O

nce upon a time, back in those distant days when the Internet was still new and exciting, a new medium developed and flourished: The blog.

Blogs, or "web logs", developed as online journals, where people could share their thoughts and experiences with whoever might be interested, wherever they might be. But over time, Indonesians have developed their own take on it.

Open free blogging websites such as Multiply or Blogger, and you'll find not only an online closet full of information, secrets and ideas, but also an online shopping mall with a range of goods and services.

From dresses to shoes, from diet pills to books, even services like pre-wedding photography and made-to-order wedding invitations - it seems pretty much everything is available with a click of the mouse button, and business operators are finding it makes good commercial sense.

"This is a great way of doing business from home. I don't have to leave my son and can still be productive," said 30-year-old Icha Ardhian, who opened an online shop selling customized bags for children and teenagers three years ago when she quit her marketing job.

She learned the business from friends, who learned it from friends of friends. All are taking a similar approach to marketing their home-based enterprises.

"It's free and you can really reach customers that you cannot reach through conventional shops. And I think people are starting to enjoy shopping online," Icha said.

Taking her Rp 6 million monthly revenue as proof, perhaps it's true that the opportunity to market products through free blogging websites is something that a small-time entrepreneur should not miss.

For Icha, all she has to do is post photos of her products on her online page, which anyone can open for free by registering with websites such as Multiply, Blogger or Wordpress.

"Customers can send me a personal message with their order and then transfer the money. I only process the orders once the money reaches my bank account," she said, adding that her "shop" received a daily average of 250 visitors, which she recorded using a hit counter application on her page.

Her orders come from as far as East Kalimantan - customers whom she might not be able to reach if it weren't for the magic of marketing through her blog. She relies on courier services such as Tiki-JNE to ensure her customers receive their orders promptly.

Icha's page is among the more than 3,000 similar blogs in the Indonesian Traders' at Multiply Association, a blog dedicated to compiling the online traders.

How does a business through blogs work in such a way to appeals to so many?

This kind of business is actually different from the conventional definition of online business or e-commerce, which started to sprout in the early 1990s, and the blogs are not, strictly speaking, company websites, nor does the business involve online transactions. And this very feature is its strength because in Indonesia, online transactions are still prone to security issues.

"Once you register with a website and open your shop, just browse for other users and place your advertisement on their guestbooks," said Vivi Tanudjaja from Surabaya. She's the owner of an online boutique through which she sells both her own designs and dresses imported from Korea.

"Don't forget to add people as your contacts. It helps to easily update them when you post a new item on your shop," the 36-year-old designer said.

"Start with your own friends, but then you can add people randomly."

This is the network that is relied on to get word of mouth started. It also needs other shoppers' free time browsing the Internet, of course - shoppers who are usually fellow bloggers.

"At first, I started blogging to replace my habit of writing a diary *personal journal*. But then when I started browsing, I found all those online shops offering cute stuff," said college student Muthia Rani.

For her, it's like an hour at the mall without having to leave her room.

"So far, I've ordered clothes. Thank God all of them fit perfectly."

And not all customers of the online shops are end consumers. Some are buying goods in bulk or pass on orders from their own customers who are not connected to the Internet.

"I have several resellers who order regularly every month. Most of them are from cities outside Java," Icha said.

As with the unofficial economy, there is no record of just how much money is circulating thanks to free blogging websites. But if one blog such as Icha's can report monthly revenue of Rp 6 million and one business group alone has more than 3,000 members, it's easy enough to come up with a ballpark figure.

The weblog has indeed been transformed into something not imagined by its creators.

Web information company Alexa reported that Indonesia ranked first in the world in terms of the number of Multiply users. As of February 2009, Indonesians accounted for 23.4 percent of the 12 million people using the blogging service provided by the Florida-based company.

And Multiply has so far been the most targeted site for free marketing in the country.

The second most popular website is Blogger, more popularly known as Blogspot. Currently, in terms of users, Indonesians ranks fourth globally, although traffic to the website is far higher than to Multiply's.

Not all of the recorded Indonesian users are marketing their goods through blogs, but looking at the increasing number of blog groups dedicated to creating a business network, it seems that the proportion is quite significant.

For business bloggers, the sites' appeal is their user-friendliness: All one has to do to market their products is basically upload pictures of their goods and expand their network.