16 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?

1. Set up an email subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates. read more...

Love: What the Hell is It?

If you have none to love - who loves you - then what? What do you do?

Love - that elusive, for some, state of mind...state of being that, for so many people, is THE defining factor in their lives. We write songs about it. We write poetry about it. We write books about it. We watch movies about it. Seems that we will do nearly anything to find it...anything to keep it. But again I ask...Love - what the hell is it?

It seems we can't live without it. We are told it "makes the world go around". Songs tell us "you're nobody 'til somebody loves you"....and "all we need is love". Love - what the hell is it? read more...

The Child is: A Heart is

This is just an idea of comparison about a child and a heart. So you can add comments or some other insights about this comparison.

A child is always hungry. cries out for milk, maybe for cerelac and his mother's breasts. Crumbles for water when he's thirsty, screams when he's tummy boils. He is like the heart - cries when it is lonely, bleeds when it is thirsty for love. It screams when it needs another heart to feed it. Feed it with joy, hope and courage. These three adjectives are like water, cerelac and the mother's breasts where the heart seeks for only one satisfaction.

The child is satisfied when he is filled with food. The heart is satisfied when it is filled with just love.
A child is inconstant in behavior. in a certain time span he smiles, cries, laughs out loud, screams, giggles, silences, envies, plays, frowns, asks. he do these verbs to just be simply satisfied. read more...

The Girl with Pink Flowers

I opened my eyes and I saw a girl with pink flowers. She was so beautiful... so innocent!

I opened my eyes. I saw a light shining down on me. I tried to reach for it, but on my way I heard someone crying.

It was a girl with pink flowers. She's so beautiful, so innocent, so.... I looked at her and wonder what could she be doing alone in a filthy place like this. I watch her cry her heart out with silent whispers I barely can hear.

Murmurs of guilt, anger, and sadness, that is all that I can get. I move closer and I see her eyes, so weary and confused. I tried to come closer, but the light distracted me. It was becoming brighter, almost like calling me to reach for it. I was going through the light, but there was something that kept me holding back. read more...

For Love of the Game

Softball. Nope, there's nothing soft about it.

Mr. Webster defined sport as a physical activity engaged in for pleasure. For someone playing softball, I can attest that it is more complicated than what meets the eye. True, it resembles baseball though bigger balls, smaller fields, and more rules are used.I first played the game when I was still a freshman in high school. I thought it was just sport that's similar to soccer, only with a literally "softer" ball used. We played it for an inter-section competition so I went on playing the game without any knowledge whats over. I was struck out because i kept batting every pitch not knowing if it's a good pitch or a ball. After that, I didn't get to play softball again because on my second year I transferred to another school where softball is uhmm, a "dormant" sport. Softball became a sport that i dream of playing again, if given a chance. Then came high school graduation, where I received the greatest gift ever, the opportunity to be enrolled in a summer camp where I can play softball again -- the Softbelles Summer Camp. read more...

Man's Best Friend

Among my earliest and fondest childhood memories was living in a "zoo." Aside from having two brothers and tons of cousins, we also had several furry, feathery and scaly friends to play with. I couldn't recall a single day in my life without a pet. At one time or another, our family has taken care of dogs, cats, birds, hamster, and fish. Also we have a backyard animals like, pigs and a lot of ducks!

Almost everyone has a special story about a pet, who's infact in one's life is cherished and tresured despite the passage of years. My grandfather, even though he's already 80, can still remember the carefree days of his boyhood when his dogs would join him and his friends for a swim in the river during hot afternoons. In exchange for food and shelter, pets have provided people with unconditional love, unwavering loyalty and true friendship. Unlike some "friends," pets can't spread your darkest secrets, or talk about you behind your back. They won't scold you like your parents or older sibs when you tell them about your gripes. read more...

A Perfect Life

I discover that being treated like a princess is not all fairy tales.

When I was 16-year-old, my life doesn't really reflect the kind of life like other girls out there dream of. Yes, I am the only daughter of a famous man in our town, I have two brothers. Yes, I'm a member of a prominent clan of business entrepreneurs. Yes, I do get what i want most of the time without any hesitations. Yes, I am a consistent honor student and I won first place in feature writing that time in Schools Press Conference. Yes, I passed every college entrance examination I took, which means yes, I passed the prestigious University of the Philippines College Aptitude Test. My whole family is actually proud of me, but I'm not happy. Why? It is for the simple reason that although my life seems perfect, my spirit is not free. read more...

The No Apologies Ego Boost

Let's take look at egos. Like most things in life, a healthy opinion of yourself can actually work--if it's taken in moderation. Too much of anything is bad, and that goes for blown-up egos, too.

Make your ego work for you, without going overboard, by making a mental note of the things you like about your self.

Even the most downtrodden gal can cook up one thing that's going right. Your amazing ability to listen to other people's dilemmas, your irresistible dimples-it can be anything!
Start by thinking of one thing that makes you proud of your self. Add more to the list. In no time, you'll radiate that elusive I'm-proud-of-moi glow! read more...

Everyday Can be Christmas

Give someone a reason to smile today!

Sometimes the best gifts in the life are "free". I know that term sounds incorrect somehow, but stay with me. This being our gift guide issue, I got thinking about the kind of everyday gifts that make the most impact. And usually, they turn out to be non-material things, like a txt from your love one (tee hee). Or a hug from your best friend. Or a kind word from a stranger.
Recently, while I was shopping at Salabianca, a sales lady told me that she liked "the way I put [my] outfit together". (*Blush*)

Just when you think the world is getting to be such a cynical place, you get a delightful surprise-when people are sweet when they don't have to be. And I realized, it takes very little to brighten up someone's day. read more...