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Snippets of life, Thoughts

Six Years of Blogging

Yesterday marked my 6th year of blogging.

It’s funny to think that 6 years ago, I created this blog to distract myself after a nasty breakup. There were lots of soppy posts back then, and at the beginning, I didn’t tell anyone about this blog (with the crap that I wrote back then, I’m not surprised I kept it a secret). Then I started writing about my daily life, journals from my trips, and emotive posts here and there. I started letting my closest friends know about this blog, and their encouragement made me confident to publish more things here, and also to let more people know that I wrote stuff and took photos. My writing was (still is) personal, so knowing that people read my writing was a bit daunting.

But words can’t describe how grateful I am that I loyally write on Her Little Journal, even though sometimes life gets busy and I let things unwritten. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve learned a lot through this blog. I first learned about photography because I wanted to post good photos here, and that’s how I found my love for photography. Back then, I only took it as a hobby, and I’d never imagined that I’d set up a photography business 4 years later.

Career-wise, this blog has opened a lot of opportunities for me. I think it’s because I truly enjoy writing and photography, so doing it persistently has never been a burden. Years of writing this blog has improved my writing and photography skills, and I can now refer to Her Little Journal to show my writing and photos to people. When Chica from Pustakalana asked if I wanted to be their Website Content Manager, I said yes straight away, silently thanking this little blog for being the showcase of my work, which Chica apparently liked. A month after that, I landed a role as a Content Marketing Executive, and to this day, I still can’t believe I get paid for writing (and other things as well, like keyword research, SEO, content performance monitoring, etc. But mainly, writing). I have to learn a lot in this new field, but I can honestly say I immensely enjoy what I’m doing.

Apart from that, this blog has also brought opportunities for some earnings, which I have never taken so far, owing to the difference in principles. I always state my requirements for sponsored posts or ads:

  1. I will disclose clearly and openly that it’s a sponsored post or ad
  2. I don’t accept pre-written content, means that everything has to be written by me, in my opinion
  3. Every link put in the post has to be nofollow link, as per Google guidelines

I’ve been approached by some Indonesian companies for collaborations, but as soon as I mentioned these requirements, I never heard from them again (even the big names!). Which is okay by me, because if they didn’t agree, I wouldn’t want to work with them anyway. But it still frustrates me when I find my favorite Indonesian bloggers don’t disclose collab. I understand it’s legally okay in Indonesia (it’s illegal in the UK, there’s a law about that), but I wouldn’t want to trick my friends and readers into clicking something that they think is a personal post, only to find that it’s an ad. Same thing about pre-written content; I wouldn’t want to post something that’s not written by me (unless on this rare occasion, when I ask my friend to write about the concerning state of Indonesia’s democracy). As for number 3, I certainly wouldn’t want to violate Google’s policy about nofollow links and get my blog penalized (click here if you want to read Google’s guidelines on link schemes).

Am I disappointed that I haven’t earned money from this blog? Absolutely not. I’m really protective of this blog, and I only want to fill it with things created by me, or things that I approve of. Besides, this blog has given me much bigger things: a chance to change my career path, and with that, the luxury to have a job that I’m so passionate about.

But what I’m most grateful for, is the people I met through this blog. The people who have commented, liked my posts, and interacted with me. The people who have encouraged me to keep doing what I love and cheering me on to keep going when I’m at the lowest points in my life. The wonderful, amazing, inspirational people who have become either friends or role models, or both.

For you, thank you so, so much. You’ve made blogging more than just blogging.


If you’d like to read more posts, here are 5 most-viewed posts according to the stats (to my delight, they’re all my favorites as well):

And 7 of my favorite places, if you’re looking for a travel inspiration:

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19 Comments

  • Reply denaldd

    Selamat 6 tahun ngeblog Dixie. Aku senang mengenalmu dan blogmu. Selalu termanjakan dengan foto2 indah di sini, juga cara bercerita kamu yang runtun dan banyak hal yang bisa direnungkan. Ingat waktu cari info tentang Bavaria, banyak dapat informasi dari blog kamu, meskipun masih belum kesampaian ke sana haha. Suatu saat nanti. Terus menulis Dixie!

    August 23, 2017 at 7:04 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Terima kasih Mbak Deny, aku juga seneng bisa kenal Mbak Deny & tulisan2nya. Syukurlah kalo tulisan di blog ini ada yang berguna buat yang baca. Semoga nanti bisa ke Bavaria ya Mbak, itu salah satu tempat favoritku, dan salah satu perjalanan yang paling memorable 🙂 Makasih buat semangatnyaa! 🙂

      August 24, 2017 at 6:41 pm
  • Reply Arman

    selamat ultah ke 6 ya blog her little journal! 🙂

    emang kalo sponsored post jarang yang mau kitanya nulis sponsored post. hahaha. kalo gua sih yang penting emang tulisannya itu murni dari pendapat gua sendiri, bukan didikte mereka. jadi walaupun sponsored tapi semua tulisannya emang tulus dari hati sanubari. huahaha.

    August 23, 2017 at 9:10 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Makasih Ko Arman! 🙂

      Iyaa, di Indonesia rata2 pada gini ya. Di UK emang ada peraturannya kalo sponsored/ads harus ada disclosure, dan rata2 blogger2 juga ga mau kalo diem2, soalnya resikonya kalo ketahuan bisa langsung diunfollow banyak fans hahaa. Yes aku liat tulisannya Ko Arman pasti ditulis sendiri, makanya masih aku baca hahaa (kan ada tuh yang keliatan jelas ga ditulis sendiri, males dah bacanya kalo gitu).

      August 24, 2017 at 6:44 pm
  • Reply inlycampbell

    Congrats for the 6th years on blogsphere.. Punyaku juga baru ultah mid of August kemarin..
    Keep on blogging ya, Dixie.. Love your post.. Seru2..

    August 24, 2017 at 6:45 am
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Thank you Mbak! Wah ternyata anniversary blog kita sama2 di bulan Agustus ya, happy birthday juga buat blognya Mbak Inly 🙂

      Thank you ya Mbak, pastinya aku akan terus blogging soalnya aku juga enjoy banget nulis di sini 🙂

      August 24, 2017 at 6:45 pm
      • Reply inlycampbell

        thank you Dixie.. 🙂 ditunggu postingan2 berikutnya yaa..

        August 25, 2017 at 6:02 am
  • Reply aggy87

    Selamat ya Dixie! I have only stumbled upon your blog last year but I really glad I (finally!) did! Keep on blogging and certainly understand and agree with you with income from blogging. I’ve been there and I do not wanna go there again since it really felt so unlike me. Really glad that you’ve kept the blog “you” all these years. Cheers to many more to come!

    August 24, 2017 at 2:23 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Thank you Aggy! I’m so glad I found your blog too, and I’m wondering why I hadn’t found it sooner haha. Yours is among my favorites, the posts are original and fresh. I’m glad I’ve been keeping this blog the way I want to, and that’s one of many reasons I’m so picky with all these offers. Thanks you for reading my writing ya Gy, glad we ‘met’ here online, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to meet someday 🙂

      August 24, 2017 at 6:48 pm
  • Reply Justin Larissa

    Selamat ulang tauuuun blog Her Little Journal mbak dixie yang ku suka sekaliiii. Aku suka mba dixie tetep protektif sama blognya, seperti adik kecilnya sendiri. Semoga semakin produktif yaaaa 🙂

    August 25, 2017 at 7:16 am
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Terima kasih yaa Justin. Amin amiiin, semoga bisa makin oke bagi waktu biar bisa produktif nulis di sini 🙂

      August 27, 2017 at 8:05 pm
  • Reply Anne Afriliani

    6 tahun kak dixie nulis ini blog post nya semuanya berfaedah hahaha terutama untuk orang-orang seperti aku yang suka liat foto-foto bagus dan kata-kata bagus, aku bikin blog di tumblr juga udah lama kak tapi kebanyakan foto-foto aja tanpa ada details atau penjelasan mostly because i don’t really know how to write. tapi karena blog kak dixie aku jadi mulai mau nulis semenjak tahun lalu hahaha 🙂

    August 28, 2017 at 12:59 am
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Anne makasih yaa! Aku bersyukur kalo tulisannya ada yang berfaedah, biar ada manfaatnya buat yang baca juga. Really glad to know that you started writing again because of this blog. Keep doing it ya Ne. Btw, boleh share link-nya? Aku juga pengen baca hehe 🙂

      August 29, 2017 at 10:32 pm
  • Reply gheasafferina

    Akupuunnnn salah satu yang selalu jatuh cinta sama foto-foto dan tulisan kak dixie. Keren dan bikin happy aja lihatnya. Keep writing yaaaah kak <3 <3 <3

    Selamat ulang tahun yang ke 6, teruslah menginspirasi :))

    August 28, 2017 at 5:40 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Gheaaaa makasih yaa! Seneng banget tau ini, soalnya blog kamu juga salah satu favorit dan sumber inspirasi aku. Thank you again ya Ghea 🙂

      August 29, 2017 at 10:33 pm
  • Reply Christa

    Glad I stumbled upon your blog Dixie! Congratulations on the milestone! 🙂

    August 29, 2017 at 12:08 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Christa, you’re one of the wonderful people I met through the blog, and I’m so glad we had the chance to meet offline as well, a few times! Thank you for being a reader of this blog and a friend of mine 🙂

      August 29, 2017 at 10:35 pm
  • Reply Ditaa

    *throwing confetti*
    Happy blogniversarry!

    For me, blog is simply where I find joy in writing and sharing stories. And I’m glad I found that big and bold in yours :*

    August 29, 2017 at 3:41 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Thank you Dita! And thank you for the compliment, I’m glad if this blog can bring even the smallest joy to people 🙂

      August 29, 2017 at 10:36 pm

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