Friday, August 28, 2020

Captivating Georgia | Part 2 - Ceddys Random

Ceddy August 28, 2020 0 Comments

Captivating Georgia | Part 2 - Ceddys Random

Hello Folks, Welcome to another travel blog. And for today's content, I am writing about my recent trip to Georgia. This is my 2nd-day trip and one of the highlights of the tour.

This is Jvari Monastery at Mtskheta Eastern Georgia

Travel Time...

We left our hotel around 1:30 in the afternoon. We have a personal tour guide and a driver with a coach service. And it took us approximately 20 to 30 mins drive to reach the site all the way from Tbilisi.

Architecture...

Jvari Monastery is a Georgian Orthodox Monastery that existed for the last 6th century. And it is situated at a rocky mountain top of a hill overlooking the town of Mtskheta.

It is currently a Unesco World Heritage Site that survived to the present day that's almost unchanged.

Breathtaking View...

The breathtaking view within the monastery is surreal. If you're into nature thing, You would definitely love the scene. We arrived at the spot around 2PM, and the weather was bit gloomy and cold. and the parking lot was full of coasters, some of them are locals and other tourist wanting to check the monastery.

Some of the pictures I took below:

The good thing about us, as we're able to help by our local tour guide and made it easy to reach the top.

The local tour guide explained to us about the architecture of the monastery. The monastery was strengthened by a "controforse" wall. So that it would look like its growing from the mountain. Its an example of harmonic relation of architecture with nature.

Bas-Relief of the Monastery...

Ascension of the Cross, bas-relief above the southern entrance of the Jvari Monastery

Relief is a term for a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements attached to a solid background of the same material. And the monastery has a lot of it. Ranging from a Georgian Nobleman of Iberia to the Ascension of the Cross. I took a picture of it. See above for your reference.

Inside of Jvari Monastery...

I still have plenty of time to roam around the area and I went inside the monastery. The fact that this is 6th Century old structure, yet Georgian is still able to remain whatever needed to preserved inside. Using the night mode on the DSLR, I was able to capture some shots inside.

Here are some pictures:

The above image is Saint Nino, a female evangelist credited with converting King Mirian III of Iberia to Christianity,(credits from Wikipedia)

Above Picture: View of the dome and the wooden cross

The most important part of a Christian: I light up a candle and prayed.

It took Us around an hour to finish checking what's in the area. Afterward, the local tour guide transferred us to another Orthodox Church. But I'm going to share that content on my next blog :)

I hope you guys enjoy reading this content. And Looking forward to seeing you on my next Part 3 of my Tour to Georgia :)

As always, Stay Safe :)

-Ceddy

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Ceddy's Random Milestone: The Good and The Bad - Version 2020

Ceddy August 26, 2020 0 Comments

The #NewNormal...

Hello Everyone! Welcome back to my blog. It's been a while since I did not write any content. As most of my content on the website focused on product reviews and travel reviews, however, the pandemic strikes that I decided to postpone it for some time and switch to an alternative.

Adding some unforeseen factors like having a furlough for 2 months and returning back at work with a hefty workload. But that doesn't stop me from creating great content for everyone. Prioritizing "vlogging" doesn't mean leaving my website. It's just things that happened so quickly.

Lately, I focused myself on vlogging, though I've been creating some video contents before, I prefer to write (I'm an introvert, but with a little practice and a sprinkle of confidence, I was able to surpass it and I am comfortable now talking in front of the camera)

A the time goes by, I decided to start creating a daily vlog on my youtube channel and Facebook page. and finally, all my hard work was totally paid off. I think this year, I mostly focused on vlogs as I'm unable to make more content on my website. But, still, I have a third party ad player that integrates with my website and I always upload all of the contents that I have. Making sure that all of my videos have an exposure of 360 degrees.

Creating a vlog during this pandemic is a no easy peasy task. I need to be more creative and make a content where viewers can watch it all over again. So since I cannot leave the country or go to other emirates due to COVID Restrictions. What I did was to create an Episodic Content of my Daily Vlog in Abu Dhabi.

Basically, All of those interesting things and those things that I normally do during my rest day from work or at my workplace. I compiled this daily vlogs into an episodic content and upload it to Facebook.

Facebook offers episodic content, unlike Youtube where you have to create a playlist first and upload all the contents.

Anyways, I upload all those contents from Facebook to Youtube and to my website.

So far, I was able to achieve 10,380 followers from my Facebook page and I was able to monetize it.

on the other side, My Youtube channel is still under review, and my watch hours is still ongoing to reach the 4000 watch hours.

Having 10k followers on Facebook is a significant milestone from my end. I couldn't ask for more. I am so happy that my page was now able to earn money. Having the passion to write won't stop me from doing it.

Creating a content thru writing and vlogging is a talent. And I am so grateful to have those both.

Ceddy's Random Milestone...

So far to, summarize all. Here's the milestone of Ceddy's Random up to date:

From humble beginnings, my website gained affiliation with partner companies such as

Skyscanner
Booking.com
Klook.com
Starz Play
Austrian Airlines
Air Malta
Etihad Holidays
Amazon Associate
Nord Vpn
Noon
Gabriel New York.

Awarded by the prestigious Liebster Award--an exclusive award-giving body for bloggers in the blogosphere.

Furthermore,

Google AdSense
Media.Net
Infolinks
Monumetric
Mowplayer
MGID
Facebook Audience Network (with 10K Followers on Facebook)
Purple Ads.io

are my official publishing and monetizing partners. To sum it up, those mentioned above are the farthest milestones of Ceddy's Random.

All I can say is. Despite all these unforeseen circumstances, I was still able to learn and create more valuable content and to share it with everyone. If you want to visit my Facebook page and want to check out my videos. Please click this link.

Thanks for reading my short and simple content and I'll see you on my next blog.

Stay Safe Folks!

--Ceddy

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Fiverr Online Marketplace -Review 2020 | Ceddy's Random

Ceddy August 22, 2020 0 Comments

Author Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

It's Been A While!

Hello Everyone! It's been a long time that I missed to write content.

I was so busy at work and doesn't have time to make new content and because of Covid-19. All my travel plans were moved to 2021 (I should have fresh content for the past 2 months but since unforeseen circumstances happened.)

Back On Track!

And Since I'm back on track on writing content. I have something to share with you- a personal review of an online marketplace. This is FIVERR.

I was searching for some specific "Gig" for my website. I am searching for someone who can fix some errors on my website and to optimize it more. So I hire a professional to fix that issue.

Why I hired a Professional SEO Consultant?

I noticed that due to COVID 19, 50% of my traffic footfall decreased sporadically for 4 months and I was worried as this is greatly affecting my ad revenue performance. So to prevent this from getting worst, I hired someone who can fix this issue as I don't have time and I am busy at work

Does Fiverr worth it?

With the help of Fiverr, I was able to find the right person to fix the issues on my website. A quick chat via Fiverr App, settle the payments, Fix the issue, and deliver it. And voila. After 5 days of promised delivery, the guy who's happened to be a social media manager as well from Pakistan was able to fix and delivered its service on time. And if you wish to hire other professionals, there's plenty of services that Fiverr offers.

The screenshot below via Fiverr App:

What Are The Payment Option?

All I did was to pay via Apple Pay on my phone (Since Fiverr can support Apple Pay without entering your card details manually) If you want to learn more about Apple Pay, You can check my Apple Pay Review HERE.

Fiverr accepts the following mode of payment:

Apple Pay
Thru Debit or Credit Card
Paypal

What I did from my end was just to submit all the requirements that he needs and some credentials.

And I was able to get a 10% discount since it's my first time to order a service from Fiverr. After providing the valid promo code,

You have to apply the promo code provided by Fiverr to get a discount before checking out

I did a check out via Apple Pay and Voila. The person who I hired can start his job right away.

Dashboard & Status Of The Gig

You can always monitor the progress of the gig by utilizing the Fiverr App. I have taken a screenshot below:

All you have to do is go to Manage Orders

And the expected delivery will appear like this below:

Trust Is Always Important

I know that some of you would not trust People by giving your credentials, but You should. Luckily, The guy from Pakistan did his job and didn't share my sensitive information from anyone and I am highly satisfied. I am going to order a gig from him again.

Of course, before trying the service offer from Fiverr, I read some reviews first and the feedback from that person. Luckily, Plenty of people did a 5 Star rating.

If you want to learn more or you wish to sign up and get your first order. You can click this link.

Once again, Thank you so much for reading my blog. Stay safe!

--Ceddy

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Apple Airpods Pro Quick Unboxing Review | First Impression

Ceddy June 23, 2020 0 Comments

Another Unboxing Review

Hello Everyone, Ceddy here, And I'm back again for another tech unboxing review.

Without further ado, let's go ahead and start this review.

I've been waiting for 3 months and now, I finally got the package from Apple.

I've been longing to have one of these and finally, I have one.

I am talking about the Apple Airpods Pro. I am a fan of Apple products, starting from the iPhone, iPad, iMac, Macbook and my first ever Airpods (First Generation)

Ecosystem, It matters a lot.

I really love the ecosystem of Apple as it works perfectly across all the devices and the operating system is top-notch. I'm not biased with Apple, Android is good, my first ever android phone was the LG Mini 2 and I was using a Blackberry Storm (its horrible by the way, though I don't have a choice Wayback 2013), Android is very customizable however nothing compares to Apple when it comes to user experience.

So, going forward, I finally got the Airpods Pro. The Airpods Pro was released way back on October 30, 2019. This is the latest AirPods from Apple. Unlike the first and second generation (they have a universal fit), however the silicone tip size of pro is customizable. So if you have a small ear way canal, you can change the silicone tips to small. In default, the medium silicon tip is already attached to the AirPods pro upon purchase.

And by the way Folks, I don't want to provide any deeper specs with the product, hence I'm just going to share with you my first impression and my experience with the Airpods Pro.

The packaging and the experience.

Moving forward, as always, the AirPods pro packaging is so simple yet elegant. I've been unboxing a lot of products, but I really love to unbox any Apple product. As there it seems different from the rest of the other products that I unboxed. It's weird but the experience is so satisfying.

The noise cancelation feature is so good. It works like magic.

The first time that I put the Airpods in my ears, I was so shocked and surprise (Yes, you can see me on the video, Totally speechless for a few seconds) Why? It's because of the noise-canceling feature. This is the reason why I was excited about this product because it has this new feature.

Upon using the Airpods Pro, the noise cancellation will activate immediately. I was inside the saloon and the noise of the washing machine in the other room and the noise of the AC was gradually filtered. I can hear only myself it works like magic. Yeah (lol). So if you want to move from noise-canceling mode to transparency mode, all you have to do is to long-press the stem of the Airpods, either left or right.

All I can say is.

I'm not a sound guy professional-ishh, I'm just a regular guy who uses this AirPods, I cannot fully justify the sound quality and other "thingy things" that sound professionals can explain. But all I can say is the bass quality of this AirPods Pro is far better than my first generation. Think about high-quality sound. I have even noticed some of the vocals of "Fireflies" by Owl City, and the instruments which they used were so rich to listen compared to my first generation of Airpods.

Trying the Airpods Pro. (Inside the bus)

Using the Airpods Pro inside the bus, Is quite impressive. The hums of the bus were gradually decreased. It's not totally canceled out but I was able to enjoy listening to the tracks and watching movies from Apple Tv+.

Anyways, enough with the first impression. Let's go ahead with the quick unboxing.

So let's start with the packaging.

These photos were taken using portrait mode via iPhone 11

Look at this stunning box. Every time I see this picture, it's oddly satisfying (weird eh?)

I have to blur out some serial numbers (folks, the serial number of Airpods Pro is where you warranty information can be found)

Side. With an Apple Logo

And at the back, where you can find the picture of the Airpods case opened, revealing the Airpods Pro

And on the other side, embossing the name of the product. And did I mention that Airpods Pro can support wireless charging? Yes, Sir, It's compatible with any wireless qi charger.

And here's the documentation. Sad to say, but Apple did not include any Apple stickers. My first Airpod comes with 2 Apple stickers. I know it's not a big deal, (like eh, stickers?, come on folks, It's part of the experience, and you pay for it :) )

This is what I'm telling about guys, See this round-ishh paper housing below? Yeah, that's where your ear tips are.
Small and large. A cool way to put all those ear tips without sacrificing the space on that tiny little box.

And voila...

Apple is gradually transitioning all its peripheral cords from lightning cable to USB-C type cable.
I'm not a fan of USB-C. I really don't mind the USB-C cable as I have 3 original lightning cable to use just in case I missed bringing the cable of my AirPods pro. Good thing, my power bank can support USB-c charging.

USB-C, I'm not a fan, although it delivers great data speed transfer and fast charging. I don't mind it. I just wish that the supplied the normal USB to lightning cable.

And here's the beasty. How gorgeous!

Peekaboo! (lol), the design is so futuristic. The medium ear tip fits perfectly in my ear. I tested the ear-fit test and it appears to be a good seal.

Sexy back. Assembled in China, (as always)

An orange light will appear if you put back the Airpods Pro to its charging case.

Look how small the Airpods Pro. It's just your thumb (or probably the half of your thumb)

It's just right...

See that black mesh at the back of the AirPods Pro? That's an expanded mesh microphone port that improves call clarity in windy situations.

And at the tip of the Airpods Pro (or the stem rather), It comes with a force sensor that supports different gestures such as:

Press once to play or pause music
Press once to answer an incoming call
Press twice to skip forward on a track
Press three times to skip back on a track
And press and hold to switch between noise cancellation and transparency mode

And if you may ask, How much is the Airpods Pro? *drum rolls.....

It's $272. Yeah, It's not practical to have this type of Bluetooth headphones, If you can afford to buy one of this? Why not? Enjoy and splurge your self once in a while. Once you tried it for the very first time, all those anger will flush away (it's quite expensive but it's worth the price for) 😆

If you're considering buying one, you can click this link.

If you want to see the entire unboxing of Airpods Pro, You can find it above in my video section.

Once again, Thank you so much for reading this review.

Stay safe everyone!

--Ceddy

Monday, June 1, 2020

Google Adsense Alternatives For 2020 | Ceddy's Random Review 2020

Ceddy June 01, 2020 0 Comments

And, I am back again for another review......

Hey guys, Ceddy here, and I am back again for another content review.
For todays content, I am sharing with you the Best Google Adsense Alternatives for 2020.

Many of you are already familiar with Google Adsense and there is no doubt that they are the best interactive media advertiser.

If you are new to blogging and you want to monetize your website, probably most of your query results in Google will land you to Adsense reviews.

There is no specific requirement for you to get approved right away but upon my experience, the criteria should have the following at least:

Decent traffic to your website
The quality of your content/niche
Should have at least 10 contents
Your website should adhere to the Adsense TOS
Your website should have a domain and does not use a subdomain

Once you get approved, You can simply integrate the code to your website, and ads will run right away.

I'm satisfied with the use of Google Adsense, I have decent traffic and my CPC rate is in the range between 4 to 5 dollars especially if my traffic comes from the USA. However, regardless of high traffic on your website and no one is clicking to those Adsense ads, you are still not getting a high revenue result. Some bloggers are not aware of CPC and CPM.

CPC or cost per click is used to drive traffic to the website in which the advertiser pays a publisher for each click.

While the CPM or cost per thousand impressions is where the advertisers pay each ad every time the ad is displayed on your website.

Simple to understand yet some bloggers used to skip this and when they got approved from Adsense, they are completely clueless why their revenue is less despite having a huge amount of CPM. That's because Adsense is mainly a CPC Platform.

That's why I created this review for Adsense Alternative as I know that some of you are looking for another ad provider.

I am using 4 media advertisers on my website (Adsense Included). The first on my list is

Monumetric

It is a full-service ad revenue partner headquartered at Farmington, Utah, USA. And they are providing CPM. Yes, you heard it right. CPM and not CPC. So you can earn high revenue as much as you have high traffic to your website. You don't have to worry about invalid clicks as long as you have enough traffic and high ad impressions, you can get high revenue at the same time. So far this is the best Adsense alternative that I've discovered. There was an increase of 150% in my revenue compared to Adsense only.

You can check the graph below:

Screenshot of my revenue from January till May of 2020

Joining Monumetric is a bit lengthy process but for sure your waiting time is worthy.

I joined Monumetric last December 2019, but due to the holiday season, their office hours were changed and it took me like a month for them to set up everything.

If you are qualified for Monumetric, One representative will reach you via Skype and discuss what are the important priorities for you to achieve your revenue goal, they will also ask what are the problems you encounter so that they can find a solution.

After 1 hour of discussion, they immediately set up the process and after a week of January 2020, The ads are now served to my website.

You should trust the Folks at Monumetric, as you need to give your username and password for your account as they will be the one to set up the ad scripts. I trusted them, and they set up everything for me. They put the ad to the best placement.

I am happy and satisfied using Monumetric. You can directly talk to a "real human" if you have any questions from them. You can send an email or talk with them via Skype.

Why Join Monumetric?

Consider this because:

They offer the highest CPM as per my experience. 150% increased to my revenue upon signing up with them
It's a CPM- or cost per thousand of impression. If you have a high traffic volume + higher impression = HIGH REVENUE
There is NO MINIMUM WITHDRAWAL
They can pay you via Payoneer, Paypal or Local Bank Account
Dedicated team to help you right away

There are some cons to take note also:

Traffic requirement should have at least 10k to 80k views per month (Propel Level)
If you have less than 80k views per month YOU NEED TO PAY $99 SET UP FEE

If you are considering to join Monumetric, feel free to visit them by clicking this LINK.

The next Adsense Alternative that I can recommend is

MEDIA.NET

It is a contextual advertising network. So basically, they offer context ads instead of Image Ads on your website. Probably you already have seen one of these ads. They are showing relevant keyword-targeted ads instead of a picture. They have a very large base of advertisers mainly advertise from Bing and Yahoo.

To get you approved easily, ensure that you follow the TOS of Media Net. Such as your language content is in English. Updated regularly, your web traffic should be mainly from the UK, USA, and CANADA. And don't put plenty of ads on your website.

It looks like this (encircled with orange) :

Why join Media.Net?

Consider them because:

They offer the best revenue of impression per thousand
Same with Google, The context ads will blend to your website's template
They pay you every 30th of the month via Payoneer, Minimum payout is $100
You can use sticky sidebars for mobile
You can request for personalized context ad size directly from your personal account manager.
Approval of your application can take a maximum of two days.

The cons are:

The ads require a double click from the visitor, in this way, they ensure that the ad click is valid and not spam. But this will affect your revenue as the visitor should click twice for you to earn.
You will have to wait one day to see your earnings
If your traffic is not from the UK, USA, CANADA, you will not earn anything or less probably.

If you are considering to join MEDIA.NET, You can click this LINK.

The last Adsense alternative that I can recommend is

Infolinks

If Adsense rejects your application, try Infolinks , it is similar to Adsense + A combination of Media.Net as it is mainly served thru the CPC Platform. Getting approved is faster compared to the media net or monumetric.
If you meet the necessary requirements, Your site will get approved after 24 hours.

Implementing Infolinks ads on your website is very easy and won't need to use a lot of scripts.
Just paste a single thread of javascript and all the Infolinks Ads will be implemented.

You have the option to maximize or minimize the implementation of all ads on your website by just visiting your dashboard and toggling it on or off its easy and very customizable. You can check it below:

Infolinks provide a variety of ad placement and as I have said, you have the option to activate it.

One of them is INTEXT.

Intext mainly focused on Context Advertising- so you got the idea. Intext blends perfectly or linked perfectly to the text of your content. You can check this screenshot of my website for your reference. You can see that INTEXT is highlighted in Blue (but you can also change into other colors if you want).

If the visitor will hover the mouse on the INTEXT, A small preview of the ad will appear, if they clicked it and you have sufficient traffic and impression, You can get the revenue right away.

Next is feature is INARTICLE

InArticle allows you to increase your clicks and earnings while adding valuable informational tags within your website's content. This is set to asynchronous script, so basically, the ad will load first before your website.

Here's a sample below:

There's another remaining feature but I don't mainly utilize it as I have to leave a space from my other advertisers. They are INFRAME and INFOLD.

Why join Infolinks?

Consider this because:

Infolinks is compatible with Adsense, so you can combine both of them running on your website
Quick approval of your website maximum of 48 hours. But I got approved after 24 hours.
Minimum payout is $25 via Paypal, wire transfer or Payoneer

Cons of Infolinks:

It's really hard for publishers to gain high revenue from developing countries. If you are new to Infolinks, Most ads that you might notice has very low revenue as advertisers want to show their ads in tier 1 country.
The ad placement is somehow intrusive.

If you wish to apply. You can click this link.

Writers discretion: Upon signing up with those links I mentioned, I'll be receiving a small commission. The proceeds of this commission will help my website's future enhancement and renewal.

Once again, thank you for reading this review. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or you can reach thru out my social media sites.

Stay safe!

--Ceddy

Ceddy's Random - Vlogs

Friday, August 28, 2020