu, writes out if this is the day that you’re looking at guys you maybe you maybe want to stay away from the spot, i tried to get him it’s selling 0 and 5 days. That’s not enough velocity to kind of make your time and everything that goes, choosing a successful product, worthwhile so if it’s too too too too you know if you love it may be tried for a few days more but, you know this is definitely one that we’re probably going to stay away from, go ahead and unbolt that, The premium La Cubana, also this one was looking at 4434 right so this might be returned, if it dropped down to three and then you know customer return maybe the stock sheets back up to 4, what time is Last Day we’re looking at 1 so maybe it’s sold 3 in this day and forever kind of a height, mexican item like this you know things that are over $100, you selling three a day you know it’s $300 if you’re making, even like a 40% profit margin on that $120 right so, in a short amount of time, and over here guys this is just no so I keep to myself, right so, you know I’ll show you guys it was a return some sales Maybe, need more info right because of the song three a day maybe when they restock and it’s kind of averaging that 3-day and then maybe it’s worth, person, So the next one is weed fidgets, this is that weird little, device that, you Spin and, it’s supposed to make you, happier with your life, that’s what selling look 5 5 a day six a day, 4, 7 rights of this looks great right, especially at this price point this thing cannot cost more than, you know $4 to make if you’re ordering it any type of quantity, and send me to look at obviously is the wefidget brand right so that they’re leading off with that maybe this is a popular brand, i would have to do more research into it, see if you know they maybe have a patent on these types of, things that you obviously see another seller right here, you know what this seems to be their thing obviously they don’t have very good ratings but, uno, you can use a jungle Scout, chrome extension to kind of look at a seller’s actual profile, And they’re doing pretty insane numbers to be honest, hobbyKids, laser outrageous, i I don’t know what these are to be honest I I can’t speak, more to it kind of live doing this for you guys but I would look more into this right because these types of you no stress relief., toys they’re super small and pretty interesting in my opinion or doing those types of insane numbers, rhinos are just estimates remember that it’s just an estimate on Jungle sound every other piece of software so you have to do this inventory, talking to actually be able to see it right, 775 a day at $50 per, dennis I mean that’s amazing, right because I can’t see each sale being, anything less than $20 profit per, price of Jordan 5 a day that’s $100 a day, prophet, for one product which is which is awesome right you know this nothing is nothing to scoff at all, So the next one funny teddy.

So we started 9282 rights of tenant day, you know he was 14 today, 28 in one day right, and 8 so I mean these numbers are something you always want to be thinking about you know what time of season is it, am I am I, selling a pair of mittens and is it winter in the United States you know you want to think about seasonality, you know there’s there’s more advanced methods that I talk about, i’m a lot in our Facebook group like using Google Trends Google inside to kind of get that type of data around, you know seasonality Trends things that you want to be definitely wary of so, during this type of monkey this is definitely something that you know I could see my, you know girlfriend getting me or, can somebody with a sense of humor, Or just like an a****** maybe my mom gets for me if she thinks I’m a soldier Bobby does, but yes I want to be cognizant of the fact that it is near Valentine’s Day so this could potentially be skewing, data I want to look at this again before kind of committing a things, maybe after Valentine’s day just to get a better idea of whether or not it is skewed or if that’s the numbers that it’s due, is there are a lot of anniversaries obviously, so it could be interesting but definitely want a little bit more data outside of the Valentine’s Day rush, so the next one is safavieh, storage bench, so it’s like pretty free, consistent one per day, price of this could be interesting, you know the hundred $64 I have to see how much each one costs, obviously I have to see what the fees are the Amazons charging, And things like that, i just as an aside guys so if you want to figure out, an estimate that’s very close they say it’s an estimate but it’s usually very close, how much that you’re going to be hit with Amazon fees, head over to the Fulfillment by Amazon Revenue calculator, so you can just go Amazon FBA price calculator in Google, i missed the first result, and then so all I did hear, was copy and paste the ace and we talked about earlier this is a unique identifier that Amazon uses to, kind of categorize products throw it in here, enteritis brings up the products, and then you just go all the way to the bottom, don’t fill out anyting, go to calculate, rights of the FBA fees on this $142, which is obviously a lot, a lot a lot, Right so, the charging 164 and so, if you take 142 out of that, right that’s that’s insane, that’s that only keeps $40 for your cost of goods sold your shipping, so you know right away, that’s out, right so, i don’t know what the deal is with this maybe the 8th, maybe there’s something, oh so this is yeah this isn’t eligible for Amazon Prime right so they’re not actually fulfilling this via the FBA Warehouse there, sending this out, via their own Warehouse if they don’t so there isn’t FBA fees involved, i’m so this is either way though you could never sell this in an FBA warehouse at this price and be profitable so definitely want to, countdown out, two more to go, elsa’s helpful, i want to go through a number so you guys can kind of see, everything, in a nutshell, write a two-to obviously they’re restocking here, And then down to one.

Brighten on here, but this is an interesting one right tickets for 590 or $550, you really only have to sell one because these are these are small I mean, let’s let’s throw this into the fee calculator, and see what we’re working with your silver 550, $11 fee., absolutely insane profit margin right, do you only need to sell one every three days, cuz you’re making you know, after, just just few hours you’re making $540 profit right and then even if your cost of goods sold for a four, four sets of light is 50 bucks which I assume it isn’t right and shipping someone else negligible because it’s small, it’s Electronics so that you could potentially be facing more returns, but I mean what that kind of profit margin doesn’t even really matter, what’s on right if you as long as you’re selling some, it’s definitely one to take a look at, So the last one, is the valley bar, wright’s au-999 Plus, espresso luckily it drop down, tonight’s NBA, 6 a day here zero here, and 7 so that’s pretty consistent right this is definitely good numbers, $149, is is great right like you want to you don’t want to shy away from these high ticket prices, you know cuz a lot of other sellers are put off by that, which is a good thing, you want other people to be scared by something because then there’s more there’s more of them for you, alright so it’s calculated on this last one so $19 that leaves a really healthy margin right so 150, $2 for the sale price $20 in fees 130, you know cost of goods sold shipping you can kind of, left Tomatoes after you talk to a few manufacturers you can, you know you shouldn’t have calculators or, find a a freight forwarder, And you know I have not have all my recommendations for the absolute best, customer service the cheapest Freight forwarders, you know all those things are in the Facebook group and I’m happy to share that, so yeah so that was that was methods one two and three and a really detailed step by step by step, all the software I use all the methods I use, i’m all the tips and tricks everything I’m looking for everything I’m trying to avoid and finally the I track method to just, make sure that you’re looking at this guy’s because it’s the most important it’s the only true source of data, so make sure you’re doing it, i know it’s tedious but I promise you it’ll be worth it when you’re, and you’re making sales and you know, 3-4 months down the line depending on whether you ship by sea or air can be much faster by air but obviously it’s more expensive, You know between two weeks and three months down the line when your, you know making your own income and you’re doing it all from your computer when your underwear you know chilling with your wife or husband or, i promise you it’s so worth it so just, do the little exersteps use the tricks that I shown you, and and really that’s that’s its you can once you want to see that those sales are being made everyday, then you know for sure, that your competitors are doing it and if they have bad pictures if they have bad copy if they have, you know if you thought of a clever way to bundle something or you or make it different in some, you know intelligent way that’s that’s it guys that’s all there is to it it’s really that simple, So for a lot of other like super advanced stuff regarding other marketplaces right so.

Tips and tricks, it’s a really different demographic target market, things are kind of just done differently on different marketplaces with it, trust me the absolutely should not be ignored, the UK Market is absolutely blooming, it’s growing a huge amount every year, i’m super lot more advanced stuff on how to how to pick your products in the UK, you know Germany at some other large markets that a lot of sellers ignore, make sure that you’re checking out to my other videos and absolutely make sure that you’re joining the Facebook group cuz there’s a bunch of, no really intelligent sellers in there that are, giving away all this amazing information so make sure you guys are checking it out, alright guys I know that was kind of a long one but I really wanted to show you every single step-by-step a budgie a pounding my product, Research and how you can do the exact same thing just by following these quick steps, and you can really feel confident that your very first product is going to be a homerun using these methods, so I hope you guys enjoyed it please check out my other videos definitely make sure you check out the Facebook group is amazing and fell in there, all the people are super helpful super friendly they’re going to teach you exactly what they know and everybody collaborates and it’s really beautiful thing, if you enjoyed it make sure you subscribe and we will see you guys next time.

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ourhappyplanet · 5 years

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How to Recycle Plastic Bags

Plastic Bag Recycling

When it comes to recycling, what do you think of first? Is it big blue or green recycling bins, labeled for different types of plastics or glass or aluminum or cardboard or paper? Do you think of plastic bags?

Plastic bag recycling is booming, yet many consumers aren’t even yet aware that plastic bags can be recycled. Let’s look at some of the reasons that might be, as well as how plastic bags are recycled and where you can take your plastic bags for plastic bag recycling.

How Hard Is It To Recycle Plastic?

Truthfully, likely much harder than you might realize. In large part, that is because of the range of types of plastics and how difficult many of those plastics are to breakdown into a form that can then be reworked into something new.

Consider this: only 9 percent of all plastic is recovered in the United States—almost all of which is PET (#1 plastic) and HDPE (#2 plastic) plastic, though even their recovery rates are only 31 and 28 percent, respectively. So what’s the hold-up?

Let’s look at some of the biggest limiting factors when it comes to plastic recycling:

The resin codes. Many consumers mistake the numbers on their plastics for a recycling key, courtesy those arrows around the numbers. All the numbers denote, however, is the resin composition of the plastics; not all of those plastics are actually recyclable. In many places and in many recycling programs, for instance, only #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastics are recyclable.

Even more variations than codes. Even if there are only seven resin codes, there are, in fact, thousands of different kinds of plastics—and they need to be carefully sorted in order to be recycled. (And if they aren’t sorted correctly, and different types of plastics are processed together, it can ruin the whole batch.)

Pigmentation. Assuming they are recyclable, clear plastics can be recycled into any color; white plastics can be recycled into any color but clear. When different colors are introduced into the mix, however, it can be much harder to work with dyes to make them anything other than a darker hue of the color they already are.

Downcycling. Unlike some other recyclables—like glass, for instance—which can be recycled in a closed loop, glass bottles begetting more glass bottles, plastic recycling might more accurately be called downcycling, as it is most often recycled into something else lower down the production line, such as jacket filling, which can then not be recycled. As a result, most plastic recycling can still only be recycled once.

Consumer education. The biggest problem, of course, with plastic recycling is that most consumers don’t know what is and what isn’t recyclable, nor the best way to recycle their plastics.

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Plastic Recycling Numbers

As we noted above, plastics are often labeled with one of seven numbers, connected to their resin. Those seven numbers are as follows:

Polyethylene Terephthalate, or PETE. Common applications include food packaging, water bottles, and soda bottles.

High-Density Polyethylene, or HDPE. Common applications include milk bottles, motor oil containers, detergent, and bleach containers.

Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC. Common applications include toys, plastic piping, even furniture.

Low-Density Polyethylene, or LDPE. Common applications include sandwich bags, grocery bags—what we think of as plastic bags—and plastic wrap.

Polypropylene, or PP. Common applications include rope, plastic tubs, even clothing.

Polystyrene, or PS. What we commonly call styrofoam, common applications include packing peanuts, carry-out food trays, and cups.

Other types of plastic all fall into this category.

In many places, only a few of those types of plastic are recyclable; PETE (#1) and HDPE (#2) are the most commonly recycled plastics, for instance. Fortunately, plastic bags are more and more frequently eligible for plastic bag recycling, so let’s look more closely at that process.

What Happens To Plastic Bags That Are Recycled?

We’ve already seen that most plastic bags are made of #4 plastic, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), though some are also made with high-density polyethylene (#2, HDPE). While many curbside recycling programs will accept #2 HDPE plastics, many fewer will accept #4 LDPE plastics, and as a general rule, you shouldn’t expect your local curbside recycling program to accept plastic bags. That doesn’t mean they can’t be recycled, though!

Instead, many grocery stores and other retail locations offer plastic bag recycling—and in some places may even be required to offer it by law. As a result, you can generally find places for your plastic bag recycling near you—we’ll even help you find plastic bag recycling near you in the very next section!

That doesn’t explain, however, what happens to those plastic bags after you drop them off at a plastic bag recycling location—so let’s look a little more closely at that process. Here’s how you should handle your plastic bag recycling:

Make sure there is nothing left in any of the bags, such as crumbs or receipts, which can contaminate your load.

Have dedicated storage space for plastic bag recycling. That way you can drop off batches of 50 or 100 bags at a time, especially as they don’t take up much space.

Make sure your bags are separated out. Some facilities only take #2 plastic bags, for instance, or only #4 plastic bags. (Other locations, however, may not require your bags be sorted in advance; check your local plastic bag recycling locations for more details on what you need to do in your area.)

Once you drop your bags off, one of several things might happen. Your bags might be melted down, or they might be chipped into pellets, depending on what their next use is.

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And those plastic bags end up as quite a few different things. Let’s look at some of the most common applications for plastic bag recycling:

Composite Lumber. With a mix of plastic bag recycling and lumber scraps (such as sawdust or old pallet scraps, for instance), composite lumber is both hardy and relatively cheap, which makes it a frequent option for decking and outdoor construction. It holds up well to the elements, which makes it a great option for various construction projects. Plastic bags are often chipped into pellets as part of the recycling process if they are slated for use in composite lumber.

New Plastic Bags. Of course, plastic bag recycling can also result in new bags after the old bags are melted down as part of the plastic bag recycling process. This type of recycling is far more environmentally responsible than making new bags from scratch, too.

Nanotechnology. Carbon nanotube membranes, which are used in nanotech (such as biomedical applications and energy storage), can be made from recycled plastic bags.

Finally, check out these 15 facts about recycling plastic bags.

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15 Plastic Bag Recycling Facts

More than one billion plastic bags are used every day.

That works out to an average of 4 bags per person per day in the United States.

And only approximately 3% of those bags are ever recycled.

That means 97% of all plastic bags end up in landfills.

Of the plastic bags that are recycled, nearly half end up in composite lumber.

Almost all of that composite lumber is sold by one of two companies: Trex Company and AERT Inc.

Composite lumber made with plastic bag recycling is more durable than traditional lumber when it comes to outdoor projects, doesn’t need treatment with harmful chemicals, and is pest-resistant and splinter-free, which are all reasons it is often a more environmentally responsible choice than more traditional options.

Composite lumber made from plastic bags is available at many hardware and home improvement stores, such as Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Plastic bags are one of the biggest ocean contaminants, and sea life such as birds and fish often mistake them for food—which can, in turn, lead to their death, either by choking, digestive issues (courtesy the plastic their bodies aren’t equipped to handle), or even getting stuck in the plastic itself.

In fact, up to 80% of all marine trash is plastic bags.

Each year, 100,000 marine mammals die as a result of all of those plastic bags.

How widespread is the problem? Nearly a third of all leatherback sea turtles, for instance, have been found to have plastic in their stomachs.

Nor do plastic bags biodegrade, meaning it can take hundreds of years for them to decompose—even if handled properly in a landfill, for instance.

Because plastic bags are made from petroleum, every ton of plastic bag recycling (between 400,000-500,000 bags) saves between 10 and 12 barrels of oil.

Plastic bags use a lot of oil to produce: 12 million barrels each year. Or another way of looking at it: Roughly a mile’s worth of gasoline is used for every 14 bags produced.

Considering all of that, don’t you want to use fewer plastic bags? And when you are forced to use plastic bags, don’t you want to take advantage of plastic bag recycling?

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Where Can I Recycle Plastic Grocery Bags?

Fortunately, plastic bag recycling is widespread, and many grocery and retail stores offer collection points.

For instance, if you click here you can enter your zip code and find collection points near you. Many major retail chains make a point of having plastic bag recycling collection points, as well, including Target, Walmart, Kroger, Safeway, and more.

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Does Walmart Recycle Plastic Bags?

They do! Nationwide, Walmart offers plastic bag recycling collection receptacles. These are usually located near the entrance to the store, but you may need to check with your local Walmart if you have trouble locating the collection point.

You should also feel good about recently announced initiatives in which Walmart is asking its suppliers to be better about plastic packaging. The new guidelines, announced in February 2019, include the following:

100 percent of private brand packaging should be recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025;

At least 20 percent of private brand packaging should be post-consumer recycled content by 2025;

100 percent of consumable (food) packaging should include How2Recycle labeling by 2022;

Non-recyclable PVC packaging material should be eliminated from general merchandise packaging by 2020;

Private brand plastic packaging should be reduced wherever possible.

Those are some big goals toward a more sustainable future!

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Does Home Depot Recycle Plastic Bags?

Home Depot similarly has plastic bag recycling collection points, often in the front of their stores. In addition, they also offer other types of recycling, including electronic recycling and battery recycling, meaning that you can regularly use Home Depot locations to recycle items you might not be able to recycle elsewhere.

You can learn more about their electronic recycling program on their site, and it’s worth learning more about Call2Recycle—their nonprofit battery recycling arm—too, especially as they’ve successfully recycled more than 10 million pounds of rechargeable batteries, for instance.

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Does Target Recycle Plastic Bags?

Target was one of the first major retailers to jump on the plastic bag recycling train, first offering it at all stores nationwide in 2010. The move came as part of a major recycling program overhaul in Target stores to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day; the initiative was originally part of a month-long focus on recycling and sustainability.

Recycling stations at the front of each Target store accept a wide range of recyclable products, not just plastic bags. In addition to plastic bag recycling, you can find receptacles for:

Aluminum recycling

Glass recycling

Plastic beverage container recycling

Plastic bag recycling

Cell phone recycling

Ink cartridge recycling

Target has also offered discounts at various points in time for customers who brought their own bags, helping reduce the number of plastic bags their customers need to use, as well.

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Can You Recycle Ziploc Bags?

You can! In fact, you can drop off your clean and dry Ziploc bags at any plastic bag recycling collection point. It is, however, incredibly important that your Ziploc bags are clean and dry.

Much like other plastic bag recycling, any crumbs or other contamination can ruin an entire load. And, given that Ziploc bags are frequently used for food storage, it’s especially important that you make sure to clean and dry your bags before dropping them off for recycling.

If you have done that, however, you should be able to drop your Ziploc bags off at any plastic bag recycling collection point to ensure they are recycled appropriately.

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Can You Recycle Plastic Straws?

Unfortunately, the answer is usually no. The problem with plastic straws has less to do with the type of plastic used, as polypropylene (plastic #5) can be recycled in some programs, and more to do with the size and flexibility of most plastic straws.

Because plastic drinking straws are so small and so bendy, they have a tendency to get stuck in sorting machinery. They’re also incredibly light, which gives them a tendency to drop through sorting screens, often resulting in either contaminating other loads or other issues.

And plastic straws, small as they are, add up—the average American uses 1.6 straws per day. That’s 500 million straws nationwide per day! That ends up being a lot of trash.

There may be other options available to you, however. First, some recycling programs will accept plastic straws if they are packaged in such a way that they’ll go through the sorting facility without causing problems, such as if you put all of your plastic straws in a #5 plastic container (like a butter tub, for instance, which are usually polypropylene). If this is something you’re considering, please call your recycling facility first; if you try this approach in a facility that will not allow straws even if packaged in other plastic recycling you may inadvertently cause contamination issues or worse.

The other option, of course, is to simply stop using plastic straws. Reusable steel straws, for instance, or easy to take with you for use in places where you would otherwise use a plastic straw—and is an easy way to readily cut down on your plastic straw consumption.

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Resources:

https://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/tes/solidwaste/info/RecyclingPlasticComplications.pdf

https://sustainablebrands.com/read/waste-not/the-many-challenges-of-plastic-recycling

https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/

http://theconversation.com/why-cant-all-plastic-waste-be-recycled-100857

https://www.bustle.com/p/why-is-recycling-so-hard-you-may-think-its-complicated-but-nothing-could-be-easier-8768454

https://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/recycling-by-the-numbers.html

https://www.greenlivingtips.com/info/plastic-recycling.pdf

https://education.seattlepi.com/happens-plastic-grocery-bags-recycled-4791.html

https://georgiarecycles.org/tools-resources/citizen-resource-guides/plastic-bag-guide/

https://www.plasticbaglaws.org/get-involved/plastic-bag-recycling

https://earth911.com/recycling-guide/how-to-recycle-plastic-bags/

https://solutions.recyclecoach.com/blog/all-you-need-to-know-about-plastic-bag-recycling/

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/plastic_bag_facts.html

https://www.plasticfilmrecycling.org/recycling-bags-and-wraps/find-drop-off-location/

https://www.how2recycle.info/sdo

https://www.quora.com/What-does-Walmart-do-with-the-plastic-bags-they-receive-to-recycle-that-can-be-from-any-other-store

https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/02/26/walmart-announces-new-plastic-packaging-waste-reduction-commitments

https://corporate.homedepot.com/newsroom/call2recycle-home-depot-recycles-ten-million-pounds-rechargeable-batteries

https://www.homedepot.com/c/electronics_recycling_programs

https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2010/04/target-launches-recycling-stations

https://ziploc.com/en/Sustainability-and-Safety

https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/because-you-asked/are-plastic-sandwich-bags-recyclable

https://get-green-now.com/recycle-plastic-straws/

https://earth911.com/home/food-beverage/recycling-mystery-plastic-straws/

https://www.mydisposal.com/plastic-straws

The post How to Recycle Plastic Bags appeared first on Our Happy Planet.

from Our Happy Planet https://ourhappyplanet.org/how-to-recycle-plastic-bags/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-recycle-plastic-bags via https://ourhappyplanet.org

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filipeteimuraz · 6 years

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How to Turn Your Business Idea Into a Startup Company

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has them.

Some ideas are great, and others could be improved.

As an online marketer, I’ve heard countless business pitches from prospective entrepreneurs over the years. While I admire their creativity, just coming up with an idea alone is far from having a viable business concept.

If you are ready to put your idea to the test and launch a startup company, I encourage you to read this guide.

Your idea needs validation.

The last thing you want to do is launch a new business and realize six months down the road that it wasn’t a good idea. By this point, you’ve already sunk too much time and money into the venture.

Don’t skip any steps in the startup process.

Here’s what I’ve done. I’ve outlined how you can take an idea and turn it into an actual business. I’ve tried to keep this guide as general as possible so that it can speak to the widest audience of entrepreneurs.

For example, some businesses will need to buy or lease retail space. Other brands will need production equipment or partnerships with manufacturing facilities.

Some of you may even need permits and have to meet certain legal obligations before your launch. I stayed away from going into depth on these types of details.

That said, this is an excellent reference for anyone with a business idea and no experience launching a startup.

Even if you’ve been part of startup launches before, this guide can help you avoid some mistakes you may have made in the past.

Write a business plan

When you approach your new business venture without a plan, you increase your chances of failure.

The odds are already working against you since such a large percentage of new startup companies fail.

You need to do everything possible to try to give yourself an advantage and increase your chances of success.

Here’s a pretty common conversation I have with entrepreneurs. They pitch me an idea and follow up with something like, “Wouldn’t that be a great business?”

My honest answer is I truly don’t know. And they don’t know either.

Many ideas sound good when they’re verbalized. But when it comes to the logistics, finances, and other important details, the idea may not be as good as you initially thought.

That’s why you need to learn how to write a business plan for your startup company.

Your business plan will help you tremendously and ultimately increase your chances of succeeding.

Startups with a business plan have a 29% greater chance of securing funding, which we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly. Writing a plan also increases the chances of business growth by 50%.

These are the common components of a business plan:

executive summary

description of the company

market analysis

competitor analysis

organizational structure

details about products and services

marketing plan

sales approach

budget and funding

finances

Your plan will outline everything you need to do, even if your idea is very simple. For example, let’s say you’re planning to sell shirts.

How are you going to sell them? Where will you sell them? Whom will you sell them to? At what price will they be sold?

You’ll explain in detail your costs to produce the shirts. The business plan will even outline when you plan to break even on your investment.

The financial projections section is arguably the most important part of the entire plan.

You need to come up with realistic numbers. In addition to listing all your expenses, you need to project your sales.

This information will help you determine if your new business can generate money. You’ll be able to come up with price points so you can turn a profit.

Again, you must figure all this out before you open the doors of a new business. It starts with proper planning.

Define your target audience

The idea for your new business might sound good, but for whom is it a good idea?

Whether you have a product, service, invention, or modification to an existing product, you need to clearly define whom you’re selling to.

I hear people say all the time:

“Everyone will like this idea.”

This is simply not true. Plus, from a marketing perspective, it’s unreasonable to try to launch a brand intended for everyone.

Imagine trying to come up with promotions that appeal to men, women, and children of all ages from every corner of the world. It’s not a realistic approach.

You need to learn how to identify the target market of your startup.

Start with broad assumptions about your prospective customers, and narrow it down even more.

Begin with factors such as their ages, genders, and physical locations. Then get more specific, and identify their interests and lifestyle habits.

Here are some ways for you to segment your audience based on geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral categories.

For example, let’s say your product is intended for males between the ages of 25 and 40. That’s still a broad audience.

You can make it more specific by saying you’re targeting males between the ages of 25 and 40, who live in the United States, make more than $60,000 per year, and are interested in fitness.

Do you see the difference? That’s much more detailed. You can develop a customer persona to help you with this process.

Also, you need to look at your target audience from different perspectives. Let’s say you’re launching a startup that sells toys for young children.

That’s not necessarily your target market.

Three-year-old kids don’t buy stuff. You need to target their parents instead. Make sense?

Conduct market research

Now that you have an idea of whom you want to target, it’s time to test that theory. Just because you think your idea is great for a specific market doesn’t mean this is true. You can use:

surveys

interviews

focus groups

beta testers

product samples

You need to get out there and talk to people. Validate your idea.

It’s also necessary to figure out who else is offering the same thing you are. Today, it isn’t easy to come up with an idea that’s 100% unique.

Don’t get me wrong: it doesn’t mean you can’t make money by having the same idea as someone else. But if the market is oversaturated, it might not be in your best interest to proceed.

I’ll give you a simple example to explain what I mean. Let’s say you want to open a pizza shop in your city.

You’ve scouted out a location that can fit your ovens and tables. You can rent it at a reasonable rate. Your pizza recipe is outstanding. Plus, everyone likes pizza, and more than 100,000 people live in the city.

This idea must be a homerun, right? Not if there are 20 other pizza shops within a few blocks of your prospective location.

It’s going to be too difficult for you to compete with a market that’s so saturated.

This is an example on a small level, but you can scale it to any industry. Look at the ecommerce space. There is a huge competition globally.

In addition to niche brands, you’ll also be competing with giants such as Walmart and Amazon.

The number one reason why startups fail is that there is no market need.

While your idea might be cool, there may not be a need for your product or service.

Or even if the market needs what you’re offering, it could be getting it from someone else already.

Market research will also require you to analyze your competition.

Establish your brand

Your startup company needs to have a differentiation strategy that separates you from your competitors.

What’s your identity?

Your brand may be cool, edgy, and trendy. Or maybe you’re going for a brand identity that is conservative and family-oriented instead.

Some startups launch with a mission to help a greater cause, such as a nonprofit organization.

No matter what your brand identity is, it needs to be clear to your audience. All of your branding campaigns will reflect the image you’re trying to portray.

Your website colors, marketing campaigns, and promotions will speak to your brand identity. This even relates to your logo and the name of your startup.

Come up with a name that doesn’t restrict your growth. Even if you’re focusing on something specific right now, you don’t want the name of your brand to put you in a box, preventing your expansion in the future.

Your brand needs to speak to your target audience, which was already defined. A proper branding strategy will nurture your brand reputation.

In a perfect world, your brand image and brand reputation will be the same. You want people to see your company in a positive light.

So it’s important to get your branding strategy right the first time because your reputation is going to stick with you for years to come.

It’ll be hard to rebrand yourself in the future if you make a mistake during the launch stages, so don’t rush into anything.

Surround yourself with the right people

It’s time to assemble your team.

The size of your team will vary based on the type of business you’re launching.

You want to find people strong in areas where you are weak. For example, if you’re extremely creative but don’t have managerial skills, it doesn’t make sense to bring another creative mind on board without hiring someone who can manage employees.

Or let’s say you’re building a mobile app but don’t have any experience with coding or design. You’ll need to hire a developer and designer.

Surround yourself with people whom you are compatible with. You want to build strong working relationships with your team.

Here’s another problem I see all the time. People launch a startup and just start hiring their friends and family.

Don’t get me wrong — this can work. But you need to think long and hard about this decision. Do you want your personal relationships to be impacted by the business?

Can these people take directions from you? What if you need to fire your best friend?

These are all sticky situations, so tread carefully. You also need to make sure every member of your team can bring something to the table.

Just because you were bouncing ideas off a friend a few months ago doesn’t mean they’re part of the business.

I’m not saying you need to be selfish or stingy, but ultimately, you need to do what’s best for you and your business.

Secure funding

Your startup will need some money to get off the ground. Depending on what you’re doing, this can range anywhere from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars.

Everyone’s situation is different. You’ll need to recognize all your business costs. Here are some examples to consider:

research and development

equipment

cost of property to buy or lease

website and server

inventory

insurance

legal fees

payroll

startup costs

operating costs

You need to realize you won’t have any income when you first launch, but you’ll still need to cover all your expenses.

Based on this information, you’ll be able to determine how much money you need. Learn how to get your startup funded.

Use your business plan and financial projections when you’re speaking with prospective lenders or investors.

You may consider getting a bank loan and pay interest fees for the funds you borrow. But big banks may not be your best bet. Just look at these approval rates for small business loans:

For your startup company, you may want to consider some alternative options:

venture capitalists

angel investors

personal savings accounts

friends and family

crowdfunding

These are all reasonable sources to raise capital to launch your startup. You’ll just have to consider these options and decide which ones are the best for your scenario.

Figure out if it’s worth giving up equity in your company. Will your investors bring anything else to the table besides cash?

While it may be nice to have other opinions, you want to make sure you have the final say in all decisions. There is nothing wrong with giving up some equity, but just don’t lose control of your company.

Build hype before you launch

Everything is falling into place.

Your business plan looks good. The target market is clearly defined. All your market research is complete.

The team you assembled is qualified. All of your funds have been secured.

Now it’s time to put your company branding strategy to work.

Buy a domain name. Launch your website. Create social media profiles.

Start to market your brand. Even if you’re not officially launched or selling anything just yet, you can still take pre-orders.

Create a blog. Try to get featured on press releases or news articles. Send free samples to influencers.

Do anything that will make your presence known. Get creative with guerilla marketing and content marketing strategies.

Be prepared to work

Before you officially launch, you need to ask yourself if you’re ready to work.

Sure, you know your idea is great and it’s been validated through your research. But are you ready to take the plunge into entrepreneurship?

Just look at how many hours the average entrepreneur works per week:

In order to launch your startup, you might be leaving a job with a steady paycheck to work twice as hard on your new business, without being able to pay yourself for years.

Is this something you can handle mentally and financially?

Research shows 41% of entrepreneurs say they feel stressed almost every day. An additional 33% say they feel stressed a couple of times per week.

But only 7% of entrepreneurs say they never feel stressed.

Unlike with a regular job, there’s no quitting on your own business. You can’t call in sick when you don’t feel like working.

You’re the boss. You set the tone for the entire culture of the company.

While being your own boss definitely has lots of benefits, it also comes with added responsibility and plenty of sleepless nights. You need to recognize that your startup can still fail.

I’m not saying all of this to discourage you from following through with your plan, but you need to accept this reality.

But if you’re willing to take these risks and get to work, proceed with your business plan, and make it happen.

Conclusion

There is a big difference between an idea and an established business. You need to take steps to validate that idea before you launch a startup company.

Write a business plan. Identify your target market. Conduct market research.

Then you’ll need to come up with a branding strategy.

Assemble your team. Surround yourself with people who can contribute to the success of your new business.

Recognize your costs and outline your financial projections. This will give you a better idea of how much money you need to launch your company.

Being an entrepreneur can be rewarding, but it’s no walk in the park. You need to ask yourself if you’re capable of being a business owner.

But if you’re ready to work and you’ve taken the steps I’ve described in this guide, you can turn your business idea into a reality.

What steps have you taken to turn your concept into a startup company?

https://www.quicksprout.com/2018/07/27/how-to-turn-your-business-idea-into-a-startup-company/ Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-to-turn-your-business-idea-into.html

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