The success story of blogging : Menowo, the Blogger Village

Village - Illustration 

Have you ever thought that people can rely on blogs to earn a living? Yes, I heard about individual success stories in earning good income from blogging. However, have you ever known that one village in Indonesia, most of its population get their income from blogs?

The name of the village is Menowo, located in Magelang City, Central Java Province, Indonesia. Stories spread on national newspaper about how blogging had changed their fortune.

The village was just a common one in Indonesia with the people works as farmers or salaryman until 2008.

In the year, a member of the village, Sembodo Malik, which was at that time a student, decided to do blogging to earn side income to fund his study and also to treat his girlfriend. From his blogging activity, Malik, after several months of blogging, started to get some dollars. The amount rapidly grew month by month upto US$ 1000 / monthly in 2007.

When he paid a visit his hometown, Menowo Village, he met with his friends. Seeing the income obtained by Malik, his friends showed interest. Of course, it was interesting for the people because what Malik earned as a blogger was already more than average people got from being a labour or farmers.

With Malik's guidance, his friends set up their own blogs and many of them in few years achieved the same success that means satisfactory income from blogging.

Like virus, what Sembodo Malik and his friends achieved spreading all over the village. More and more people have joined the blogging community created. With guidance from the community members, more people earn decent income from this activity.

Until now, the community still helps other people that is interested in blogging or online marketing by giving guidance, lecturing,  This is done by making a code that requires all senior and more experienced members to give assistance to newbies. This is an open community and all can join without seeing the background as the idea was to improve the standard of living of their people.

The story about the blogger village has inspired not only the village actually, but also many people in Indonesia. The village showed there is another way to get income besides their traditional ways.