This has been a great year for me in so many different ways, and that includes this blog, too.

As the year draws to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight the most read posts and active commentators on Sparklette for 2009.

At this moment a revamp of Sparklette is in the works. I don’t have a confirmed date for the launch as I am juggling this along with several clients’ projects. But I would love it if anyone would like to test-drive Sparklette 2.0. Interested? You can register here. When the site is ready, you would be amongst the first to get a sneak preview before it is rolled out to everyone else. (More details at the end of this post.)

For now, here’s the best of Sparklette 2009.

Some statistics: 1,762,298 people visited Sparklette in 2009, or 4,828 a day. A total of 113 articles and 3,696 comments were published.

Top 10 Most Read Food Reviews

1. Benten Café – Shrine of Happiness – 6,671 views
2. Bakerzin – Multi-coloured Macaron Delights – 5,948 views
3. Raffles Hotel Mooncakes 2009 – Have You Ordered Yours Yet? – 5,942 views
4. Japanese Gourmet Town – 3 Restaurants Under 1 Roof! – 5,706 views
5. Royce’ Nama Chocolate – Posh Nosh – 5,645 views
6. The Organic Café Xperience – Health Food That Tastes Good – 4,379 views
7. Popeyes – Mighty Good Fried Chicken! – 4,369 views
8. Charco’s – Flaming Goodness! – 4,175 views
9. Kia Hiang Restaurant – Mooncakes Packed with Tradition & Innovation – 4,149 views
10. Naked Fish Shoppe – You’ll Be Hooked! – 3,933 views

Top 10 Most Read Posts Overall

1. 12 Mooncakes You Don’t Want to Miss in 2009 – 23,135 views
2. 100+ Restaurants in Singapore That Do Not Serve Free Water – 12,325 views
3. Bangkok (Day 2) – Chatuchak & Roadside Dining – 10,785 views
4. 12 More Mooncakes You Don’t Want to Miss in 2009 – A Remix! – 9,149 views
5. Bangkok (Day 3) – Chokchai Steakhouse & Manchester United Restaurant and Bar – 7,796 views
6. Bangkok (Day 5) – Thailand Cultural Centre & National Museum – 7,501 views
7. Sparklette’s New Baby: Snowy, the Cutest Ragdoll Kitten in the World! – 7,220 views
8. Bangkok (Day 1) – Arrival in Bangkok – 6,984 views
9. Benten Café – Shrine of Happiness – 6,671 views
10. Bangkok (Day 6) – Muang Boran the Ancient City – 6,579 views

Top 10 Most Discussed Posts

1. 100+ Restaurants in Singapore That Do Not Serve Free Water – 394 comments
2. 12 Mooncakes You Don’t Want to Miss in 2009 – 71 comments
3. Sparklette’s New Baby: Snowy, the Cutest Ragdoll Kitten in the World! – 50 comments
4. Bangkok (Day 6) – Muang Boran the Ancient City – 36 comments
5. Popeyes – Mighty Good Fried Chicken! – 35 comments
6. Nando’s – Peri Me Away & Royce’ Nama Chocolate – Posh Nosh – 31 comments
7. 12 More Mooncakes You Don’t Want to Miss in 2009 – A Remix! – 30 comments
8. Charco’s – Flaming Goodness! – 28 comments
9. AJ’s Piri Piri Chicken – Afro-Portuguese Flavours & Katrina – Love Mee – 26 comments
10. Bangkok (Day 3) – Chokchai Steakhouse & Manchester United Restaurant and Bar & Bangkok (Day 7) – Forensic Museum, Temple of Dawn & Chao Phraya River & Indonesian Grill Delights – The Story of the Girl Who Loves Chicken – 25 comments

Top 3 Series

1. Bangkok travelogue: Start from Day 1
2. Siem Reap travelogue: Start from Day 1
3. Christmas Tree of the Day 2009: Start from Day 1

Top 10 Commentators

1. Melissa – 54 comments
2. Edmund – 38 comments
3. Nicholas – 29 comments
4. Kyo – 23 comments
5. Fei – 23 comments
6. proud mom to maximus – 22 comments
7. py – 16 comments
8. XWings – 13 comments
9. vinsion – 11 comments
10. pkchukiss – 11 comments

Preview Sparklette 2.0

2.0 would feature a brand new design that is more structured and minimal, and less graphic-intensive. When I work on clients’ websites under my web development business, new ideas often pop up. What better way than to experiment using my own blog, right?


One of the planned features in 2.0 is allowing visitors to upload their own photographs and links to their own blogs. For example, I post a review of a certain restaurant X that I visited recently. Some of you may have also reviewed X at your own blog. You would be able to upload your own photos here along with links to your blog/review. This way, visitors that come on here to read about X also get to visit other blogs that have talked about X.

That is just one of the features in the pipeline. I intend to do a soft launch for members to gather feedback. If you are interested, you can register here and I would send word when it is ready.

Note: Registration should take you less than 30 seconds. After you choose your user name and provide an email address, a randomly generated password would be sent to your email. When you have logged in successfully for the first time, don’t forget to change your password.

Ready? Great!

“Take me to the registration page now!”