As a muslim, we are always told to pay our dues or zakat (zakat pendapatan & zakat harta) in order to cleanse our income, savings and property. Zakat is the Islamic way to contribute to the poor and unfortunate through paying to the proper channels & authorities. Another good thing about paying your zakat pendapatan is that it is a tax deductable item when you do your tax returns in April. This is provided that you pay it before 31st December 2009.
So, I went to pay my zakat on the last day (31st Dec 2009), as usual. Procrastinating is bad, I know. The Lembaga Zakat Selangor office is just a 5 minute drive from my place, so I dropped by on my way to work anticipating for at least 1 hour of waiting before being able to pay my zakat.
Bangunan JAIS.....in front of Masjid Negeri Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah
To my surprise, I drove in, parked my car, took my number and paid my zakat in only 20 minutes. That is even taking into account the pleasant lady staff helping me calculate how much I needed to pay. She was very calm and helpful eventhough the place was full of people.
Complaints and bad reviews are always what we hear when people deal with government or in this case local authorities. But I am giving two thumbs up to the people at Lembaga Pungutan Zakat Selangor (LPZS) for their efficiency and service with a smile approach. I hope I will get the same treatment when I deal with another government branch in the future.
You check your traffic and what you see are pathetic numbers that even make your grandmother be ashamed to look at you or even disown you as her grandson. There must be a reason why you are not getting more readers and I mean quality readers & followers.
Most of the reasons maybe because of the following reasons, so pay attention.
Reason 1: You Copy and Paste
People call this "content syndicating". This is when you copy & past lame articles from site such as www.goarticles.com or www.ezine.com for example. You shouldn't being doing this you schmuck. Come up with some original content and get real.
Reason 2: You Can't Write To Save Your Life
I am not talking about your content. It is awesome even (unless you did Reason no 1, then you're back to being a schmuck). Your writing is littered with mispelled words, typos, wrongly using or not using reading marks and other mistakes.
This shows you give a rats behind about your readers. You don't care that they'll be scratching their heads trying to figure out the words you are trying to say. You just want to meet your daily posting quota. You schmuck (I really like that word).
Reason 3: You Post Once A Week (or even ONCE a month....damn!)
Your readers would not be coming running reading your blog if you can't even update it at least 2 or 3 times a week. So, get your brain juices running and blog and blog some more.
Reason 4: Having Less is Sometimes Better
You don't need to have different type of colors for each word in your post. Keep the colors to a minimum and your readers would thank you for it.
Reason 5: You Already Have A Clock and Calender on Your Windows Desktop......USE IT!!!
It annoys me when I open a blog and see a clock, a calender and what other none sense on it. When you put too much widgets on your blog, it will be heavy and making uploading slow for your readers. This applies to blog templates too.
You see this at the right bottom of your screen? Use it!
Reason 6: Your Favourite Tune Made Me Spilled My Drink
I hate it when I open a site and then "Oops I did it again" started blaring like mad and made me spill my coffee. If you really want to put your favourite song on your site, please not Autoplay it. If we wanna listen to it, we'll play it. Kapish? Good.
Reason 7: Your Blog Is Boring
There. I have said it. Write for your readers if you want traffic and returing readers.
Reason 8: I Can't Find Anything Here
Just put an archive function, a label function or a search box. Ditch the clock and calender and put them in instead.
Reason 9: Put Some Pictures in and Don't Forget to Put in Some Paragraphs While You're At It Will You
Words, words and more words. Put in one or two pictures to rest your readers eyes. Visual aids would help alot.
Don't forget to paragraph your postings. We don't want to read endless of never ending words eventhough it's interesting.
Reason 10: Your Template Looks Like That Other Blog I Saw Before
Try to create a unique look to your blog. The template mught be simple but a few widgets (no clocks, no calenders) or pictures might spruce it up a bit.
So, is your blog have any of these? If it does, then do something about it. But whatever it is, keep on chugging....umm..I mean blogging.
Year 2010 is almost here and with it a comes new challenges and experiences to look forward to. But year 2009 is the year that will always be the one that I will always cherish and remember. Let's review what happened to me in 2009.
Getting Engaged (14th December 2008)
Yeah..yeah. I know this did not happen in 2009 but this is my year review, so back off. I got engaged to a beautiful and intelligent young lady by the name of Noor Azhani Bini Shamsudin. We were office mates at Shell Shared Service Centre Kuala Lumpur.
We decided to get engaged after a very short dating period (very very short) and the engagement itself was a small family affair. It was simple but memorable with all the family around us.
Goodbye Shell, Here I Come Tune Talk! (20th April 2009)
I decided to quit working at Shell Shared Service Centre Kuala Lumpur after almost 3 years there. This is where I met my future wife, gained new experiences, made memories and also friends. However, it was time to move on and I think it was also time for me to grow career wise.
Hi Tune Talk (5th May 2009)
After leaving Shell, I am now at Tune Talk. A young and upcoming mobile telecommunications company that will be a major player in the mobile phone network game. I am at the right place and at the right time to be part of a pioneer group of people in bringing up this company.
This is where I think I would be able to grow more in terms of my career and also as a person. Hopefully, all my plans and hopes for Tune Talk will become true.
Getting Married to Noor Azhani Binti Shamsudin (24th July 2009)
I waved goodbye to my bachelor years and opened my heart and life to Noor Azhani Binti Shamsudin, my wife. After 7 months of being engaged, we got married.
It was a very hectic and busy yet beautiful and memorable weekend in my life. It started off with the akad nikah at Azhani's place and adding to the pressure of it all, the akad was done by her dad. It was intense and nerve wrecking. But at the end of it, I got through it. At one go ONLY!!!
The two receptions at Bangi (Azhani's side) and Shah Alam (my side) was tiring but very beautiful to us. We did not feel the strain of it all as we were having the time of our life. Thank you to every one that came and also to my family that worked hard to make it happen.
Azhani is Pregnant (6th September 2009)
It was only 6 weeks after we became husband and wife. We did planned to start having a family off the bat. The news that my wife was pregnant brought excitement that I will become a dad in 2010. Insya'Allah.This is the main reason I can't wait for 2010 to come.
Our First Hari Raya together (23rd September 2009)
Last year, I celebrated Hari Raya as a single man. But this year I have someone to share the day with. I have a new family and although I miss celebrating the 1st day of Hari Raya at Taiping but that is just a small thing to miss after looking at the bigger picture. Celebrating Aidilfitri morning at Bangi then going back to Taiping right after Raya prayers. Nice.
I know I did not mention a lot of what happened in 2009 that affected the whole world like the passing of Michael Jackson but these events were the one that I will cherish most in 2009.
