While my elementary school years were all about scrap metal, banana leaves, and tapak liman, high school was when I first got into the digital world, though it all started with nothing more than a dream of going viral like a famous blogger. From there, my story unfolds through blogging, helping out with family business, and eventually working as an online shop admin.
First Encounter with Blogging: Hoping to Go Viral
I actually first discovered blogging back in 9th grade of middle school. I created a blog, but it never really took off, the content was random and directionless. My hope at the time was to go viral like well-known Indonesian bloggers, but as expected for a middle schooler, the blog quickly became abandoned.
I started high school in 2015, and for a while, my interest in blogging faded. It wasn't until 2016 that I got serious about learning more, watching tutorials on how to build a blog, learning the basics of SEO, and experimenting with different templates.
The Trial-and-Error Era: Multiple Blogs, Multiple Niches
During this period, I kept switching topics and created several blogs with different themes. One of them was called "Nobikyo", yes, I was deep into my otaku phase back then, so the content revolved around anime and Japanese pop culture. Besides that, I had a few other blogs covering all sorts of random topics, the result of an exploration phase that lacked focus.
2017: Buying My First Domain — Lemaribuku.com Was Born
2017 marked a more serious step, as I decided to buy my own domain. The blog was called lemaribuku.com, and its content was based on educational materials for middle and high school students.
The source material was quite unusual: my dad worked at a printing company and often bought a magazine called PCM Plus, which usually came with educational ebooks covering various subjects from elementary to high school. The magazine itself wasn't really designed for that purpose, but since it had so much material, I used it as the main source for articles on lemaribuku.com.
Joining JV Adsense: Dreaming of Passive Income from Other People's Ads
Once the blog started running, I joined a program called JV Adsense. The concept was simple: someone else's Adsense ads would be placed on my blog, and the revenue would be split between us. I ran this from 2016 to 2018.
Unfortunately, the income was very small. Looking back, the 2016-2018 period was mostly spent experimenting, I kept paying for internet access, but the results were nowhere near worth it. I'll admit part of it was also my own lack of consistency and clear strategy.
Helping with Family Business and Selling Pempek
Aside from blogging, I also had a daily routine outside the digital world. In the mornings, I helped my parents sell vegetables and food. In the afternoons, I sold pempek (a traditional Indonesian fish cake dish), this was right after I graduated high school in 2018 and was unemployed during my gap year.
So my days back then were pretty packed: mornings selling vegetables, afternoons selling pempek, and the rest of my time spent thinking about a blog that wasn't generating much income.
2018: Graduating High School, Failing SBMPTN, and Choosing a Gap Year
In 2018, I graduated high school and took the SBMPTN (Indonesia's national university entrance exam), but I didn't pass. In the end, I decided to take a gap year, a decision that, at the time, was largely influenced by the fact that many of my friends were also doing the same thing. Looking back now, it wasn't really the most thought-out choice.
Becoming an Online Shop Admin: Hard Work but Valuable Lessons
While waiting for the next SBMPTN registration period, I got a job offer to become an online shop admin on Tokopedia. The shop belonged to a family acquaintance, and the transaction volume was quite high.
Because of the heavy order volume, I often worked overtime to make sure everything was processed properly. This experience became one of the most "serious" jobs I had at the time, a big contrast to the trial-and-error nature of my blogging days.
Unfortunately, I eventually had to quit because I needed to continue my studies. The catch was, I ended up attending a private university, which made that one-year gap year feel like it didn't really pay off in the end.
Final Thoughts
My high school and gap year period was full of experiments, from blogging using my dad's old educational ebooks, to selling vegetables and pempek, to working long hours as an online shop admin. While many of these efforts didn't go as planned, this phase laid the foundation for experiences that turned out to be valuable for what came next.
I'll continue the story of my college years and beyond in a future post!
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