My Very First Blog

One thing that struck me during my trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia last year was the children and how they worked to get those US dollar bills off my wallet!

At most of the major temples that Jam, his friend and I visited, we were sort of 'ambushed' by children (young kids and teenagers) trying to sell us stuffs like postcards, books, drinks, scarves and souvenirs!

If there's one thing I could learn from them, it's their persistency. They just would not give up no matter how many times I said "No!"

There's one time a young girl approached me to sell something at the entrance to a temple. I could not even remember what it was cos I did not want to look at it! I told her "No, I am not interested" but she said she would wait for me there and maybe I would buy on my way out. So I said "OK, maybe."

That.....was my biggest mistake.

On my way out an hour or so later, she was there to greet me. I was like, what the .....?! I told her firmly "No, I don't want to buy". Guess what did she say to me?

These were her words and I remember them well. "I don't like you sir. You lie to me."

Frankly, I was stunned. Since when did I lie to her? I did not even promise to buy anything! She continued to follow me repeating those sentences and finally, I retorted "That's fine. I don't care!"

Luckily, she stopped following me after that. Phew!

After that incident, I learnt the only way to prevent these kids from harassing you is to ignore them in the first place. And I mean ignore completely. Ignore as in not looking at them at all, not even a glance. Don't even attempt to briefly scan through the things they are selling or you will not be able to escape their clutches!

And if they still ask you to buy despite you not looking at them at all, just give a firm "NO!" and quickly walk away, all the time looking ahead at the direction you are going.

Now I am not trying to paint a bad picture about the children in Siem Reap. I knew Cambodia is a poor country and the children may be forced to survive. Although, they should really be in school! Besides, I am not sure if the money they earn go into their pockets or to the adults who trained them!

In any case, it is still better to have the children sell something rather than just begging for money. But being too persistent when the customer had said "No" several times was a major turn off for me.

However, do not let this stop you from going to Cambodia and visit those amazing temples! It is still a beautiful country and a great holiday destination. My unpleasant experience with the girl who called me a liar was a rare event - I had mostly good experiences with the people of Cambodia.

More about the children of Cambodia and their selling technique in my next post - The Children Of Preah Khan!

I hate queues. Any queues. Long queues waste my time and are totally unproductive!

Recently I discovered a way to renew my Malaysian passport in under 90 minutes, without the queues! Want to know how?

The good thing about this method is there are no forms to fill, no buttons to press, no machines to confuse you and the best thing is, you do not have to wait long for your new passport!

However, your current passport must be a chip-based passport. If it's not, sorry! You can stop reading here! : )

OK, actually this is not a new method. Some of you may have already renewed your passports using this method. It is called renewing passport via kiosks.

Now did I say that there is no machines to confuse you and no buttons to press? Yes, I did!! But there is in fact a machine - the kiosk! Only thing is, you do not need to touch the machine. There is someone on duty there who will do everything for you! At your service, my dear ladies and gentlemen!

I'm not sure which Immigration offices have this kiosk facility, but the one I went to is at Plaza Glomac in Kelana Jaya. If you stay in Petaling Jaya, this is a good place to renew your passport!

First, before you even go there, make sure you have these items with you ...

1. Your current chip-based passport
2. MyKad
3. A photocopy of your MyKad (front and back to be photocopied on one side of the page)
4. One passport-sized photo (with blue background)
5. RM100 (2 years) or RM300 (5 years) - only RM50 and RM100 banknotes are accepted.

By the way, please take note that the kiosks only accept passport renewal for 32 pages. If you want 64 pages, you will have to do it the manual way.

Also, take note that only application for the 5 years passport will be granted the balance of the expiry period from the old passport. If you apply for 2 years, your passport will expire within 2 years from the date you renew!

So how do you do the renewal? Very simple! At the Immigration office in Plaza Glomac, there are only 2 kiosks. I was there last Tuesday at about 10.30am. There was only one person using the kiosk! No queue at all! Wow!

The kiosks were located inside a room. I entered the room and a lady in uniform immediately attended to me. I passed her my photo, my MyKad, my photocopy of my MyKad and my old passport. She did everything else on the kiosks, including inserting the MyKad and the old passport and helping me key in my contact number and also helping me inserting my cash into the machine. Easy peasy! All done in about 5 minutes!

Oh yes, there was one part where the machine needs to read your thumbprint (the right thumb). After everything was completed, a receipt was printed out. I was asked to wait for one hour before coming back to drop my receipt at Counter 1 to collect my new passport.

During collection of your new passport, they will verify your MyKad and also your right thumbprint before issuing you your passport. That's it! All done in under 90 minutes!

So what did I do during that 1 hour wait? There are a few mamak shops in the complex, so I just went there for a drink and played Angry Birds on my iPhone. Haha!

Now, if you want to know how to get to this Immigration office in Plaza Glomac, here's the easiest route.

1. Get onto the NKVE heading towards Subang/Kelana Jaya
2. Right after the Subang Toll Plaza, keep left.
3. After you pass Shell petrol station on your left, turn left.
4. You will see the Immigration Office on your left.

Here is the proper address.

Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia, Negeri Selangor, (Cawangan Subang),
Blok A, Plaza Glomac, Jalan SS7/19, Kelana Jaya,
47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel : 03-78830975 / 78850149 / 78850301
Faks : 03-78850243

If you are a woman, have you ever suspected your husband of having an affair? Want to know the truth without confronting him?

Let me teach you this psychological technique which I learnt from the book "Get Anyone To Do Anything" by David J Lieberman.



It allows you to actually look into a person's mind and find out if he's hiding anything. It's called 'similar scenario' technique.

What you need to do is to ask a question that does not accuse the person of anything but rather alludes to it. Then simply observe his response.

Let us take the case of a woman who suspects her husband of having an affair with his secretary. Instead of confronting her husband, she plays it cool and casually asks him over dinner "Gee, you know what, honey? My boss Jim, I think he may be having an affair with his secretary."

Then she just need to observe her husband's response.

If he asks questions and becomes interested, she can be reasonably sure he's not doing the same thing.

But if he becomes uncomfortable and looks away and tries to change the subject, then he's likely to be engaged in a similar behaviour. She will notice his immediate shift in demeanor and attitude.


Photo courtesy of weird cool photos

Now why is this technique so useful and why we should not confront a person directly? Typically, when we confront a person, it would put him on the defensive. If it turns out that we're wrong, there's a good chance we may appear paranoid or jealous and the relationship suffers.

With this technique, we are able to bring up a particular subject and find out if he's comfortable or concerned with the topic, all without making a single accusation!

By the way, this technique does not work for women only. If you are a man and you suspect your wife is having an affair with the gardener (just an idea I plucked from Desperate Housewives, haha!) you too can use this technique to find the truth.


A scene from Desperate Housewives

In fact, this technique can be used for more than just finding out if your partner is having an affair. It has a myriad of other uses and is especially useful if you are tired of being deceived or taken advantage of.

Let's take another example. You suspect a salesperson in your office is stealing the office supplies. If you confront her and say "Have you been stealing from the company?" that would achieve nothing.

Reason being if she didn't do it, she would say no. And if she's guilty, she would still say no.

The better way is to say "I'm wondering if you could help me with something. It had come to my attention that someone in the sales department has been taking home office supplies for personal use. Any idea on how we can put a stop to this?"

If she did not do it, she would be eager to offer her suggestions.

But if she is guilty, she will appear uncomfortable and may probably assure you that she would never do anything like that. Now there's no reason for her to bring herself into the picture, unless of course, she's guilty.

I know some of you have been waiting eagerly for Part 2 of my Kinabalu Park trip. I would not want to disappoint you all but I just got to interrupt my Kinabalu Trip post with this one today in view of the Mexico's swine flu scare.

The World Health Organization had raised the global alert level of the spreading of this swine flu to Phase 4 two days ago. An alert at this phase simply means that there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.

I hope it won't ever reach the feared Phase 6 which is the pandemic phase, where the outbreaks will be seen in at least two regions in the world.


How Virus Reproduce taken from wormman.net

Although our Malaysian Government had taken steps to prevent the virus from entering the country, can we be sure that we will be safe from the virus? I really don't think so.

Even the use of the thermal scanners does not guarantee that visitors to the country are free from the virus. A person who has just been infected with the swine flu virus will not show any symptom yet. Therefore, he or she will have no problem getting past the thermal scanners or any other methods of screening at the airport.

It's just like doing the HIV or AIDS Test. If your partner or someone you plan to marry did a HIV Test and came back with a negative result, does that conclude he or she is 100 percent free from the HIV virus? Of course not!

If he or she got infected with the HIV virus during the 3 months before he or she took the test, it won't show up in the test result! That's because once you are infected with the HIV virus, your body would take anywhere between 3 weeks and 3 months to produce enough antibodies to be detected in the test. During this HIV window period, he or she would not have not have any symptoms at all but could still transmit the virus to others!

I believe the same goes for the swine flu virus or any normal flu virus. Once a person gets infected, he or she is able to transmit the virus even though there is no visible symptoms. In other words, the possibility of an infected person entering the country successfully despite all the screenings and checks and spreading the virus to Malaysians is there!

So what is the best way to prevent being infected with the swine flu virus?

In my opinion, I believe the best way is to rely on our God given immune system. When we have a strong and active immune system, we will be able to fight any kind of viruses and pathogens.

I would like to share with you 10 factors that can lower and weaken our immune system. It's from my years of reading and learning about health and getting involved in the alternative health industry.

1. Stress
Stress of any kind will dampen the immune system, especially prolonged stress.

2. Lack of sleep
Our immune system is strongest during sleep, so a lack of sleep will be detrimental to the immune system and make us susceptible to the swine flu virus. Now you know why we need to sleep when we are sick? That's because it's the best way for our body to fight the sickness!

3. Lack of exercise
Regular moderate exercise has been proven to strengthen our immune system.

4. Over-exercise
If lack of exercise weakens our immune system, so does over-exercise! Intensive exercises that make you go out of breath for prolong periods are not healthy. I'm sure you would have noticed that world class athletes may look fit, but they get sick easily due to over-exercise!

5. A diet high in fat and cholesterol
High cholesterol slows down the macrophage, one of our white blood cells. Our white blood cells are responsible for defending us against virus invasion. High saturated fat causes our T cells, another one of our white blood cells, to be slow in recognizing invaders or abnormal cells in our body.

6. A diet high in sugar
Sugar is known to depress the immune system. Especially processed white sugar. The immune depression effect of sugar starts less than 30 minutes after ingestion and can last up to 5 hours!

7. Smoking
Smoking slows down the speed of B cells, which affect the production of antibodies. Smoking also destroys Vitamin C, which helps to strengthen the immune system in our body. Do you know that 1 cigarette destroys 25mg of Vitamin C?

8. Excessive alcohol consumption
Alcohol is a known immune suppressant. High doses of alcohol suppress the ability of the white blood cells to multiply! Do not have more than 2 drinks daily. (One drink is equivalent to 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1 ounce of hard liquor).

9. Drugs and medication
This may be surprising to some, but it is a fact that some drugs lower your immune system. A good example is statins, the cholesterol lowering drug. That is why, it is best not to take any drugs unless absolutely necessary and unless prescribed by the doctor.

10. Unstable emotion
This must be the most surprising of all! Most people do not know this, but nervousness, anger, and even sudden feeling of happiness can throw your immune system into turmoil! So make sure you stabilise your emotion at all times!


This is not the swine flu virus but the dreaded avian flu virus (taken from dreamstime.com)

Now that we know the 10 factors that can weaken our immune system, let me share with you my 10 ways to strengthen our immune system and keep it healthy! This is especially important to fight off the swine flu virus!

1. Avoid stress
This is definitely easier said than done. Ways to get rid of stress include exercising, practising yoga, doing relaxation exercises, watching sitcoms on TV and having a good chat with a good friend.

2. Have sufficient sleep
I would say at least 8 hours of good quality sleep every night is a must for a healthy immune system! Even more important if you want to avoid the swine flu virus!

3. Exercise
The absolute minimum is 20 minutes, 3 times weekly. But do not over-exercise or else you will have the opposite effect! Also try to exercise regularly in the parks or places with trees and grass so that you can benefit from the negative ions and also from the phytoncides that help to elevate the immune system.

4. Eat loads of fruits and vegetables and eat less cooked meat
Fruits and vegetables are devoid of cholesterol and high saturated fat, both responsible for lowering the immune system. Also, they contain high fibre. Take more raw food, and fruits. They are natural immune boosters! Cooked meat and processed or refined foods are known as "dead food" devoid of any living energy that is found in raw food. Thus they should be avoided as much as possible.

5. Avoid food high in sugar
This means cakes, cookies, donuts, ice cream, Coke and any kinds of sweet desserts!

6. Do not smoke
This is like a no brainer that needs no explanation.

7. Drink moderately
Red wine contains antioxidants and is good for raising our HDL, or good cholesterol. But over consumption will see the reverse effect! So drink moderately, never going beyond 2 drinks daily. (Read definition of 1 drink above)

8. Avoid drugs or medication
Avoid drugs of any kind unless absolutely necessary or unless prescribed by the doctor.

9. Avoid fluctuating emotions
Keep your emotion stable and your body will thank you for it!

10. Take nutritional and health supplements
I don't know about you but I believe in health supplements. Good quality health supplements are essential to our body. That's because we just don't get enough quality nutrition from our daily food especially if we eat out all the time! And coupled with our daily stress and the toxic environment, it is even more important we give our bodies the essential nutrition to combat any kind of disease.

Although there are many nutritional and health supplements in the market, I go for high quality ones. I highly recommend any of the following...

USANA Multivitamins and Minerals

USANA Omega 3 fish oil

SHUANG HOR ganoderma (lingzhi)

SHUANG HOR bee pollen

I consume these 4 products on a regular basis and I can tell you the effect is great!

Of course, the best way to avoid being infected with the swine flu virus is not to visit the countries which are experiencing the outbreak. And to always wash our hands and not touch our eyes and nose as this is the easiest way to get the virus!

I know this is a somewhat ridiculous if not funny, title. Teaching people how to enjoy the rain. If my last post was about lightning, then this post is about the rain! But do anyone really need or even want to enjoy the rain?

Well, it has been raining lately in this part of the world and there are flash floods and traffic jam in downtown KL. Who will enjoy the rain in such a situation?

OK, flash floods and traffic jams aside, the rain is really a wonderful natural phenomenon that I love! I don't know why, but every time it rains, I feel lighter. I feel happier. Isn't it odd? Most people associate sunshine with happiness. Not me.

I mean I enjoy the sunshine of course, but I also like the rain. Well, as long as I'm not trapped in a traffic jam or caught in a flash flood or out in the open without an umbrella or a raincoat, that is. Haha!



Since you can't stop the rain, you might as well enjoy it, yes? So you want to know how I enjoy the rain? Here's how!

1. Sleep during the rain
Yes! This is how I enjoy the rain! That is why I love it when it rains at night. I find listening to the sound of pouring rain very soothing and relaxing. It's the perfect ambience to prepare me for my sleep. Also, waking up in the middle of the night and hear the sound of falling rain outside my window instantly puts me back to dreamland! No wonder when it rains in the afternoon, I feel like going to bed!

2. Read a good book
What better way to enjoy a good book than sitting beside the window while it is raining outside? The sound of the rain pitter patter against the window pane is enough to take my reading to a whole new level of enjoyment! And it doesn't even have to be in my house! I remember one time I was reading in Borders sitting next to the glass window and enjoying the rain outside! I found it so comfortable there I did not want to leave!

3. Have a steamboat meal
This is especially enjoyable if the weather is cold after a whole day of raining. A hot meal like a steamboat meal totally makes me appreciate the rain much more. And watching the rain while having my steamboat meal inside a warm, comfortable restaurant or home is just so heavenly!

4. Sit outside the garden table
If you live in homes where you have a garden and a sheltered garden table, do try this when it rains! Provided the wind is not too strong and there are no dangers of lightning, it is so enjoyable to just sit there by your garden table and watch the rain! It's good to sit there with family members or friends and chat away while the rain pours. Even better if you include a pot of hot steaming tea for everyone! In fact, that's the best time to bond with family members or close friends.

5. Play in the rain
OK, this may not be a sensible thing to do. You don't want to catch the cold or get sick, do you? But, in reality it's not easier to catch the cold in the rain than in the sun. Want to feel like a child again? Go out there and play in the rain! Just make sure you take a warm shower and have a change of clothing after that!

6. Drive in the rain
I don't know about you, but I enjoy driving my car in the rain. I like the sight of rain falling on my car windscreens and windows. The feeling is just so relaxing especially if I switch on some nice soothing music as well. Of course, the rain must not be too heavy or else it's difficult to drive. And definitely there must not be any traffic jam or else whatever enjoyment of driving in the rain will be thrown out of the car's window!

7. Daydream
If it's not pouring too heavily, try opening the window and let the fresh smell of the rain comes in. Enjoy watching the dark clouds above, the trees swaying in the wind, the rain falling on rooftops and the pavement. Observe the puddles of water created on the ground, and listen to the different tones of the rain falling on different surfaces. Breathe in the fresh air. And indulge in daydreaming even as you focus on your senses.

8. Blog on your computer or laptop
This is especially for us bloggers! I love to be blogging on my laptop while it is raining outside. Just like reading a good book, the sound of rain outside seems to make me enjoy my blogging even more. Perhaps the sound of the falling rain has some kind of psychological effect on me.

Well, that's how I enjoy the rain! And I hope you will learn to enjoy it too. Instead of feeling down and dreary when the rain falls, learn to love the rain and let it be your source of enjoyment!

Have you heard of this card game called In-Between? If you gamble, most probably you would have played this game before. If you don't, then let me introduce you to this simple and fun game!

I think I have mentioned somewhere in my earlier posts that I am not much of a gambler. I don't usually play card games and I find learning them a little confusing. But In-Between is different! It is easy to learn, fun to play and can be very thrilling! If you are like me who don't really gamble and who don't quite like to play cards, then In-Between is for you!



Here's how you play the game.

1. Each player receives 1 card face-up.

2. Each player is then dealt a second card, also face-up, starting from the player to the left of the dealer in clockwise direction.

3. Each player at his turn, is offered to bet on whether or not the next card on top of the deck will numerically fall between the two cards he was dealt with.

4. The amount of the bet must be equal to or lower than the size of the pot. (Before the start of the game, every player contributes an equal amount agreed by all to kick start the pot)

5. Players can also decline to bet.

6. If the player bets and wins, he collects amount equal to his bet from the pot. If he loses, he places his bet into the pot.

7. Now here's the killer. If however the third card matches one of the two cards dealt to the player, he not only loses his bet, but is required to pay double the amount of his bet.

8. The game continues until someone wins the entire pot.

That's it! Simple?



Well, just to understand it better, let's take a look at this example.

A player is dealt 2 cards, one is a 3 and the other an 8. If he bets RM5 that the next card on the deck will fall between 3 and 8, and the card is 6, then he wins the RM5 taken from the pot. If the next card is a 10, then he loses his RM5 which will be added to the pot.

However, if the next card is a 3 or an 8, he loses and pays double ie. RM10!

What happens if a player receives 2 matching cards? In this case, there is no possibility of any card that can fall between the 2 matching numbers!

The same goes for a player who receives 2 cards which are very close to each other numerically like 3 and 4, or 7 and 8. There's no way the third card will fall in between those 2 numbers!

In such cases, the players can decline to bet.

The best hand in the game is when the 2 cards are very far apart numerically like an Ace and a King. The probability of the third card falling in between Ace and King is huge!

So players who receive these cards usually bet the whole amount of the pot! And if they win, they win big and the game ends. But if the third card happens to match one of their cards (and this can happen although chances are lower) then they really lose big as they then have to pay double the amount in the pot!




This game can be very thrilling and nerve wrecking! I remember during the Chinese New Year last month, I played this game with my friends, we started out with a meagre RM5 in the pot. Everyone initially bet very small amounts like 50sen and some even 10sen! But halfway through the game, people became greedy and the pot shot up to RM300!

I still remember how thrilling it was at that time. One friend was so confident he would win when he had cards with number 2 and King. So he bet the whole amount in the pot! Guess what? The third card was opened up to reveal a King! So he ended up paying double that is, RM600! In this way, the pot was suddenly increased to RM900!!

At one point in the game, I was sweating like mad. The pot had breached the RM1,000 mark and I just received cards with number 2 and Queen. Should I? Should I bet the whole pot? I could be RM1,000 richer or I could be RM2,000 poorer!!

Guess what I did? Well, I'm sorry to say I'm no gambler and I do not have the guts to gamble big. So I just bet RM200. Yes, that's the highest amount I have ever bet in my entire life! I was thinking the most I would lose is RM400. The cost of a Mamma Mia ticket! Or 4 buffet dinners at Jogoya. Or a month's supply of petrol. Or .....Oh, just do it, for God's sake!

The result? The third card was a 5. Yay! I won! But not RM1,000! Just RM200. If I had been more daring, I would have been RM1,000 richer that day!

Even though I won that RM200, I lost quite a bit in some rounds, so on the whole I still lost some money on that day. See? I told you I'm not much of a gambler. But you know, it's fun. This game is fun and thrilling. You should try it one of these days. Just make sure you don't turn into a compulsive gambler!

Are you a blogging newbie or an experienced blogger?

Do you like to have loads of people commenting on your blog?

When I first started blogging about 9 months ago, I was wondering why no one read or leave comments on my blog. On a good day, the number of comments would max at 12. On a bad day, there would be zero comments!

Lately, a few bloggers wrote to me asking how I managed to attract so many comments on my blog. Wow! I was really flattered when they asked me this question. It’s not like I have hundreds and hundreds of comments in every one of my posts, so I think I am not really qualified to answer them.

Besides, there are many bloggers out there who receive more comments than me, so they should be the ones answering this question.

However, I do know how frustrating it is when no one reads your blog and every time you post something, there is virtually no one responding. Didn’t you wish someone, anyone would just care to leave an opinion even if it’s a scathing criticism of your post? At least that would be better than zero response!

So today, for the sake of all bloggers out there who are looking for more responses to their beautifully written posts, who have toiled long hours just to come up with a post worth reading, here’s my guide on how to increase comments on your blog.

Now, notice I say how to increase comments. Not readership or traffic. Increasing comments and increasing traffic to your blog are two different things.

You can have lots of traffic to your blog everyday, but no one leaving any comments!

Or you can have over 50 comments a day, but that does not mean there’s a lot of traffic going to your blog, or that your blog is ranked high on Google’s search engine, although the chances are there!

So, let’s be clear about this first.

If you want to make money from your blog, you need lots of traffic. You will need to know about SEO and make full use of them. I have to admit I am still learning about this so please don’t ask me how to increase traffic to your blog. There are many experts on this, and it would be better for you to learn from them.

But if making money is not your priority, and you have the passion to blog, and want the satisfaction to see more people leaving comments, then perhaps this post might be of help. Of course, if you are aiming to make money and also have lots of people commenting at your blog at the same time, this can help too.

OK, so here are the 10 things I do to increase comments on my blog.

1. Write good quality posts.
I think this is a no brainer, however this alone does not guarantee that people will leave comments on your blog. There are a lot of blogs out there with excellent posts, but no one comments on them!

2. Ask a question.
Try to end your post by posing a question to your readers. Or have a question as the title for your post. Readers will be more inclined to leave comments when you ask them a question. You can see an example of this on my post here.

3. Don't tell everything.
Try and make your post open ended. In other words, don't say everything you know. Leave some things unsaid even if you know them just to allow your readers to contribute their knowledge. Give your readers a chance to be experts too. If you say everything there is to say, your readers will be left with nothing to add. They may love your post and even bookmark it or submit it to DIGG but they would not be leaving any comments!

4. Write controversial posts.
When the topic of your post is controversial, it would invite lots of debates and comments from readers. Readers may even end up debating with each other without the need for you to put in any replies. But be careful here - don't overdo it! Controversial topics sometimes put people off!

5. Interact with your commentators.
Always reply to each and every comments on your blog. This will encourage those who left the comments earlier to return and post even more comments. People do like to be acknowledged for their opinions. I personally do not like to leave comments on blogs that do not reply or respond to my comments. In fact, one very effective way of discouraging comments is to ignore all comments left on your blog. The only exception to this is, if you are very popular and have more than 100 comments on each of your posts. In such a case, it's acceptable not to reply to every comment as it takes up too much time.

6. Encourage comments using Top 10 Commentators widget.
Some readers who leave comments like to have their links displayed on this Top 10 Commentators widget. It is also another way to promote themselves. If you do not have this widget on your blog, get it here.

7. Show appreciation for your regular commentators.
You can do this by highlighting your commentators' blogs on your posts. Do mention about them if it is relevant to your post. Or use one of their comments as a topic for your next post. They will surely thank you for it! This post is my way to show appreciation for my regular commentators.

8. Make it easy for readers to leave comments.
Make sure your blog does not require your readers to register first before allowed to make comments. Personally, if I have to register and fill up my details before commenting, I rather not comment. It's just too much of a hassle! Also, do allow anonymous readers to leave comments. In fact, make it easy for anyone and everyone to leave comments on your blog.

9. Do not moderate comments.
Some bloggers may not agree with me on this. Although moderating comments will prevent spam from appearing on your blog, however, if you seriously want to increase comments, you will have to do away with this. People simply do not like to be censored. Furthermore, it feels nicer to see your comment appearing right after you've posted it. Also, do not delete any comments if possible. How do you like it when you leave a comment on someone's blog only to see it gone the next hour?

Now, if you follow all my 9 tips above, there is still a huge possibility that the number of comments on your blog will remain small. You see, you can do all the above and yet see no result. Simply because you did not do the ONE thing that can change it all. The One thing that you must absolutely do to increase the number of comments on your blog.

Which leads me to my last tip .....



10. Leave comments on other people's blogs.
Yes, that's right! Visit other people's blogs (or go blog hopping, as they say) and leave your comments there. Now when you comment on other people's blogs, granted, not everyone will return the favour and comment on your blog, but most do. Logically, the more blogs you visit and leave comments on, the more comments you will get on your own blog. So how did I get over 40 comments on my blog? I simply visited over 60 blogs and left my comments there! So you want 100 comments? Now you know what you must do!

Of course, many of you will think it is too much hard work and time consuming to visit over 60 blogs. Just imagine, if I take 5 minutes to read and leave a comment on one blog, it would take no less than 5 hours to go through 60 blogs! Now you know how much time I spent online!

Well, who says getting what you want is easy? Nothing worth achieving is easy! You want people to leave comments on your blog? You will need to work for it! There's no such thing as writing a post and sit there and wait for the comments to come in. Unless of course, you are a celebrity blogger like Kenny Sia. Now, that's a different story! Even Kenny Sia himself did not start out as a celebrity blogger. He worked himself up. So, if there is a short-cut way, please tell me!

Of course, there will come a time when you would have developed a group of loyal followers of your blog. These followers would visit your blog and leave comments whether or not you visit them in return.

However, to reach that level, you will need to have one important ingredient. That ingredient is PASSION. Yes, you need to have passion to write blogs and to read blogs. Without passion, you would rather do something else like watching TV or reading a book instead of blogging. That is why I can go through more than 60 blogs a day. It's because I simply have the passion for reading other blogs, besides writing my own blog. I don't find it hard work at all - in fact, I enjoy every minute of it!

Now if reading 60 blogs is too much for you, then aim for 30. If 30 is still a lot for you, then go for 15. It all depends on you. Not everyone wants to have 50 or 100 comments on his or her blog everyday. Some are happy with just 10, and that's fine. But this post is about increasing comments on your blog, so I guess if you are reading this, you won't be too satisfied with just 10, right?

In actual fact, I don't read 60 blogs a day. I sometimes read more and sometimes less, but I break them up into 2-3 days. Which means, I only read about an average of 30 blogs a day. Now that's not too difficult, is it?

Well, there you have it! 10 ways to increase comments on your blog! I do hope you benefit from this post. Despite this, I am still far from being an expert on this subject. If you know more ways to increase comments and would like to share with me and all my readers, you are most welcomed to do so.

By the way, if you would like me to drop by your blog and leave my comment, why don't you make the first move and leave a comment here? And if you are a blogger with Blogspot and would like to be a Follower of my blog, you are most welcome to click on "Follow This Blog" under Followers on the tab to the right of this post. Thank you! Let us help each other make our blogs soar to greater heights!

Hi, everyone! Did the title of my post catch your attention?

So are you excited to know how?

Then let me be your love guru for today.

Before you read further, let me warn that this is strictly for those of you without any steady boyfriend or girlfriend. If you are married, you can still take this lesson but do not act them out other than with your spouse, although I don't see what's the point really.

OK, let's begin. Here are 3 foolproof methods to get anyone falling heads over heels in love with you!

Method No.1 – Gaze into the person’s eyes
Did you know that gazing into a person’s eyes can actually make the individual fall in love with you? I’m not exaggerating here. In 1989, an experiment (Kellerman, Lewis and Laird) was conducted whereby two opposite sex strangers were asked to gaze into each others’ eyes for 2 minutes. The conclusion? Passionate feelings were produced between the two strangers.

You can try this with the person you want to attract! When having conversation with your intended person, look him or her directly in the eyes when speaking and listening. Don’t look elsewhere! This way, you can engage this method without being obvious!

Now that you know this, if you ever find someone keep gazing into your eyes while talking to you, then you know he or she is trying to attract you. So if you do not want to fall for him or her, you had better look away!


Method No.2 – Bring along an attractive person of the opposite sex
When you want to meet the person you wish to attract for the first time, bring along an attractive person of the opposite sex with you. The person you wish to attract will feel less confident with herself as she compares herself with the attractive person accompanying you.

Approaching her when she is not feeling very confident will make you appear more attractive to her. This is natural human behaviour. We often feel others more attractive when we feel less confident with ourselves. This is the time to be flirtatious and friendly with her!

Logically speaking, do not of course, attempt to bring a friend of the same sex as you and who is more attractive than you. The person you want to attract may end up attracted to your friend instead!

However, this does not mean you should bring someone very unattractive with you, whether he or she is of the same or opposite sex. The person you wish to attract may associate you with him or her and find you unattractive. This is known as the Law Of Association in human behaviour.


Method No. 3 – Make use of emotional arousal
This tactic alone may get you more dates than any new hairstyle or outfit or job!
Have you ever seen a mismatched couple before – where the wife is good looking, but the husband is extremely unattractive, or the other way around?

They probably met somewhere when the better looking husband or wife was nervous, apprehensive or excited.

You see, when we are nervous or excited, our body produces adrenaline. In fact, any state of heightened arousal like fear, excitement and even exercise produces adrenalin. Anytime a person is aroused, his arousal will in part be attributed to whomever he is with. This is the foundation of human behaviour.

So if you want to attract someone, try and do it when you are both in a situation where he or she is emotionally aroused.

Using one of the methods above will give you a better chance to make that someone fall in love with you. Use all 3 methods and you are almost certain to succeed in getting him or her to fall head over heels in love with you!

Did I come up with all these? I hope I did, but unfortunately, no. Even a love guru has his own guru. And my guru is David J. Lieberman, PhD who authored this book called "Get Anyone To Do Anything", which is where I got all these information from.



Perhaps you may want to get this book as it teaches you more than just making anyone fall in love with you, though that's a good start, don't you agree?