South Ossetia's Call for Integration with Russia: A Controversial Move

24 June, 2014 | Emerging Markets | 9 seen

South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, has expressed its desire to join the Russian Federation. The region has been de facto independent since a 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, which resulted in Russia's recognition of the region's independence. However, South Ossetia's independence is only recognized by a handful of countries, including Russia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

In February 2021, South Ossetia's parliament adopted a resolution calling for the region's integration into Russia. The resolution cited economic, political, and security reasons for joining Russia, claiming that South Ossetia's independence was not sustainable in the long term. The resolution also expressed concern over the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the neighboring Nagorno-Karabakh region, which has highlighted the vulnerability of unrecognized states.

Russia has not yet responded to South Ossetia's request for integration. However, Russia has already established a significant military presence in the region, with thousands of troops stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia.

The international community has largely rejected South Ossetia's independence and any potential integration with Russia. The United Nations, the European Union, and most countries, including the United States, recognize South Ossetia as a part of Georgia. The 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, which resulted in Russia's recognition of South Ossetia's independence, is still a subject of international concern and has not been resolved.

South Ossetia's desire to join Russia is not the first instance of separatist regions seeking closer ties with Moscow. In 2014, Crimea, a region of Ukraine, was annexed by Russia, and a similar scenario played out in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists declared independence and sought closer ties with Russia.

The situation in South Ossetia remains fluid, with a potential integration with Russia posing significant challenges and risks. While South Ossetia's desire for closer ties with Russia is driven by various factors, including economic and security concerns, any integration with Russia is likely to be a source of continued tension and conflict. The international community will be watching closely as events unfold in South Ossetia and the wider region.

Summer Solstice in Tbilisi (2014)

24 June, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 6 seen

There are some nations that celebrate Summer Solstice, most of them located in Eastern Europe.

Celebrating Summer Solstice involves having a bonfire. Since in Georgia, nobody celebrates Summer Solstice, and it was a working day, we decided to make a little fiesta on our balcony

How to chill your beer for Summer Solstice (and not only)

Typical food at Eastern European celebrated Summer Solstice includes yeast dough for patties, cheese (Georgian Sulguni), Rosol salads, and beer.

How about a barbecue on the balcony?

The good thing is Georgians don't mind if you bake your chicken barbecue on your balcony; they do it often themselves. The bad thing is that when we chilled the beer, we overflooded our neighbors.

Typical Summer Solstice, right?

How to Grow Your Twitter Account to 2,000 Followers

22 June, 2014 | Blogging | 1 seen

Twitter is a powerful platform for engaging with your audience, building brand awareness and driving traffic to your website. However, growing your Twitter account can be a daunting task, especially if you’re just starting out.

In this article, we’ll provide you with some tips and tricks on how to grow your Twitter account to 2,000 followers.

Post Quality Content Regularly 

The first step in growing your Twitter account is to post quality content regularly. You want to provide your followers with a steady stream of valuable and interesting content that will keep them engaged. Consistency is key, so aim to post at least once a day.

Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to increase your visibility and reach new followers. Make sure to use relevant hashtags in your tweets to reach people who are interested in the same topics as you. You can also use tools like Hashtagify to find popular hashtags related to your industry.

Engage with Your Followers

Engagement is critical when it comes to building a loyal following on Twitter. Respond to comments and messages, and engage in conversations with your followers. This will help to build a relationship with them and make them more likely to share your content with their own followers.

Follow Relevant Accounts

Following relevant accounts is a great way to increase your own following. By following people who are interested in the same topics as you, you’re more likely to get follow-backs and increase your own visibility on the platform. Use tools like Twitter Advanced Search to find people in your industry and engage with them.

Collaborate with Others

Collaborating with other Twitter users is a great way to increase your reach and get your content in front of new audiences. Look for opportunities to collaborate with other users in your industry, such as hosting a Twitter chat or participating in a social media campaign.

Promote Your Account on Other Platforms

Promoting your Twitter account on other platforms, such as your website or other social media channels, can help to drive traffic to your account and increase your following. Make sure to include a link to your Twitter account in your email signature and on your business cards as well.

Use Twitter Ads

If you’re willing to invest in your Twitter account, Twitter Ads can be a powerful way to increase your reach and grow your following. With Twitter Ads, you can target specific audiences and promote your account to people who are likely to be interested in your content.

Growing your Twitter account to 2,000 followers takes time and effort, but with the right strategy, it is achievable. By posting quality content, engaging with your followers, and using relevant hashtags, you can build a loyal following and increase your visibility on the platform.

If you nejoyed the article and would like to hear more from me, why not follow my Twitter account? Follow Reinis_Fischer

Amazon Associates Program: How to Apply and Get Started

21 June, 2014 | Blogging | 13 seen

If you’re looking to monetize your website or blog, Amazon’s Affiliate program is an excellent option. As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon offers a wide variety of products, and as an affiliate, you can earn commissions on the products sold through your referral link.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to apply for Amazon’s Affiliate program:

Step 1: Sign up for an Amazon account Before applying for Amazon’s Affiliate program, you’ll need to have an Amazon account. If you already have one, skip to the next step. If not, go to the Amazon homepage and click on the “Account & Lists” dropdown menu, then click “Create an Account” and follow the steps to set up your account.

Step 2: Visit the Amazon Associates homepage Once you have an Amazon account, visit the Amazon Associates homepage by typing “Amazon Associates” into your browser or by clicking the “Join Associates” button at the bottom of the Amazon homepage.

Step 3: Click on “Join Now for Free” On the Amazon Associates homepage, click on the “Join Now for Free” button. This will take you to the application page.

Step 4: Enter your account information On the application page, enter your account information such as your name, email address, and password. You’ll also be asked to provide your website or blog URL, and to select the category that best describes your website or blog.

Step 5: Provide your website or blog details Amazon will ask for details about your website or blog, such as the topics you cover, the type of content you create, and your target audience. This information will help Amazon determine whether your website or blog is a good fit for their Affiliate program.

Step 6: Create your Amazon Affiliate profile Once you’ve provided your website or blog details, you’ll be asked to create your Amazon Affiliate profile. This includes providing your payment and tax information, and selecting the payment method that you prefer.

Step 7: Choose the products to promote After you’ve completed your Amazon Affiliate profile, you’ll be able to choose the products you want to promote on your website or blog. You can search for products by keyword, browse product categories, or use Amazon’s Product Advertising API to access detailed product information.

Step 8: Generate your referral link Once you’ve chosen the products you want to promote, Amazon will provide you with a unique referral link for each product. You can add this link to your website or blog, and when someone clicks on it and makes a purchase, you’ll earn a commission.

In conclusion, the Amazon Affiliate program is a great way to monetize your website or blog. By following these simple steps, you can apply for the program and start earning commissions on the products sold through your referral link. Good luck!

How to Schedule your tweets with Tweetdeck

20 June, 2014 | Blogging | 34 seen

Lately, I have been playing around with Twitter. One thing to do on Twitter is to get followers, second thing is to compose tweets. It can be vice versa as well (Actually it should).

Since your Twitter followers are growing you start realizing that not only you are getting more followers, but your followers are following way too more Twitter accounts. And if you keep posting once a day, there is a huge possibility that nobody will hear you.

Of course, this depends on many factors, including what is the reason you tweet - is it just for fun, or is it to drive new visitors to your website, or just to keep up with your fellow mates? It indeed depends. But in case you are using Twitter to drive more visits to your site, you are thinking of more ways to do a little to automate this process.

There are many options out there, to help you automatize your Twitter stuff. I will name few of them - Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.

For now, I personally prefer Tweetdeck over other solutions. There is no plain reason why it's so, but it's so.

Perhaps it's because of I'm using just one Twitter account, and Tweetdeck is created by Twitter itself.

View from my Tweetdeck account with scheduled posts

With help of Tweetdeck I'm scheduling my tweets to next 24 hours, but I'm not limited to it. I just like to observe quick results in my Google Analytics. 

With Tweetdeck you can

• use #hashtags
• Add Photos to your tweets

Few tips using Tweetdeck

• If you have tons of followers schedule your tweets after every 10/15/20 minutes.
• Use #hashtags
• Repeat your tweets 4-5 times in a day
• Repeat your tweets after every 5-6 hours

Your Tweedteck habits may be different depending on your needs. I have found using Tweetdeck with repeated tweets over a day + in combination with hash tags very powerful way to drive more traffic to my blog and other sites.

What Happened to Google Plus?

19 June, 2014 | Blogging | 1 seen

Google Plus was Google's attempt at creating a social media platform that could compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Launched in 2011, Google Plus initially gained some traction, with millions of users signing up for the service in its early years. However, by 2019, the platform was officially shut down. So, what happened to Google Plus?

One of the biggest reasons for the failure of Google Plus was a lack of user engagement. Despite its best efforts, Google was never able to create a social platform that could compete with Facebook, which had already established itself as the dominant player in the social media space. While Google Plus did have some interesting features, including its "Circles" feature that allowed users to segment their contacts and control who could see their content, it was never able to generate the same level of user interest as Facebook.

Another issue that plagued Google Plus was privacy concerns. In 2018, it was revealed that a security vulnerability had exposed the data of millions of users. This incident not only highlighted Google's poor handling of user data but also eroded user trust in the platform.

Google also struggled with attracting influencers and content creators to the platform. Unlike Facebook and YouTube, which were able to attract a large number of content creators, Google Plus never developed a robust ecosystem for creators. This lack of engagement from influencers made it harder for Google Plus to attract a critical mass of users.

In the end, Google made the difficult decision to shut down the platform. In April 2019, Google Plus was officially taken offline, and all user data was deleted. While some users mourned the loss of the platform, most had already moved on to other social media platforms.

In conclusion, the failure of Google Plus can be attributed to a combination of factors, including a lack of user engagement, privacy concerns, and an inability to attract influencers and content creators to the platform. While it was a valiant effort on Google's part to create a social media platform to rival Facebook, it ultimately proved to be a costly misstep.

Add Pin It button to hover over any image

15 June, 2014 | Blogging | 7 seen

In this tutorial I will show how to add Pin it button for every image on your website.

But before that you might check my tutorial how to add Pin it button to Drupal 7 

Bellow is an example with working hover Pin it button

Hover over image to see Pin it button on left top corner

You will need to add following code to your website (in <head>section</head>

And that's it! Nothing more to add, just small JavaScript code.

Read out more here

Cycling to Tbilisi sea and back

14 June, 2014 | Outdoor Activities | 9 seen

Today was a great Saturday, we took our bikes and rode to Tbilisi sea and back. It was all day long (more than four hours) fun experience in very hot Summer day in Georgia.

Total distance: 16.9 km, Climb: 213 m, Time: 4.30h, Feelings: Superb

Route map

When we finally reached Tbilisi sea - I was so exhausted, after I got of from bike, my stamina was over:

Tbilisi sea

How to check Google rankings with Google Spreadsheets

13 June, 2014 | Blogging | 15 seen

In this article I will show, how you can check and track your SERP with Google Spreadsheets.

But at first I will tell you a story - More than 3 years ago I started to work on a hobby (but large scale site) dedicated to Georgia. It was built with Drupal, involved Google maps, Feeds parsing (Flickr, Wikipedia and more Open data)

So basically I built a kinda Mash-up - web site, that aggregates different information related to tourism objects in Georgia (Kinda smaller Gogobot, Triposso e.t.c)

Under this serious hood was not enough money, and by saying money I mean - Advertisement.

Main impact was on Organic traffic. As time passed, more traffic come in. But the thing with Google is pretty simple - if you don't add new articles, your rankings drops. So you can try to build back-links and other things.

It's already more than 3 years passed since the start of this hobby project. I have made many mistakes with it - like loosen data on Server, then got banned from Google SERP and more.

But idea stays alive - to have a hobby site dedicated to Georgia.  By now it's simple blog, with original articles from places I have been. So no more copy/paste Wikipedia - it just don't works.

Site still is in some recovery stage - it's still not appearing in Google SERP, but I'm ready to change this by providing more original content.

And now it's time for Google Spreadsheet to come in help to check our SERP

Each column has it's own keyword, displaying it's position in Google SERP (You can adjust .com, co.uk .ca or any other location).

By first I'm checking does domain name itself appears in SERP, and if it rank N1 then it's just fine - your domain is not completely banned. Then I'm using different keyword combinations, and then I'm using post articles, to track down are they appearing or not. 

To make it easier to track success or failures, I have created second sheet where I'm by hand writing positions:

At this sheet I'm adding only those keywords that ranks in Google. As you can see, I have 3 columns dedicated to Search Volume, Competition and Price, well those are to calculate value for each of keyword. For keyword calculation I'm using Google Adwords.

Depending on your site and you, it's up to you how often you are tracking down your positions. My suggestions would be, do it once in a week.

Since I'm not original author for these custom Google Spreadsheet functions, I will give you reference where I took this form from.

https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2013/04/12/search-rankings-with-google-spreadsheets/

Google+ comments block for Drupal site

12 June, 2014 | Drupal Development | 4 seen

Lately I have been paying more attention to power of Google+ and so I decided to give a try to Google+ comments on a Drupal site.

Google for me generates about 70-80 percent of traffic, and so I guess most of the users will have Google account, to comment without need to login/register onmy site or let's say Disqus comment system I'm currently using on my blog.

As you can see - comment block is really nice, and taking in consideration it's Google comment system I guess it might only help you to be more discoverable on Google.

How to add Google+ comments block to Drupal site

You can find a module on Drupal.org site: https://drupal.org/project/gplus_comments_block

Please take in consideration:

Until Google launches an API for the Google+ Comments feature...

This module provides a custom block.
Once this block enabled, it will display the Google+ Comments form and people will be able to comment on your pages.

It's important to keep in mind that this is an unofficial way to add Google+ Comments and Google can always change the code or remove some features.

What comment system you find most suitable for your Drupal site? 

P.S. If you are considering a hosting for your Drupal website check out Bluehost, their shared hosting starts as low as $3.95/mo or read more about cheap Drupal hosting.

How to align Facebook like, Google + and Twitter buttons?

11 June, 2014 | Blogging | 14 seen

Working on a project I faced a problem how to align social share buttons. By default I'm not paying much attention to this, but there are circumstances you must provide clean work.

So here is the example:

These are social share buttons from my blog, as you can see, Facebook button is not in one line with other lines. To fix this, I did a quick Google search and found great tutorial on Github: 

Here is my Drupal view - containing social share buttons:

Now I just need to add some small CSS code:

And here is the result:

Hope this helps you to align your social share buttons

Switching to Caucasus Online internet

9 June, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 7 seen

<p>For a last year in Tbilisi, I have used Silknet DSL internet connections, and everything was fine, till day it was not fine. I don't know the reason why, but Silknet's DSL stopped working as expected. You can <a href="http://www.reinisfischer.com/living-georgia/silknet-conversation-over-p… my thoughts about Silknet's Customer Service here</a>.</p><p>Anyway - I switched my ISP to another Great Georgian ISP - Caucasus Online. They offers much more speed for the same price, and they works quick. Today 3 guys came to my place and did all the installation works in less than 30 minutes.</p><p><strong>Here is the proof of much faster internet:</strong></p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/cospeed.png&quot; width="300" height="135"></p><p><em>Faster than 77% of Georgia</em></p><p><strong>And here is the internet speed for Silknet's DSL</strong></p><p><img src="http://www.reinisfischer.com/sites/default/files/silkspeed.png&quot; width="300" height="135"></p><p><em>Slower than 76% of Georgia</em></p><p>So I'm really happy with my new internet provider, and hope our relationship will be everlasting.&nbsp;</p><p>Read more about Caucasus Online internet:&nbsp;http://co.ge/CaucasusLink.aspx</p&gt;

Devious Maids

8 June, 2014 | Worth to Watch | 11 seen

<p>Devious Maids is another great TV series to watch.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>About Devious Maids</strong></p><p><span>Four Latina maids with ambition and dreams of their own work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.&nbsp;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2226342/</span></p&gt;

New Amsterdam

8 June, 2014 | Worth to Watch | 8 seen

<p>New Amsterdam is a TV series made on 2008, and lasted just for 8 series. &nbsp;</p><p>Why I found these series interesting? Producers has tried to make something very interesting. As you may already know - New York city once was New Amsterdam and was found by Dutch colonists, well of course there lived Native Americans, before Dutches came.</p><p>And that is showed in New Amsterdam series - main role actor - John Amsterdam, a New York homicide detective, who is immortal, and has born back there in 1600-ies.</p><p>Probably you will recognize Danish actor&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from another series - Game of Thrones.</span></p><h2><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">About New Amsterdam:</span></h2><blockquote><p><span>A Dutch soldier in the 1600's saves the life of a native woman and is granted the power of eternal youth in return. In the 2000's he is a police detective in New York City, and after 400 years, knows just about everything about the way the criminal mind works.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;"><span>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0928414/</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">By the way - it's sad that show was&nbsp;</span>cancelled<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">&nbsp;so soon.</span></p>

Silknet - Conversation over phone - Nightmare

5 June, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 224 seen

<p>Silknet is one of the major internet providers in Georgia, it offers great service for great money. But there are times things break up, for example Wi-Fi router. Silknet for their customers is offering some cheap ZTW 300 routers, and that's fine with me as long they work, when they stop to work,<strong> it's time to call to Silknet customer service.</strong></p><p><strong>And then it sucks</strong> - you are getting forwarded from one to another e.t.c. When you get some from the techical department it's just <strong>nightmare</strong>. The guy who doesn't understand much from DNS, routing and other geeky stuff is starting to teach you, like, you should restart your computer. On my question, should I do it 20 times a day, he keeps repeating - restart your computer!</p><p>When I'm answering I have not turned off my computer for 3 months, he is confused. Ok, ok I'm telling him, I have 6 other computers, should I restart all of them?</p><p>My aim from this conversation is simple - <strong>send to me damn technican</strong> who can change the damned ZTW broken router to brand new ZTW router. But no, I must listen other 20 minutes that I have old computer, corrupted programms and other crap from people who knows to solve problems by using magic restart button. Damn I have restarted already some 100 times that crappy router.</p><p>Anyway, after some 40 minutes of crappy discussion of 192.168.1.1 and ping, techincan switches me to some mystic <strong>level 2</strong>, where some other dude wants to keep the same crappy conversation about how dumb I am and how I don't know how to restart laptop. But he does some magic, and things starts working.</p><p>The question is - for how long?</p>