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The well-known Secure Messaging Apps Comparison website has been updated to reflect the recently announced changes in WhatsApp’s data-privacy policy. But here is a best practice: If you work with clients’ confidential data, make sure to use secure messaging channels such as Signal.
Note: The comparison currently covers Google Messages, Apple iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Element / Riot, Signal, Microsoft Skype, Telegram, Threema, Viber, Facebook Whatsapp, Wickr Me, Wire, and Session.
Here is our list of 300 resources for freelancers in 35 European countries. Reaching this milestone, we keep on adding new platforms, communities, groups, marketplaces, and websites to help freelancers in networking and crossing borders. If you know of resources that are missing, we welcome all suggestions.
BBC’s 6 Minute English has covered freelancing in the newest episode titled Working for yourself. The overall impression is quite funny (like if they have just learned about freelancers from a dictionary), but in this kind of program, it doesn’t really matter 😉
Forbes has solid ongoing coverage of freelance platforms and trends thanks to a single writer: Jon Younger has written many quality articles (some of which we’ve shared) as well as a book titled Agile Talent. If you are interested in new platforms and trends in freelancing, Jon is an industry insider to follow closely — on Forbes, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Things no one tells you about freelancing in Europe — an older but still relevant article co-written by 7 European freelancers from Portugal, Spain, Romania, UK, and Germany.
Do you think your taxes are too high? Well, think again. Serbian freelancers and gig workers face serious over-taxation of up to 80% of their total income earned over the past five years.
The problem is so grave that they have formed an Association of Internet Workers and are calling out for international support, “to put a stop to this inhumane process that would definitely result in pushing the majority of already precarious Serbian digital workforce into poverty, unemployment and homelessness. … We are now asking for international support and/or counsel from fellow workers who have probably had to fight this battle in their own countries, as well as organisations and media that might be willing to help spread the word.”
Speaking of recording Hi-Fi interviews and podcasts online, another favorite app would be Zencastr. It runs in a browser and works fine on slow/unreliable connections. The free version is quite limited, but at this moment, it allows for unlimited guests and recording time.
For recording podcasts and interviews online, Cleanfeed is one of the best browser-based apps, used by the BBC and other media professionals. The standard version is free for unlimited recording sessions, while the paid Pro version adds more professional features. As Cleanfeed’s creators explain: “Coming from a live radio background we were used to higher-grade (but expensive) solutions, and wanted to make the same sort of technology widely available to all over the web.”
If you are a freelance translator, the latest Freelance translator survey 2020 of 1,510 translators worldwide offers some valuable insights as well as market rates. The most common problems among respondents seem to be 1) low rates of pay, 2) difficulties of securing work, and 3) the increasing use of machine translation. Also, translation agencies are 2.5 times more likely to ask translators to lower their rates than direct clients.
Do you want to record HD video interviews online, even on a slow/unreliable connection? Zoom out. Riverside.fm allows you to record conversations locally in HD quality (on both sides) and only then uploads them to the cloud, where they can be downloaded for further editing. Pricing starts at $90 annually, plus there’s a 1-hour free trial.