Introducing the first Vagabond Writer

Introducing Vagabond Writers

Welcome to the Vagabond Writers first blog post! Thank you for taking an interest. Oh man, what a journey it has been to get here! I had to choose a template, a color scheme, take some pictures, write a couple of things, Skype with my mate Jascha at JSICS who then actually did all the heavy lifting of building the site while I nattered aimlessly in his ear, have cup of coffee, stare out of the window for a bit… Well okay, that was it.

But that took a while. I had to refocus my attention span at least three times!

That reminds me, did you know they recently discovered our attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish? That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?

What that has to do with this post? Absolutely nothing, it was just that eight seconds had passed.

Our attention span is shorter than that of a gold fish

And we’re back! Today I’m going to outline some of the basic ideas about this website as well as give you a short of the people working on this blog. Currently, there are me, my girlfriend and, well, I. (Did I mention my better half is helping me out? I did? Damn that short attention span!).

But first, let’s take a look at the site itself.

So what is this thing called ‘Vagabond Writers’?

Vagabond Writers aims to help three different groups of people:

Firstly, it’s aimed at writers (and freelancers in general) who are either already living on the road or abroad, or who have always dreamed of doing so. To you, it will be a resource. For example, what characteristics do you need to live on the road, how to not get robbed, and how can write more engagingly?

We will offer our and other experiences, insights and lessons learned. These you can then apply in your own life to help you be successful in your traveling freelancer career (something I like to call travelancing).

So are you tired of having the same view from the living room window? Would you like to learn how to set up a life on a beach in Thailand, a mountain pass in the Andes, or a straw hut on the African Savanna? Or are you already out here, but you’re struggling to make ends meet? Then join us and let Vagabond Writers become your new digital home so that you never have to find a physical one again.

Beach mountain savanna
Where do you want to live?

Secondly, it’s meant for clients. As we’re freelancers ourselves, we’re always on the market for more work. And so, we’re here to help you with your copy, with the site aiming to collect a selection of vetted writers who can give you the content you need – obviously starting with myself and with the blog content serving as a tool for you to vet me.

And just because we’re traveling doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about anything else. The topics we can write about are wide and varied. Many travelancers have lived in dozens of places and tried their hands at dozens of different lives. I know I have. To give you but a few examples, I’ve been a chief editor, an academic, worked in the fashion world and in a prison, pushed charities, organize parties on beaches in India and written for TV.

Have we already sold it to you? Then you can get in touch right now. We’re only a click and a few keystrokes away! Would you like to know more? You can. Check out the writer’s portfolio page, read more about us and then get in touch! After all, what’s the harm? Reaching out only starts a conversation it does not mean you have committed to hiring us.

Finally, the page is meant for those people who want to help us spread the words. What words? No specific words. We’re not religious or anything. Instead, with your help, we want to spread all words.

Because words are opportunities and mind openers; the more words you have the more you’ll understand and the more opportunities you’ll get.

This is truer today, with the world as connected as it is, than it ever was before. For that reason, one of the most promising routes to helping people get more out of life is by teaching them to read, write and understand. For with those tools and access to the internet you have the capacity to learn nearly any other skill, be it farming, mechanics, hairdressing, or – indeed – how to work as a freelancer for companies half a world away. And that will allow the disadvantaged to take giant strides towards equality.

They say ‘give somebody a fish and you feed them for a day; teach somebody how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime’.

So what happens when you teach people how to learn?

Me and my plan

My name is Jelte ten Holt, I’m a seasoned writer, and I’m the conceiver and founder of Vagabond Writers. Together with my girlfriend Bianca, who – though absolutely wonderful in every way – doesn’t write, I’m the site’s only writer. Yes, that does mean that ‘s’ in the title is false advertising.

That I’m alone is not because I have no friends.

[Cue the sad music]

Bianca behind the camera

It’s actual because I feel it’s important that I find my own feet and come to grips with this website and how it is formed before I start expanding. I’ve worked on concepts that tried to grow too fast, without having a good foundation in place and I’ve witnessed the air castles that get built.

I don’t want that to happen here.

Quality first

I want the guiding principle of this site always to be quality – quality in what we provide, quality in the services offered and quality of the good work we do. There is already enough rubbish out there that I don’t feel we need to add to it. For that reason, I’ve decided on the current route.

I’ll only start bringing in people when I both know how they’ll fit into the framework and I’m certain they embody with my philosophy of ‘quality first’. And if that only means we’ll go slowly, well then so be it. Most of us are already rushing around so fast we don’t really know where we’re going. I don’t want this to be like that too.

For example, I believe one high-quality post is worth ten thousands of what most content creators are putting out these days. So if you too have had enough of the empty fluff and meaningless drivel that stumbles around most of the internet, then join me here on Vagabond Writers. You can get in touch, like us on social media, bookmark the site, return often and above all tell a friend that yes, there is still good content out there and you can find it here.

If you could do that for me, it would make a world of difference to myself, to the travelancing community, and to those disadvantaged souls we can help lead a better life. So will you? Will you make a difference?

Sincerely yours,

Jelte ten Holt

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Need freelance writing done? Check out my portfolio and get in touch!

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