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Multiple reasons.They include:The overwhelming majority of firearms in the US are not, in fact, being used for ANYTHING - The majority of firearms are in closets,gun safes, holsters and in drawers gathering both dust and rust. People in the US purchase firearms and then simply fail to use them. In other countries when people purchase or obtain firearms, they do so with the express purpose of using the firearm.Violence is on the decline in the US - This is for multiple reasons, including an aging populace, greater economic opportunities for Americans, better programs and laws to deal with domestic violence and the relaxation of drug laws which made firearms ownership by violent people far less "necessary."Violence beyond a certain level has always been rare - Even when people routinely fought violent conflicts in times past, violence beyond a certain level was uncommon. Most people possess internal behavioral limitations which prevent them from becoming "too violent." Unless they are pressed beyond a certain level (and most times, even then) the majority of people will flee dangerous situations or acquiesce to those who seem to be willing commit acts of violence beyond their own internal limitations.Firearms are difficult to use, heavy to carry and have a number of legal restrictions which make their use uncommon - Despite what is shown nightly on television and is printed in the newspapers, most Americans don't carry weapons around on their person. Nor are they trained or skilled in their use. Since firearms are heavy, difficult for many to use and have significant legal restrictions involved with them (especially in urban areas, where most Americans now reside) they are rarely present in the majority of social situations. That lack of presence means that when violent acts do occur, that firearms are rarely present.Most people learn to control their violent tendencies at an early age (especially in advanced societies of which the US is one) - Since social controls have taught most people to curb their anti-social tendencies, most never find themselves in situations where a firearm may used or its use is even considered. When people are poorly socialized or there are few sanctions against violence, then people may resort to violence. Fortunately, most of those people and most those situations. are rare.An effective law enforcement and legal system - Despite many people's misgivings about the American legal system, it does actually work. There are relatively few cases where violent offenders are consistently allowed to violently offend without that person being removed from society. While this may not seem to be the case (especially since violence and the fear of it "sells" in the media) most offenders receive some form of sanction and are thus either in databases, which aid in identifying them for future reference. Or those individuals are proscribed from owning or possessing firearms. Many countries don't have this.The majority of the population in the US is female - Females are biologically less likely to be violent or become violent than are men, If there were more males than females (the case in many countries) then there might a trend towards violent behavior.Internal unrest - While there are areas of social tension within the US, most are at levels far below those of other nations. Even the most intractable social ills in the US (racism, economic inequality,sexism, as examples) are reasonably discussed and rarely lead to violence at any level. The US is safer (itself a relative term) in part because none of are social issues have reached the levels where violent solutions would be seen by the masses as actually BEING viable solutions. Again, this is not the case with many other nations.Extant legislation - Despite what is shown and written about in the media, firearms are difficult to obtain. While knives,axes and other edged weapons can easily be purchased by minors, firearms require detailed paperwork, a licensed seller and in many cases, additional licensing to own or to use them. Frankly, the laws make firearms ownership such a onerous burden for many, that some who would like a weapon and can easily afford one, are put off by what is required and simply don't bother.Firearms are prohibited from places where their use might be "expected" - In most states and municipalities,firearms can't be brought into bars, nightclubs,casinos,sporting events,schools,etc. Since the majority of violent interactions take place in conjunction with these establishments, the fact that measures are usually in place to prevent firearms from being carried in or even into them, then the levels of violence would have to be correspondingly lower.Anyone of the above would help to reduce violence anywhere. the combination of all of them mean that while the US may have a great number of firearms, those weapons simply aren't used to commit violent acts.

Reaching 10,000 per day is very doable. I have multiple sites that reach well beyond this number.Fair warning: it takes a lot of time and work.I would like to share with you some ways you can start drastically growing your traffic so you can eventually get to that point.Growing your blog traffic isn’t rocket science. If it were that hard, then how do so many blog article websites generate 500,000 - 1,000,000 visitors per day?It’s true that click through traffic like that doesn’t pop up overnight. It takes consistent effort over a sustained period of time dripping on your target audience.You might have a lot of “good” reasons why your blog isn’t generating 20,000 visitors each month. And, to be fair, blogging is hard work. But so is every type of business model, whether online or offline.In this response, I’ll show you how to drive 20,000 visitors to your blog in 90 days, using strategies and tactics I use right here on my own blog.In the month of March 2014, Neil Patel: Helping You Succeed Through Online Marketing! generated 20,543 visitors. I didn’t use any super-secret technique and I didn’t spend tons of money on social media or search engine ads. What really helped me was a “mindset shift.”I realized that not all types of blog content will drive traffic to a site. If you truly want to see changes in your blog, you need to create the right kind of content for your target audience. You’ll learn how I create the kind of content that people want to read, share, and link to in this post.If you consistently implement these techniques for three months without giving up, you’ll generate more qualified visitors to your blog - likely, 20,000 or more.But, you have to be consistent. I know I mention that on this blog over and over, but that’s because it really is the key to blogging success.82% of companies that blog daily acquire customers easily via their media site. Those who neglect blogging, or do it sporadically, will always struggle to get more clients.Remember that driving thousands of visitors to your blog isn’t the ultimate goal. It’s only a means to achieving the goal that you’ve set for your business.To have the best year ever, there are certain vital goals that must be achieved. Blogging can help you reach them, if you go about it the right way.Let’s get started with the 4 tactics that you can implement today:1. Get published on magazine sites.I know you’re thinking “I’m just a blogger!” - right?Why should you bother writing for popular online magazines like WebMD, Inc, Forbes and the like?Well, there’s a huge demand for good writers. Reaching outside the confines of your own blog post can bring powerful rewards. Guest post avenues are a wise way to grow your audience back to your blog content.It’s time to pitch your topic ideas to online magazine editors.You don’t have to be an experienced journalist to write for magazines. You’re already qualified.I advise you to focus specifically on those entities with a strong online presence. Just look at the change in average daily media consumption -- you’ll agree with me that the internet is a strong force.If you’re a business entrepreneur, getting published on Entrepreneur - Start, run and grow your business. might generate a more targeted audience to your blog, since it’s relevant to business. A general interest newspaper or magazine site wouldn’t be a good fit for you.Moreover, online readership for most magazines has surpassed the offline readership. Forbes digital audience surpassed 68 million in 2015, as compared to only 6.3 million print (offline) audience members.Imagine how many visitors you’ll drive to your blog in 90 days if you get published by Forbes, Entrepreneur, or any other site that’s as popular. Millions of people subscribe to online magazines and many of those people never miss an issue.Lots of magazines out there have built a loyal target audience. They want to be at the top of their games. You can capitalize on this ready-made audience and direct many of those dedicated readers to your own site, while simultaneously building your own authority in the process.Take a look at the UK newspapers’ print and web audience. At a glance, you’ll notice that the web audience has grown exponentially, surpassing that of print.I enjoy reading online essays and articles on various topics, especially when they’re well-written and relatable. I know I’m not the only one.That’s exactly what you must do when you write for online magazines. Choose topics that’ll engross your readers, so that your piece will make an impact and stay with them after reading it.One of the best techniques for engaging online magazine readers is storytelling. You need to tell (sometimes personal) stories that resonate with your audience.If you don’t consider yourself to be a good storyteller, that’ll make it harder to create epic content for your readers. But you don’t have to write about yourself. Instead, look for the narrative story lurking inside your topic.Stories aren’t just for fiction, by the way - they also improve nonfiction articles.According to Ashley C. Ford, an essayist and BuzzFeed staff writer,Writing nonfiction is not about telling your story. It’s about telling worthy and interesting stories about the human circumstance using real life examples.You can write a magazine article by following the same approach you’d take to writing blog posts. I’m talking about in-depth, high-value blog posts - not the generic ones that no one reads.When it comes to writing for online magazine publications, a strategic approach is best. Don’t rush into the experience with half-baked ideas. As Joel Barker says,Speed is only useful if you’re running in the right direction.Often times, you don’t need to come up with a completely new topic. All you have to do is look for a hook or a creative idea that lets you bridge the gap between your “big idea” (or your main message) and “what people already know.”That’s why thorough research is needed. You can research your topic on social networking sites (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), which will also help you find an approach that’s likely to engage readers through various search engine and social media results.It’s estimated that nearly 9 out of 10 journalists use blogs for online research. And 96% of journalists cited corporate websites as a source of online research information.If you’re a content marketer, you know that great content markets itself. When you take the time to understand your audience and create relevant, high-value content for them, the result is more traffic to your blog.When you’re writing for online magazine publications, you need to approach it with your content marketing mindset.In other words, your ultimate focus is to create useful content that people will read, feel excited about and willingly share with others on social media.Many freelance writers and journalists are making a living writing for online magazine publications. As an example, Carol Tice, founder of Writers: Ready To Stop Starving?, earns a 6-figure income writing for online magazines.She also generates thousands of visitors from her articles on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Copyblogger and more.In 2012, Chris Brogan was privileged to write the cover story for SUCCESS Magazine, where he interviewed Richard Branson.As a result of that, he gained extra traction, enhanced his brand image and attracted more visitors to his blog.One of the challenges people face is knowing how to pitch a story to a magazine or newspaper. Journalism Professor Jennifer Kahn of the University of Stanford shares the science of the successful magazine pitch.According to Kahn,The purpose of a magazine article is to draw the reader in and unravel the story bit by bit.She further said that,A magazine article is like a strip tease, whereas a newspaper article is more like being flashed on the subway.Here are some of her tips:i). Do lots of research before you pitch: A magazine article is unique, because the audience that you’re writing for is usually motivated. So, spend adequate time researching your story before you pitch. This isn't your basic blog article.Kahn says she spends up to 10 hours on research and phone calls before she pitches a magazine story.While you’re researching your story, write down ideas as they occur to you. Make them into a checklist - you’ll need these ideas when writing.ii). Find email address formats on the ad pages: You need to connect with the right editor. Not all online publications publicly display the editor’s email address. It’s your responsibility to do the extra work.To get started, you could look at the website’s “About us” or “Advertising” sections. If you fail to find the correct email address there, follow the editor on Twitter or visit their personal website/blog if they have one.Better yet, fill out the contact form and request the editor’s email address.Become target-driven when pitching magazine editors. You want your emails to arrive in the right inbox. Otherwise, you’ll be waiting in vain for a response that isn't going to come.iii). Send the editor a pre-pitch email: Before the main pitch (i.e., details of your story), send the editor a short email introducing yourself and letting them know you have a unique idea that their target audience will find interesting.It doesn’t have to be a million-dollar idea, but make sure it’s relevant and targeted to the publication’s readers.This is especially necessary if you’ve never met or communicated with the editor and want to make a good first impression.All that you need to do is summarize the idea in two sentences and kindly ask the editor to respond if he/she would like a full pitch. A guest post pitch would follow a similar format.iv). You can pitch in one page (five paragraphs): Don’t bore the editor with too many details. A typical magazine pitch should be a page or a page-and-a-half maximum.Use the first paragraph of your pitch to describe the general topic.More importantly, tailor your pitch to the publication. Don’t create more work for the editor. Simply paste the pitch into the body of the email so that the editor can quickly glance through it.This works better. Don’t try to attach it as a separate document - bloggers may not have issues with this, but magazine editors do. Your pitch should look similar to this:2. Get ranked for several long-tail keywords with in-depth content.Long-tail keywords are not only responsible for generating organic traffic, but also convert search users into leads and customers from a search engine site.There is incredible value in taking advantage of long-tail SEO, since 70% of all search queries are connected to long-tail keywords.After Google rolled out the Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird algorithm updates, it became clear that the focus of search is now on what users want, not on keywords that marketers want to rank for.In the past, it was easy to pick any kind of keyword, create content around it and expect to drive targeted traffic via the search engine to a landing page. But that approach won’t today.The modern content marketing approach goes like this: You first identify the needs of your audience. Next, you find the exact keywords they’re using to search for information that will help meet their needs and answer their questions. Then, you write and deliver a powerful blog article that is on-point.Long-tail keywords reveal the content marketing sweet spot - the intersection between what potential customers are typing into the search engine vs. what they really want. When you have what they really want, you will get the click through numbers you want.And that’s where long-tail keywords come in. They’re long-tail not only because they contain three or more words, but also because of their nature and the thought process behind them.People who search for long-tail terms are motivated, and, with a little nudge, they’ll buy your product or subscribe to your list.Long-tail keywords drive the right kind of traffic. It doesn’t matter how old your blog article is; if you embrace effective content marketing and target long-tail key phrases without trying to manipulate the search algorithm, you’ll drive more visitors to your media site. A list post is a good example of blog content that can have positive search engine results.By creating evergreen content and capitalizing on long-tail search terms, TechWyse grew its blog traffic by 200% in just 1 year.Alex Chris, founder of Digital Marketing Pro, shared advanced insights on how to increase blog traffic to 400,000 visitors per month.He didn’t use SEO the way so many people have been taught. In Chris’ words,You need a solid plan and a strategy that will differentiate your blog from the rest.If you study the above two case studies closely, you’ll notice some significant similarities. Neither marketer simply targeted long-tail keywords and expected to rank highly in Google’s top 10.Instead, they focused on creating evergreen content without ignoring long-tail search.This is crucial, because if your focus is just on keywords, you’ll miss out on satisfying your customers’ needs with your blog article.Don't miss out on valuable click through conversions because you ignored your target audience.Old SEO was about keywords (head and long-tail), while the new SEO is about focusing on what users want (intent). In other words, you focus on the purpose behind the keywords they input into the search engine.There’s something significant you need to know about long-tail SEO. What you’re actually doing is helping search users find the right information and they’ll thank you for it.The benefits of long-tail keywords are enormous. Integrate them into your blog posts naturally.So what’s the best way to rank highly for long-tail search terms?Create in-depth content.The word “in-depth” is overused these days. Many people think “in-depth” means simply “long-form article.”That’s not completely true. It’s possible to write a 3000+ word article but not make it in-depth. A list post, for example, that is just a countdown with no value explanation does not help anyone, not your target audience and certainly not your search engine traffic.There are a few marketers who understand what in-depth content truly looks like, and they’ve got staggering results to show for it.Brian Dean is an example. The vast majority of his blog posts are both in-depth and long-form. Here’s an example post on the State of Search Rankings.If I tell people to write content that converts, that’s not in-depth. Most readers wouldn’t know exactly how to do that.So, I make it in-depth, simply by using a step-by-step approach.I can break up that generic phrase that says, “write content that converts” into 6 steps, for example. Then I can explain each of the steps using plain language and visuals that help the reader understand each step.When you do that, you’ll start to rank for several long-tail keywords that you didn’t primarily target when creating in-depth and evergreen content.For example, I currently rank #2 in Google for the long-tail keyword “how to drive traffic to business blog,” even though I didn’t specifically target that keyword.Long-tail keywords give you a serious advantage over your competition. When properly integrated into your blog posts, they can also help you drive more organic visitors to your media site.To pinpoint the best long-tail keywords that your competitors haven’t yet uncovered, I like to use a 2-step approach:i). First step: Get head keywords in Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner. Just input your main keyword (e.g., social crm tool) into the search box. Then click “Get ideas” button:Now we have a few head keywords to work with in step two, namely:social crmcustomer relationship managementsocial media crmcrm toolsii). Second step: Go to KeywordTool.io and plug one of the head keywords from step one into the search box. Then click on the red search icon by the right side.iii). Step three: Analyze your results and select your best long-tail key phrases from the list.Note that if you target any of the keywords highlighted in red above, you’ll probably rank highly in Google’s first page results, because the competition right now is still low - about 7 results pages are actively targeting that keyword.Google lists 10 organic results, so informative content pages are still needed by Google.Beyond that, you’ll rank for several other keywords that you didn’t specifically target and your organic traffic will continually increase. Eventually, it will become a SEO pipeline where you draw leads and customers click through on landing pages from for your business.3. Drive referral traffic through online partnerships.It happens to everybody.You started a blog and worked hard to create content. Then you discovered that your readers aren’t referring others to your blog.Build referral traffic sources and you’ll surely drive more traffic.When it comes to driving referral visitors to your blog, social is the new search. In other words, social media networks will power your relationships with people who have the capacity to amplify your content. Interestingly, social generates more referral traffic than search.Activity on social media networks will pay off eventually. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t ask or beg with your followers to visit your blog. Over time, as you continue to provide a richer experience, they’ll feel obliged to check out your business portal.Social media is powerful. Google likes social signals. Google has stated clearly that social signals aren’t part of its algorithm, but the side effects of social signals help Google made smarter decisions based on user behavior data.Top media sites use social to drive referral traffic. In fact, Facebook is the number #1 social traffic source for news websites.When I started out as a SEO consultant, the majority of my clients came through word of mouth.Yes, I was generating organic traffic - potential clients who were motivated - but I still needed to tell them the benefits of my service and why they should work with me.Referral traffic isn’t like that. The truth is that when a potential customer/client is referred to you, it makes no difference how much your service/product is worth - the client will trust you.They don't trust because they know you personally, but rather because someone they respect and hold in high esteem has referred them to you.Online partnerships are the holy grail of networking. Imagine how far your business partnerships can go to satisfy the customers and ensure that the organizational goals are met.In the same vein, online partnership takes advantage of relationships that you’ve established with others (e.g., bloggers, social media experts, online influencers, authors and writers).Online partnership is about connecting with like-minded people in your industry for the purpose of helping each other achieve their goals.So how do you establish online partnerships and use them to drive referral traffic to your blog in 90 days? Here are a few tips to get you started:i). Start from your connections: You could start with fellow bloggers who have accepted your guest posts in the past.Better yet, if you have a close friend, begin the partnership from your existing connections and scale from there.ii). Join a mastermind group. This is an easy way to start connecting with like-minded business entrepreneurs and marketers.You could ask around for a mastermind or start one yourself. It doesn’t have to be one of those “Dot Com Lifestyle” masterminds. You know better than that.A mastermind may be your missing link to driving 1,000+ visitors per week through word of mouth referrals on social networks.You could simply connect with 3 - 5 friends and start a mastermind. As long as your individual goals and expectations are spelled out, you’ll be fine.Once you attract referral visitors from social media and email sources, or through word of mouth, you’ll discover that it’s actually easy to convert and delight them.Mastermind groups are a powerful force to be reckoned with. People like John Lee Dumas, Pat Flynn, Glen Allsopp, and many proficient bloggers have benefitted from masterminds, especially when they were growing their blog’s audience.Mastermind group members can tell others (e.g., fans, readers, customers, networks) about your new blog and/or convince them to join your course.Masterminds not only contribute to your blog’s traffic, but can also make you money directly. As an example, Leigh Peele went from making $20 to $4,000 per month from her blog after joining Blog Mastermind.iii). Identify your partners’ strengths and work with them to complement your business. That’s the real purpose of an online partnership.Whether you decide to join a mastermind group or connect with online partners through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others, always look out for ways to help the other person.You may be good at content creation, but awful when it comes to search engine optimization. Your partner could handle that aspect, while you focus on what you’re passionate about.All in all, online partnerships usually strengthen and reveal the greatest potential in each partner. The online partnership that I’m referring to doesn’t have to be one where two or more people come together to run a business.Instead, I’m talking about establishing a channel of communication with other business owners, bloggers, marketers and more, for the sole purpose of helping each other grow their own business - not to mention drive traffic to their blogs and build a target audience.4. Use Guest-o-graphic strategy to drive targeted trafficBlogging is more than writing blog posts. Way more.If you’re just getting started as a blogger, it’s good to begin by creating blog posts and building your audience.But as time goes by, you’ll realize your readers aren’t asking for more content, but more useful information.This means that you should start creating media-type content. You have to produce a variety of content and become consistent at it - even if you didn’t see the initial boost in traffic.According to Content Marketing Benchmark 2013, creating and managing content is a challenge for most brands. Worse still, 45% of B2B marketers struggle to produce a sufficient variety of blog article content. And 78% of marketers say their biggest challenge is “creating original content.”This may because they don't have the time or don't have the talent to do it.To save yourself the hassle of creating endless blog posts that nobody reads, it’s time to embrace a new content marketing technique that produces dramatic results.That technique is popularly referred to as “Guest-o-graphic.”The same guy who invented the skyscraper technique coined that term - Brian Dean, founder of SEO Training and Link Building Strategies – Backlinko.Guest-o-graphic can be summarized using this formula:Guest article intro + infographic = online visibility, backlinks, etc.All you have to do is create a valuable and professional looking infographic on a hot topic. Then reach out to sites, editors, authors and content marketers whose audience will benefit from your visual content.One of the key reasons why infographics continue to drive traffic, backlinks and credibility for online business is because they’re primarily visual.Your prospects are visual beings. Data from Forrester CSO Insights 2012 found that 90% of information transmitted to the human brain is visual.Back when I started releasing infographics, the results were incredible. In 2010, infographics contributed to the 2,512,596 visitors and 41,142 backlinks to the KISSmetrics blog.Even though I don’t create & release infographics as often as I used to, they’re still effective for me - especially when the topic is timely.Brian makes it a lot easier. According to him, instead of creating an infographic and hoping that people will discover it, share it and link to it, you can promote it through email outreach to get click through conversions.Perrin and David used the Guest-o-graphic technique to increase their blog traffic by 963%. They implemented the tips laid out by Brian and reaped the results. In the past, this same method increased Brian’s traffic by 175%.Let’s briefly look at the simple steps to drive traffic through the Guest-o-graphic technique:i). Research your topic and create an infographic: This stage is critical, because it sets the tone for your entire outreach. Make an effort to design and publish a great looking infographic.Despite all that you’ve heard, design really plays a key role in determining how far your infographic will go. Perrin’s infographic is useful, timely, and well designed.If your topic isn’t interesting, people won't share it. Finding an infographic topic and a compelling angle will lead you to the next step:Collect data from credible sources (e.g., blogs, online publications, books)Create the infographic yourself using ready-made templatesHire a professional infographic designer at DribbbleOutsource infographic creation to Visual.lyii). Connect with people: At this point, you need to find people who are interested in your infographic. You simply make a list of people (e.g., site owners, bloggers, content marketers) who will likely want to check out your infographic.Let’s assume that your infographic is about “becoming a vegetarian.”All you have to do is go to Google and search for sites and blogs that actively discuss the topic. You can use this search query:“Your topic” + blogsWhen I did, here’s the result that I got:iii). Send a pre-pitch: Once you have generated a list of related blogs, it’s time to pre-pitch. This is where most bloggers get it all wrong.You’ve got to understand that when you’re pitching a marketer or site owner who you’ve never met, you should ask for their permission.The first email you’ll send should look similar to this:Dear [first name],My name is [Your name here], and I’m the founderof [your blog here]I’ve just created an infographic on [put the topic here].I’m sure that your audience will benefit from it.Would you like to check it out?I can send it over…Thank you so much for the great work you’re doing on your blog.Regards.[Your name here]This is an example of a pre-pitch. When sending this type of email, you’re making yourself known to the blogger. Don’t include the page URL of your infographic, because you’re asking for permission first.iv). Send the infographic: If you receive a positive response, the next step is to send the infographic. Make it short and be courteous.Here’s an example:Hello [first name],I’m truly excited to receive your feedback.Here’s the infographic[paste the infographic URL here]Let me know if you received it. And your opinionwill be appreciated, too.Thank you [person’s name].[Your name]v). Follow-up: Depending on the situation, you may want to follow up later. If you haven’t gotten a response, then send another brief email. And this time, make sure you pitch appropriately.This email template works:Hello [first name],Thank you so much checking out myinfographic.Did you enjoy it?If you think that your audience wouldlike it, I can write an introduction (about 200-word article)in order to make the page unique.What do you say?Thank you all the same.[Your name]Remember to link to your blog when sending the introductory article. That way, your link will be visible and you’ll get both traffic and authority backlink.These five steps will get you started on the right foot. There is nothing special or secretive about it - just do the work.To increase your chances of success, you need to send lots of emails. That’s where the hard work lies. In Perrin’s case, he send 92 emails, and got 5 conversions. If your infographic is truly awesome like Perrin’s you’ll get feedback like this:With the same method, BuzzStream helped take a local client to the top of organic listings. To learn more about the Guest-o-graphic method and how to drive traffic to your blog, see the resource below:SEO Strategy Case Study: 963% More Organic TrafficConclusionOne thing is certain: Building a blog audience isn’t an easy task. It requires hard work and creativity. But don’t give up. If I did it, so can you!Don’t expect quick results. Set a target for 90 days - an ideal timeframe to learn, make mistakes and improve your efforts.Now that you’re armed with the right tools, case studies and tactics that will help you drive up to 20,000 visitors to your blog, you’re unstoppable. You don’t have to implement all the techniques that I shared here - just pick one and run with it.Often, when we’re looking to increase blog traffic, we forget how important consistency is.Yes, it’s a good thing to always create useful, in-depth and long-form content, but if you’re not consistent, the next Google wave might sweep away your search results.To sustain your blog’s traffic this year, you should write more often and promote your content as much as you can.What’s your #1 challenge that’s stopped you from driving more visitors to your blog in the past?

TL; DRThe experience of doing COMMAS could fall anywhere between getting-enlightened and wow-I-love-doing-this to why-the-fuck-I-came-here . As you can see, this is an entire spectrum of responses which you might get, depending upon whom you ask. I, personally, found myself in the positive side of this spectrum. There were a number of reasons why I enjoyed doing COMMAS, but to bring things into perspective, I would focus on each individual aspect which I think might be critical to the reader-Course DifficultyWhat COMMAS promised vs How it actually wasCOMMAS is a highly theoretical course involving new mathematical and programming concepts which you might have not studied in your bachelor’s degree in domain of mechanical/civil or automobile engineering. The ultimate goal of COMMAS, according to me, is to equip you with enough theoretical understanding about computational mechanics of structures, that you could pursue an academic career path through a PhD degree or work effectively/efficiently in any simulation based industry. Both of the above career choices requires a deep knowledge of computational mechanics, which COMMAS strives to offer.Before coming to COMMAS, I did a thorough research on it’s course modules, their contents and kind of stuff which I might face during the course. Thus, I was at least mentally prepared for what was about to come. In fact, I was looking forward to gain deeper knowledge of computational mechanics. I can say, that COMMAS was almost the way I expected it to be - teaching you finite element modelling from the basics, material modelling, structural modelling etc. This, however, was not the case with every course participant.Few students came to COMMAS with an expectation of a normal post graduate degree course in mechanical engineering, without any prior thorough review of it’s course modules, and without a concrete decision whether this is exactly what they wanted to do. Unfortunately, few students left the course after first semester. Partly, because they didn’t had any background in advanced solid mechanics, programming or higher engineering mathematics and partly because the amount of workload was too much and they scored not so motivating grades in first semester. Further, few students had completely different expectation from the course, and being honest to themselves, they decided to pursue other suitable MS course. All these facts are not to demotivate you, it’s just an indication that one should make a wise decision before coming to COMMAS.What I found ChallengingCOMMAS is all about computational mechanics, where at the end you need to convert almost all theoretical concepts you learn in the topic into some kind of computer code. Coming from a non-CS background, with only basic exposure to programming skills, it was a challenge sailing through home assignments, class exercises and exam problems where they test not only your grasp on theory but also how elegantly you implement it into a computer code. The goal is to make you fit for writing your own linear/non-linear solver, finite elements, elastic/inelastic material models, etc. which requires a certain style of coding, which COMMAS will make you grasp in those 2 years. If you have good object-oriented programming skills, life will be much easier for you. However, even if you don’t have any experience, don’t worry. You will get decent time to learn basics through self study, the way I did it in my case.What other Students found ChallengingIt won’t be fair to speak on behalf of all the participants, but as far as I judged based upon my interaction with fellow students, it’s really a challenge how you manage your time between - classes, part-time job(s), German language course (if you are doing any), assignments, self-study and some free personal time for yourself (although, that concept is fictional in COMMAS :P). Apart from managing studies in general, course content difficulty could also be an issue sometime. But, there are always fellow students, teaching assistants around you, who could help you understanding the topic and make you feel more confident. So, be honest to yourself in doing your class exercises, home assignments and attending lectures, you will not face any trouble in your pursuit of COMMAS!LecturesCOMMAS lectures are given mostly by a Professor who is leading a Research Institute. But, when Professors are busy in their Research work, any PostDoc. candidate or some other junior Professor might also take up the responsibility of giving classroom lectures. In my opinion, it’s quite important not to miss your lectures, because the way a Professor explains any concept in class, you won’t find that in any text book. Moreover, classroom lecture is the best place to clear your doubts, by asking questions. I experienced that Professor-Student interaction was highly encouraged, which motivated students to engage better in the class. Every Professor has it’s own style of teaching, some would give you notes on Projector screen and explain material side by side with the help of some examples. Other Professors would distribute the Lecture Notes in printed form at the start of lecture and then they will start explaining stuff directly on the board, so you spend more time in grasping the concepts and don’t spend too much time copying the material. In that approach, Professor might take help of other media, like showing some MAPLE code, simulation videos, pictures, etc. I found the second technique more effective, as I was able to listen more to what the Professor was saying, took some extra notes when needed, marked things that might be important for exam, and got enough time to ask questions. Throughout your COMMAS journey, you will get all kinds of lecture techniques. In some topics, due to to the sheer amount of material to be taught in class, instructor won’t have the luxury to teach random topics directly on board, thus, they will give you classroom notes, with some discussion and explanation. More detailed discussion you could do in their office hours. At the end of each Semester, you as a student will get an opportunity to rate the course by filling up a feedback form. There you could express your views about the course and also give improvement suggestions. The results of the feedback form will then be shared with the entire class on the last lecture, which also sometimes become a platform to share a good laugh with the Professor. Specially when you see comments from students like - “Professor xxx is God!” or when the answer to the question “What did you found best about the course?” is “The beautiful Teaching Assistant!”ExercisesEvery course in COMMAS involves some kind of exercise class, where you will learn to apply concepts you learned in class to theoretical or practical problems. These exercises are commonly given by a PhD or PostDoc. candidate from the institute organizing the lecture.Every Faculty tries to keep the exercises synchronized with class room lectures, so that you learn to apply classroom material faster. Exercises are an excellent opportunity to dig deep into the topic by asking more questions about the material, which you couldn’t ask during the lecture. Moreover, exercises gives you an overview about the questions that might come on the final exam.At the end, you should experiment, be creative, try out as many what-if scenarios by yourself and extend your knowledge basis more than whats covered in lecture, which is useful to deepen your understanding of the topic and also helps in exams sometimes.ExaminationsExperience of taking examinations in COMMAS was new for me, as compared to undergraduate studies in my home country India. Since there are many research institutes who contributes towards COMMAS, each institute has it’s own style of conducting exams. However, there is a common trend among most of the institutes. During the semester, each course participant has to submit 3 (or 4) home assignments, depending upon the institute (there aren’t any fix rules for that, every institute has it’s own style). A student is allowed to sit in the final exam only if he/she has at least 2 (or 3) approved home assignments. Home assignments are build upon the content which is being covered in lectures. They involve some amount of programming, derivations, interpretation and analysis of sample problems which tests fundamental concepts of the topic. Since the difficulty level is different for everyone, I found most of the home assignments doable without significant brain damage! In fact, you could always sit down and discuss home assignment problems with your class mates. It often helps to get a third eye view to the problem, sometimes we get to know alternative ways to approach the issue. But avoid just copying them from your friend and submitting. In that case you might be able to make it till exam room, but won’t be able to go further than that.Some institutes go through the conventional way of closed book exams, where you are not allowed to take any material to the exam room. In most of the closed book exams, you are allowed to carry 1–2 pages (A-4 sheets) of cheat sheets, where you can write as many useful formulae, equations, anything you think could be useful for the exam. The idea is, Professors here don’t want to burden you with remembering those long equations, tables and graphs, they are more interested to check your concepts. Thus, you don’t need to spend hours cramming stuff, rather you should practice concepts and execute them in exams using your cheat sheets, if you are allowed to take along.Since Professors themselves are busy in their research, taking classes or other academic work, they won’t set your question paper. Mostly, the question papers are designed by one or the other PhD students in the institute, who might also be taking classroom exercises for the lecture or is responsible for correcting your home assignments. In contrast to what we experienced back home, the questions in exam won’t be copied in any way from previous year’s questions, rather it would be the matter of PhD student’s creativity and innovation in coming up with new questions. They will check whether you understood the material covered in class through lot of conceptual True-False questions, application of concepts onto practical problems, derivations and calculations. Unlike many other universities, there isn’t any official collection of previous year’s COMMAS papers maintained by any institute.Schedule for first semester exams is mostly decided by the COMMAS administration, because in first semester there are only compulsory modules which are same for the entire class. From second semester on wards, elective courses comes in, and their exam schedules are decided based upon mutual agreement between students and the institute giving any particular elective course. This is normally done to avoid any clashes in exams between multiple elective courses conducted by different institutes.Normally, students get sufficient time in between exams to prepare. If you follow your exercises and home assignments sincerely, you won’t need too much time at the end for the preparations. You could use the time to revise important concepts, solve some practice problems and prepare your cheat sheets. On an average, there might be anywhere between 2 to 4 days in between two exams, which I found optimum to keep up the exam mood, too long gap could also work as a disadvantage.InfrastructureAlmost all the institutes associated with COMMAS have their own libraries with significant number of books useful for your studies and research. Each institute has some kind of computer lab or work stations which are loaded with basic computational tools which you might need for your research like MATLAB, LS-DYNA, ANSYS, ABAQUS, MAPLE etc. Once you start doing your Student Job or Research Thesis at any of these institutes, you could get access to their infrastructure on a regular basis. To get the clearances to labs, libraries you have to get approval from institute secretary. Apart from computational facilities from each institute, there is a separate Computer Lab dedicated only for COMMAS students. The lab is usually open during the classroom lectures or exercises when there is some amount of simulation or programming required. However, you could discuss with COMMAS administration about the weekly free opening hours, irrespective of the lectures.Student JobsWorking while you study is a practical way to earn some quick money, which gives you financial freedom as well as an opportunity to integrate into German working culture. There are multiple student job options while you are in COMMAS and getting a decent student job is no tough nut to crack. Depending upon your interest, you could go for aStudent Technical Assistant Job in University or Industry (HiWi)Administrative Job in UniversityOther Miscellaneous Jobs - Working in Restaurants, Pubs, Hotels, etc.If you are interested in technical topics related to COMMAS, you have some programming skills or bring experience in any commercial FEM code, you can find a good Student Technical Assistant Job at any one of the many Research Institutes which are giving lectures for COMMAS. Most of these Institutes have PhD and Post Doctoral candidates, who often hire students to assist in their Research. In my opinion, it’s the best way to get to know a particular topic in detail, which in many cases also give ideas for prospective master’s and eventually a PhD thesis, if your are interested to take an academic career after finishing COMMAS. In addition to that, it’s a good way to build your connections in University, which might be helpful later when you look for a Job or a PhD position.As there are many students in University who are looking for a job, some institutes invite job applications and make a decision based upon your credentials. Although your technical skills and prior relevant experience plays an important role, some institutes lay huge emphasis on your COMMAS first semester grades. In fact, some reputed Institutes would refuse to offer you any Job in first semester. Thus, if you have very good grades in your first semester in certain subjects, institutes associated to those subjects will themselves give you a job offer, or at least send an invitation for an interview. So, it is very important to focus on your studies in first semester in COMMAS. Your hard-work in getting good grades will go a long way.Coming to the financial aspects - while working in any of the university institutes, whether technical or administrative job, you can expect to earn anywhere around 10 Euros per Hour. The money you get is of course more, if you work as a student assistant in an Industry, which could be somewhere around 15 Euros per Hour. Getting a student assistant Job in an Industry is hugely dependent upon your German language skills. Because there are a number of Automotive industries in and around Stuttgart, you can try your luck in getting a student job there. There is an official restriction on how many number of hours you can work as an international student, which I guess is 180 half days (up to 4 hours in a Day) or 90 full Days (between 4 and 8 hours in a Day). How many hours you will work per month can be decided based upon mutual agreement with your employer and the work contract can be made accordingly. It’s quite normal to have work contract initially for 2–3 months, which could be extended further, if both parties are satisfied.Ideal time to start working on any student job while studying in COMMAS would be from second semester on-wards. Of course you can start from first semester itself, if you can manage the study load of 9 Modules in first semester, and you think that you can still score good marks. Because I have hardly seen-heard-read anyone doing that, in my opinion it would be better to not risk your first semester grades buy running after student jobs. Moreover, after first semester, you would already have an idea, which topics interests you and what kind of student job you would like to do. Thus, focus purely on your studies while you are in first semester, and towards the end of your first semester you can start looking for a suitable student job in University, in Industry, or in both. As long as you don’t exceed the total allowed number of days per year, you can work in as many institutes/industries as you practically can.During my studies, I started working as a student technical assistant at Institute of Structural Mechanics from second semester on wards and worked there for almost an Year on a 20 Hours/Month Working contract. Parallely, I was also working as a student assistant at Daimler AG, also for almost a year on a 40 Hours/Month Working contract. It was an enriching experience to work while I was studying. It gave me immense opportunity to have a steep learning curve and at the same time make connections in industry and academia.Career PerspectivesAfter finishing COMMAS, you are expected to have following skills -Good fundamentals of linear and non-linear finite element technologyYou should be able to write your own material models, finite elements, linear or basic non-linear solversYou understand what algorithms are working behind commercial FE codes like LS-DYNA, ANSYS, ABAQUS etc.You can create your own simulation processes, analyse simulation results and provide technical reasoning behind underlying phenomenon.With all these qualities, you can opt for an academic career through a PhD program either at University or at some Company. Both have their own pros and cons. I would suggest you to do your own research before making any call.From industrial point of view, you could build a career as either a CAE Analyst or work in Software development side. If you are a programming person, then you can try finding a Job at big commercial FE codes manufacturers like LS-DYNA (LSTC), Altair (Radioss), CD-Adapco, ANSYS, ABAQUS, etc. However, if you are more problem oriented person and want to use your theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems, build new processes and help in product development, then working as a CAE analyst at any of OEMs (Daimler, Porsche, BMW, Audi, Opel, Volvo, Hilti, Airbus, Bosch etc.) or Medium scale companies (DYNAmore, CADFEM, Tecosim, etc.) would be suggested.Finally, based upon my experiences of interacting with my batch-mates, seniors, juniors and alumni working in Industry, I would suggest that you should -Do COMMAS WhenYou are passionate about what you do, hard working, eager to learn new conceptsYou have prior knowledge of Solid Mechanics, Engineering MathsYou are interested in ProgrammingYou want to build industrial career in field of Structural SimulationsYou want an academic career in computational mechanics or associated fieldsNOT Do COMMAS WhenNot interested in Programming and don’t want to learn either. You might somehow finish the course without it, but it will be a tough time for you.Not interested to learn German language. Seriously, your chances of getting a Job diminishes exponentially, if you don’t know the language and are not interested to learn it either. Make use of those 2 years to speak decent amount of German. It will make Job search later easier.Have no idea what course is about, and just want to do a Master course in Europe because hey, my friend from bachelor’s degree is also going there, we’ll both have fun together!You are homesick, because it might be quite an emotional roller coaster ride for some students, considering that one has to live far away from family and at the same time manage the work load of studies, jobs, etc.Few Useful TipsWhat I stated above is purely my own personal opinion, and need not be always true like an identity. There might be exceptions, and should not be misunderstood with the general trend. As stated before, you might get a completely negative response from someone who had tough time sailing through COMMAS. At the end, you have to make your view and proceed further. Good Luck!