My Story
I’m Helmi Hasan. I was a design engineer in the Oil & Gas industry. The job paid well, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do in the long run. So in 2014, I started an Airbnb business.
5 years in, my Airbnb empire eventually failed in Feb 2020 due to the property oversupply situation in Kuala Lumpur.
I needed another hustle, but the COVID lockdown limited me to a business that is 100% online.
Sounds easy, but selling online is tough. Why would anyone buy from me? I’m just some guy on the internet.
I figured pretty quickly that I need to be known as the go-to guy for a topic first if I ever wanted to make any money online.
So I decided to publish a library of helpful articles & videos around a topic of my interest; personal finance & making money online. Here’s one of my YouTube videos:
The Balkoni Hijau blog & YouTube channel are mediums to share my journey learning about personal finance & making money online.
To know more about me, check out my LinkedIn profile:
Growing Balkoni Hijau’s Audience
These are a few of my articles that were well-liked:
- Why not to invest in a rental property
- The true cost of a car ownership
- A good salary in Kuala Lumpur
- Robo-Advisors: Wahed Invest vs. StashAway
- How to choose the perfect credit card
- How to check your credit score online for free
Once this blog hit a few thousand viewers a month, I started to place display ads & I made my first US$ 0.02. I was ecstatic that this whole ‘make money online‘ thing works!
However, juggling between a full-time job, being recently married & creating a YouTube channel, I spread myself too thin, and my traffic growth is very slow:
I am constantly perfecting my SEO strategy & content quality. In April 2021, this blog reached its first $120/month threshold thanks to a combination of display ads, affiliate marketing & freelance writing gigs.
I will continue to update you on my personal finance & making money online journey throughout this blog.
If you’d like to contact me for collaborations, click below:
Work with Me
Most of the time, I do not do sponsored posts or mentions as I am busy creating more quality content for my audience.
However, I am open to collaborating with relevant brands that are a good fit with this blog & YouTube channel.
Contact me to see if we can work together:
What My Audience is Saying
Contact Me
For any business inquiries, my rate card, or collaborations, I can be contacted via email at: helmi@balkonihijau.com
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