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Microsoft is testing showing text attributes that can say things like "Free Shipping on Qualified Orders" with an icon next to the search ads on Bing Search. This is not just the CTA buttons that these ads have supported for a while but additional text attributes.View the full article

Google is testing a new sponsored ads section in the search results named Featured Stores. This reminds me of the from online stores but that was organic/free, not ads.View the full article

Google is testing a shaded box design for the stock pricing and information in the Google Search results. Google has these shaded designs in other areas as well but for now, this may just be a test.View the full article

I’ve been freelancing for two and a half years. And that’s exactly how long it took me to make LinkedIn work for me as a tool to grow my network and get clients. For a long time, I’ve gotten sporadic results. Discovery calls that led nowhere, very few leads, and a single client with a one-off project. But looking back at how I approached my LinkedIn presence, it all makes sense. I combined short, impulsive bursts of creativity with months-long escapes from the platform. And my results reflected that. As a freelancer, it’s easy to get lost between 20 different acquisition strategies, client work, and administrative tasks of running your business. Without a structure in place, staying present on LinkedIn easily falls through the cracks. In April, I spoke to a fellow freelancer, Tawni Olson, who told me: “For acquiring new clients, LinkedIn has been the best lever — it helps me stay top-of-mind and has directly led to both referrals and cold inquiries.” And that was the final sign for me to start taking LinkedIn seriously and build a system centered around content buckets. Here’s how I did it. How I created content buckets in four stepsI defined my goalsMy first step was to define what I want to achieve by posting on LinkedIn. Because if I don’t know where I’m going, how could I know if I got there or what I need to change in my approach to get the results? Natasha Khullar Relph, a prominent freelance journalist and the founder of The Wordling (newsletter for writers and authors), highlights the importance of goal setting in one of her articles: “By setting goals, you allow yourself the clarity to see what you need to be working on and focus your attention on the things that will move your career forward.” After a few days of brainstorming and being honest with myself about where I want to take my freelance career, I realized that I want to: Connect with other freelance content professionals to share our experiencesBuild a personal brand as a freelance content writer and content managerGet new content management and content writing clientsWith these goals in place, it felt like the fog had lifted. I could finally see where I wanted to go. All that was left to do was figuring out how to get there. I brainstormed content ideas based on goalsThe next step was to brainstorm content ideas based on goals. Asking myself the following three questions: What topics bring me closer to freelance content professionals?Which content ideas could help build my personal brand as a freelance content writer and content manager?Which posts will get me more content management/content writing leads and clients?This is what I came up with: Goal Content ideas To connect with freelance professionals Relatable freelancing stories Managing deadlines Managing admin work How to handle feedback/edits How to negotiate/price services What I thought about freelancing then vs what I believe now How I get clients To build a personal brand as a freelance content writer and content manager Tools I use and how I use them Workflow tips Writing tips ChatGPT/Claude prompts that help me write faster Tips on managing freelancers Content ops tips Lessons from writing for a specific client To get new content management/content writing leads and clients Social proof Testimonials Case studies Articles I was featured in Posts promoting services Posts promoting articles I wrote Posts answering questions I got from clients during the discovery phases I grouped ideas into content bucketsAfter brainstorming, I decided to group them into content buckets to help me organize all ideas and label all future topics I come up with. I came up with four content buckets and gave them descriptive names: For freelancers/here’s how I workTips, workflows, and toolsSocial proofPosts about servicesEach bucket is directly connected to the goal, like this: Goal Content ideas Content bucket To connect with freelance professionals Relatable freelancing stories Managing deadlines Managing admin work How to handle feedback/edits How to negotiate / price services What I thought about freelancing then vs what I believe now How to handle feedback/edits How I get clients For freelancers/here’s how I work To build a personal brand as a freelance content writer and content manager Tools I use and how I use them Workflow tips Writing tips ChatGPT/Claude prompts that help me write faster Tips on managing freelancers Content ops tips Lessons from writing for a specific client Tips, workflows, and tools To get new content writing/content management leads and clients Testimonials Case studies Articles I was featured in Social proof Posts promoting services Posts promoting articles I wrote Posts answering questions I got from clients during the discovery phases Posts about services Whenever I want to post something, I know EXACTLY which goal it’s contributing to. And this helps me ensure I’m not wasting my creative energy on irrelevant content. I created a system to track ideasMy next step was to create a system to help me keep all of my ideas in a single place, so I can easily access them when I want to create or publish something. I turned to Buffer and created color-coded tags to keep track of my topics across different content buckets, like this: Whenever I get an idea, I add a scribble to Buffer and immediately label it so I can easily find it later when I need to create something for a specific goal. Tags help me have a visual overview of how many ideas I came up with for each bucket (and therefore, goal). And determine if I need to focus my energy elsewhere. How I use content bucketsTo come up with new ideasDefined content buckets make it easier for me to come up with new content ideas. Without goals and buckets, asking myself, “What could I post today on LinkedIn?” could get me a few good posts. But coming up with consistent ideas aligned with what I want to achieve? Not so much. With a system in place, I can ask myself a more straightforward question that creates a pre-frame and helps direct creativity towards the right stories to share. For example, going from “What could I post today on LinkedIn?” to “What relatable stories could I publish to connect with freelance writers?” creates a narrow focus that makes coming up with ideas much easier. And once I’ve set these pre-frames for all buckets, ideas started popping up in my day-to-day work life. As soon as ideas pop up, I note them in Buffer and add an appropriate tag. Here’s what my library looks like right now: To content batch and stay consistentAfter I defined my goals and content buckets, it became a lot easier to do content batching (creating higher volumes of content in a single session to use over a longer time period). This strategy helps me maintain a consistent publishing schedule without burning out. That’s because content buckets remove the decision fatigue of what to post. Instead of starting with “creating X posts for LinkedIn,” I can simply pick a bucket and brainstorm ideas. And once I start creating, I can further simplify this process by batching similar content together. For example, for the bucket “Posts about services,” I can create five posts answering questions clients asked in discovery calls. And for the bucket “For freelancers”, I can chunk down the topic of feedback into four separate posts and create them in a single sitting. For content batching sessions, I use the board view in Buffer. All of my new ideas are in the “Unassigned” board. Before I start creating, I move the topics I want to work on to the “In progress” board. Like this: To further double down on a single bucket, I select the specific tag. This is what my board looked like when I was working on the posts about feedback: Once the posts are done, I move them to the “Ready for scheduling” board and schedule them at the end of the session. I’m posting three times per week and batching content once a month. I usually schedule a full day for LinkedIn content creation and pair it up with the admin work. During the month, I may do an additional shorter batching session or create a post here and there when I have the time and feel inspired. Using this strategy helps me stay consistent without interrupting my client work and helps me show up on low-motivation days. To select and hone broad ideas to match my goalsSelecting and honing ideas to match my goals ensures my content is intentional and brings me closer to what I want to achieve. I don’t want to post on LinkedIn just for the sake of posting, and not all of my ideas are relevant to my goals. Here’s how content buckets help me figure out what and what not to post: Figuring out which topics to avoid: Writing about the latest recipe I tried is relatable and will likely get me some engagement. But it’s not aligned with my goals, so I won’t select that topic.Honing a broad topic: “How to give/receive feedback” is a broad topic. But I can chunk it down to “How to deal with constructive criticism on your writing” or “How to give feedback to content writers.” This way, my content is a lot more relevant to my target audience.Personalizing Buffer’s content prompts: I often use prompts from Buffer’s library. And thanks to buckets, I can alter them to ensure they’re aligned with my goals.Let’s take a look at the prompt “How slowing down made me more productive.” By adding the narrative of focusing on fewer things at once as a freelancer, the prompt quickly becomes relevant to my audience. To troubleshoot lower performanceI measure the success of my goals with a mix of metrics. To determine if I’m on the right track to grow my network and build a personal brand, I keep an eye on follower growth and engagement metrics. And for my goal of getting freelance content writing and content management clients, I track the number of leads and clients I get from my LinkedIn posts. At one point, I realized that my network was growing quickly, but I hadn’t generated any leads in six weeks. So I had a look at my calendar. Thanks to color-coded tags, I quickly noticed that the majority of the content I posted was directed towards other freelancers, not content managers. Only one (pink color) out of 11 posts in the former three weeks was dedicated to getting clients: The following week, I doubled down on sharing content in the other two buckets: Social proofPosts about servicesSoon after noticing this, I published a post about what type of client might need to create content briefs for their writers. And this post alone generated three leads and one client. And when my calendar is full, I can simply reduce the number of posts for clients and focus on posts for freelancers that drive engagement. Content buckets teach me that it’s not about how much I post, but about being intentional and matching what I want to achieve with my content. Tracking the right metricsSince I started publishing regularly in early June, all of my LinkedIn metrics are up: Impressions (+405.2%)Engagements (+558%)Followers (+355 new followers)Profile viewers (+104%)Here’s a glimpse: I’m closely following these metrics because they indicate the growth of my network. However, I’m not currently optimizing for them. In the past 95 days, my content has generated: 6 leads 2 content clientsEngagement without clients doesn’t mean a lot for a freelance content business. The number of clients and leads are the metrics that I’m most proud of and am currently working on increasing. A framework that keeps me goingDefining my content buckets gave me an organized system that helps me stay consistent and have a way of measuring whether my posts are bringing me closer to my goals. Instead of wondering what to publish or worrying about the relevance of my posts, I now have a framework that allows me to stay focused and intentional. That shift took LinkedIn from being a guessing game to a great way of growing my network, my brand, and my client base. View the full article

Have you ever faced a critical media campaign error? You’re not alone. We’ve all been there. A budget that burns out in hours instead of weeks, a missing pixel that breaks tracking… And no one notices… until it’s too late. The consequences? Real. Costly. Stressful. Trust damaged. These aren’t strategic failures. They’re operational blind spots and they happen even in the best teams, with the best tools. Digital is full of setups and moves fast. Errors and risks aren’t exceptions, they’re systemic. So ask yourself: Is your media operation truly safe? If your answer isn’t a clear “yes,” it’s time for a game-changer. 1. The hidden risks behind every campaign Digital is no longer just a marketing channel, it’s the backbone of business. Global ad spend is expected to reach $740B by 2025, reflecting both opportunity and increasing complexity. Every day, your teams or agencies juggle dozens of platforms — Google, Meta, Amazon, DSPs — each with its own setup rules, metrics, formats and workflows. Add evolving AI tools, tighter deadlines, demand for hyper-personalization and pressure for performance… and the stakes rise fast. Execution never stops. But visibility doesn’t keep up. And that’s the point: with so much happening in real-time, operational errors happen silently. Some of the most common ones: A daily budget mistakenly set instead of monthly, blowing the plan in 24 hours. A campaign running in the wrong market or targeting the wrong audience for days. A misconfigured bid cap with one extra zero, sending the bidding algorithm sky-high. A pixel lost during a site update, making your whole campaign untrackable. Ads displayed on a banned network, breaking media guidelines and trust. These aren’t rare. Every digital leader we meet has seen them : a moment of distraction, an endless setup, a complex workflow, a stressful day, an absence in the operational team. Small mistakes lead to big consequences. Yet we still treat human error like an exception, when it’s actually inevitable. Other industries have learned this lesson: Healthcare relies on electronic monitoring systems. Aviation adds AI copilots. Finance depends on compliance and regulations. Manufacturing integrates sensors and QA automation. Energy adopts predictive monitoring and redundancy. Digital marketing? We refresh dashboards and cross our fingers. Most organizations think they’re safe: “We double-check campaigns.” “We have QA, naming conventions, dashboards…” But the truth is, these systems only validate what’s been set up correctly and they’re built for operational routines, not for catching the unseen. They can’t detect what’s missing, broken, or misconfigured. And no team — no agency, analyst, or platform — can monitor 100+ accounts manually, 24/7. Digital has no real safety culture… yet! It’s time we admit operational errors are systemic. And systems can be improved and reinforced. It’s time for a collective awareness and for leaders to take ownership. 2. What is Digital Media Safety? Think of Digital Media Safety as your media control tower: a new operational layer that protects your campaigns in real time – predicting, detecting, alerting, and helping fix anomalies before they hurt performance. What Digital Media Safety brings: Real-time anomaly detection Digital Media Safety scans every detail of your media campaigns – spend, delivery, tracking, targeting… in real time, so anomalies are spotted the moment they appear. Always on, always automatic, 24/7 monitoring Unlike human checks, Digital Media Safety never sleeps. It runs 24/7, automatically, without relying on manual routines or someone remembering to double-check. It becomes the silent safety net that ensures operations stay on track day and night, across all accounts and campaigns, even the ones you don’t think about anymore. Smart alerts Not all alerts are equal. A red flag should reach the person able to fix it, not get buried in the inbox of the person who caused it. Digital Media Safety routes the right alerts to the right people, at the right moment, making sure nothing slips through the cracks. Action tracking When a mistake is fixed, the story shouldn’t end there. Digital Media Safety logs every action taken, creating full transparency and accountability. Leaders see what happened, who solved it, and how fast, turning incidents into learnings that strengthen future performance. Digital Media Safety is all about prevention. Media ops are too fast, too complex and too valuable to operate without a safety net. Preventing media errors requires a structured approach built on three essential layers: 1. Risk-aware leadership Smart leaders know one thing: human error is inevitable. The question isn’t if it will happen, but when. That’s why they make risk management part of their DNA. Protecting business, safeguarding performance, and keeping their people safe isn’t optional, it’s leadership in action. 2. Collective responsibility & continuous improvement When everyone sees errors as opportunities to improve, not to blame, the whole system gets stronger. A collective mindset means errors are raised openly, lessons are shared, and processes evolve. From leadership to the most operational levels, safety becomes everyone’s responsibility and improvement a shared goal. 3. Robust technical systems No team can watch campaigns 24/7 without missing something. Technology can. Automated monitoring, smart alerts, and AI controls extend human capacity far beyond natural limits. They empower people and they free up time for smarter decisions. In short: they take your team further, faster, and safer. That’s exactly where Digital Media Safety steps in. Digital Media Safety shifts digital marketing from guesswork to governance. Just as in aviation, finance, or healthcare, it’s time for Digital Marketing to adopt the same maturity in safeguarding its operations. 3. Meet WATCH40: Your Digital Media safety net At WATCH40, we’ve seen million-dollar campaigns wrecked by missed pixels or wrong budgets, even with tools already in place. As former CEOs of one of the world’s leading media agencies working with major advertisers, we know first-hand how fragile digital media operations can be. That’s why we built WATCH40: the smart, predictive platform for Digital Media Safety. As a trusted third-party partner, WATCH40 restores confidence, serenity, and performance. It connects directly to your media platforms (Google Ads, Meta, etc.), scans for errors 24/7, identifies new ad accounts and campaigns, and notifies both teams and leaders in real time through the channels you already use. What WATCH40 monitors: Overspend alerts WATCH40 tracks ad spend, pacing and budget patterns across major paid media platforms in real time. If a campaign suddenly burns through its budget too fast, or if unusual spikes in spend appear, it immediately raises a red flag. Beyond simple alerts, WATCH40 sets intelligent, automated thresholds without human intervention, adapted to each account or campaign, and even anticipating seasonal peaks. This unique, flexible core feature ensures your teams and leaders are warned in real time, so they can act before budgets are wasted. Always-on tracking Today, it’s unthinkable to invest in media without tracking performance accurately or sending the right signals to optimization algorithms. When pixels or tags break, campaigns may record wrong or missing signals, leading to inefficiencies or even runaway effects in automated bidding. With this innovative WATCH40 feature, that risk is eliminated. WATCH40 ensures that all critical tracking pixels are live and firing correctly. If something fails — during a site update, a new campaign launch, or a forgotten tag — you know instantly, not weeks later when performance and reports are already compromised. Objectives Alignment & Forecasting WATCH40 verifies that your media investment stays aligned with your business objectives. From budgets to traffic or conversion metrics, it acts as your AI cockpit: validating that campaigns are on track and flagging misalignments before they hurt performance while forecasting risks ahead. Targeting control & Custom QA rules Every brand has unique processes, compliance needs, and media guidelines. WATCH40 lets you codify custom QA checks tailored to your strategy. Whether it’s network restrictions, geo-targeting policies, naming conventions, or internal guardrails, the platform monitors them continuously and alerts you the moment an anomaly appears. Already used by leading brands and agencies, WATCH40 helps you: Gain real-time visibility and reactivity across digital ops Reduce stress and unplanned firefighting Focus on strategy, not troubleshooting. “There’s a clear before and after. We’ve regained operational excellence and peace of mind.” Guillaume Balloy, CEO of Mindshare & Keyade Agencies (WPP Media France) We believe that in the next two years, Digital Media Safety will be standard in every forward-looking and accountable marketing organization. Marketing leaders aren’t just chasing results. They’re building resilient, fail-safe, responsible systems that protect their investment and their marketing strategy. You’ve scaled automation and performance. Now it’s time to scale safeguards. WATCH40 adds the Digital Media Safety layer your stack was missing, making growth safer, smarter, and more sustainable. Welcome to the Digital Media Safety era. Want to know how safe your operations really are? Talk to our team and explore how WATCH40 helps brands and agencies catch errors in real time, save budgets, and sleep better. View the full article

The most recognizable AI fingerprint isn’t facts or punctuation but a relentless cadence that manipulates style over substance. The post And The Truth? This Writing Style Screams AI appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Evergreen articles once were reliable drivers of steady traffic, but AI summaries may now render them obsolete. The post Are AI Search Summaries Making Evergreen Articles Obsolete? appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Track prompts by capturing prompt logs, tagging your prompts, and analyzing them. See how to do it. View the full article

The best web hosting services are Hostinger, SiteGround, Hosting.com, DreamHost, and IONOS. Learn why in this guide. View the full article

Follow the steps in this guide to improve your small business’s visibility in search engines. View the full article

Understand the transition from traditional SEO to GEO concepts within SEO and how it transforms digital marketing with AI integration for better SERP visibility. The post From SEO To GEO: How Can Marketers Adapt To The New Era Of Search Visibility? appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I need to give feedback to someone who thinks they have imposter syndrome but really doesn’t know what they’re doing I work in a pretty varied team, say developing tea and teapots. I lead the teapots division, and I have a counterpart, Lee, who leads the tea division. In Lee’s tea division, Sam is in charge of rolling out a campaign for a new line of green teas, while Lee has only ever worked with the existing line of black teas, and has never run a campaign like this. Sam does not have much relevant experience at all, and doesn’t know what they don’t know. I on the other hand have been involved in new tea line developments before, but wasn’t specifically involved in this campaign. I did offer to help or provide guidance, but was (politely) told no. In the few cases where I was asked to give feedback, I was pretty open about some concerns I have, but they were not acted on. Cut to today, and things are a mess. The campaign is behind, is missing crucial components, vendors are not delivering, and Sam is feeling overwhelmed and doesn’t know how we will meet regulatory deadlines. They’re feeling like they should have listened to feedback sooner (yes), that they don’t know what they’re doing (yes, but also there’s a component of the blame on team leadership for not setting them up well), and that they’re having “impostor syndrome.” In terms of actually getting green tea where it needs to be, we’re all working as a team now and have a plan in place, pulling in additional resources. I’ve been asked to provide Sam with some feedback about the whole thing, because part of the new strategy going forward is the recognition that I’ve known what should be done all along (and that Lee and Sam should listen to feedback even if they don’t like it). That means that I’m taking more of a leadership role and they’ve added a dotted line where I now manage Sam for this. I’ve been asked to help Sam understand what went wrong and give some constructive feedback as part of that for their development. How would you provide the feedback that it’s not really “impostor syndrome,” but that they were placed in a position beyond their skills? Just writing that out makes me fear that it will decimate their self-esteem when they’re already in a bad place. Frame it as if you’re teaching them, because you are. It can be less about “you messed up” and more about “here’s what I was seeing and why I gave the feedback I did earlier, and ideally we would have done XYZ at that point.” Check to see if they understand in retrospect why you made those recommendations. I don’t think you need to explicitly say, “This isn’t imposter syndrome; you really don’t know what you’re doing.” That’s going to be inherent in the rest of what you’re saying and you don’t need to hit them over the head with it. (That would change if they dig in their heels and continue to resist your expertise — but at this point it sounds like you’re being given authority to manage Sam on this work going forward, so it will be a lot easier to address that if it happens again.) Related: my coworker with imposter syndrome actually does suck at her job 2. Doxxing and online political speech I’m sure you’re getting a lot of questions about employers reprimanding or firing people for online speech right now. I work for a pediatric hospital and we just had a nurse doxxed for her response about the death of Charlie Kirk. People burned up our social media demanding the nurse be fired, and the hospital went back in her social media feed to find posts about her job and used those as a reason to let her go. How legal is this? They were only aware of her posts because she was doxxed, and she never mentioned the company by name Also, I am involved in social justice in my spare time. I frequently work for the ACLU as a legal observer, I am active in my very liberal church, and I post and reshare social justice posts. How worried should I be that my conservative company will find these posts and let me go and what can I do to protect myself? It’s legal to fire someone for political speech, except in the small number of jurisdictions that prohibit discrimination based on politics (and even in those, it might be legal, depending on the specific content of the posts that they objected to, since those laws typically have exceptions if your activities create a conflict of interest with your employer’s business interests). Your second question is a lot trickier, and it likely depends on (a) the specific content of your posts, (b) how strong the political leanings of your company and its clients are, and (c) what unfolds next in our current dystopia, which I don’t think anyone can predict with certainty. The most cautious approach would be to make your social media private, but you have to balance that against the harm caused when people let themselves be silenced out of fear, something that is very much already happening. It’s not easy to answer. 3. My supervisors are close friends, and I feel left out I started a new job about six months ago in a brand new field. It’s almost entirely remote and largely independent work, with one or two virtual weekly catch-up meetings. I see other coworkers occasionally, usually virtually, but my only consistent contact with anyone is a weekly hour-long virtual meeting with two supervisors. They’re both very informal, personable people and are close to my age. However, they have both known each other for years and, as our field is small, are close friends with each other and several of our colleagues, most of whom I rarely see. They go on weekend trips together, house-sit for each other, go to mutual friends’ birthday parties, etc. They are very friendly to me, but I have started to feel left out and like it’s also impossible to catch up. It’s a confusing dynamic, and in meetings they share comfortably and freely with each other about their lives and mutual friends and have a lot of background about each other and knowledge of each other’s partners and families and interests. It’s impossible for them to get to know me in the same amount of depth in the five minutes of “how was your weekend” before we dive into work. I feel a little left out and also like I’m in an unfair position. I don’t think they realize this and I don’t think they’re doing it intentionally. My partner suggested I ask them to lunch but since they’re both very busy and technically my supervisors it feels like imposing and it’s already been six months since I started so it feels a little late to do a “get to know you.” Also it would just be one lunch. I know I have some personal baggage with being “left out,” which is probably apparent, but it’s a weirdly alienating dynamic to have my only contact with coworkers be these small team meetings where they talk about shared social experiences. Remote work is hard. Is there a way I can reframe this or an action I can take to make this feel less uncomfortable for me? Maybe I’m just not cut out for this kind of remote work? Well, they’re being rude! It’s fine for them to have a close friendship with each other, but it’s not okay for them to use your work meetings to socialize with each other and leave you out (and even if they’re making an effort to include you in the conversation, they’re still doing it in a way that’s highlighting the significant disparity in the relationships, which is thoughtless). I don’t think it’s too late to suggest one-on-one lunches with each of them (separately! not together, or you’ll have the same problem). That’s not something that you have to do right in the beginning or not at all. But I’m also not sure it will fix it; they’ll still be very close out-of-work friends who aren’t very savvy about how they bring that into work meetings. On the other hand, if it helps you feel stronger connections to either of them, it might make you feel better! So I wouldn’t rule it out just because you’ve already been there six months. Where I’d really focus, though, is on trying to reframe this to yourself: are you getting what you need from them as your managers? Do they give you useful feedback, help remove obstacles, support your professional growth, advocate for you when needed, and generally treat you fairly and with warmth? If so, those are the most important things you want from a manager! Being friends with them actually would complicate things because of the power dynamics. So if you can focus on what you are getting from them — and the reality that a friendship would be a bad idea for all kinds of reasons — that might help. 4. My coworkers voluntarily work extra, unpaid hours I’m a relatively new hire at a nonprofit with incredibly dedicated coworkers. This weekend, I spent both days at an event near my workplace, so I popped in to leave my lunch in the office fridge. Both days, I saw my non-exempt coworker J. doing work (at a glance, only on one of those days did the work look billable). J. was in every day last work week, and their calendar indicates they’ll be in every day this week as well. This behavior isn’t unprecedented, either — my non-exempt coworker K. has Wednesday off, but I have seen him at work on Wednesday and he told me (in a light tone, to be fair) not to tell anyone I saw him. I don’t manage these coworkers, but I’m pretty sure their manager isn’t aware. I think that volunteering to do more work on your days off is a recipe for burnout, but I’m not going to confront them directly. Is there anything I can even do about it? As a new hire, no — not unless you’re in a relatively senior role where part of your job involves things like culture or legal compliance. The issue isn’t just possible burn-out; it’s that, legally, non-exempt employees must be paid for all the time they work. But unless it’s part of your position to address those things, this isn’t your job to tackle. After you’ve been there longer, you could consider raising it (in a “we could get in legal trouble for this” way) — but wait until you’ve gotten more established there. 5. Should I apply for a job at the company that just laid me off? I was recently let go during a large scale reorganization/restructuring, along with about 80% of my department. I’m hearing about a new position that would be an increase in pay (and probably work) that will be posted there soon. I still have contacts there who are encouraging me to apply once the position is posted. Is this a good idea? Has anyone ever done something like this that has worked out? I’m slightly bitter after being let go and don’t have a ton of faith in leadership, so I’m still looking at other opportunities. It’s a tough job market, and while I don’t think I would be a shoo-in, I think I’d be a strong candidate. Yes, people do this all the time! You’re a known quantity and if they liked your work and know you to be a strong candidate, you might have a leg up. (That said, if you go back, you’d want to work on the bitterness. It’s good to have your eyes open about the reality that jobs can be cut at any time, as well as whatever your reasons are for not having faith in their leadership, but you don’t want to be bitter in the place you’re spending eight hours a day if you can help it.) The post employee thinks their lack of skill is just “imposter syndrome,” doxxing and online political speech, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Plan smarter, not harder. Download 8 free content templates to align teams, streamline workflows, and drive better marketing results. The post 8 Content Plan Templates to Execute Campaigns Better in 2025 appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

I love walking tours. Long time readers know I always recommend doing them first thing when you’re in a city. It doesn’t matter the type you do. Food, history, art – whatever! Just do something. They’re an incredible way to learn about a destination, get your bearings, and talk to a local about life in the city. (Plus, you can ask your local guidefor tips on restaurants, attractions, or how to navigate the city! Win-win!) I’ve been taking walking tours since my first backpacking trip in 2006 when I joined a hostel’s free walking tour around Prague. I was hooked and, over the years, I’ve taken hundreds upon hundreds of tours run by dozens upon dozens of companies. There are tons of walking tour companies out there, but one of my favorites is Context Travel. Context was founded in 2003 and I’ve been using and recommending them since 2010 when I first stumbled across one of their tours in Rome. I walked with an art historian around the Vatican, where I not only learned about the Vatican itself, but the stories behind the art. Since then, I’ve done countless tours with them. What has always set Context apart is that rather than use regular people trained as guides, they use experts (those with MA- or PhD-level degrees!) in their fields to lead you around. This way, you get someone who really knows w hat they are talking about. You get someone who can share the little details that only an expert in their field would know. During a recent trip to Paris, I did Context’s Paris WWII History Tour. Now, I know a lot about Paris. I’ve been visiting for 15 years, lived there for a short period, have probably done over 50 tours there, and have read so many books on the city that I sometimes feel like I’m studying for a degree in Paris history. But my interest in the city is primarily based around the 1920s (I love the Jazz Age!) and medieval times. I don’t know a lot about World War II Paris. Sure, I know some things from my general studies, but I don’t know a lot of specific knowledge, so I was excited to take this tour to learn about an important time period in recent Paris history. The tour takes you from St. Germain through the Luxembourg Gardens over to the Latin Quarter then up to Marias before ending at the Hotel de Ville. It chronicles the start of the Nazi occupation, daily life during this time, the resistance movement, what happened to the Jews, and, finally, liberation. (It lasts about three hours.) As I mentioned before, what makes Context Travel so special are the expert guides and my guide, Gil, was no exception. He’d been in France for close to twenty years, has a degree in politics and literature, and had been a guide for over a decade. (Note: There’s a couple of guides that run this tour, and they are all experts.) He knew all sorts of arcane details and brought an iPad filled with photos and first hand material. We began in St. Germain discussing how the Germans entered Paris so quickly and how, in the beginning, life remained relatively the same as they set up power. Local Parisians sort of continued their day-to-day life (albeit with restrictions). Since France fell so quickly, the fighting never got to Paris so the city was never damaged. As we walked, we stopped at buildings that were used during the war (the current Mandarin Oriental hotel used to be the Gestapo headquarters…creepy), and discussed how eventually the resistance formed and operated in the city. The tour moves forward in time as you walk, and Gil talked about collaborators, the eventual removal of Jews, and how larger French army wins in Africa led to crackdowns in the city. Finally, we got to the Hotel de Ville (city hall) and the grand finale as Parisians and Resistance fighters liberated the city from Nazi rule in August 1944. The pictures of people and first hand documents he had really helped paint the picture of life and resistance in WW2 Paris. I walked away feeling like I learned a lot. And that’s why I Context Travel. You really get minute details and facts and a deep dive. There are tons of walking tour companies out there – and I recommend a wide variety – but Context has always stood out for the quality of their tour leaders. You aren’t getting a guide trained in a script, but someone with deep subject matter knowledge. One of my favorite tours was walking down NYC’s famed 42nd street with an award-winning architect. From architects to historians to artists to chefs, the guides here are trained experts and that’s pretty rare. Context is great for travelers who want a real deep dive into a subject or place. Whether you are doing a tour of the Louvre or a walking neighborhood tour like this, you’ll get a level of detail not found in other tours. After all, with tours lasting up to 3 hours, there’s a lot of information covered. Plus, they also have full-day and half-day tours you can take as well as day trips outside Paris. It had been awhile since I’d done one of their tours and I’m super glad that the quality that I fell in love with is still there. Context primarily runs private tours, meaning they are perfect for a group of people or families looking for a private tour, but they also have a number of tours where you can join existing groups. And, if you just want to do your own thing, they have a ton of audio tours to choose from too. They operate in 70+ cities and cover everything from all the famous places you want to see to unique off-the-beaten-path places. I’ve loved them since I started using them and, in the last couple of years, they have expanded a lot so I want to re-highlight Context Travel as a company to use on your next trip. Definitely consider them for your next trip. Get Your In-Depth Budget Guide to Paris!For more in-depth information, check out my guidebook to Paris written for budget travelers like you! It cuts out the fluff found in other guides and gets straight to the practical information you need to travel around Paris. You’ll find suggested itineraries, budgets, ways to save money, on- and off-the-beaten-path things to see and do, non-touristy restaurants, markets, bars, transportation and safety tips, and much more! Click here to learn more and get your copy today! Plan your trip to Europe like a pro Get all my best Europe travel tips as well as free planning guides sent straight to you and see more of the country for less! Get your guides here! Book Your Trip to Paris: Logistical Tips and Tricks Book Your Flight Use Skyscanner. They are my favorite search engine because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned. Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the biggest inventory and best deals. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. For suggested hostels, here is a list of my favorite hostels in Paris. If you prefer to stay in a hotel, these are my favorite hotels. And if you’re wondering what part of town to stay in, here’s my neighborhood breakdown of Paris! Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are: Safety Wing (for budget travelers) World Nomads (for mid-range travelers) Insure My Trip (for those over 70) Medjet (for additional repatriation coverage) Looking for the Best Companies to Save Money With? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use to save money when I’m on the road. They will save you money when you travel too. Want More Information on Paris? Be sure to visit my robust destination guide to Paris for even more blogging tips! The post Taking a Historical Walk Through Paris with Context Travel appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site. View the full article

Financial markets tend to shrug off threats of a shutdown given the history of standoffs being resolved. Both sides are more dug in this time. View the full article

With comments on the proposed repeal due Sept. 26, stakeholders must demand decisions based on data — not politics, according to the founder of 480 Advisors. View the full article

Pew’s survey of 5,000 U.S. adults finds 76% want AI content labeled, but only 12% feel confident spotting it. The post Pew: Most Americans Want AI Labels, Few Trust Detection appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Refinancing indicators recorded muted gains as home sales challenges persisted ahead of a period when politics may change the market outlook. View the full article

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. As fall creeps toward winter, we know we’ll have to turn on the heat. But when is the right time? If you’re arguing with your partner or roommate about the thermostat, we’re happy to be able to end that argument for you. (They’ll probably never admit they’re wrong, though.) The easiest answer, which is not necessarily the correct answer, is to look for nighttime lows falling below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. That said, neither the calendar nor the weather forecast can give you very good advice here. The temperature inside your house is what matters. If your house occupies a sunny spot in a warm climate, you may be able to delay turning on your heat until it’s nearly the dead of winter. On the other hand, if your house is poorly insulated, sits in a shady area, or your local climate is on the chilly side, you may need to turn it on sooner. So while you can ask your neighbors what date or what outdoor temperature they usually use as their guideline, you’ll need to look at your own thermostat to know when it’s time. Keep the indoor temperature above 64 degrees for your healthA report from the World Health Organization points out that temperatures below 18 degrees Celsius (about 64 Fahrenheit) may cause issues for smokers, people with asthma, and people with cardiovascular disease. Warmer temperatures are associated with better lung function and better blood pressure in these people. They conclude that 64 is a good minimum for most of us, but that people with these conditions—and people who are 65 or older—should be especially sure to keep their house at 64 degrees or warmer. That said, if you’re under 65 years old and don’t have lung or heart conditions, the WHO is fine with you putting on a sweater and dealing with it. They say lower temperatures aren’t a health risk for healthy people who are moving around enough to generate plenty of body heat. You can also safely use clothing, bedding, or heating devices to stay warm at those lower temperatures—say, snuggling up in flannel pajamas with a hot water bottle under a warm duvet. Set your programmable thermostat to turn on the heat when the temperature dropsSo that’s the general rule, but what if you have a thermostat that lets you program different temperatures for different times of day? Energy Star suggests setting your thermostat to kick on the heat when the temperature drops to 70 degrees in the morning or evening. If you have a programmable thermostat, you can set a “setback” to allow the house to cool down a bit at night and when you’re not home. An eight-degree setback is recommended for when you’re out of the house during the day (at the office, for example) and then again for nighttime, since cool temperatures help us sleep, and we can use blankets if we’re too cold. That eight-degree setback would give us an indoor temperature that could fall as low as 62 degrees. Try that and see how the house feels. If it’s too cold, consider bumping up to at least 64. If you want to wait as long as possible, at least do a test runNo matter what I say here, I know that some of you will want to wait as long as possible to turn on the heat for the first time. Just do yourself a favor: Turn on the heat at some point in the early fall just to make sure everything is working OK. When it finally gets too cold to go without the heat, you don't want that day to be the day you learn something isn't working properly. View the full article

Google Ads’ Demand Gen campaigns – once thought of as mid-funnel discovery tools – are evolving into full-funnel, conversion-focused campaigns, with YouTube at the core. Why we care. Marketers are under pressure to prove ROI across channels. Demand Gen now blends social-style ad formats with Google’s AI-driven targeting, giving advertisers new ways to drive sales, leads, and app installs from audiences they can’t reach elsewhere. What’s new: Target CPC bidding: Advertisers can now align Demand Gen with social campaigns for apples-to-apples budget comparisons. Channel controls. Run ads only on YouTube, or expand to Display, Discover, Gmail, and even Maps. Creative tools. Features like trimming and flipping help repurpose social assets for Shorts and other placements, lowering barriers to entry. Feeds + app support. Product feeds in Merchant Center show a 33% conversion lift; Web-to-App Connect now extends to iOS for smoother in-app conversions. By the numbers. According to Google advertisers using Demand Gen have seen on average: 26% YoY increase in conversions per dollar 33% uplift when attaching product feeds Between the lines. Google says Demand Gen’s shift from contextual matching to predicting user intent and purchase propensity has made it a contender for bottom-funnel performance. In short: YouTube is no longer just discovery – it’s decision-making. What’s next. Expect more AI-driven creative tools, expanded shoppable formats, and deeper integrations across channels. The takeaway. Don’t wait for “perfect” YouTube creative. Lift, adapt, and test now — Demand Gen is no longer a mid-funnel experiment, it’s a performance channel. View the full article

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a speech Tuesday that the central bank's policy stance is "modestly restrictive," a stance that will give the central bank flexibility to react to an uncertain economic future. View the full article

Marcel Petitpas, CEO of Parakeeto, is using AI as a core driver of delivery excellence—simplifying workflows, enforcing data discipline, and empowering every team member (even non‑technical ones) to leverage AI in their daily work. The post Inside This CEO’s Bold Push to Use AI for Cleaner Data, Faster Delivery, and Simpler PM Workflows appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source. Walmart has jumped on the October Prime Day bandwagon in an attempt to sway you away from the biggest online sale of the fall. The main event is Amazon's two-day Prime Big Deal Days promotion, aka October Prime Day. This week, Walmart officially announced its own "Prime Day"-esque promotion, and there's some good news for those of you who balk at the idea of paying for a membership to take advantage of a sale—it's free to everyone. What is Walmart Deals?Walmart Deals is meant to be the answer to Amazon's Prime Day sales. It is both an in-store and online sale with deals on most things that Walmart sells (food being arguably the biggest omission). The sale happens every year around spring, summer, fall, and winter, revolving around Prime Day sales. When does Walmart Deals start?Walmart Deals kicks off Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET for Walmart+ members (a five-hour head start) and Oct. 7 for everyone else. It runs until Oct. 12, both online and in stores at local opening times. Do you need to be a Walmart+ member to shop during Walmart Deals?No. But, if you are a Walmart+ member, you'll get early access to the sales beginning Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET, the evening before the event opens to the public. You can sign up for a free 30-day Walmart+ subscription or get the annual plan for $98 ($8.17/month). What you can expect from Walmart DealsWalmart says its sale will include many different categories, including deals on electronics, home, toys, travel, and many other categories—similar to the deals we found last year. The sale will be on Walmart.com, the Walmart app, and in stores. You can already see the landing page, even though the sale hasn't started. Here are some deals Walmart says will be available: Electronics ASUS 16” R7 4050 16/512 Gaming Laptop – $400 (Walmart exclusive) Proscan Elite, 14.1” Wi-Fi Digital Picture Frame – $25 Savings VIZIO 50" Class Quantum 4K QLED HDR Smart TV – $100 Savings Home Better Homes & Gardens Farm Apple Pumpkin Scented 1-Wick 16.1oz Ribbed Jar Candle – $7 Savings (Walmart exclusive) Dyson Ball Animal Origin Upright Vacuum – $80 Savings Lasko Oscillating 1500W Electric Motion Heat Whole Room Ceramic Heater with Remote Control – $30 Savings HART 215-piece Mechanics Tool Set, Chrome finish – $52 Savings (Walmart exclusive) Seasonal Decor 5Ft Halloween Inflatable Pumpkin Ghost with 360° Rotating Colorful LED Lights – $102 Savings 4' Pre-Lit Starburst Gold Artificial Christmas Tree – $42.97 (Walmart exclusive) Govee Christmas LED Net Lights – $30 Savings Mr. Christmas Santa's Magical Telephone – $59.88 (Walmart exclusive) Toys Hot Wheels Mario Kart Bowser’s Castle Track Set – $36.42 Savings LEGO Harry Potter Buckbeak – $24.99 Savings Monster High Frankie Stein Make-A-Monser Pet Doll – $20 Savings Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - Prismatic Evolutions Elite Trainer Box – $60 Savings Fashion Free Assembly Women's and Women's Plus Cozy Yarn Welt Pocket Cable Cardigan Sweater – $11 Savings (Walmart exclusive) Chaps Men's Stretch Regular-Fit Denim Jeans, Sizes 30-42 - $10 savings Madden Girl Women's Bells Slide-on Strappy Heeled Mule - $25 savings Beauty Calvin Klein Eternity, Eau de Parfum, 3.4 oz – $55.02 Savings Oral-B iO Series 2 Rechargeable Electric Powered Toothbrush, Peach – $15.03 Savings Food Frito Lay Flamin' Hot Mix 6 Flavor Variety Pack 40 Ct – $6.73 Savings Sanpellegrino CIAO Lime Sparkling Flavored Water – $2.88 Savings Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino 13.7oz 12ct – $30.40 Savings You can choose between in-store pickup and different delivery options, including early-morning delivery, late-night express delivery, and next- and two-day shipping. All of the other competing sales for October Prime DayYou can always expect major retailers to have their own competitive sales, the big ones being Best Buy, Target, and, of course, Amazon. Target has been the only other retailer to officially announce their October competition sale. Like in previous years, the dates for these sales will start earlier, overlap, and run longer than October Prime Day. There are usually a couple of deals that are better than Amazon's Prime Day from each of the retailers, but the majority of the good deals will be on Amazon. I will be updating this post with details on those offerings as soon as they've been announced. View the full article

Earlier this month, we talked about corporate gifts that went terribly wrong. You shared so many outrageous stories that I had to split my favorites into two parts. Part one was here, and here’s part two. 1. The fire hazard After college I spent some time temping for a cargo airline. When someone had been with the company for five years, they were given a little glass globe paperweight. Part of my job was sending them out – a lot of the company’s employees were pilots and flight crew, so they didn’t come in to an office, and we mailed the gifts to their homes. After a while we got an email from one of the pilots. He had placed his globe on his desk by the window and walked away from it. He came back to the smell of smoke. Apparently, the globe had acted like a magnifying glass and focused the sunlight onto a pile of papers on his desk, and those papers had started to burn. So yeah, perfectly fine gift, as long as it doesn’t burn down your house. 2. The shared yoga mat We were once given 1 yoga mat to share between 7 employees. I guess the idea was that we could use it at work when we needed time to decompress. I have been tempted to steal it and take it home so many times, because no one has ever used it at work, and I could use a new yoga mat. 3. The clock I manage a global ambassador program and we wanted to gift our ambassadors a small token of appreciation. We worked with a local vendor to create a lovely desk piece that opened to have a small clock dial on one side and some traditional ethnic art on the other. Sent the packages out and a few weeks later I got a distressed email from a Chinese ambassador. The postal service was asking her to pay to get the package and she wanted to know what was in it. Told her it was a decorative piece with a clock and she absolutely refused to accept it. Apparently sending clocks to people in China (and maybe other East Asian countries) was bad luck and a way to wish them dead – like your time’s up! We told her to return to sender and we sent her an alternative design minus clock. Lesson learnt — check with local team before making decisions about gifting. 4. The Oreos At an old job at a major research university, we got $5 Panera gift cards and two Oreos. Only two; three would have been breaking the bank. 5. The laptop bags The gift in itself was not bad but no one had thought through the context. I went to a conference where on registration we were given our conference pack and a complementary laptop bag. I’d love to know the thought process that came up with having with everyone at the conference carry identical laptop bags, what could possibly go wrong? 6. The single cookie My company touted a “big surprise”for three weeks before a big reveal at a 1,000-person company “all hands.” Ladies and gentlemen, the surprise was a single cookie that we had to have shipped to us. We all got ONE cookie to enjoy in 5-8 business days. It was insulting to many of us, plus all the packaging included in that choice made it difficult to defend our B-corp status later. Genuinely, would’ve taken the ole pizza party over that situation. 7. The seeds of appreciation For Administrative Professionals Day, HR would give out plants for our desks and called it “seeds of appreciation.” Except most of us had offices and desk locations with no access to natural light, and took public transit to and from work, so it was difficult to transport a plant home during rush hour. Worse, the plants would usually attract bugs (or already have them to start) causing our managers to ask us to throw out the plants after a week or two. 8. The oblivious CEO My husband used to work at JCPenney when he was a teenager and it was announced one Christmas that everyone would be getting gifts from the CEO. This was after they made all employees work through Thanksgiving afternoon/evening for Black Friday. Most people expected JCPenney giftcards or something similar. Instead, they got little bags with toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, and best of all, a postcard with a picture of the CEO and his family in Hawaii for the holidays. So basically, “Thanks for the vacation, you all stink, by the way.” 9. The “gift bags” When I was a Teach for America corps member, they (somewhat out of nowhere) decided to start mandatory Saturday all-day trainings, and advertised “gift bags for your classroom” as one of the perks. First, we live in an area with horrible weekend traffic so it took me over an hour to get to the site they picked and more than two hours to get home. Second, the “gift bags” were tiny dime bags (the little mini clear ziplock) with: a rubber band, a cotton ball, a lifesaver, a single piece of very stale Halloween candy, and a tiny poem that desperately tried to tie the garbage together in a coherent narrative. It was a while ago but it was something like, “A little chocolate can save your life and as a teacher you hold everything together like a rubber band.” Couldn’t tell you what the cotton ball was for. If I’m remembering correctly that was also the meeting where it poured so hard the whole cafeteria we were supposed to do the training in flooded, so we couldn’t do most of the planned activities. 10. The questionable hams I remember years ago that everyone in the office was given a ham as a Christmas gift. I was a vegetarian at the time so it wasn’t my favorite thing to receive, plus I’m fairly certain we had several Jewish employees as well. The real kicker was that they gave us the hams in the morning, with nowhere to store them all day. They told us that it was cold enough outside that leaving them in our cars would probably keep them at a safe temperature all day. Probably. 11. The bobblehead doll So, in the years after the dot-com bubble burst, tech companies fell on hard times. One of the largest decided to cut back on the annual Christmas gift to employees. Instead of gift cards or gourmet food baskets, they gave a bobblehead doll of the company’s notoriously arrogant founder. Quite a few of the dolls wound up in the urinals at work. 12. The ornaments Company branded and in company color (orange!!) Christmas tree ornaments. The tree in the lobby fell over from the weight of so many employees abandoning their “gift” onto the company tree. I believe there bets on how many ornaments it would take before the fake tree collapsed! 13. The hoodies Flashing back to when they gave every employee a mens XL windbreaker hoodie and then the leadership team thought that women were being petty when they spoke up about being given a hoodie that came down to their knees. The post the shared yoga mat, the fire hazard, and other tales of poorly thought-out corporate gifts appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Your office can be anywhere you choose to set up your laptop. Traditional employees may remain stuck in whatever city their employer chooses, but you have something invaluable: complete geographic freedom. Moving opens doors to lower living costs, fresh creative inspiration, and access to markets that might remain out of reach from your current spot. Whether you're seeking financial relief from rising local expenses, craving a change of scenery to spark new ideas, or hoping to position yourself closer to ideal clients, your next ZIP code could become your smartest business move. Writing, makeup artistry, photography, event coordination, and tour guide work represent just a few freelance careers that allow travel, and all can flourish from virtually any home base. Why Location Flexibility Is a Built-In Advantage for Independent WorkersYou operate without the constraints that keep traditional employees anchored to specific metropolitan areas. Your client base exists online, your meetings happen through video calls, and your deliverables travel through digital channels. You can choose your location based on what serves your business and personal goals best, rather than accepting whatever housing market or cost structure happens to surround someone else's headquarters. Location becomes a business decision when you work for yourself. You can position yourself in markets with lower overhead costs, giving you more room to invest in professional development, better equipment, or simply building a stronger financial safety net. Alternatively, you might choose locations that offer networking opportunities, industry events, or access to potential clients who prefer working with local talent. Many professionals have discovered that freelancing provides the perfect answer for those seeking location independence after extensive travel experiences. Modern technology supports your flexibility through cloud-based project management tools, high-speed internet access in remote areas, and mobile banking systems that keep your finances accessible regardless of your physical location. Signs It May Be Time To Rethink Your BaseRising living expenses can quietly eat into your freelance income without you realizing the full impact. Housing costs that consume an increasing percentage of your earnings leave you with less capital for business growth, professional development, or building emergency reserves. High local costs can also pressure you to accept lower-paying projects or work longer hours to maintain your current lifestyle. Creating a step-by-step strategy becomes essential when considering whether a career-inspired move makes sense and helps guide you through planning to relocate as a freelancer. Professional isolation signals another major reason to consider relocation. If your current area lacks networking opportunities, industry meetups, or collaborative spaces, you might find yourself cut off from the professional community that could fuel your career growth. Limited local opportunity can also mean fewer chances for in-person client meetings or face-to-face collaborations that sometimes lead to bigger projects. How a New Location Can Support Business GrowthCutting your living costs gives you breathing room that keeps getting better over time. Pay less for rent, gas, and groceries, and suddenly you have money to spend on courses, better marketing, or a decent emergency fund. Having more financial wiggle room takes pressure off and helps you think more clearly about where you want your business to go. Some places just make freelancing easier. You need reliable internet, but you also want spots where you can work alongside other people when you're tired of your kitchen table. Business-friendly local policies help too. Certain areas put you closer to the kinds of clients you want to work with, especially if your field has geographic clusters. Moving somewhere new can shake up how you think about work and life. Different surroundings often lead to different routines, and you start noticing things that might spark ideas for your business. Maybe you discover a gap in the local market or find inspiration from how people do things differently. Learning to navigate a new place builds your confidence and problem-solving muscles, which carry over into your work. Where To Go: Regions That Support Freelance-Friendly LifestylesStaying in the U.S. keeps things simple with familiar banking and legal systems while cutting your costs significantly. Nashville, Austin, and Columbus stand out as some of the best cities for freelancers because they combine low state taxes with affordable housing. Mid-sized cities hit the sweet spot where you pay less but still get good restaurants, cultural events, and chances to meet other professionals. Going international opens up way more possibilities, especially if you rarely need face-to-face client meetings. Countries with digital nomad programs have built infrastructure just for remote workers, making visas easier to get and creating communities where you can meet other expats doing similar work. Europe offers some great combinations of affordability, culture, and solid internet. If you aren’t sure where to travel, Andalusia and Sicily are worth considering if you want lower costs without giving up access to major European markets. They also offer seasonal timing and regional highlights that could give independent workers the perfect mix of affordability, infrastructure, and inspiration. Just make sure to check local business customs and internet speeds before making any big commitments. Practical Tools and Planning Tips for a Smooth TransitionTreat your move like any other major business decision. Make a real budget that includes moving costs, temporary housing, and the time you'll need to get settled into new routines. Do your homework on internet speeds, local taxes, and how close you'll be to things you need. Logistics matter more when you're moving to a new location for work, covering everything from transporting belongings and updating legal information to potentially shipping a car as part of your professional transition. Set up new banking relationships and figure out visa requirements and tax obligations well ahead of time for international moves. You'll need cloud storage to keep your files accessible from anywhere, backup internet options when your main connection fails, and banking apps that work no matter where you are. Buy equipment that travels well and still looks professional on video calls. Tell your existing clients about your move upfront, including how you'll handle time zone differences and keep your usual response times. Building new networks takes effort. Look up professional groups, co-working spaces, and industry events before you arrive. Facebook groups and online communities can give you the inside scoop on local business culture and where to meet people in your field. Final ThoughtsMost freelancers never use their biggest advantage: the ability to live anywhere. Your location affects your monthly bills, daily inspiration, and business growth potential. Instead of accepting whatever your current ZIP code costs and limits, you can pick places that actually support your goals and lifestyle. If rising costs are eating your profits, limited opportunities are holding you back, or your environment is killing your creativity, moving might give your business the reset it needs and pay off for years to come. View the full article