Best Blog in Singapore

I have always wondered who owns the best blog in Singapore.

Singapore afterall is a tiny island with only 5 million people living on it. Out of this, I reckon that less than 10% of the population has a blog.

And out of this 10%, perhaps only 1% update their blogs regularly.

Based on my very crude estimates:

The number of people with blogs in Singapore = 500,000
The number of people who update their blogs regularly (once a week) = 5000

That should place the number of "good" blogs out there at a figure less than 5,000. That is not alot if you ask me. Afterall, the internet was supposed to be the NEXT BIG THING.

If there are only 5,000 good Singapore blogs out of the millions of blogs out there in the world, it means that Singaporeans are not making their voices heard in the blogosphere!

Bloggers are changing the world & Singapore should not be left out.

Bloggers are changing the world. As a whole, they provide an unregulated form of media that seeks to inform, entertain, educate the public. Other bloggers simply view their blogs as a place to rant their private thoughts and feelings (ironically for the whole world to see).

In this sense, bloggers do not view their works as pieces of art. But that perhaps is what separates the BEST blogs from the NORMAL blogs. The BEST blogs are those that are always striving to keep their content fresh, always interacting with readers, always looking for ways to improve their blogs. They view their blogs as more than just personal diaries or online journals. In a certain sense, they see their blogs as tools to change the world. Some unwittingly change the world by just ranting their private thoughts.

Afterall, we are all easily influenced by the thoughts, words and actions of other people. Everything that one reads will influence the person to a certain level and sometimes this influence even transcends the conscious level. FOR EXAMPLE, because a blogger is making money from stocks using fundamental analysis, we might become more inclined to view fundamental anlaysis as a stronger tool than technical analysis.

Enough said about blogging. Who do you think has the best blog in Singapore?

This Blog Reaches 1,500 Unique Visitors per Month

I am glad of the progress I have made with my blogging efforts. Since starting in May 2008, I am glad that I have gotten to know a few of the bloggers and commenters better over the years.

I am also glad that this blog serves 1,500 people a month!

That is alot of people that I am reaching out to which I would never have been able to done with a normal job! Unless I am a pastor of a mega church or something....

To reach out to so many people, to be communicating with them and to be able to at least share with them my lessons and experiences is indeed a HUMBLING thought.

If you are one of these 1,500 people out there who is reading my blog each month, I would like to say a big THANK YOU for supporting me throughout my journey towards financial freedom.

This has been a very difficult period in my life. Unemployement, job search woes, rejections from potential employers.... If I could feel any more depressed, it is NOW.

Yet, it is also the BEST time of my life. I have never been so free in my entire life. I can spend the day thinking about what I would like to share with my readers. I can observe things moving by slowly. I also cannot explain the joy that I get when strangers come and leave encouraging words to me. Thank you.. Thank you..for all the kind words, encouragement, and even recommendations on the way forward. I guess I can never thank each one of you enough =)

Afterall, each of you do have your unique experience to share with me and I must say that I am a lot WISER today because of your sharing. If this blog was just a private journal that I wrote and kept somewhere at home, I would not have grown so much as a person.

So my job search carries on....

With each job rejection comes more pain but I guess I have to keep on fighting to move ahead. Failures are part and parcel of life. I also have to trust in my God that He knows what is best for me and my family.

A Jobless Millionaire and the Rich Bloggers

So I was thinking that the difference between a millionaire who is jobless and a thousandnaire who is jobless is quite profound. A millionaire who is jobless will never be called a bum.

Anyway, I have never really considered myself jobless. At the very least, I am a blogger! And people do make a living out of their blogs. It is just that I can't make a living out of my blog but that doesn't stop me from being jobless or stuff. I have a good readership and a wonderful community of supporters out here.

So to say that I am out of a job, the correct phrase should be "I am seeking paid employment". My job at this blog is paid peanuts but it gives me great joy. I am the CEO, marketing executive, editor, journalist, corporate comms person all rolled into one.

Talking about blogs, some bloggers are really able to enjoy a good life because of the quality of their blogs and the followership that they have. I would just term it as the Rich blogger and Poor blogger divide that I am trying to cross over to. Rich bloggers are also jobless like me...except that they are earning money from their blogs.

That was lunch for today. I ate only at 3 pm as I wasn't too hungry. Char Mee (instant noodles) home-cooked style. I know it looks real plain but it was super delicious.

10 Ways This Blog Can Help You

I have been reflecting on what it means to blog and what my blog is meant to achieve during my lifetime. And if I could focus it down to ONE word, that word would be HELP.

The main purpose that I hope this blog can achieve would be to HELP others.

Throwing all my expertise (whatever little that I have) and experience into this blog, I hope to be able to help others in one way or another. Just thinking out loud, these are the 10 areas which I think I can help you through this blog:

1. Studying in University. I have made a few mistakes when I studied in university. I would like to think that my experience in university would be able to help others make a better decision on what to study for their degrees.

2. Doing what you don't like. I am an expert in this. I did a job which I did not really like for what seemed like an eternity. Yet looking back at it, I realised that I have gained tremendously from it. If you are doing something you absolutey dislike, I can share with you my experiences to help you look at things from perhaps another perspective.

3. Blogging Tips and making money using Adsense. As much as I don't like to admit that I am a blogger, the fact that I am using a blog betrays me. I would certainly like to think myself of a philosopher who rants his pieces on the internet for all to see. Nevertheless, I believe that in my short years of blogging, I do have a few tips to impart here and there. I have already received two Adsense cheques thus far and will be receiving my third cheque next month. If you are not making a single cent from Adsense, I would like to think that there is perhaps some way that I can help you.

4. Investment Decisions. I am not a guru when it comes to investment. There are many other gurus out there. However, I dare say that I have made a lot of mistakes in investing and I could share with you all these mistakes that I have made so that you pay less tuition fees to Mr Market. The market is a cruel place and unwise decisions can sometimes be avoided if you just spent the time asking around. Everyone is sure to have their own opinion but at least you get another point of view. I have been investing in the stock market since 2001 and I think I know a thing or two about investing for beginners. If you are looking for experts, please look elsewhere.

5. Career change and Purpose in Life. This is perhaps my forte. I have spent the last 2 years pondering over a career change and also thinking about my purpose in life. I come from a Christian background so my perspectives are naturally shaped in the Christian thought. If you would like to bounce off ideas with someone should you feel hazy about life, feel free to find me =)

6. Bible questions. I can help you understand the bible better if you are a non-Christian. I was once an aethist but coverted to Christianity when I was in secondary school. My rational thinking and scientific mind in the past made me refuse to believe in a God that created the entire universe. Now, I am pretty convinced that scientific methods are limited in the sense that they are just models to best describe certain events and happenings. A black swan event could just come along and prove everyone wrong. I don't like to debate with ppl because when i was a non-Christian, I did not like people to debate with me about religion. Now that I am a Christian, I would say that I could offer you certain ways of viewing the Bible that you might never have seen.

7. Marriage and Parenthood. Being married and being a father, I can share with you my experiences about queuing for a HDB flat, getting married, holding the wedding dinner, living together with your wife, and also the joys of being a father. This will all be based on personal experiences but it is better than nothing.

8. Financial Freedom. As this blog suggests, I am trying to attain financial freedom and not become a slave to money. I am not there yet but I believe that God willing, I should get there someday. I can share with you my experience as I make this journey. I encourage you to follow me on my journey and not become one who has to worry all day about retirement

9. Singapore. I live in Singapore. I have a view of Singapore that outsiders might not have. If you are a foreigner, I am willing to answer any questions you have about Singapore to the best of my ability.

10. Books. I love books and try to have a book at hand wherever I go. I will do my best to recommend good books to read. My book reviews are terrible though but I would certainly think that I can identify a good book when I see one.

Discovering That Your Friends Are Reading Your Blog

This blog of mine is quite a secret actually.

It started out as just a site for me to rant my thoughts, write down some stuff which I could refer to in the future, etc.

Over the months and years however, it has grown and grown.

I would dare say that I have not told anyone I know about this site of mine yet. It was more of an online community thing where I could just interact with people without them knowing who I really am =)

So I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a friend whom I knew actually visited this site. It is amazing because I know that he visited the site but he does not know that the author of this site is me!

That is simply amazing to me. In a sense, I am able to touch people without leaving my seat in the living room and even when I am no longer around, I would have left some kind of digitial footprint on the internet.

The problem of course is that people would never have known who actually authored this blog unless I reveal myself in due time.

This has always been one of the questions that I have been asking myself.

Should I reveal who I am to people?

Do people want to see a face to this blog?

Am I comfortable letting family and friends know that I am the author of this crazy site which talks about nothing but investments, savings, job rants, job search, my ups and downs, financial freedom, the things I buy and the things that I don't buy....

The worst thing is to be misunderstood and for people to think that I am this money crazy guy who is totally obsessed about money.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.... it is really something that I do not know how to deal with.

After all, I have noticed that a lot of successful blogs do make themselves known. This sorts of adds a personal touch to it. Even in today's newspapers and magazines, you will also get to see the photos of the journalists who wrote the article. Is this what is expected of me now?

What do you think?

Blogging Tips : What I Learnt From A Trip To Holland Village

Over at Problogger, Darren suggests that one of the ways to make your blog a better blog is to simply go shopping and do some observations.

For those who check my blog regularly, you would know that I was at Holland Village today eating my breakfast.

One of the other things which I did not mention about was that I spent a fair bit of the morning walking around Holland village too.

What does this got to do with Blogging Tips? Well...I guess that I have learnt quite a fair bit from observing this certain shop at Holland Village and I believe that if you understand the psyche of shoppers, you would also understand the psyche of people who surf the web and visit your blog.

The Indian Newspaper Stand

There is this particular newspaper and magazine stand that has been at Holland village for years.

It is directly opposite crystal jade and you will find it if you just walk from the Holland V bus stop to Holland Village. For those who are familiar with the place, you most probably know which news and magazine stand I am talking about.

For the uninitiated, this magazine and newspaper stand literally sells like thousands of magazines and newspapers from all over the world. It is not a huge stand but lining the walkway are rows and rows of magazines and your daily newspapers.

If you are blogger in Singapore, this is a treasure trove.

No...I am not asking you to buy your newspapers and magazines from there. What I am suggesting is that you observe how such a newspaper stand operates and incorporate the ideas into your blog.

What Are People Interested in Reading?

There are only 5 million people in Singapore. Less than 10 per cent (I am guessing) ever makes it down to Holland Village.

Yet, this stand is loaded with so many magazines and newspapers. It gives you an idea of what people are interested in reading. Not only that, it shows you what are the things that people like to read based on the quantity of certain magazines on the shelves.

If you ask me, I notice that there are a few sections to this particular magazine stand.

1 . Newspapers from all around the world. Apparently, alot of expats go to Holland Village as it is sort of a yuppies place. Thus, you can find newspapers from all over the world being sold here. One thing for sure...newspapers are updated DAILY. If you want people to read your blog, you need to make the effort to update it DAILY. Imagine having to visit the newspaper stand everyday without knowing whether the newspapers being sold belongs to yesterday or the day before... the same principle applies to readers of your blog. If they have to go to your blog each day to check for new content, they might get tired pretty soon and simply stop visiting because of the lack of new content.

2. Entertainment News. Yes, Lindsay Lohan without makeup and lots more... A fair bit of the magazines sold have to do with this kind of tabloids. It is not wrong. People read to be entertained and your blog should be as entertaining as possible. Notice that this kind of magazines are always loaded with pictures. Your blog should have pictures too to be entertaining. All words but no pics makes your blog a dull read.

3. Lifestyle Magazines. These are the fashion, travel, cars and home furnishing magazines. they take up another huge chunk of the magazine sections. Basically, these magazines are focused on THINGS that people enjoy looking at, doing or owning. They are dreams being sold and people are buying these magazines to find out how they can have the LIFE they always dreamed of. In your blog, you need to paint these kind of dreams too which people can relate to. Talk about your travels, your car, your home renovations... People just love to compare with others so help them by revealing a little bit of yourself.

Blogging Tips:

Okay, I might have lost some of you in the mountain of words. But here are just 3 simple blogging tips which you can take back with you based on my lesson that I have learnt from observing the magazine stands.

1. Update Your Blog Regularly (Once a day if possible)

2. Make it Entertaining (Include Pictures if Possible)

3. Make Your Blog Personal (Reveal what you wear, drive, earn or eat. People love the details sometimes)

So there you have it! Some simple blogging tips which you can apply to your blog. Treat your blog as a e-magazine and you should not go too wrong.

Review of Best Posts for 2009

While we usher in the new year, I would like to look back at 2009 and pick out what I feel were my best posts for the year at SgFinancialFreedom.

Here are the top 3 postings in this blog which I personally liked.

1. Unit Trust Fund Screener I felt that there was a need to share on this wonderful fund screener with people who read this blog. I am afraid that this posting might have slipped the eyes of some so I am highlighting it here once again. Next time, before you invest in any unit trust (even those unit trusts which you buy from the insurance companies, be sure to check it out first using Lipper)

2. $50 to Give Away. The Winner of this contest was Musicwhiz who is also a prominent blogger in the Singapore blogosphere. It was the first time that I had given something away on this blog and I was just encouraged by the amount of participation.

3. 10 Steps to Financial Freedom. This was the first 10 part mini-series that I started and I felt that it was a good try out for me. It really took a lot of discipline to write about a certain topic continuously for days. This was espeically so when I had to write after work and my mind could not think clearly. Nevertheless, the response that I got was pretty good.

So there you have it, the top 3 postings for 2009. I do hope to bring more original and interesting content for the year 2010 even as I continue my journey towards financial freedom.

If you have any suggestions on how I could improve my blog (or any criticisms), please feel free to leave a comment!

This Blog is Worth US$1803.10

I usually get to my own site by googling it using the keyword sgfinancialfreedom.

I was pretty surprised to see that there was this returned search from this domain websiteoutlook that apparently values this blog at US$1803.10

Websiteoutlook basically contains a collection of actual number of pageview from other websites. The visitor dat is combined with information about number of links that point towards the site, country, Alexa ranking and other data that is available on-line. All this information has been used to make a formula that estimates the number of pageviews, its worth and the possible daily income that the site has.

I captured a screenshot and placed it below. Firstly, I must say that I am glad that this blog is actually recognised in the first place as being worth something. However, if it was only worth US$1803... then that's a bit too little =) I certainly wished that it was worth like a cool 1 million dollars.

Quit My Job, Blog and Travel the World

Quitting my job was one of the toughest decisions I made in my life. Nevertheless, I am glad that I made the decision.

My end goal is to be able to just blog and earn money while travelling the entire world.

This however is not achievable currently as I am still not drawing enough income from online sources. When my online income sources reaches $100 per day, then it could seriously be something worth considering.

On top of my online income source, I could rent out my apartment and get a decent amount of money too.

Travelling the world will most probably begin with a road trip to Malaysia through to Thailand and perhaps even driving all the way to China if that is possible. I will just drive all the way to Europe if I can.

Am I dreaming? Is this dream too far fetched?

Will I be able to realise this dream in the next 10 years, 20 years or never?

What must I do to increase my online income? Can I hit $10 per day by year end?

WE SHALL SEE..........................TO BE CONTINUED

Thoughts on the Sweat Debt

I woke up early around 7am. After some reading, checking on my adsense earnings and serving out my food in Cafe World (a game in Facebook), it was time for breakfast.


We went out to eat again.


For me it is always the same food stall but I simply adore the food. The hustle and bustle of the market just makes the food taste so much better. I ordered a cup of $0.70 coffee from the coffee shop. The uncle gave me a knowing look. I was his regular customer afterall.


After eating breakfast, it was time for a family walk as we walked around the neighborhood and did some grocery shopping.


Back home, we spent our time reading the newspapers.


I was just reading this article on the Straits Times which talks about the 'Sweat Debt'.

A global management consultancy firm (Hay Group) actually says that workers are feeling increasingly frustrated especially if they have undergone wage cuts and stuff.


A poll showed that 29 per cent of employees felt frustrated while 35 percent feel detached. Only 16 per cent felt effective in their jobs.

I am not too sure how the survey was conducted but it seems that a total of 64 percent are either frustrated or detached from their work.


That is a huge number of people who are totally not involved in their work. If work takes up such a huge amount of our waking hours, isn't it worthless to pursue something that we do not enjoy and which we have no attachment to?


Too many people work simply because they need the money to survive. They work for money. And yet they claim they are not a slave to money. How can that possibly be??


If they are doing something they do not enjoy for the sake of money, aren't they a slave to money?


Too many people sacrifice lots of their time and effort on earned income. They have not explored the potential of passive income from online sources, businesses and stuff.


And then I looked at myself and realised what a different life I am living from the rest of the people around me! It is 12 noon and here I am writing about the events that have happened to me in the morning =)


When others are dressed in their office attires rushing off to work, I am dressed in my bermudas and slippers going for my breakfast. I sometimes give an almost apologetic look to those whom I meet in the elevator and it seems that they look at me scornfully (especially those who have seen me so many times before).



This also got me thinking deeper about pursuing my dreams and goals that I have set for myself and how I should reward myself if I achieve them.

I am still very much like others working for a living. The only difference is that I hope to be financially free by earning passive income that is greater than my monthly expenditure.


For a start, I have been trying to earn more money using online sources. My daily earnings from online sources currently amount to less than $5 a day.


If I am able to hit the $10 a day earnings in online income, I will buy myself a PlayStation 3 which I always wanted.
Once I hit the $100 a day earnings, I will buy myself a Mont Blanc Pen



Once I hit the $200 a day earnings, I will go on a short holiday trip to Europe with my family.

195 Posts and Counting

It has been a long journey.

When I first started out in 2008 to blog about my journey to financial freedom, I had little clue on what I was going to blog about and whether it would be sustainable.

This post is my 195th post on this blog and I must say that I am glad I have made it thus far.

What started out as a random project to record and increase my passive income every year has become a diary for me as well as a platform where I can engage others who are also striving to financially independent or free.

There are many times when I wanted to simply give up this whole project on financial freedom.

However, I have slowly seen how blogging has helped me to grow clearer in my goals as well as my knowledge.

In the same way, knowing that other bloggers are out there reading and watching just makes me want to be more accountable to the goals that I have set for myself. The knowledge that I have gained from other bloggers are tremendous and I must say that I have grown as an individual because of their suggestions, advice and blogging.

If you have been following this blog for the past one year, I will just like to say a big THANK YOU for taking the effort to read. I know I can write with a sort of "dizzying" effect as there are times when my mind is totally cluttered especially after returning from work.

As my committment to continue blogging, I hope to roll out a new template for this site to make it a bit more reader friendly. I hope to do this at the 200th post but I am keeping my fingers crossed as I can still be pretty busy at times.

Okay, Flash Forward is starting at 10pm and I really hope to catch this episode.

Signing off,

Financial Freedom

See Related Articles:

1. I Received over $1000 in Dividends for August 2009

2. Passive Income Sources

How Much A Blog Post is Worth

Ever wondered how much one blog post is worth?

I calculated the amount that I have earned from online income and based on my computations, each single blog post is worth an average of $0.20. That means that each blog post is roughly earning me 20 cents everytime I publish it.

As I did not set up dedicated channels to track my earnings, I can never know for sure which are the blog posts that are giving me better returns.

There are service providers out there that actually write articles for your blogs for a fee. This can be as low as $5 for a 300 word article or as high as $7 for a 500 word article.

But if you are thinking of employing their services, think again! You might not be able to break even unless you have a really good strategy in mind.

And that is perhaps the reason why these service providers are not writing articles for their own blogs or websites. It is much more profitable to sell articles than to earn money from articles that are published on a website or blog.

So how exactly can you make money from your blog?

I believe I am "qualified" in a certain sense to answer the above question.

Ever since I started out blogging last year, I have seen my online income grow from a paltry $0.01 per month to roughly $30 per month. I am not talking about a six figure income from blogging but if you are interested in how to break the zero barrier...read on.

Firstly, if property is about location, location, location then blogging is about content, content, content.

Yes, a good domain name might be important but even with google's blogger that I am using, choosing a good name for your blog might be enough instead of investing in a proper domain name (This is especially so if you are not even sure whether you will be blogging in the long term). It is best that the name of your blog has something related to what you will be blogging about. This will aid in the search engine portion.

But I will not touch on that as I believe that it is possible to write good content and the traffic will come naturally.

If I can put it down to 2 essentials to breaking the zero barrier in earnings, it will be simply this:

Blogging frequency and content.

Other factors are: Search Engine Optimisation, Keyword selection, Traffic sources

So focus on your content and blogging frequency first before touching upon the rest.

Remember that the people reading your postings are humans. Look at your own blog and own posts. Imagine that you are a stranger reading it. How would you react? Would you want to visit again for more information?

I understand that are a whole lot of other things that come into play when it comes to earning money from blogging but I think this article should suffice for the time being

Read Related Articles:
1. Online Income From Adsense

Why is Xiaxue so Popular?

Okay. Xiaxue (the blogger) is pretty popular in Singapore right?

Apparently 20,000 readers read her blogs.

But why on earth are people reading her blog which is filled with expletives and scantily cladded pictures of herself? Why is everybody reading it?

Is it because of the way the new generation sees things? Is it the things that they like to read about her personal life and what she does everyday?

By the way, Forbes Magazine dubbed her review of the iPhone as "Worst iPhone Review so Far".

So stop reading Xiaxue's blog and read my blog instead.

Financial Freedom. It's yours. Come get it!

10 facts about Myself

It has been a long journey. 27 years of my life.

While this blog has given me a platform to chart my journey, it has also provided me with the opportunity to interact with others in the online community.

However, it seems that I am perhaps hiding behind the veil of the internet where people cannot really know who am I.

So perhaps today I should reveal a bit about myself so that people can have an idea of who I really am. These are 10 facts about myself which I hope you enjoy:

1. I was born in KK hospital, Singapore in 1981.
2. I was never good at art.
3. My ECA in primary school was Science Club. But I also joined table tennis and track and field
4. My K2 teacher gave me black coffee to drink.
5. I need coffee to survive nowadays.
6. I would like to think I am pretty smart. I scored straight 'A' s for my O levels =)
7. I actually got a place in Brown University but had no $$ to go there.
8. Financial Freedom is important to me not because of the $$ but because of the things that it will allow me to focus my attention on (e..g family, friends, etc)
9. I once had less than $10 in my bank account.
10. I now earn more than $10 a month online. One of my dreams is to be a full time blogger

There you have it. Ten "interesting" facts about me. Hopefully this will help readers to get a better feel of the person writing this blog.

Time to Reorganise this Blog?

It has been almost a year since I started blogging on my journey towards financial freedom.

One thing I realised from just navigating around my blog is that it is totally disorganised. My thoughts are not well collected and they seem to be scattered all over the place! Sometimes I post about a certain topic twice or even three times!

It must be tiring for people who follow this blog to follow my chain of thought and stuff.

So perhaps it is time I tidy up this whole blog and provide a sort of content page to allow easy navigation.

Full Time Blogger

Hmm.. Perhaps I could be a full time blogger if the economy does not pick up.

I started blogging in May 08 and since then, I have been able to earn a consistent $5 - $10 per month even though I do not blog regularly. The number of visitors to my blogs are also less than 100 a day.

Even for the month of Feb 09 where I hardly had any new entries in my blog, I have already managed to earn close to $8 from Adsense income.
So.. just maybe.. if I spend all my time blogging, I could possible earn much more!

Decisions..decisions.. =)