I’m homeless on the internet so now I’m building a house

For six years, I built stuff on the internet in different places. But not a house.

Social media: I rented spaces on YouTube and Instagram and built an audience. My 70,000 subscribers on YouTube and 7,000 followers on Instagram generated income from Google Adsense, sponsorships, and affiliate programs, but I always knew that the algorithm could change in an instant, or they could change the rules, and I’d lose substantial income.

Etsy: I rented a spot at a huge marketplace called Etsy to sell Canva templates. I did get some results ($8,000 CAD revenue in 1.5 years), but I always knew that these marketplaces could change the rules at any time and kick me out.

Coaching: I built up temporary pop-up rooms where I could work with people and help them build their businesses. I did coaching here and there, made some good money from it, but I never felt like it was a sustainable thing for me to do long-term. And to be honest, marketing my coaching programs was draining. (I loved it once I got people in the programs, but the sales part was hard.)

A calligraphy studio: Although my calligraphy business in Vancouver is a physical business, my Dina Calligraphy website and brand is something I built on the internet so that I could get customers for my calligraphy services. But I always knew that I would outgrow this little calligraphy brand and want to do more.

The one thing I did do right in these six years was to build a car. And that car is my email list—12,000 people have signed up to go for a ride with me every week.

“Where are we going?” they would ask. And I would take them to places—my rented spaces, my spot in the market, my temporary pop-up coaching rooms, my little calligraphy studio—hoping they would find something useful there.

“Where are we going?” they would ask. And I would share tips and my weekly learnings with them, hoping they wouldn’t hop off because I was scattered and all over the place.

For years, I was wandering around, driving thousands of people around in my car, building in other people’s rented spaces and marketplaces, but never bringing them to a place I could call home.

And that’s when I realized I was homeless on the internet.

For years, I was searching and searching. I was going through the motions, running my business in a daze.

I was looking for my house, but it didn’t exist.

I had to build it.

“Where are we going?” they’ll ask. And now, I can take them to my little house on the internet—this blog that you’re reading right now.

I’m not sure how many of you know, but I used to blog all throughout my teenage years and college days. It was my favourite hobby to do after school for fun. I loved being creative and documenting my experiences. This was one of my first blog posts when I was 11 years old:

OMG todai wuz super fun cuz i went shopping!!!!!!!!!!! i saw alot of ppl dat i knew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in da morning, @ 10:00, i went 2 richmond centre…then i went 4 lunch @ 2:00…then i went 2 walmart @ 4:00 till 5:00…it was soooooooooooooooo fun!!!!!!!!!!

hey y’all!!!!!!!!!! guess wat??? i’m soooooooooooo bored!!! i think u no dat allready!! hehe…i hav a really wiggly tooth…i think it might fall of sooooooonnn…

OMG!!! yesdaday in da evening i saw a caterpillar on da floor in da kitchen…sooooo freaky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha.

Anyways, I created seven blogs after that one. In high school, my blog—which is now private—had 71 posts, written over the course of two years. I filled that blog with the most random things: the experience of getting ear wax drained at the doctor’s, stories about learning to drive, bargains I found at the mall, thoughts about the purpose of life, my struggles with procrastination, “dictionary ramblings” (I would randomly pick a word in the dictionary and write something about the word in an effort to improve my vocabulary), a poem about Pi Day.

In university, I was quite dedicated to another blog I created, a personal growth journal based on the saying that only left-handed people are in their right minds. I also have a blog from 2014-2018 where I shared about personal development, travelling and new things I would try out (like learning languages or running a marathon).

I’ve actually always wanted to be a full-time blogger.

When I think about all my “titles” throughout the last six years—calligrapher, business coach, content creator, YouTuber, entrepreneur, business owner—none of them feel as exciting to me as the title blogger.

I’m a blogger at heart. I’ve always been, and I always will be.

I blogged consistently from 11 to 23 years old and stopped when I got my first 9-5 job. My first business idea was actually to monetize my blog dinaludi.com but it just seemed too overwhelming and complicated.

A year later, in 2018, I knew the 9-5 work life wasn’t for me, so I started what I thought at the time was an easier and more realistic side hustle for me than blogging/freelancing: learn calligraphy and sell greeting cards.

Long story short, in the last six years, I quit my job and built a creative business with various income sources—teaching calligraphy workshops, offering business coaching to new business owners, the whole YouTube shebang, an Etsy shop selling Canva templates, selling digital courses to my email list, and affiliate marketing.

And I did finally achieve my dream of being a digital nomad: last year, I spent seven months in Asia working and traveling.

But this entire time, I felt lost, always unsure if I was building in the right places.

Of course, there were times where I felt clear-headed and like yes, I know what I want, so I’m going to do it!—like the time I decided that it was finally time to start a side hustle, or the time I knew I wanted to become a full-time content creator and focus solely on YouTube—but for the most part, I just never felt 100% sure about what I was doing.

One of my favorite books is Kelly Trach’s P.S. You’re a Genius. It talks about how everyone has 3-5 gifts that should ideally work together so you can do your genius. I re-read the book recently and reminded myself that my gifts are the following:

• Creating

• Writing

• Learning

• Self-discipline

Wait. The thing I was missing all these years was the writing aspect!

Sure, I was writing things like emails, video outlines, social media posts, and website copy, but my favorite kind of writing is long-form creative writing or blogging about my experiences.

I felt it in my heart that I needed to finally create my blog.

I also asked myself this question: If I were already making $20,000 a month, what would I be doing every day?

And guess what? It wouldn’t be posting on Instagram. It wouldn’t be filming videos. It wouldn’t be having meetings with people.

In the mornings, I would be typing away at my computer, blogging a creative story related to my experiences and what I learned. I would also be reading and learning a new language.

Honestly, the thing I've always wanted to do is make a blog—a Dina house on the internet.

I’m a blogger at heart. I love sharing. I love organizing my ideas. I love designing websites.

I’ve been a blogger all along. I write. I share. I create. I document. I’ve just been doing that in all the wrong places.

(By the way, if you're wondering, I created this entire website using Hostinger's drag and drop website builder. Psst use coupon code DINALU to get 10% off any Hostinger website plan (starts at $3/month!) right here.

But after I had that realization, I ran into a whole bunch of hesitations:

Hesitation #1: Blogging is dead. No one has the patience to read blogs anymore. Everything is video, and especially short-form video.

But hey, people still read Medium. They still read email newsletters. They still read books. So maybe blogging isn't dead.

Hesitation #2: We're in a ChatGPT world. Everyone’s writing new stuff, creating stuff, including blogs. Who's going to start a blog in an AI world where people are creating blogs here and there?

But hey, that's exactly why the world needs my blog. It's not AI. It's very real.

Hesitation #3: I'm not sure if this blog will be a waste of time or if I can make money from it.

But hey, do what you love first, the money will come. I chased the money all these years and it was a grind, and I still feel like I didn’t “make it." So now I’m going to try something different—do what I love first, and just trust that the money will come.

It’s been a long time coming, but this is it. This is what I’m called to do. I just know it. There’s just something about words on a page that I love. No wonder I was drawn to calligraphy in the first place… it’s words and words.

(I’m not saying I’m quitting YouTube or anything right now, but I’m going to use my blog as my FIRST and MAIN source of long-form content. Everything else will get repurposed from my blog writing.)

So welcome to my blog! This is my new house on the internet. It’s free for you to visit, and you can come anytime.

You can come here to chill, be cozy, feel inspired, take a break, have a chat.

You can stay for as long as you want.

You can bring a gift if you want, but I don't expect it.

This is a place where I share about how to dream big, create the lifestyle you want for yourself, and be happy while doing it.

It’s a place where people can dream and have hope, get motivated, learn, and be themselves.

If you want to come for the ride (in my car, AHEM, email list), sign up here and get some free goodies too!

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