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A passion for fashion can turn a blog into a recognized media player. Fashionese Daily, an Indonesian Web site on which members discuss style and beauty, has become the major online forum for thousands of users to share stories, photos and tips every day.

The site, at fashionesedaily.com, is a home for various directories, including blog entries, editor’s picks, an online forum, a list of online shops in Indonesia, a stream of Twitter updates and a gallery. Most of the entries are written in English. This week, the latest updates include a profile of a member, known as an FD-er, a posting about someone’s first pair of H&M shoes and tips on how to apply yellow eyeshadow.

Fashionese Daily, with its motto of “style and beauty with attitude”, is maintained and monitored by a staff of 11.

“We always try to keep the forum clean,” said Hanifa Ambadar, the editor in chief. “We also regularly delete users who stop posting for a long time.”

“We don’t really go for a high number of users,” added Affi Assegaf, the managing editor. “We are more concerned with whether our users feel comfortable talking in the forums.”

However, the site has become highly popular and records about 7,000 hits a day. Some of the forum topics are locked and can only be accessed if you are a member of that particular forum. Currently, users must wait for confirmation from administrators before forum membership is approved. But most topics, as well as all blog entries, are open to all eyes.

“The reason we lock certain topics, such as Daily Outfit and Face of the Day, is because users post their photos in there, and most are close-ups,” Affi said. Users post full-body pictures of themselves on Daily Outfit and Face of the Day to let them share close-up shots of their make-up and wardrobes.

Fashionese Daily was started in 2005 as a personal blog by Hanifa, who has been a blogger since 2000. She previously wrote a personal blog to display her daily outfits, recent purchases and write reviews about celebrity style and new collections found in Jakarta’s malls.

She met Affi through that early blog, and they discovered they had attended the same high school. Their shared fondness for fashion and beauty inspired them to start a Web site. In January 2007, they bought a Web domain and Fashionesedaily.com was born.

The decision to become Web entrepreneurs was not difficult for Hanifa and Affi, who were both eager to explore the field. Last November, Affi resigned from her job as a public relations manager for cosmetics brand M.A.C. to work full-time on the site.

Before that, she wrote under a pen name as she was conscious of not wanting to harm her relationship with her employer.

“It’s more comfortable to be a blogger, because we can write our personal opinions,” she said.

The high level of traffic on the site has attracted fashion and beauty companies to advertise with Fashionese Daily, which has also held sponsored beauty classes for its members.

“Even some non-fashion brands have promoted themselves through FD, for example, Soy Joy,” Hanifa said. “Some of them found out about us via Google, because conversations from our forum appeared when they Googled their brands.”

The site is careful to separate editorial and advertising content clearly.

“If we do a paid review,” Affi said, “we always let readers know that it is a paid review. But we tell advertisers that we are going to write honestly about their products. So far, none of our clients have complained.”

The pair also approached local designers to inform them about the site.

“They responded well to us, and invite us to their fashion shows,” Hanifa said. Reports appear in the form of blog entries, which are archived.

With the increasing popularity of Fashionese Daily, the two founders attend more and more fashion events.

“Sometimes, we are invited to three or four events a day, and we have to leave our office empty,” Hanifa said. The team only acquired office space two months ago, located behind a boutique on Jalan Bangka in South Jakarta, and Hanifa and Affi have started to manage everything more carefully. All contributors are now required to write a blog post every week.

Magazines and newspapers have written stories about the site, and this year, Hanifa and Affi were speakers at Indonesia’s biggest blogger event, Pesta Blogger, to talk about blogpreneurship.

“Most people are curious about how to run an online shop in Indonesia,” Hanifa said. “But we are so much more than just an online shop, because we also do reviews. We just want to help promote local products on our Web site.”

Trusted users can sell their wares online through the forum, but they must have held membership for at least three months, with a minimum of 300 postings on the forum and approval from the administrators.

“So far, no fraud or anything bad has happened on the forum,” Affi said. “I think because FD members interact almost every day, we get to know each other well.”

It is even common for members to request others who live overseas to buy them items unavailable in Indonesia. Usually, members based outside of Jakarta arrive in town, a gathering will be held to collect and pay for orders, and catch up in person. Even before the site organized its first official gathering, members often met up for lunch and coffee.

“We are just like a family,” Affi said.
Other fashion Web sites:

dianarikasari.blogspot.com

thesartorialist.com

streetstyl.es

seaofshoes.typepad.com

thefashionspot.com