Wasinee Chongmeesuk, 30, better known as "Vinegar Girl" in cyberspace, has spent the past two years building up a relationship with thousands of like-minded college girls and working women via her blog.

"Vinegargirl.com came into being accidentally in 2005 as I was helping a friend sell blog-hosting software. I tried it myself and loved it, so I started writing a blog about fashion and beauty."

"One of the first articles was about my home-made formula for skin care using soy-milk raw materials left over in my mum's kitchen. The stuff's really good for complexion-cleansing," she says.

"Another popular formula is a yoghurt-based of mixture of carrot, turmeric and tamarind. This is also good for facial skin. You make it yourself at home, so I urged readers to try both formulas.

"Now I focus on fashion trends, especially mix-and-match styles; hair-dos; make-up and cosmetics reviews; celebrities; tips and tricks; health and diets etc," says Wasinee, who has a degree in hotel management from Assumption University.

Today vinegargirl.com attracts on average about 1,000 unique Internet protocol (UIP) hits per day, with 27 per cent of visitors being college students and the rest working women aged 24 to 28. Wasinee mostly writes her blog at the end of the day, after finishing her full-time job as an account manager at Mode2 (Thailand), a web and marketing agency.

"Usually I stay at the office until 9-10pm. I may write my piece when I get home around midnight. I also try to use lots of photos, especially those from Thai catwalk.com, to make the pages more lively. Next will be some video clips," she says.

"When Karen Millen opened a store in Bangkok recently, I also wrote a piece introducing her style to the fans. I think retro fashion based on the 1950s and 60s is also gaining popularity worldwide, if the latest spring and summer shows are any indication.

"As for hair-dos, bangs are in, so I've tried it myself and written some tips for those who may have to adapt a bit to look gorgeous with bangs.

"As far as fashion is concerned, my philosophy is that all young women should do some soul-searching to come up with their own style. Yet it's not necessary to spend lots of money on fashion when you want to change your look - if you know the right tips and tricks.

"For instance, mixing and matching helps a lot in creating unique styles with less money as you can play around with just five or six pieces for many combinations and styles. In short, it's smart beauty," says Wasinee.

"While vinegargirl.com may have a smaller following than the big players such as sanook.com's pages for women or the websites of some of the popular women's magazines, I guess my relationship with fans is sort of more intimate.

"For instance, fans often send e-mails asking about recommended hairstyles for certain kinds of events, so I do my best to get the tips online in time for them. I get about 10 e-mails daily. Since the number of fans is still not too large, it's possible for me to be very personalised.

"While vinegargirl.com appears to have a commercial future, I still regard it as a happy hobby. I hope it will grow into a fully fledged commercial undertaking one day, when potential sponsors or advertisers reckon that our traffic is valuable.

"There've been some negotiations but no deal yet," she says.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com