Q3 2016 Blog Traffic & Income Report - 171,985 Users / $5,296.40

8 October, 2016 | Blogging | 13 seen

Welcome to the third quarterly traffic and income report update covering third (Q3) quarter of 2016 (July, August, September), in which I will reveal some secrets on how I made more that $5,000 and got traffic more than 170,000 unique users. Here is the link to the archive for previous online income reports.

If you are new to my blog, here is a brief explanation on sharing data on traffic and income:

I have been collecting and sharing data for my online success or failures since January 2014, back then my blog was 3 month old and I decided to start an online experiment - can someone actually make money through blogging? Now, I know it for sure - yes, you can, but it takes a time and determination. Back at January 2014, I made enormous eight dollars. Online income reports helps me to track my success or failures, and hopefully can inspire you as well.

Most of the time in third quarter of 2016 I spent on home remodeling works doing brick and mortar stuff (more on that in close future). My 31st birthday was on August and I took few days off to celebrate it abroad (again, more on that soon). As…

St. Michael Archangel Church in Mosėdis

7 October, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 7 seen

This church is located in the town of Mosėdis, Lithuania. St. Michael Archangel Church represents late Baroque style.

I visited this church in frames of my three days birthday trip across Lithuania (For the third year in a row I have a tradition to greet my birthday abroad in some country's capital, this year it was turn for Vilnius. Although Lithuania is already featured to my blog already with few interesting tourism objects - at the end of this trip I hope to supplement my collections list with many more cool sights). Mosedis was our first stop, after we crossed Latvian/ Lithuanian border through town of Ezere (Latvia). 

The church of the late Baroque style is cross-planned, with two towers. There are 4 altars. The churchyard is fenced with high stone masonry.

St. Michael Archangel Church in Mosėdis

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Monument of Lithuania's Architecture

Oliva Italian Restaurant in Yerevan

6 October, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 9 seen

If you are looking for an authentic Italian cuisine, here is the simple advice - visit Italy, but if in case in place of Italy you have found yourself in Yerevan, Armenia - here is a good Italian Restaurant Oliva, which is worth to visit and enjoy really good Italian cuisine in pretty authentic atmosphere - live music in evenings or tasty tiramisu cake are just a few to name.

I first discovered Oliva restaurant back in 2014, when found they are serving breakfast brunch - more from my first impressions from Yereven restaurants see this article: Fine Dining Places In Yerevan

Located on Yeznik Koghbatsi street, Oliva turned out to be just a few meters from our Park Hotel Yerevan (we stayed here for couple of nights)

Oliva restaurant in Yerevan

Here you can taste common Italian dishes made of high - quality products. The tastes typical of Italy will take you to this wonderful country.

Tiramisu cake and cup of morning coffee

Simple, elegant and affordable Italian restaurant in the heart of Yerevan, visit oliva.am to learn more.

Artashi Mot Restaurant on Moskovyan Street in Yerevan

5 October, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 27 seen

Artashi Mot restaurant was a recommendation from our friend and taxi driver Tom, shortly we returned from the trip to the temple of Garni and Geghard monastery back to Yerevan, we asked Tom for a good local restaurant he would suggest us, and he shortly took us to Moskovyan street and the tasty Armenian cuisine experience started. 

Make sure you check out other Yerevan restaurant recommendations as well

Entrance at Artashi Mot on Moscovyan street

Interior at Artashi Mot

grilled meat - gharsy khorovats

A really great alternative to Georgian kababs.

My favorite salads - plain cucumber and tomato salads

This grill house is unique for its famous “Gharsy Khorovats” (roasted meat), which is made by experienced chefs only from fresh, ecologically pure meat on natural coal. You can also taste the same meals that are offered in the grill house “Artashi Mot”. One portion will cost to You 600 AMD, which is a fantastically low price for such a tasty dish. We have also delivery service for 300-500 AMD per order, no matter what the size. Visit “Artashi Mot” and You will…

Geghard Monastery Complex in Armenia

4 October, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 97 seen

Geghard is a medieval monastery in the Kotayk province of Armenia, being partially carved out of the adjacent mountain, surrounded by cliffs. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

I first heard about this monastery in some Travel Channel series on Armenia, I remember I was surprised when journalist told that this church is actually cut into the rock. At start of the March (2016) I visited Armenia again, and this time I decided to visit some of the most interesting tourism objects in Armenia.

My biggest discoveries during this trip to Armenia were following - Khor Virap, the Temple of Garni and Geghrard monastery - the last two are recommended to visit together, as they are located on the same route. 

I really love church photography, and if you have been following my blog for a while - you have noticed I have created a separate churches and monasteries category listing my notes and photography.

Geghard monastery

From Wikipedia - While the main chapel was built in 1215, the monastery complex was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the…

Temple of Garni, Armenia

2 October, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 33 seen

The Temple of Garni  is a classical Hellenistic temple in Garni, Armenia. It is perhaps the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. It was probably built by king Tiridates I in the first century AD as a temple to the sun god Mihr.

We visited the Temple of Garni the next morning after our beautiful visit to Khor Virap monastery complex near border of Turkey. I called to my good old friend Tom (a taxi driver) and he picked us at our Park Hotel Yerevan, and off we were for the Temple of Garni and the nearby medieval monastery of Geghard. It was just later I learnt that both the Temple of Garni and monastery of Geghard are one of the main tourism objects in Armenia. Amazing. If I had a chance to add a must have attractions while in Armenia, I would suggest to visit Khor Virap monastery also. 

The Temple of Garni

I was equipped with a tripod and some lens, no surprise I made a panoramic photography here. 

After Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century, it was converted into a royal summer house of Khosrovidukht…

How to List Related Tags on Drupal Taxonomy Pages Using Views

1 October, 2016 | Drupal Development | 28 seen

Make sure you check out my previous article How to List Drupal Child Terms on Taxonomy Pages with Views as today I will extend a little bit my previous tutorial and at the end we will add related tags on taxonomy pages using views.

Tools (modules) you will need: Views module and taxonomy module enabled.

Here is the print screen:

Listing related tags on Drupal taxonomy page

Or see live example at Drupal development (or any tag on this blog)

This will work with simple one taxonomy per content type enabled and it will work with multiple taxonomy fields enabled per content type. I'm using two level taxonomy fields - first I have a pre-defined taxonomy fields including child levels, second I have second taxonomy field with tagging enabled in free format. Which basically means following - each article is listed into pre-defined category, like this one goes into Drupal Development, and second tags are added in free format, for example Views, Drupal tutorial... 

In following example we are going to use the power of Views attachments:

Few Tips Before Launching Your First Web Push Notification Campaing

30 September, 2016 | Blogging | 3 seen

Web push notifications have been around for a while already. Chances are, if you are reading this article, you have already implemented them on your website or at least you are planing to do it soon. Continue reading and I will reveal how did it go for my first web push notifications campaign.

In fact I'm new to web push notifications. I first installed and enabled web push notifications for my blog just few days ago. See: How To Setup Web Push Notifications for Drupal or Any Site using PushEngage. In four days I gathered 300 subscribers and first campaign was sent out. 

Get a free account at PushEngage (Free for up to 2500 subscribers)

Here are few tips (observations) after my first sent campaign:

Dashboard at PushEngage​

My idea for push notifications at start was simple - set and forget - let me explain. PushEngage offers to use RSS auto push feature, which basically means - enter RSS feed once and set all to auto mode. I was looking for following behavior - RSS auto push will grab the title from article, and description. As of now - PushEngage doesn't offers options to use thumbnail from post, so I…

How To Sync Drupal RSS Feed to Mailchimp

29 September, 2016 | Drupal Development | 22 seen

RSS is not dead, it's more than alive - nowadays it's used to sync content across services and devices.

After finishing installing push notifications for my blog I decided to re-check my e-mail marketing strategy. Wow, it's hard to compare actually - I got about 200 push notifications subscribers in less than 3 days, while my attempts of collecting e-mails turned out to be more gloomy  - about 60 subscribers in 3 months (after which I stopped to collect e-mail addresses at all). Not to speak about crafting and editing each newsletter.

I decided to make my e-mail marketing strategy more simple and more aggressive. By saying simple - I would like to be it fully automated, by saying aggressive - to send out more often . Let me explain - use to I sent a newsletter campaign once in a month and spent few hours crafting each campaign. Now, I want to send a newsletter once a week, and not spend much time crafting each campaign. I'm looking for set and forget setup.

I have changed my mindset a bit as well - if in the past I looked on e-mail marketing as on way to sell (I doubt I…

How to List Drupal Child Terms on Taxonomy Pages with Views

28 September, 2016 | Drupal Development | 73 seen

I spent a good amount of time at Monday's evening to actually figure this out. In today's Drupal Tutorial - How to List Drupal Child Terms on Taxonomy Pages with Views.

This issue has been on my table for about two years.

For the ease of this tutorial - here is basic setup. For a content type blog I have created pre-defined vocabulary - Category. Most of the category items are not related and are in linear format. But few of them are related and I have listed them as child terms.

Pre-defined category in Drupal

The tricky part is how to display child terms under parent taxonomy page - let's say a visitor is visiting parent category page - Tourism Objects and we would like to feature a little sub-menu with child terms, like airports, shopping venues e.t.c.

I tried many modules and solutions, but decided to stick with a simple views configuration using attachment feature.

In following example I have actually extended a little bit usability by displaying count for…

How To Setup Web Push Notifications for Drupal or Any Site using PushEngage

27 September, 2016 | Drupal Development | 62 seen

Push Notifications seems are hot and worth to invest trend nowadays. I have seen them around for about last 6 months in blogs, portals and other websites.  

In fact I have always chose to block them, when popped in my Chrome Browser, as I think they might be annoying. On the other hand as a blogger with pretty solid audience (more than 55,000 unique monthly users) I have wandered maybe it's worth to explore them more and implement on my blog?! As I see it now - web push notifications could help me to increase repeat visitors and page views, that's the reason I finally opted in and implemented web push notifications.

In todays Drupal development series - How To Setup Push Notifications for Drupal or Any Site using PushEngage.

PushEngage (Image courtesy: PushEngage.com)

Here is the fun fact - my smartphone have been broken for about 2 weeks (glass is broken), and I haven't repaired it or bought a new one - I didn't had a smartphone to perform my tests on. But I had a great partner and bug fixer in the other part of the world - my dad. I would…

'Delicious Ravioli' on Tumanyan street in Yerevan

25 September, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 22 seen

Delicious Ravioli on Tumanyan street in Yerevan, Armenia serves a traditional Georgian cuisine. Actually this is a typical khikali place and I still wonder why this place is called a Ravioli place instead of Khinkali, as in Russian language sign - this place is still called Tasty Khinkali. Strange.

Anyway, as usually when abroad I search for a Georgian cuisine. Last time I visited Georgian Tavern in Tallinn, Estonia, today was Yerevan's turn. Another evening, another Yerevan restaurant. 

We visited Delicious Ravioli just shortly we returned from Khor Virap monastery complex.

Delicious Ravioli

This restaurant is located in basement, and you must look really carefully to find it. 

Interior at Delicious Ravioli

Pretty good and stylish. Very red :)

Khinkali at Delicious Ravioli place

Food was good, really good prepared khinkali accompanied with Georgian Saperavi lemonade. Budget? Don't recall exactly but pretty affordable. Would love to return.

Khor Virap Monastery Complex in Armenia

24 September, 2016 | Churches and Monasteries | 67 seen

The Khor Virap is an Armenian monastery located in the Ararat plain in Armenia, near the closed border with Turkey, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of Artashat, Ararat Province. The monastery was host to a theological seminary and was the residence of Armenian Catholicos.

Located some 30 km from nations capital Yerevan, Khor Virap is best reached by organized tours, personal vehicle or by hiring a taxi. I have kept contacts from good old taxi driver Tom, which we met first when arranged a tour to Etchmiadzin cathedral, Tom wasn't available today but agreed to send his friend Misha. Here is a catch - the reason we decided to visit Kor Virap was to catch an awesome sunset (Golden Hour) photography. Misha picked us up at our Yerevan Park Hotel about an hour before sunset.

Khor Virap monastery and mount Ararat

There is a cemetery located just before the monastery complex. As we arrived some 30 minutes earlier, we made a stop here, and I started to install equipment. 

Khor Virap's notability as a monastery and pilgrimage site is attributed to the fact that …

Tashir Pizza (On Mashtots Avenue, Yerevan)

23 September, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 21 seen

I first heard about Tashir Pizza back in Tbilisi (Georgia), the girls from local community informed that there is a famous Armenian pizza coming to the town - I had no clue what does famous Armenian Pizza stands for, so I visited my first Tashir pizzeria at Tbilisi East Point mall - read my review here: Tashir Pizza at EastPoint Mall (Tbilisi)

Now, couple of months latter we were on a short few day trip to Armenia, and Tashir name popped up again, we were sitting at our cozy Park hotel room and decided to go for a walk and look for the brand. We hadn't to walk too long as first popped soon we left our hotel and headed to Mashtots Avenue. 

Tashir pizza on lively Mashtots avenue in Yerevan

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Popular place

Literally everyone loves Tashir Pizza in Armenia, from young to old, from seniors to businessman. And Tashir Pizza has an offer for everyone - it definitely is not an expensive place. This place is a budget on steroids type of place (really rare you can see such venues - it is either cheap and bad, or bad and cheap) Tashir Pizza is cheap and good!

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Armenian Wedding

22 September, 2016 | | 10 seen

In today's Piece of Life photo series - Armenian Wedding, no not mine big fat Armenian Weddings, but a candid street photography from Yerevan.

It all probably started at Yerevan's Brandy Factory, after visiting which we returned back to the old town by foot and noticed a crowd gathering near church. Yup, they were waiting for the bride and groom. 

So did we.. I quickly changed glass to telephoto and decided to experiment - yes your are right with the candid street photography. Wide apertures and amazing models. 

Wedding limousine 

Taxi driver without enthusiasm 

Wedding guests

...and police

I captured both the bride and groom, but decided to keep their privacy and not to publish their images (well, I was just a passer by with a telephoto lens, and not an invited guests)