Being A Blogger

Today our guest on BaB is a pretty lady from Indonesia, who blogs a daily diary on her blog Pretty in the City.

Hi Melani, Welcome to Being A Blogger!

Tell us about yourself. What made you choose this name for your blog, Pretty in the city?

My name is Melani Sastrawidjaja. I am based in Jakarta City, Indonesia. I am happily married and live with my husband. I am a stay-at-home wife but I am preparing to open my own clothes shop right now. (She has already opened it now as per her blog post.)

I’ve been engaged with my blog for 9 months. This blog is my daily journal. When I read my blog archives, it reminds me how my life has gone, I realize that I have a lot of things to be grateful for.

Long time ago, I was addicted to watch Sex and the City series. I used to put Pretty in the City as my nickname on Internet. This name means 2 things to me: I only have pretty thoughts and I am a girl who pretty much likes everything. I don’t mind to try something new.

How and when did you start blogging?

On June 2006, I attended online course about Internet marketing. One of the modules was about blog tutorial. That was the first time I came to know what blog was. I later fell in love with personal blog. At that time, I still worked as a full time interior designer. So I postponed starting my own blog. Finally, when I had leisure time, I created my blog on February 2007.

How has your blogging journey been for you?

Incredible! At first, I created blog to be a witness of my daily life. But my blogging journey has become more precious than I expected before. I am now aware that all bloggers are the citizens of the world. Doesn’t matter where I live, I can make friends with people around the world.

Your blog has a unique style. It is beautiful daily snippets about your life, with a cute picture. (I must mention I love your romantic short posts about your hubby.)

I use my photographic memory more than other memory. It is more easy to me to remember, learn, and feel from my sight. That’s why I mostly put a picture on every post. Usually, the short post below the picture is just a reminder to connect the whole story in my head. The romantic posts about my husband, those were written naturally, maybe because I am so proud of him. Anyway, thanks for the compliments.
I love beautifully shaped pictures on your blog. But isn’t that pain for you to upload those shapely pics with every post?

Actually, I got the idea of the beautifully cut pictures from scrapbooking websites. I found many pictures were cut creatively such as, torn paper edges, heart shaped edges, and many things else.

I use adobe photoshop program to cut the picture. The process is as easy as cutting a paper with scissors. Select the picture with “polygonal lasso tool” with the shape you desire into a closed curve. Then select + inverse. After that step, press delete button.

Or you can erase the edge of the picture directly with erase tool, but remember to choose your favorite brush first. Every brush has a different result. I hope my explanation is helpful.

Your blog is mainly about life blogging (that is blogging about daily life). Where do you draw a line between your privacy and sharing your life on web?

Everything that I write on my blog, usually I will tell it to my offline friend too. So I don’t mind to share my daily life to my blog readers. Because I consider my readers as friends too.
I keep the privacy when the story mentions about my friends. I rarely put their name on my blog except when I am so sure that it’s just the ordinary story. When I put their picture, I have asked for their permission.

It seems you are quite comfortable sharing your blog in real life.

None of my family know that I have a blog. Most of them are not internet users. The only family who reads my blog is my husband (although he had no idea how to create a blog or why everybody loves to blog).

How did you manage to garner so much traffic to your blog? Does your family read your blog?

I am sorry, I don’t have a specific knowledge to share about gaining the traffic. At the beginning, I just like to drop comments on my friend blogs or other blogs I love. I assume my blog visitors come from those blogs. That’s simple.

You have a self-hosted blog, and you blogged about facing some problem with your webhost. How difficult is self-hosting a blog?

Don’t laugh me =), but I am so blind about technical stuffs. First when I started my blog, I was helped by the hosting company. Then when I moved my blog to other webhost, my blogging friend did all the process (thanks to him).

Are you part of any blogging groups and communities? Do blog communities help?

I joined mybloglog, but I am not an active member. Once, I attended to a blogger party, in Jakarta. It was a party for Indonesian Bloggers. Joining the blog communities is brilliant idea to make more friends. Life will never dull with a lot of friends.

Were there any embarrassing or sad moments during your blogging journey?

When I did a grammar mistakes (LOL). Please apologize those mistakes, because English is not my mother language. Although embarrassing, I hope readers will always correct my mistakes, so that I can improve myself.

How do you handle when you have comments that completely dismiss your opinion and oppose your writing?

I will examine what I have written and I will try to think those comments from commentator’s perspective. Critics can have great inputs.

Your blog has quite high readership, how do you keep up your responsibility?

Hmm, I never thought that blogging can be so serious. But I will back to the main purpose why I started blogging (that I want to keep my life journal). So my responsibility is to commit into the fullest in writing life journal, with my style and honestly.

I can’t offer something specific to my readers right now, I really thank them from the bottom of my heart for their continued support.

Most bloggers face writer’s block. What keeps you motivated to keep on blogging?

It’s so easy for me to write, because I just write everything that happens in front of my eyes. When I absence on writing, that because my days left without something special to tell about.

Have you ever faced abusive comments in your blog? How do you handle them?

I am so lucky. So far, the comments are supportive and nice.

How do you manage time for daily blogging? Any time management tip you may want to share with our readers?

Nothing particular. I write a post at everywhere and whenever I want to. I often write in my cell-phone, then I transfer it into my computer. My only tip is, just blog whenever you desire to and never write a post just because you have to.

I see you run an advertising program on your blog. Does that making blogging money-making/profitable for you?

Ha ha. Actually, I receive cheque from Google Adsense every month/two months. But I am not focused on earning money from my blog. I put adsense ads because I just wanted to practice one of the modules I’ve got from internet course. Though the cheque amount is more than enough to cover domain name and web hosting.

Do you read other blogs? What interests you in other blogs?

Yes, I do. I fall in love with a blog with great personality of writing, strong character, funny, and positive content.
What are your top 5 blogging tools?

Positive attitude, personality, honest, good mood, put a smile on my face when writing (Those tools more important to me than other technical tools).

Any blogging tips you have that you want to share with newbie bloggers?

Follow your personal intuition and style while writing. Glow from inside. Enjoy your blogging journey.

What are your 5 take aways from your blogging journey?

• I learn that writing a post is like a meditation to me.
• I learn to share and receive input from new friends.
• I learn to be grateful when reading my blog archive.
• I learn that blogging is a way for me to express myself freely
• I learn blogging is a way to exchange thoughts and information.

Any favorite blogs? (You can not name yours)

All blogs in my blogroll are my favorite because they are my friends. But I secretly admire to these blogs below. These blogs have strong characters and personalities. I wish I know them.
www.secret-agent-josephine.com/blogs

www.helenjane.com

www.thisfish.ivillage.com/love

www.theparistraveler.com