Capacity Factor

Capacity Factor(Full Lecture)

Good day and welcome to BigBadTech. I'm your instructor Jim Pytel and today's topic of discussion is, Capacity Factor. Our objective is to introduce a common performance measurement known as, Capacity Factor. We'll learn how to calculate capacity factor and discuss how capacity factor influences energy production. This lecture operates under the presumption the viewers have watched both the energy and power and efficiency lectures, both available at the BigBadTech channel.

If you haven't watched these lectures yet or didn't recall their contents, please take the time to do so now. Let's start this lecture on capacity factor with a brief discussion about how awesome I'm. When I say that I'm awesome, I mean I'm totally awesome. I do awesome things all the time and I do them smoothly, confidently with style i.e.

Awesomely. My dirty little secret though is, there have been periods in my past that have not gone so awesomely. Not only have I crushed and burned, I have crushed and burned upside down, backwards and sideways, both personally and professionally in manners unimaginably embarrassing. The point is, not everybody can be awesome all the time, even me. If you were to measure performances as a single snapshot on one particular day, you might get an artificial inflated or deflated sense of how things are truly going.

I'd like to think my history of awesomeness, outweighs my brief but intense periods of non-awesomeness though. When taken together, places me squarely on the awesome half of the dividing line. This holistic measurement of performance taken over time is known as Capacity Factor. Capacity factor measurements aren't single instantaneous snapshots but rather, they are indicated with performance over time. Capacity factor is a measure of how often power generation facilities like wind turbines, hydroelectric dams and coal fired power plants run at full capacity.

To calculate capacity factor, one determines the time the facility actually does run at full capacity and divide it by the time the facility could have been running at full capacity.

Theoretically, all facilities could operate 60 seconds of every minute, 60 minutes of every hour, 24 hours of everyday and 365 days of every i.e. All the time. Obviously, this is way to much to ask of the real world where things can and do go wrong and capacity factor is the measure of how close the generation facility reaches this ideal standard.

Capacity factor is typically expressed using a percentage although in practice I tend to ditch the percentage and think in terms of a ratio of Did over Could. If the answer needs to be expressed in percent format, you're smart enough to shift the decimal point as needed.

Point 8, 5 is 85%, 35% is point 3, 5 and so on. Express graphically, we can visualize this as a triangular relationship of capacity factor Did and Could with Did at the apex and capacity factor and Could side by side at the base. To solve for capacity factor, take the time the facility did run at full capacity and divide it by the time the facility could have been running at full capacity.

Solve for the time the facility did run at full capacity. Take capacity factor and multiply it by the time the facility could have been running at full capacity.

If the facility really does run at full capacity for 24 hours a day, it runs at full capacity or 100%. If however the facility typically runs at full capacity for only one hour a day, the capacity factor is one over 24. Which expressed as a percentage, is roughly 4.2%. Capacity factor is a critical performance measurement for generation facilities because capacity factor affects the amount of time the facility is available to generate power. If energy is power times time, capacity factor affects the time variable in this equation. A generation facility operating more often, will generate more energy than one that runs only occasionally. Let's try a couple of illustrated examples of simple capacity factor calculations.

Consider an industrial wind turbine. So you're no doubt aware, some days it's windy and some days it isn't. Let's say this is a two megawatt wind turbine that typically operates at full capacity for only six hours a day. The capacity factor of this wind turbine is Did over Could or six over 24 or 25%. If energy is power times time, on a typical day this turbine would be expected to produce two megawatts times six hours or 12 megawatt hours or 12,000 kilowatt hours of energy.

Considering however if this same turbine was installed in a slightly windier area with an increased capacity factor of 35%. An algebraic rearrangement of the capacity factor formula suggests this turbine is typically at full production for 35% of 24 hours or 8.4 hours. Again, if energy is power times time, this turbine with a higher capacity factor, typically produces two megawatts times 8.4 hours or 16.8 megawatt hours or 16,800 kilowatt hours of energy.

Compare and contrast the energy output of the two similarly related turbines operating and reads with different capacity factors. The higher capacity turbine can be expected to produce 4,800 more kilowatt hours everyday a little than the last windy area. If the owners were selling the output of this turbine at wholesale price of let's say four cents per kilowatt hour, the turbine with the increased capacity factor would generate 4,800 times four cents or 192 dollars more each day than the one with the smaller capacity factor. If this pattern repeats itself for 365 days or a whole year, this turbine with a higher capacity factor, would have generated 365 times 192 or 70,080 additional dollars.

This is the example that's intended to illustrate capacity factor has a profound impact on the economics of energy production. It is for this reason that the wind resources of a proposed wind farm must be thoroughly investigated before development. Windier regions result to wind farms with higher capacity factor and more profitable results. Let's try a slightly more sophisticated example of capacity factor calculation. So you're no doubt aware, wind speeds can vary from gentle breezes to full-force scales.

The nominal or nameplate power of our a wind turbine is experienced only at a particular related speed typically around 12 meters per second. In the previous example, we assume the two megawatt wind turbine in a higher capacity factor area, experience exactly 12 meters per second for exactly 8.4 hours. In reality, it might be startlingly different. Wind turbines operate using something called a power curve typically defined by three points.

The cut-in speed, the rated speed and the cut-out speed.

The cut-in speed typically at four meters per second, is when the turbine actually starts producing power. Between the cut-in speed and the rated speed, power output increases. At the rated speed typically around 12 meters per second, the turbine generates it's nominal or nameplate value, in this example, two megawatts. Between the rated speed and the cut-out speed, power flat lines at the nominal value and finally at the cut-out speed typically around 25 meters per second, the turbine shuts down and prevents damage.

Let's say 10 meters per second, this turbine is up and it's only 1.2 megawatts.

Let's now take a look at wind's speed as a function of time for a particular day. To keep this problem manageable, let's say this turbine typically experiences wind speeds of 10 meters per second for two hours. Then six hours of 12 meters per second at greater land and then the wind throttles back to 10 meters per second for another two hours.

If we're asked to calculate the capacity factor of this particular turbine, we quickly run into a complication because although the turbine is operating for 10 hours of everyday, so it's has been running at full capacity for six of these 10 hours.

How can we calculate capacity factor or for a resource with variable output?

Simple, think not in terms of time but rather energy. How much energy could this turbine have produced verses how much it did actually produce.

Theoretically, two megawatt turbine running at full capacity for 24 hours a day will produce two megawatts times 24 hours or 48 megawatt hours of energy.

In actuality, this turbine produces less. For the first two hour period of 10 meters per second wind, the turbine produces 1.2 megawatts times two hours or 2.4 megawatt hours of energy. For the middle six hour period of 12 meters per second of greater wind, the turbine produces two megawatts times six hours or 12 megawatt hours of energy.

Finally for the last two hour period of 10 meters per second wind, the turbine produces 1.2 megawatts times two hours or 2.4 megawatt hours of energy. In summation, the turbine produces 2.4 megawatt hours plus 12 megawatt hours plus 2.

 

4 megawatt hours or 16.8 megawatt hours on energy in total. What's the capacity factor of this turbine if it could produce 48 megawatt hours of energy a day but in reality it only produces 16.8 megawatt hours of energy? 16.8 megawatt hours over 48 megawatt hours is the capacity factor of 35% as previously.

This is to imply that although the turbine experiences periods of variable output for a variable length of time, in this case two hours at 1.2 megawatts, six hours at two megawatts followed by another two hours at 1.2 megawatts ultimately appears as if it was operating at full capacity for 35% of 24 hours or 8.4 hours at two megawatts.

Either scenario, the real variable output or the simplified version results in the production of 16.8 megawatt hours of energy which is 35% of what the turbine could theoretically produce. What's nice about capacity factor is that, it's a super convenient way of estimating energy output for a particular facility without getting bogged down in excessive details like the availability and variability of a generation resource, maintenance schedules, unplanned outages or regulatory curtailment. Consider a massive hydroelectric dam consisting of 16, 50 megawatt turbine operating in a 50% capacity factor. This most assuredly does not mean that for 12 hours of everyday, the river is quite as a pod and the next 12 hours turn into a raging maelstrom of white water and so all the 16 turbines open up to full capacity.

It doesn't even mean that eight of the 16 available turbines run at full capacity all day. It does however imply that the dam over the course of its history typically produces enough energy as if it was running at half capacity all the time.

In reality, we might expect the dam output to fluctuate daily and seasonally throughout the year. For example, water might be intentionally spilled to aid in fish passage, navigation or flood control. Certain turbines might be periodically inoperable as they undergo maintenance repair or upgrade and certain turbines may run at reduced capacity for longer periods.

Ultimately, capacity factor takes into account all this occasions which the dam does not run at full capacity such that it automatically produces half the energy it theoretically could produce. Given this capacity factor and name-plate power rating, it's a very simple matter of determining the typical daily energy output of this dam. If all 16, 50 megawatt turbines were operating at full capacity, this dam would produce 16 times 50 or 800 megawatts of power.

If it did this for 24 hours a day, it would produce 800 megawatts times 24 hours or 19,200 megawatt hours of energy or more appropriately, 19.2 gigawatt hours of energy each day.

It doesn't. The capacity factor figure of 50% tells us the dam typically only produces half of that per day. Half of 19.2 is 9.6 gigawatt hours of energy.

All of this without having to worry about reservoir levels, seasonal fluctuations of flow rate, maintenance schedules or bagged traffic.

Capacity factor is a quick means of estimating how much energy a facility can regularly produce. Again, energy is power times time. Massive power plants with large capacity factors produce massive amounts of energy. A nuclear power plant might fit this description.

Smaller power plants with low capacity factors produce small amounts of energy. The small residential photovoltaic array, might fit this description. Speaking of photovoltaic arrays, consider a small three kilowatt residential scale PV system installed in a house in a relatively sunny area of the country known to produce 5,037 kilowatt hours of energy annually.

What's the capacity factor of this PV array? Obviously a solar resource will have a capacity factor of less than 50%.

This is sun only shines for roughly half the day and during those times it is above the horizon, it will shine with varying intensity and experience varying cloud cover. Theoretically, this plant could operate 24 hours a day. Three kilowatts times 24 hours yields 72 kilowatt hours of energy each day. If it did this for 365 days or a whole year, it could theoretically produce 26,280 kilowatt hours of energy each year. Capacity factor is Did over Could.

5,037 kilowatt hours for 26,280 kilowatt hours, it's a capacity factor of roughly 19.2%. This implies that the solar array produces enough energy as if it did run at full capacity for 19.2% of a day, or roughly 4.6 hours.

This most assuredly does not mean that the sun immediately rises and shines at full intensity for roughly 4.6 hours and then immediately sets but rather the sun shines with varying intensity for varying periods with varying cloud cover such that it ultimately produces an equivalent amount of energy as if it did shine at full intensity for only 4.6 hours a day.

For solar resource measurement, this span of time is what is commonly referred to as peak-sun hours but if you think about it, it's just another method of expressing capacity factor. 4.6 hours is 19.2% of 24 hours expressed using the time format, peak-sun hours just makes it easy to quickly estimate the average output of the solar array of a given size.

Those of you with a calculus background will realize the energy output of the array, each day is the area under the power curve. Three kilowatts times 4.6 hours yields the daily block of energy with an area 13.8 kilowatt hours. If you squint your eyes just right, both scenarios, the real varying output in brown and the mathematical equivalent in light orange, yield the same energy output I.e. Area under the power curve. I'll be at calculations employing the peak-sun hours simplification is much much easier.

All things being equal, this three kilowatt array ultimately produces 13.8 kilowatt hours of energy each day or 5,037 kilowatt hours per year whether the sun shines with varying intensity for varying periods of time or if immediately pops over the horizon and shines at it's full intensity for 4.6 hours and pops below the hills, plain in to the world into total darkness.

We'll examine PV systems in peak-sun hours in greater detail in later lectures. For now, you should simply appreciate that peak-sun hours and capacity factor both influence the amount of time a facility is able to generate.

There is simply different methods of expressing the same quantity. Before we bring this lecture to a close, let me remind you as I hope this examples I've illustrated, facilities with high capacity factors generate a lot of energy and as a result, they are more economically successful. If you're in the energy business, even a small increase in capacity factor reaps tremendous financial rewards. It is for this reason the intelligence scheduling of routine maintenance and timely repair of critical systems during periods of high resources availability are so important.

Alright, that's about it for today.

In conclusion, this lecture present a capacity factor calculations. Well, capacity factor is a performance measurement of how much energy was generated verses how much could have been generated. Remember to review these concepts as often as you need to really drive it home. Imagine how well lab will go if you know what you're doing. Thank you very much for your attention and interest.

Let's see you again during the next lecture of our series. Remember to tell your lazy lab partner about this resource and be sure to check out the BigBadTech channel for additional resources and updates.

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How Traffic Works in Cities Skylines AI and Games

How Traffic Works in Cities Skylines  AI and Games

Quite often artificial intelligence is in control of so many elements of our favorite video games but we seldom take notice and take it for granted an ai tool or system can be running in plain sight providing a critical element.

Of the game that players are largely unaware of until it starts to go wrong i'm tommy thompson and in this episode of ai and games we're going to look at a fantastic example of this found in the popular city building simulator cities skylines let's take a look at the traffic and navigation systems that run in every city how citizens go about their day-to-day routine.

And how developers colossal order sought to address the traffic jams that can quite easily emerge released in 2015 published by paradox interactive cities skylines is an open-ended city building simulator where players are responsible for many aspects of modern urban planning this includes establishing city zoning utilities such as water and electricity establishing zones for residential commercial and industrial growth public services.

Such as schools fire services and law enforcement all the taxation that is required to pay for it all and critically for this episode road placement.

And establishing transportation services within the region colossal order having achieved success with the cities in motion series had sought to expand into a full city building title a sentiment that at that time paradox interactive did not share however 2013 saw a gap emerging the market courtesy of the latest entry in the beloved sim city franchise from electronic arts the game came under intense criticism at release with players posting screenshots and videos.

Of cities not behaving as expected and while the issues raised were numerous there are two critical points we are exploring in this episode first the traffic simulation in simcity was highly problematic traffic would often bottleneck creating massive jams that seemingly never resolved themselves meanwhile should the player attempt to rework junctions to enable better traffic flow or add public transportation this often proved to be more of a hindrance than a help secondly.

The citizens in sim city did not behave as expected while it was anticipated that the sims would live their predetermined lives working jobs and living happily in their homes in reality they lacked any individuality sims would leave the house in the morning find the nearest job available in the city and then after the working day they didn't necessarily go back to the house they had previously left instead they simply go to the nearest vacant property while this is undesirable it seems slightly innocuous until you realize how big an impact this would have on the already troubled traffic systems.

As well as the actual behavior and economy of the cities themselves while simcity sought to address this through numerous patches it never really collapsed at a solution that players were happy with however city skylines when released satisfied many of the features that players sought from its competitor and as we'll see in a moment it not only tracks the passage of every vehicle through your city's road system but your citizens.

Will go about their daily business as one would expect that said it still suffers from traffic congestion and a few other issues now before.

We get into the intricacies of this problem and how it is tackled in city skylines it's important to acknowledge that this isn't just an issue that plagues video games but the real world too traffic management systems in the real world are highly complex and incredibly expensive to research and develop these systems have to manage signaling traffic flow and congestion tracking and responding to accidents and other incidents on the road such as spillages damage to the road or faults emerging in signaling systems and cctv cameras.

That are used to provide oversight there are efforts to employ artificial intelligence to handle the complexities of real-world traffic management but it is far from a solved problem at this time hence it's understandable that as a city building simulation game seeks to become more and more realistic the challenges that developers face will rise accordingly first let's talk about the citizens.

How do they work and what impact are they going to have on the traffic network each citizen and city skylines has information that is used as part of the city simulation this includes their name what level of education they have their residential address their place of employment or education if they have one their overall level of happiness a reference to their current activity including any destinations that they're currently heading towards if they're traveling around the map their health their wealth and lastly it maintains references to familial relationships.

And what other citizens are related to them each of these features impacts the game in different ways levels of education influence what type of jobs they take on the performance of these businesses and the value of residential areas meanwhile happiness is shown to the player and gives a barometer for how well you're performing given there may be services these citizens require such as healthcare or utilities that they feel is lacking or the job opportunities in the region aren't up to scratch but perhaps what's most influential on citizens behavior.

As they move around the map is their age while a citizen does have a numeric age this isn't exposed to players by default but the key part is that they live their lives in five stages children where they start going to nearby schools if there is capacity teens who go to high schools if there is space young adults who either attend university or get a job if they can adults.

Who not only move out of their current home and into a new one if they can but will also settle down and start their own families and lastly seniors where citizens retire and no longer go to work but still use city services and commercial businesses this has a huge impact on the transportation network given kids are going to school adults are either at university or in a job and pensioners are running amok picking up newspapers cans of tenants super and jelly suites some of these citizens.

Will be in their own car while others use public transport and this is a very difficult balancing act given not only will your city grow if you're doing your job right but citizens age at an incredibly fast rate with the average life expectancy being around six in-game years oh man the first aion games video was in 2014 that means i just wasted my entire city skyline's life trying to sound smart on the internet oh what a waste of time so many things i've ever got to do like an episode on shadow of mordor or looking.

At the ai of dark souls or that bloody forza video i threaten on the welcome video why am i only thinking about the videos there's so much more to life than youtube and oh man my wife's gonna kill me  so given we have so many citizens moving around how does the road system work before i can get into the movement of traffic let's look.

At how roads are built given this influences how the search process takes place afterwards under the hood roads are modeled as a collection of nodes two nodes connected to one another is a segment providing both start and end points your average road in city skylines is actually multiple segments glued together given a segment has a maximum size each node in a segment is known as a control point this provides start and end positions for roads.

As well as the intersection with other roads creating junctions each segment of the road stores information about itself including what type of road it is how many lanes it has and what types of lanes these are this all becomes useful when a citizen wants to travel between locations now this information extends to sidewalks too which operate on a slightly different system given they can be elevated or tunneled to go over or under traffic and crosswalks are established when building them alongside roads to enable pedestrians.

To cross all of this information comes into play when a citizen makes the decision to travel to a destination having citizens move around in city skylines is by the developer's own admission the single greatest challenge faced during development resonating with the issues that plagued simcity given it is arguably the one system that any player who spends more than 10 minutes.

In the game will come to interact with hence ensuring a basic level of functionality and avoiding some.

Of the more gnarly edge cases was paramount to that end not only did colossal order rework this system several times over but as we'll see in a moment some elements that players might want to see were actually removed because.

It only made the problem worse when a citizen decides they want to travel.

They use all of the available information about the city's transport infrastructure including the roads sidewalks crossings public transportation routes.

And available vehicles and will find the fastest possible route to their destination hence the node system within the roads and sidewalks is searched through to find a valid path this actually factors in numerous elements based on the citizen involved and the local geography if a citizen owns a car they will attempt to drive it if they don't have a car they'll not only check for a valid path on sidewalks but also factor in whether there is any public transportation that can speed up that process in some cases there are strict rules on how this can operate pacific buildings such as hospitals and fire departments.

Will enforce the use of ambulances and fire trucks respectively rather than a firefighter taking a bus with a bucket of water as your home turns to ash meanwhile pedestrians cannot walk on highways and hence if they don't have public transportation options and sufficient sidewalks to get them to their destinations they'll resign themselves to defeat colossal order have never outright stated what the such algorithm is however given the rich data laced throughout the road network.

I would not be surprised to find a modified version of a-star or dijkstra's that achieves the desired effect the resulting system is actually quite remarkable since a character can make this level of nuanced decision-making at this scale given a pedestrian can easily walk and take multiple forms of transportation in order to get to their destination the destination they want to visit can vary and while they will prioritize going to the primary destination for their life stage such as school college or work they will.

Also go to commercial units such as shops and restaurants as well as clinics and hospitals when a citizen takes a car it utilizes not just the road network topology but the additional constraints of the road types themselves against the vehicle this includes the dedicated cycling or bus lanes as well as the speed limits the number of lanes and the current congestion level provided the system can generate a path through the road network.

Then the vehicle will begin to drive it it can also still use the public transportation system hence it is possible for a citizen to drive to a metro station and then use the train for the remainder of the journey in essence that's how city skylines.

Works but there are several edge cases revolving around traffic the number of citizens in the city and more and we're going to get into that now but before i do there are two really important caveats i want to cover first things first not all citizens are rendered in the city at any point in time there is a hard limit on how many citizens and vehicles can be simulated on the streets of your city at any given moment now you might think this is just a rendering issue and that the game is still simulating all citizens under the hood and you just don't see it no no no no city skylines outright caps.

How many citizens can be traveling within the city at any given time there is a separate system that monitors whether there are available slots for travelling citizens and then allows them to travel once there is space while the movement of citizens is important for maintaining the economy and their own personal health and education you the player are not penalized for a citizen being unable to travel due to the simulation cap the system that oversees this ensures that players are not punished because a citizen is due to compute limitations unable to travel to their desired destination.

The second caveat is that the traffic you see on the streets is a separate simulation from the citizen management when you watch traffic it's a collection of thousands of small physics objects that read information from the road network to simulate how the citizen is moving through it so for the remainder of this episode let's look at two things first how the traffic simulation systems work and secondly.

What happens when traffic jams start to occur in the game world traffic is handled in a separate simulation system that is actively calculating how to follow the chosen path the velocity that the vehicle should be going at and also preventing collisions while traffic looks like this smooth and constantly updating process it's only rendered that way the traffic simulation is actually only updated four times a second and the rendering system takes two of these simulation updates to derive the movement of the objects currently on screen when traffic is simulated a vehicle knows the path that it's been told to go on and they know where on a given road they can drive hence they won't drive the wrong way down a runway paths through the roads are calculated on a spline using the nodes of each road segment this allows for tight corners and intersections to be handled as gracefully as possible these simulation.

Steps allow for vehicles to calculate whether collisions are going to occur at intersections or from traffic slowing down vehicles do recognize traffic lights and will slow down and stop if the lights dictate they can't travel into the intersection meanwhile to minimize crashes vehicles check ahead of themselves during the simulation for whether a collision between two vehicles is imminent this annotates a segment of the road as liable to cause a crash at which point.

The distance to the segment is used to decide which vehicle should go first and they move through it on a first come first serve basis each adapting speed accordingly but of course despite all of this effort there are still.

Issues with traffic jams in part this is to be expected if the player does not build the network sufficiently but there are other issues that impact the system so let's wrap up by talking about what the simulation does and does not do in order to keep it manageable first of all unless something happens that causes a given path to no longer be valid or has been extensively modified a citizen or vehicle will not change their pre-calculated routes.

You may think there would be some opportunistic behavior going on here where a character may re-evaluate their options on the fly but nope only in the event something happens that negates the original path plus you'll note that while in some larger segments of road with multiple lanes that could spread the traffic out you'll notice they don't change lane again after moving into the one they originally decided upon even if that would make sense to do so having vehicles change lanes midway through a segment of road was actually something that colossal order experimented.

With only to later remove because during internal testing it actually made everything worse when traffic builds up you may see cars sitting idle at junctions and not moving forward despite having room to do so and that's.

Often because their simulation has determined further issues up ahead and as a result they opt to simply stand idle rather than continue forward on their pre-chosen path last but not least city skylines has a fallback option for when traffic jams are overwhelming if a vehicle has found itself in gridlock and unable to move it will actually teleport back to its origin and the previously mentioned worker system may well stop that citizen from trying to travel again and avoid punishing.

The player any further this was a decision made by colossal order in order to make the transportation challenge more manageable given even some relatively small cities can begin to be impacted by this issue this decision has actually proven to be contentious among some players who prefer the challenge it presents and use mods to actively remove the teleport feature building a city simulation game.

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The World's Most Impressive Megaprojects

The World's Most Impressive Megaprojects

With the global population continuing to expand and with our world facing immense challenges from housing to transportation and our use of natural resources supersized construction projects have begun to proliferate.

With eye-watering budgets extreme complexity staggering scale and far-reaching impacts these are some of the world's most impressive mega projects  as the demand for air travel continues to grow and with the united states preparing to host both the 2026 fifa world cup and the 2028 olympic games airports across the country from laguardia to lax are undergoing multi-billion dollar overhauls the 8.5 billion us dollar upgrade to chicago's o'hare international.

Will mark the first comprehensive redevelopment and expansion of the terminal core in the airport's history the master plan will see terminal 5 expanded while terminal 2 will be completely rebuilt becoming a global transfer hub with two satellite concourses adding 280 000 square meters of space and 50 additional gates to the airport to minimize disruption the new concourses will be built first allowing them to take over operations from terminal 2 when the existing building.

Is demolished work on terminal 5 is scheduled to complete by 2022 and subsequent phases will open in stages up to 2028 a joint project between 35 nations the iter formerly known as the international thermonuclear experimental reactor is currently under construction in france once completed the 20 billion us dollar center will allow scientists to recreate the fusion reactions that take place inside the sun potentially revolutionizing energy production consisting of three main buildings.

The product is centered around the tokamak a magnetic chamber that will contain the plasma created when particles are heated over 150 million degrees celsius and collided to produce fusion energy construction of the vast building that houses the reactor began in 2013 requiring the development of 10 different types of concrete to shield workers from radiation with more than 60 percent of the reactor complex already complete work is now underway on the tokamak inside its 337 000 tonne housing chamber.

The entire complex is due to come online in 2025  ethiopia's grand renaissance dam sits alongside nigeria's echo atlantic and egypt's 58 billion new capital as one of africa's most impressive mega projects with work first starting back in 2011 the dam will become the continent's largest hydroelectric plant generating some 6.45 gigawatts of power when it completes in 2022 standing 155 meters tall.

And extending almost 1 800 meters across the blue nile the main structure is being formed with over 10 million tons of concrete holding back 74 cubic kilometers of water when the reservoir is full while the dam will transform ethiopia's energy production the project has been marred in controversy since inception 20 000 people were relocated to enable the construction works and many have raised concerns over the project's 4.8 billion us dollar price tag which represents roughly six percent of ethiopia's entire gdp and saw funding diverted away from other much-needed energy projects.

The dam has also reignited an ongoing dispute between ethiopia and the downstream nations of sudan and egypt who see the project as an attempt by the ethiopian government to gain regional influence since its first bullet train shot onto the world stage in 1964 japan has pioneered the development.

Of high-speed rail  while competition from europe and china has seen the title of world's fastest trains move west in recent years the new chao shinkansen with its maglev carriages able to reach speeds of 500 kilometers per hour will see japan reclaim the title despite tokyo.

And nagoa sitting 284 kilometers apart the new line will bring the two cities within 40 minutes of each other set to become one of the shortest routes on the shinkansen network 90 of the trackway will run underground and beneath the japanese alps reducing the travel distance by over 50 kilometers and saving 4.9 billion us dollars over alternative options the new line set to open in 2027 plans are already underway for an extension to link nagowa with the saka a 30.

 

5 billion us dollar meca project in itself rising 271 metres above sydney's emerging barangaroo district the 75-storey one barangaroo also known as crown sydney will become the city's tallest building  designed by wilkinson air the tower's structural form is based around three twisting petals.

And will contain a casino australia's first six star hotel and 82 luxury apartments overlooking the famous harbour with its form ensuring that no two rooms are the same the tower is clad in over seven thousand unique triangle shaped panels giving it a crystalline appearance as it rises the complex will offer extreme luxury.

With a spa gym open-air tennis court two rooftop infinity pools and a michelin star restaurant topping out in november 2019 and due to open in 2021 one barangaroo is already making its mark on the city's skyline if you enjoyed this video.

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How To Become A Copywriter With NO Experience

How To Become A Copywriter With NO Experience

Ah, yes. Probably the biggest freelancing catch-22 of them all. How do you build a portfolio if you don’t have clients...

And how do you get clients if you don’t have a portfolio? Trust me, there is a way. 5 in fact! So keep watching to learn my 5 tips for building a portfolio with ZERO experience. Hey guys, what’s up!

It’s Alex. And this week, I’m addressing one of the most frequently asked questions I get. Alex, how do I build my copywriting portfolio if I don’t have any experience? Well, I’m here to assure you there is a way, you are NOT stuck, and I have real life stories to prove it! And if you want more strategies and starter kits from the world of copywriting and marketing, you know what to do — hit that subscribe button below to join the copy posse here on YouTube!

Every single week I share a new copywriting or marketing tutorial based on my own 8+ year journey of diving into this lucrative, creative, and innovative industry... And building a successful copywriting business of my own.

So let’s get into this week’s how-to — here are my five tips for building a copywriting portfolio even if you’ve never been paid to do any copywriting!

Tip #1.

Do An Experience & Skills Round-Up A lot of the time, people tend to underestimate the experience they already have in the books, and don’t realize that copywriting is not just writing! In fact, I would say that 50% of the actual work happens BEFORE copy ever gets written. It’s the researching, the ideating, the conceptualizing, and the strategizing that happens long before you put a pen to paper, or fingers to keys. And even if you’re young and have little job experience, you weren’t born yesterday!

I mean if you were, you’d basically be like a baby genius cuz you’d be watching this and understanding what I’m saying….

Anyway, so if you’ve ever written a report or contributed to an online newspaper or publication. Or, if you used to write memos or briefs or presentation decks in your previous job. Or, if you used to work in a related role such as a social media or project management where writing was required. These are all related skills that you can add to your portfolio!

In fact, I recently hired someone to join my copy posse team whose background was in research. She had zero copywriting experience but she had a passion to learn and her previous work showcased her ability to research, framework ideas and effectively communicate, which became one of the main reasons I said yes and hired her! So yes, carry as much forward from your previous work experience or education as you can. Even if they’re not specifically related to copywriting! Okay

Tip #2.

Join A Practical Copywriting Program Great copywriting courses don’t just teach you the right techniques and show you the best templates — they actually help you WRITE copy so that you can walk away with key assets and samples that you can then add to your portfolio… Even if it’s not something you were paid to do.

Of course, you’ll want to always be clear in your portfolio that those writing assets were from a program (and not from a paid client) but trust me… The main thing your potential clients care about is your ability to hook, connect, engage, and compel them with your copy. At the end of the day, they need you to be the voice and the messenger for their brand. So if you come forward with an amazing portfolio full of copywriting pieces that showcase your ability, it really doesn’t matter where they come from. You’re in like sin.

And, if you’re ready to commit to igniting your copywriting business this year and get some serious practical training under your belt so you can confidently put yourself out there… I’m here to help. My Copy Posse Launch Pad program is designed to give you all the high-converting copywriting skills you need to scale your business and build your portfolio from scratch! So you can click the link in the description to learn more about that.

Alright moving right along to.

tip #3.

Rewrite or Critique Existing Copy Guys there is absolutely no harm in reaching out to companies that are hiring (or are potentially hiring) to offer some free copy editing or critiquing as a way to get their attention and lead with value.

 

In my recent webinar with copywriter Zach Browman, he too advised that new copywriters send quick reviews to potential clients so that they can get a preview of your work and expertise. It can just be a quick email with say 3 tips on how they can improve their homepage copy, and then of course offer to help them re-write it! The worse they could say is no thanks. But, if they accept your offer and decide to hire you, then that’s great — that’s experience you can add to your portfolio! Many companies looking to hire copywriters will ask you to complete copywriting tests or samples as part of the recruitment process anyway.

So why not beat them to it and get it done in advance? One of the copywriters on my team now got hired by one of the top personal growth companies in the world by sending her version of one of their best performing sales pages, without being asked. It was a daring initiative on her part because she was new to copywriting and it did take some time, but the point is… She got their attention, and they hired her on the spot! The rule of thumb here guys though is to remain honest about your work.

If you’re adding in a copy piece to your portfolio that you decided to rewrite, do NOT take full credit.

Be clear that it was for a “rewrite” of an existing piece. Alright onto,

tip #4.

Start A Blog Even if you’re not looking to be a content writer, a public blog is a great way to showcase your writing abilities. Blog writing, no matter the format, the style or the topic you want to write about, still showcases an understanding of some of the key fundamentals of copywriting such as hooks and headlines. So it can still be used as a reliable writing reference!

In fact, when hiring a social media manager a few weeks ago, I interviewed a few different applicants, some with social media experience and some without. The girl I ended up hiring actually had ZERO social media experience, but she caught my attention because she included a link to her personal blog in her application. Although the blog content had nothing to do with the role she applied for, I was able to gauge her writing style, her tone, and her delivery, which was a huge plus because writing social media captions and supporting the content team would be a huge part of her role.

I knew her flair for words and her passion for writing was far more important than having a specific experience that I could easily train for. Okay lastly,

tip #5...

Customize Your Portfolio Once you have your writing materials all packaged up and ready to send out to the world — here’s a very important tip that I give even to the most experienced copywriters: personalize your portfolio to the client you’re sending it to. Don’t just blanket blast it out to everyone. Getting clients is NOT a one-size-fits-all approach.

You must curate the content so that it’s relevant to the industry and the company you’re hoping to get in the door with. So include a personal note and a cover letter that shares why you’re excited about their brand and what’s unique about you and what you offer. Share why you chose the pieces that you featured in your portfolio, and include some highlights or lessons that you learned from the experience. And last but not least guys, keep it clean and simple.

Send your portfolio in a format that’s easy for them to access, open and download.

And whatever you do do not send an email with a tonne of attachments. I usually use Dropbox or Google Drive to share my portfolio, and always make sure you give access first so they don’t have to request it! And, no matter what as I said before, BE HONEST ABOUT WHERE YOU’RE AT. Don’t embellish your ability or your experience. A lot of clients are looking for green writers.

Because fresh writers have the potential to grow with the company and shape their writing to fit the brand voice. So just keep it real homies. I hope this video gave you some assurance that you have and can provide value even if you don’t have official copywriting experience just yet. If you want to find out more about the 101s of copywriting — check out my video on How To Become A Freelance Copywriter & Get Your First Client. You can watch that right here.

And as always guys, thank you so much for watching and subscribing.

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What is Copywriting? The ABCs of Copywriting for Beginners

What is Copywriting? The ABCs of Copywriting for Beginners

So you wanna know about this crazy little thing called copywriting? Cool. Keep watching to learn why it’s the single most important part of any business… And no, it has nothing to do with this *© Hey guys! Alex here. If you’ve been with me for awhile, then you know that every single week I release a new tutorial where I share the trends, the techniques and the templates you need to grow your copywriting biz.

And if you’re new here, heeeeey! Go ahead and hit the subscribe button below so you don’t miss any more videos from me! This week, I’m taking it back to our wordsmithing roots to lay out the essentials of copywriting.

Now, If you’re already a copywriter, chances are you’ve been asked over and over again to explain what it is you do. Trust me, ten years in, and I still have to do it.

Copywriting is different from copyrighting, dad! No, we don’t deal with copyright law, we are, in fact, writers!! Were you confused by the difference too? If you were it’s cool, you are not alone.

Comment below and let me know! Now, what makes copywriting different from any other form of writing? Well, in a nutshell, copywriting is the art of crafting words for the sole purpose of conversion… Good copy convinces people to take action. So, anytime you want to compel a prospective customer to click a link, or call a number, or signup with an email address or yes, BUY something, it relies on copy… Basically, it’s the messaging that fuels your entire business.

It’s the foundation of your brand and the secret sauce to your sales.

As I like to say, the right phrase pays! Copywriting is used in various marketing materials — like sales pages, websites, emails, promotional videos, direct mail flyers, catalogs and advertising campaigns. But think less Mad Men, and more SJP in Sex and The City. The goal for copywriting may be to increase conversion rates… But the best kind of copy out there uses storytelling, creates emotional resonance, and builds brand value, while guiding the prospect through a valuable buying experience. Oh — and this is particularly important, guys.

Copywriting is very different than content writing.

Content writing is indeed important in business, but it focuses more on engagement and brand awareness through content mediums such as blog posts, YouTube videos like this, social media and about pages. Copywriting is one-directional and is written strategically for a singular call to action, whereas content is more organic and educational. So, in this video, I’m sharing the A-B-Cs of copywriting to help you understand the key elements that make up the structure of any good copy... Okay, so let’s start with the letter A. Read all about it! If there’s one thing copywriting needs to do, it’s to grab attention. Good copy should hook the reader’s interest and establish a connection long enough to guide them through to the next step of the buying experience.

This is usually established with a strong, compelling headline, subject line, or opening line... Depending on the medium, whether it be a sales page, email, ad, or video script. You can do this through opening a loop that makes a prospect want to find out more, adding scarcity to create a sense of urgency, or provoking an emotion that builds up the desire for a particular benefit you offer... And if you don’t get their attention quickly, your prospect is gone. If you want to learn my secrets on how to write HOT Headlines you can watch that video next! I’ll be sure to link to it at the end of this video.

Ok, so once you’ve hooked them in, you can move on to the letter B. Here’s the thing — the number one question on your reader’s mind will always be —“What is in it for me?” The truth about good copywriting (and really selling in general) is that most of the time… And listen very carefully….

Your product. Doesn’t.

Matter. What? Yup, I said it. And here’s what I mean by that. People don’t buy the WHAT.

 

.. They buy the WHY. They’re way more interested in the value and the outcome of your solution, rather than the specific product. And with audiences getting more savvy and the market more saturated, now more than ever you need to make sure you’re focusing on the BIG PROMISE you offer upfront.

Prospects need to be convinced not just of your product, but also of YOU and your unique selling proposition. So to do this, you need to get crystal clear on what you do better than anybody else. This is where communicating your singular benefit (and that’s a second B by the way!) comes in. Many companies make the mistake of simply describing the product they offer... And not the results that one can receive when using it. There’s a big difference between your product features and benefits. A feature is something that your product has or is.

It’s planned, built, and executed in order to directly solve a problem.

In copywriting, features are factual statements about your product or service. But NOT what entice customers to actually buy. Benefits, on the other hand, are WHY someone is purchasing your product.They describe the outcome that the user will (hopefully) experience by using your product or service.

Or in other words, the BIG Promise. So for example — if you’re writing for a workout app that gives people access to various studios around the world, a feature would be “Get access to over 100 studios”. But your benefit could be “Don’t commit to just one gym. Get a variety of workouts in every single week, anywhere, anytime!” See the difference?

Give me a thumbs up below if you do! And if you want to go through my Feature to Benefit Converter and other killer copywriting exercises, you can watch that video next. Again, I’ll be sure to link to that at the end of this video. Alright now that brings us to the letter C.

No matter how persuasive you are with your copywriting, none of it matters unless you have a strong call to action.

And the rule of thumb is this— You should only be asking your prospect to do one thing. You should have one clear and concise call to action and it mustn't leave any room for confusion on what to do next - and that’s usually to either visit, call, click, signup or buy. And don’t be afraid to be redundant or repetitive. Studies have shown that people forget information at an alarming speed unless there is repetition. So if you’re working with a longer sales page, email, script, or ad… be sure to repeat your call to action at least once or twice!

Think of it this way… If you’re asking for something that might cost a person their attention, time or money, Do not make them struggle to understand what to do next, or what to expect.

Confusion is the BIGGEST conversion killer and not having a clear and concise call to action is one of the biggest mistakes a copywriter can make. If you want to learn the other 5 deadly mistakes commonly made by even the most experienced copywriters, be sure to check out that video next. And yes, I will link to it in just a hot second. Alright posse, there you have it — the ABCs to copywriting!

Attention, Big Promise, and Call To Action. Please give me a thumbs up below if you found this video helpful! And copywriters, feel free to share this video with anyone who has no freaking idea what you do! And make sure to tell me about it in the comments below. Ok, and now that you know what copywriting is, it’s time to go a little bit deeper.

Next up, be sure to catch my videos on How To Write Hot Headlines, 5 Exercises To Write Better Sales Copy and the 5 Biggest Copywriting Mistakes that can kill your conversions. You can watch those here, here and here! And don’t forget to subscribe and check back every single week for more copywriting and marketing wisdom for writing messages that make an impact.

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Complete Copywriting Tutorial - Examples, Tips and Formulas

Complete Copywriting Tutorial - Examples, Tips and Formulas

- In this video, I'm gonna show you my complete copywriting tutorial. In fact, I've used the tips from this video to create blog posts that have been shared thousands of time. I've also written several high converting, seven-figure sales letters. I'm Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko. So if you want more traffic, leads, sales, and social shares, you'll love the actionable strategies in this video.

Let's get started. Here's the truth about copywriting. Despite what you might have heard, you don't need years of experience or training to learn copywriting. In fact, before I launched Backlinko, I used to be a freelance writer. Then one day, out of the blue, one of my clients asked me, "Do you, by any chance write sales letters?

" Now, at this point, I'd never written a sales letter in my life. But I wanted to give it a try, so I told him, "Sales letters? "Heck, yeah, I write sales letters." And now that I was hired, I had to write a sales letter fast.

In fact I had about a week to write this sales letter from scratch.

So I researched as much as I could about copywriting. And because I was in a rush, I ignored the minutiae and focused on the key principles that I saw again and again. And it worked. My client told me that my sales letter outperformed their current one by a 2:1 margin. Since that day, I've written dozens of sales letters, newsletters and articles.

And over that time, I discovered what most copywriters don't want you to know. Copywriting is really easy. That is when you know what to do and how to do it. And that's exactly what I'm gonna show you in this tutorial. So, without further ado, let's dive into copywriting tip number one, use Reddit threads.

Reddit is a copywriting gold mine. To use it, head over to a subreddit, where your customer hangs out. Then, take at look at threads that have lots of comments. For example, let's say that you just launched a new keto diet bar. Well, you'd head over to keto and paleo subreddits and search for bars.

Then, pay attention to the exact words and phrases that people use to describe what they like and don't like about the bars they've tried so far. For example, I found tons of awesome copy in this one thread, copy that would work great for a landing page or Facebook ad. Moving right along to our second copywriting tip, use short sentences. Here's a good rule of thumb that applies to pretty much everything that you write. Short sentences equals better copy.

And there's data to back this up. A study conducted by the American Press Institute found that short sentences were 711% easier to read and understand, which is why always atomize sentences to be as short as possible.

Bottom line, use short sentences. They're easier to read and understand. Which leads us to technique number three, the slippery slide.

Here's the deal. You can have the best copy in the world, but if people stop reading the page after the first sentence your copy didn't work. That's why one of the main goals of your copy is to keep people reading. Or as copywriting legend Joe Sugarman puts it, the sole purpose of the first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence. The question is, how do you get someone to keep reading your blog post, email or sales letter?

The slippery slide. A slippery slide is where you add something to your page that's specifically designed to keep people reading.

For example, you can tell a little story in the beginning of your sales letter, but leave the ending for the end. Or you can refer to something that's coming up later in your blog post. You can even just say things like here's the deal and the question is, to push people to keep reading.

And now it's time for copywriting tip number four, super-specific headlines. You've probably already seen this old statistic before, 80% of people read the headline and only 20% read the copy. Is that statistic accurate? I have no idea. But I do know that your headline is super important.

And one of the best ways to make your headlines more effective use super-specific headlines. Super-specific headlines are exactly like they sound. They are headlines that tell your reader exactly what they're gonna get. For example, check out this blog post headline. Not bad, but not that specific.

Now check out this super-specific headline. It's much more compelling, right? In fact, this works so well that I tend to use super-specific headlines on every blog post, landing page or sales letter that I write. And now it's time for technique number five, use FOMO. FOMO can make your copy 10 times more effective.

That said, FOMO also known as fear of missing out, doesn't work for every situation. But if you can use FOMO, you should use FOMO. That's because FOMO triggers a strong reaction with your prospects, and emotion that makes them wanna listen closely to what you have to say.

For example, we've recently launched a product that closed on a certain day in time. So, we emphasize that on our sales page.

Which brings us to copywriting tip six, write strong leads. Everyone and their mom knows the headlines are important, but no one talks about something that in my experience, is just as important if not more than a headline. Your lead. Your lead is the section of your page that comes right after your headline, and at least in my experience if you lose people here, you've lost them for good. With that, here are three strategies that you can use to write awesome leads.

First, use a hook in your first or second sentence. The first sentence of your lead is huge. So make sure that first line really grabs your reader's attention. For example, this landing page from Marie Forleo has a killer first line. Next, you wanna make your lead about six to eight sentences max.

Whether you're writing a blog post, video script, sales page or email newsletter, you want your lead to be super short. Remember, the goal of your lead is just to grab your reader's attention. And once you've done that, you wanna transition into the main section of your content. For example, I keep my blog post introductions to around six lines. Finally, use mini-stories in your leads.

Stories are a great way to hook your readers right off the bat. But like I just mentioned, the problem with that is that your lead needs to be short and sweet. So, you don't have a lot of room to tell an epic story.

Enter mini-stories. Mini-stories condense a story into 45 lines.

For example, here's mini-story that I used in one of my most successful sales letters. And, now it's time for me to tell you about copywriting technique number seven, don't use big words. Let's face it, big words don't impress anybody. Um, yes, in this video I plan on demonstrating the effectiveness of online vocabulary and augmenting online transactions. In fact, they make your content harder to read.

So instead of big fancy words like these, use words that are easy to read and understand. And now it's time for our eighth technique, the A-I-D-A formula. AIDA is a classic copywriting formula that can help boost conversions on sales pages, landing pages, articles, newsletters, video scripts and more. Here's what this formula looks like. As you can see, A-I-D-A stand for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

Let's take a look at a real-life example of this formula in action. I actually used the AIDA formula on this guide from my blog. First I grab people's attention with the first line, then I create an interest with a bold promise, and I fold it up buy tapping into a desire that anyone reading this page wants.

Higher Google rankings, and finally I cap things off with a called action to keep reading. Moving right along to technique number nine, benefits over features.

There's no doubt about it. When it comes to copy, benefits crush features. In other words, features are nice, but benefits sell. For example, let's say that you run a SAS company that sells productivity software. Here's how you can turn boring features into powerful benefits.

Coschedule.com does a great job of highlighting benefits over features. Yeah, like any software product, they outline key features. But unlike most SAS companies, the vast majority of their copy is benefit-driven. Nice.

 

Moving right along to technique number 10, get out of the friend zone. We've all been in the friend zone before. Or at least I have. The friend zone is when you like someone and they like you back, as a friend. Well, as it turns out, the same thing happens with potential customers and clients.

They like what you're selling, but not enough to buy. What's the solution? Address their objections. I'm talking about objections like, "It's just too expensive." "It's not a good time for me." "Yeah it sounds good, but will this work for me?" or "I'm not ready to switch from another product.". Most people pretend that these objections don't exist. Instead, you wanna bring up these objections and squash every one of them.

For example, here's an objection that we raise and squash on a product FAQ page. Let's get right into tip number 11, talk to customers. Remember earlier when I talked about using Reddit for customer research? Well, if you want to take this sort of thing to the next level, I recommend actually talking to your customers. For example, I've recently hopped on Skype with three people that graduated from one of my programs.

Fun fact, I was visiting my family in Rhode Island when I did this interview, that's why you can see my mom's amazing flower curtains in the background.

And because we were chatting on Skype, I could dig deep with follow-up questions. Next up, we have urgency and scarcity. Have you ever had someone tell you that they're interested in what you're selling, they just need some time to think it over? In my experience, 99% of the time that person doesn't end up buying.

Maybe they got busy and forgot, maybe they found another product. The exact reason doesn't really matter. The important thing is that you do something to get that person to convert right away. The question is, how do you do it? Add these words and phrases to your copy.

Needless to say, these statements should be backed up with real limitations, otherwise you're gonna loose people's trust. But if you can use them, you should use them. For example, this email from one of our recent product launches uses a clear to-the-minute deadline, that creates a super high sense of urgency. And now, it's time for our last copywriting tip, solve the social proof paradox.

You need social proof to sell, but you need sales to get social proof.

I call this the social proof paradox. And it's a real problem for lots of business owners. Fortunately, I found a simple way to get around this problem. Feature your strongest form of social proof. It doesn't have to be sales.

For example, let's say that you just launched a new nutrition coaching program. And to get leads, you offer people a free seven-day meal plan.

And if they wanna upgrade to a paid coaching plan, they get a full 90-day meal plan and personalized support from you. But so far, only a few people have upgraded to your paid plan. Well, in that case you can showcase how many people signed up for your free meal plan, or maybe only have 20 total customers.

But three of those customers got amazing results. Well, you can feature those three amazing results on your homepage. For example, when I launched my YouTube SEO course, at that point we only had about 10 total beta users. 10 people isn't a lot of social proof. But four of those 10 people got great results.

So we decided to feature those four people on the sales page, and it worked. And now it's time for a quick bonus tip, use this proven, three-step testimonial formula. It's no secret that testimonials can skyrocket sales. In fact, BigCommerce reports that testimonials, can increase sales by up to 62%. That's the good news.

The bad news is that most people use testimonials that simply don't work. I'm talking about testimonials like this. Now, to be fair, there's nothing wrong with that testimonial.

But it's not gonna get anyone to whip out their credit card and buy what you sell. Instead, I recommend using this proven formula.

As you can see, this formula is broken down into three main parts. The three parts build on one another to create one super-powerful testimonial. First up, you have the before. Here's where your customer talks about where they were before they used your product or service. That way, people can relate to the person in your testimonial.

Here's an example. Next, it's time for the after. The after highlights specific results that your customer got from your product. Finally, it's time for the "what they'd tell someone" section. As the name suggests, here's what your customer would tell someone that's on the fence.

And because this recommendation comes directly from someone that used your product, it's very believable. Let's close out this video with one more bonus strategy, use crooked numbers.

Crooked numbers are numbers that haven't been rounded. Here are some examples. According to research, crooked numbers are more believable than round numbers, which means, whenever you can, you wanna use them instead of round numbers.

For example, check out this intro from one of my blog posts. I could have made this a nice round number like over 200.000, but I went with the exact crooked number instead. So, that's it from my copywriting tutorial. If you like this video, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel right now.

Just click in the Subscribe button below this video. And if you want exclusive SEO techniques that I only share with subscribers, head over to backlinko.com and hop on the newsletter. It's free. Now I wanna turn it over to you.

Which technique from today's video are you gonna try first? Are you gonna use crooked numbers or try using more benefits instead of features? Let me know, by leaving a comment below right now. Oh man. With that, here's... You good? Aren't rounded, aren't rounded...

You wanna do lunch? How the hell am I gonna say that? But no one's... Okay, that wasn't bad..

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10 things learned after losing a lot of money Dorothée Loorbach TEDxMünster

10 things I learned after losing a lot of money  Dorothée Loorbach  TEDxMünster

Transcriber: Hiroko Kawano Reviewer: Tanya Cushman I used to be successful according to society. I had left a well-paid job in marketing to become an entrepreneur. And very soon, I could buy anything I wanted - not anything in the world, anything I wanted, which was a lot still. My impulse purchases included a brand-new car and a house. My entire life was just about fun, and I can say I created some amazing memories, but it was just fun.

I wanted more. I wanted joy. I wanted to do something that would last, something that mattered. So I started working with students, and this was fantastic. For the first time in my life, people would come up to me and say, "Thank you.You've changed my life." And that was so valuable to me that I would do it for just a little bit of money if they wouldn't pay me enough.

I would even do it for free - a lot - until I reached a point where even a small financial setback could ruin me as an entrepreneur. And of course, it did.

In the middle of summer of 2016, when all schools are closed and I wouldn't have any income for another two months or so, I received five envelopes at the same time from the tax services, demanding that I pay for my glory days, immediately.

This cost me everything I had: all my savings, all the money that I had. And all I had left in an instant was just a few coins that I found between the cushions of the sofa and in my coat pockets and in my car and 3 euros and 97 cents in the bank. Two days later, my daughter would come back from staying with her father. She would come back on her birthday. And I couldn't afford to bake her a cake.

What I wanted to do was just to crawl into bed and cry - which I don't like - and just hide under the covers until it would all just go away.

But I couldn't. I didn't have time because I only had 48 hours to prove to myself that I was better than this, that I was a good mother. So what I did was the most terrifying and the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life: I decided to expose myself publicly as a failure. And I thought that the best place to start would be rock bottom.

So I gave away my last bit of money, and then I had absolutely nothing. And then the only way was up. I called it "the money project." I published a video on Facebook, stating that I had failed gloriously as an entrepreneur; that I was totally broke; and that I was determined to change my situation, to learn anything I could about entrepreneurship and business, money, and enhance my financial intelligence; and that I was determined to become free of financial stress within six months, and to go from nothing to a fortune - or at least discover what the secret to doing that was - and to become a successful entrepreneur.

And I would write a book about it.

And this book I would sell right away for 10 euros a copy. And that day, I didn't dare look at the responses on my timeline, because this was quite scary. But that first day, I sold 64 books. And I had a fortune. Until this day, I've never felt more rich in my entire life, because this meant I could now bake a birthday cake and she could have a proper birthday, which she did.

And then I read. I've flogged. I blogged. I interviewed. I learned anything I could.

And I succeeded. Within six months, I was free of financial stress, and I could say that I was a successful entrepreneur. And all this time, I had been thinking that this money project - what I called it - was about money, of course, and business, but deep down, it was about something completely different: it was about value and about life. And I will share with you what I learned about life. Lesson number one: Money is important.

Quite a cliche. (Laughs) But I was raised in a way to believe that money is not important. And I inherited this conviction somehow - I can't blame anyone in particular - but somehow it planted a conviction in my head that people with money are not nice people. So when I had money, I would spend it as soon as I could. And then when I found my purpose, working with students, I just didn't ask for it.

I didn't care.

I just wanted to change the world, which I had no impact on whatsoever with 3 euros and 97 cents. And I also learned that money doesn't make you a bad person. It just makes you more of who you are. So if you're a jerk with a lot of money, you're probably a jerk when you're broke as well.

And if I would have more money, I would simply give more. But if I have to worry about money every day, all day, I can't even take care of myself, and I have nothing to give. Lesson number two: Money equals time. As soon as we start working, we start exchanging time for money, which is a problem because we can always make more money but we can never make more time. And I started to exchange my time for far too little money.

I could barely survive. And at the end of the month, there was nothing ever left to invest in my future. So I would have to spend all my time to make just a little bit of money. I'd probably have to do that for the rest of my life because there was nothing left.

And for the rest of my life, I would have given away the one thing that means the very most to me, which is time.

Time with my loved ones and time for myself. So I decided that it was time that I value my time. I would spend it more consciously. And when it comes to work, I would have to exchange it for more money so I could spend less time working and more time actually living. Lesson number three: Money equals value.

It took me two years to discover that the money project is not about money. It's about value. And I've always seen myself as a confident person, but I didn't value myself. Because the way you treat yourself is a reflection of the way you see yourself.

And I'd been treating myself like crap, which I found a terrible example to set for my daughter.

So changing my rates wasn't enough. I had to change the way I see myself. I had to start seeing myself as a person of value. And that was not easily done. It's a process, and I'm still working on it.

So I still, on a regular basis, I still have to remind myself, "It's okay, you're worth every penny." And even now I find it hard to say this out loud.

I get a bit embarrassed, so I'm still learning. I have to keep practicing. Lesson number four: What people say doesn't matter.

"You're a cheap whore." "You're a fraud." "How can you do this to your child?" Just a few of the comments that I received. The hateful ones were on my timeline on Facebook.

But the quiet ones, they hid safely in my inbox, confessing only to me that they had screwed up too, that they too had found their purpose and wanted to change the world and worked really hard, 80 hours a week, just like me, and barely surviving. But no one could know. So they didn't go public, because they were too ashamed to be a failure. But they were very glad that I went public and exposed myself as a failure because now they could learn from my mistakes.

And I was thankful that I could help them.

And I was also thankful for the haters, whether it was the strangers on my timeline or even some of my own friends talking badly about me behind my back. Because they taught me that nothing is ever personal, not really. What people say about you and what people think about you - it comes from their view of the world. It's from their opinions and their values and their experiences, and maybe they're having a bad day, or they're very insecure or unhappy. It has nothing to do with you.

And the way other people treat you is not a reflection of who you are. It's a reflection of who they are.

So now when someone says something hurtful to me, it still hurts, but not as much, because I know it probably has nothing to do with me. Lesson number five: What people say matters. What people say matters most when people is you.

Because a person with the most opinions about you - the person who talks to you the most - is you, and you tend to believe yourself, right? So be kind. A few days into the project, I asked my daughter, "How do our money worries make you feel?" And she said, "We don't have money worries. We just have less money than most people.

" (Laughter) And then I realized that until that moment, I had been saying to myself, on a regular basis, "You're such a failure." And then I realized, because of my daughter, that kind of thinking was not going to do my circumstances any good. And that's what they are - circumstances. They don't define you. Your response to them does.

And my response was to be kind to myself, to say to myself, "You'll be OK. You can do this." And then whatever it took, I would do it.

Lesson number six: It's really simple. I learned so much about business and entrepreneurship; and compounding, investing, entrepreneurship; about scalability, our rates, sales, low-hanging fruit, runway, value propositions.

But to be honest, everything I learned, I could have learned from my grandmother. Because the essence is this: spend less, earn more, invest wisely and, most of all, value yourself. But simple is not always easy. Let me ask you a question. Who makes more money today than you did at your very first job?

That's quite a lot of people. OK. Be ready: there's another question. Be honest - I promise I won't tell anyone - but be honest. Who still, at the end of the month, sometimes is out of money?

Or a lot of times, maybe? Yeah, it's quite a lot, huh? OK, you're not alone.

And this is why: it's called "Parkinson's Law." Your expenses will always rise to match your income.

This is why most people retire poor, and why lottery winners tend to end up with less money a few years after they won than they had before. And about a year after I started the money project, I was earning a lot of money. I was doing well, but still, I didn't really have anything left at the end of the month. And I realized that when it comes to spending, I'm a 12-year-old. So I should treat myself accordingly.

So, now, I hardly have any access to my money. As soon as money comes in, most of it goes straight to accounts that I cannot touch. And I will probably have to do this for the rest of my life, and I don't care.

Because if there's one thing that I learned from this project is I can't afford to be poor. Lesson number eight: Being broke sucks.

It does. Two years ago, my entire life was urgent - everything was urgent. I had to be a full-time problem solver, which is both exhausting and impossible. It's a catch-22. Because scarcity captures the mind.

Research shows that when all you can think about, and that was the case for me, when all you can think about is How do I get food on the table tonight? How do I get money today? - that takes up all of your thinking space. There's no room left to solve anything for tomorrow or next week or to make a change next year. You're stuck in the situation.

And my situation was that my brain felt like a ticking time bomb. I can still today hear the sound of the bills dropping on my doormat, and it still freaks me out. And day and night, I felt this blind panic.

I couldn't breathe. There was no way out.

I was suffocating. So the first thing and the only thing that I could do was breathe. (Exhale) I freed my mind, and I made a decision that I was going to be successful in the direction of my purpose. I found my focus. I stopped sabotaging myself.

And I became successful. Lesson nine: Stay broke. Epictetus said, a very long time ago, "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." The paradox is that the more money you have, the more silence and no Wi-Fi become a luxury. It's ridiculous how much money rich people - money-wise rich people - spend on going somewhere quiet.

When I had nothing, all I could afford was to go somewhere quiet, to just sit still or read a book or go outside or go for run, play with my child. And in those moments, I found my most profound moments of happiness. I learned that my daughter doesn't need any money or expensive gifts or fancy trips. All she wants, really, is a few moments a day of my undivided attention. And all I really want is to be present in my own life.

So now that I have money, (Laughs) I choose to live as if I'm broke. And without the worries, I can finally say: Money is not important.

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