TradeCaravan takes pitches from South African trade, customs and logistics practitioners across four desks: news, guides, the glossary and long-form concepts. Contributors get a named byline; we do not currently pay.
Four desks
Pick the one that matches what you would actually write. You can move between them later — we would just rather start with the one you are best at.
Glossary terms
A short, precise definition — a paragraph or two, not an essay.
Knowledge Base concepts
Long-form reference on supply chain or trade theory — textbook quality.
What you get, plainly
- A real byline. Your name, your qualification line and a link to your LinkedIn profile,
on every piece you write — and as the
authorin the structured data search engines and AI assistants read. Not "Editorial Team". - Your own writing desk. A login that reaches one content type and nothing else — not our inbox, not billing, not our member records. Narrow on purpose, for your protection as much as ours.
- A real editor. Somebody reads every submission before it publishes and tells you what changed.
- No payment, currently. Said here rather than in a reply after you have written something.
How it works once you are in
- You sign in with an email and password we set up for you.
- You fill in your byline once — name, qualification, photo, LinkedIn. It applies to everything you write, so correcting a job title later corrects it everywhere.
- You write in Markdown, with the real rendered page beside what you type. Not an approximation of it — the same code that publishes the page draws the preview.
- You click submit. That opens a draft pull request — a proposal, not a publication.
- An editor reads it, and merging is what publishes it.
Pitch us something
Frequently asked questions
Who are you looking for?
People who do this work. A customs practitioner, a freight forwarder, a supply chain manager, an academic — somebody whose day job means they know something a general writer would have to research badly. We would rather publish one piece a quarter from a practitioner than one a week from somebody paraphrasing press releases.
Do you pay contributors?
Not at the moment, and we would rather say so on this page than in a reply after you have written something. What you get is a named byline with your qualification and your LinkedIn profile on a site that ranks for South African trade queries, and full credit as the author in the structured data search engines read.
What happens to what I write?
You get a login to one writing desk — news, guides, glossary or concepts — and nothing else on our dashboard. You write in Markdown and see the real published page beside what you type. Submitting opens a draft pull request; an editor reads it and merges it, and merging is what publishes it. Nothing you write goes live on its own.
Will you edit my work?
Yes, for accuracy, house style and length, and we will tell you what changed. We will not change what a piece concludes without talking to you first, and if we cannot agree we will not publish it under your name.
What will you not publish?
Anything that is really an advertisement for your company, anything about tax or customs law we cannot verify against a primary source, and any figure that does not trace back to a named authority. This site is used by people filling in customs declarations, so an unsourced number is not a stylistic problem.
How long does a reply take?
Usually within a week, and we reply to every application including the ones we decline.