The less sociable of my two local cheetahs appears to be giving it some thought. Let's join him.

Initially, I intended this site to be mostly a resource that people could search for information about travelling and living in France - a travel guide with additional information for foreigners who lived, or were planning to live, in the country. That would attract the kind of person who would occasionally earn me a few pennies in commissions from companies with a broad appeal, such as the sellers of rail passes or hire car and hotel booking systems. 

It doesn't seem to be working out that way. This site is beginning to look and feel a lot like my attempts at creating and using filing systems at work and at home. 

I did create a skeleton structure, and I even started to fill it with articles. The idea was to put at least one article into each category as quickly as possible, then settle into a routine of expanding each category. In practice, many of the subjects I chose to write about led me to add new categories, or even to revise the titles of existing ones. On more than one occasion, I was sidetracked completely as I dedicated all my energy to following a new thread that just popped up during conversation or casual browsing.

I'm being selfish. I'm spending most of my time doing what I enjoy doing - following threads wherever they lead, then gathering people around me and saying: "Look what I found!" The Freebooters index even includes a substantial section that has no connection whatever with the title of the site. I'm running true to type. I'm ignoring the rules and doing whatever tickles my fancy. I was always a maverick, and I don't want to change.

The thing is, it's working. People have started to write to me asking for ideas and advice. People who don't have money to burn, but want to get the most out of their short breaks from earning a living. People who want to show their children things they will remember. People who are prepared to make an effort themselves. They don't want want a detailed packaged itinerary, they want themes and starting points. I have done my best to provide them - sometimes from my own experiences, sometimes by spending a while on the web or by asking my friends.

It's working in another sense, too. I have deliberately set out to find providers of unusual services which could interest Freebooters fans. Somehow, the message is beginning to get around. Now some of the providers are contacting me to tell me about what they offer. Whenever they offer something that I think might interest you, I'll find out more and write a short introductory article about it. For the moment, I have to do whatever I can from a distance. Next year I shall be based in France. I shall be able to sample many offerings myself and comment on them in detail.

Before the end of this year, I hope to have a big enough audience to be able to sell small ads like those in a printed magazine. My plan is to make an affordable one-time charge to run each ad for a year. That way, Freebooters will earn me a little revenue and visitors will have access to an online selection of interesting individual providers such as gîte owners. I shall continue to use affiliate systems for the companies that are big enough to be able to afford to track sales that result from people linking to them from Freebooters, but only where I believe that a substantial number of visitors will use them. Every page on this site, except the photo essays and picture galleries, is designed to load quickly. I don't want to ruin that by cluttering the pages with affiliate links that no-one ever clicks on.

Now do you see what is happening? Freebooters is becoming more like a magazine than a reference manual. The big difference between Freebooters and a typical 'e-zine' is that I shall not archive articles until they become obsolete. It will be more like an encyclopedia that you buy as a monthly magazine and file in binders for permanent reference. Freebooters will grow, and grow, and grow. I'll only prune the dead bits.

There are two big differences between a printed document and Freebooters:

- Since it costs nothing to distribute, it doesn't need scheduled issues. I'll add new material as soon as it's ready. Only paper magazines need to be sent out monthly, weekly, or at any other predefined period. The only reason I can think of for treating an e-zine like a paper magazine is to give the editor a chance to do other things, but only in return for the pain of a recurring deadline.

- I shall do my best to maintain hyperlinked cross-indexes that allow you to look at the contents from several different viewpoints. In other words, I shall apply the techniques used by good online manuals. This will become more important once Freebooters runs to hundreds and even thousands of pages.

* * *

Wondering about the title of this editorial? The French talk of villages étapes and gîtes d'étape. The word comes from the Dutch 'stapel' (a warehouse), but means the place where an army on the move sets up camp and consolidates before setting out again. Later, it was applied to staging-posts for coach journeys. 'Etape 1' is the first instance of a regular editorial in which I shall review how Freebooters has developed and where I believe it is heading. Don't forget, you can help to decide what happens next. Talk to me.

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