News and updates

SHOWING NEWS 431–440 OUT OF 732

THE “ANTIWORK” MOVEMENT

Reddit ‘antiwork’ forum booms as millions of Americans quit jobs, Financial Times report. Antiwork “encourages followers to work as little as possible in traditional jobs or abandon them altogether for self-employment, with the goal of prioritising leisure time.”

The r/antiwork thread on Reddit surged from 180,000 members in October 2020 to 1.6 million as people reconsider their career options for the post-covid era — a major trend also covered by the State of Independence 2021 report.

Our take: Antiemployment would be a more precise term (though less catchy), but it is too soon to tell anyway. The boom of various forms of freelancing (including gig work) has been prophesized many times since the 1990s, but the numbers of self-employed were falling for decades or stagnating at best. Naturally, it is much easier to start freelancing than keeping at it successfully for five or ten years.

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UNSPLASH

Unsplash is “the Internet’s source of freely-usable images powered by creators everywhere” — in other words, a growing database of images that any freelancer may use on a personal website, social media, etc. It is far from perfect but also far better than grabbing images without permission elsewhere. Good service!

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EUROPEAN TRADEMARK

It may be kind of boring for everyone else, but it made us jump with joy anyway: Logo of Freelancing.eu has just been registered as an EU trademark — a happy ending to a year-long process!

Many thanks to Mira Szkandera (who designed the logo and tweaked it to stand out) and Petra Dolejsova as the lead consultant and representative. There were also important contributions from Anna Drgova (on procedures and research), Michal Hanych (on risk assessment) and Thomas Kimpfbeck (on limitations, probabilities and adjustments).

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THE FREELANCE WAY IN 2022

This is the cover of the new HarperBusiness’ edition of The Freelance Way, soon to be published in India, Pakistan and other countries of the Indian subcontinent — home to 1.7 billion people, many of them freelancers.

P.S. Check out our selection of this and other great books for freelancers.

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100 MEMBERS, ∞ POSSIBILITIES

There are already over 100 freelancers presenting their work in our growing open directory of European freelancers! 🎆

We are strong believers in unlimited possibilities for the collaboration of European professionals, free markets, and the open Internet: Anyone can join us, and you can contact (or hire) all of our members directly without any interventions from our side.

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BEST BOOKS OF 2021

Our top 3 books of the year:

• Genius Foods by Max Lugavere with Paul Grewal, MD
• How Innovation Works by Matt Ridley
• Factfulness by Hans, Ola & Anna Rosling

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KILLING IT WITH GOOGLE SHEETS

You use Google Sheets and cool features in there, right? Well if not, that’s another story. But if you do, browsing The Ultimate Google Sheets Toolkit will increase your knowledge quite a bit.

A growing collection of free tutorials includes many gems, such as 10 Google Sheets Tips You DON’T Want to Miss from our favorite Viennese expert Leila Gharani.

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GENIUS FOODS

If you are a creative or knowledge worker, Genius Foods is one of the most useful books out there to support your mental strength and performance.

Max Lugavere (with Paul Grewal, MD) did a superb job collecting the best science-based advice on long-term brain health. The subtitle says it all: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life.

Genius Foods is a true must-read for all life-hackers and hard-working freelancers out there, which also makes it the newest addition to our list of Great books for freelancers.

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TOP 10 HIGHLIGHTS OF 2021

It’s been a fantastic year for Freelancing.eu — the first complete one after our inception in May 2020. We have never looked back since, so here are the highlights:

1. Traffic from Google and other search engines soared by 375% year-on-year and continues to grow rapidly. We are already coming up in the 1st position on many relevant queries such as freelance europe, freelance eu, europe freelance jobs, etc.
2. The number of members in our open directory of European freelancers has increased from 26 to the current 100 year-on-year, with a membership renewal rate of 99%. Categories have been added and tags will be added over time.
3. Our website is visited by people from all over the world. The top 20 countries include the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, China, India, Ireland and Portugal.
4. We have new members from all over Europe. Hardly a week goes by when we don't have a longer conversation with someone who has heard of us for the first time and is interested in joining. Building a community takes time; but the response to our work has already been great.
5. The number of subscribers to our newsletter has jumped 500% year-on-year. We are also reaching over 200,000 European freelancers each month on social media.
6. Our list of European platforms and resources for freelancers has grown to 371 entries. Most of the suggestions are sent to us by the founders or local freelancers.
7. As media partners, we have once again supported two of the biggest events for freelancers in Europe — European Freelancers Week and Freelance Business Month. We also hosted our first two Freelance Friends online events, and began releasing the edited talks on YouTube.
8. We closely monitor and analyse the development of the European freelance economy and new trends. You can find an up-to-date summary in Robert’s talk European Freelancers & Where to Find Them which has also been covered by NextConomy in Belgium and ZiPconomy (in Dutch). Across all channels, the 41-minute talk has gained over 100,000 views and counting.
9. Biggest aha-moment: Thanks to the response to our news and events, we realized that Freelancing.eu and the business of European freelancers is quite interesting for the rest of the world. One third of our newsletter subscribers are not from Europe and we had 333 freelancers from 37 countries (50 from the USA, 11 from Canada, 7 from Australia, etc.) signed up for our last Freelance Friends online event. Most people have an idea of how US freelancers do business, and content from the US turns up everywhere, right? European freelancers, on the other hand, are way harder to pin down and find due to language barriers. At the same time, however, they have an outstanding reputation globally as educated, top-notch experts with a very professional approach to their work. This makes them interesting for other freelancers, as well as for companies from all over the world, looking for partners for their European or global activities.
10. To sum up, we have moved from the idea of a community oriented solely to Europeans to building a European freelance community with a global reach. This is already reflected, for example, in the way we think about setting up member profiles, timing events, selecting news items or writing this newsletter. In short, we are exporting the European approach to freelancing, and presenting European freelancers to the whole world. Thank you for sharing the journey with us!

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WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE

If you want to watch something truly inspirational for the end of the year, Where'd You Go, Bernadette would be our top pick.

Based on a best-selling novel by Maria Semple, starring Cate Blanchett, and directed by the great Richard Linklater (Boyhood), the movie goes straight into the depth of what it means to be an original creator under the pressure of everyday life. Never mind the average rating of 6.5 on IMDb — this movie is a jewel and a must-watch for all ambitious freelancers out there!

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