Blog Archive: July 2014 | Reinis Fischer

Cycling Tbilisi Embankment - evening ride - Dinamo Arena - Didube

17 July, 2014 | Outdoor Activities | 10 seen

Yesterday was a hot day, it was about 37 Celsius, and I offered to make a cycling after 9:00PM, but we agreed to ride at 7:00PM, at first we stopped for some chicken barbecue at 11 Katkha restaurant near Dinamo Stadium. It turned out - yesterday Georgian National Football team played against Kazakhstan, since our favourite restaurant is located right next to Dinamo Stadium, it was full with folks eager to have a drink before the game.

That's another interesting observation - about 95% of folks there - ordered just beer, and we were left with bad service - although we ordered some food instead of beer. And I believe our total cheque was the same as 10 beer drinkers. But we received 10 times worst service. Georgians tend to serve beer first - this is a pattern I have noticed living in Georgia.

Anyway - after meal we started to wheel. Our route was not new for us - but this time I used Map My Ride Android App, to map this ride and measure the distance (previously I had no clue - how long is this route).

We started from Dinamo Stadium, then headed down to embankment, did some problems crossing the street to get to pathway, but after some 5-8 minutes of…

Using Custom Channels in Google Adsense

16 July, 2014 | Blogging | 73 seen

Custom Channels is a great way to measure performance for your Google Adsense ad units, and it's a great way to get more targeted ads for your websites. In this article I will explain how you can use Custom Channels to track which ad units performs better, and how to sell those ad units for potentiall bidders.

How to create Custom Channels

Let's login to our Google Adsense account and head to My ads section, then in the left sidebar you will find - Custom Channels section, click on it

My Google Adsense Custom Channels

We are allowed to create up to 500 Custom Channels in Google Adsense, what is fairly enough for me, who is having some 5-6 websites.

Before you are creating your Custom Channel - I suggest that you have created your Ad units already. My method I preffer working with Google Adsense is to Create a sepperate ad unit for each website and position. For example, on this blog I have 3 ad units (top of the content, bottom of the content and right sidebar) - I'm not using these 3 ad units on any other site.

Now, I have created 3 Custom channels for each of my ad units - you are not obligatory to follow my way - I have done this, just to…

How to create URL channels in Google Adsense

15 July, 2014 | Blogging | 59 seen

I have been using Google Adsense for almost 5 years already, first 4 and a half years I didn't paid much attention for it. I mean I was not paying attention for better implementation, CTR, CPC and other things. I just put Adsense code to my webpages, did some small blending stuff and was sitting back and waited when cash will flow in. It didn't!

And then I started my blog - I can tell just one - after I started my own blog, I started to pay attention for more details. In short time I raised my CTR from 0.5% to 1.5-2%, I started to target more paying keywords, and I increased (a little) my CPC rate. Although my highest earnings from Google Adsense in one month haven't reached more than $16 - I'm happy with results - because those results happened just last month.

By learning more techniques, serving more content, I have been able to raise my earning from Google Adsense.

Since I have more web properties than just my blog, where I'm serving Google Adsense, I wanted to have better overview how each website performs on it own. One option is inside Google Adsense to filter sites and see your overview, but that's a little time consuming.

I have installed…

Rafting in Georgia - Khertvisi - Aspindza - Borjomi

14 July, 2014 | Outdoor Activities | 26 seen

Some time ago we find some offer on Facebook offering rafting tour in Georgia for 2 days - on Mtkvari river. Tour included raft, safety wests, oars, overnight in tents. It sounded pretty good, and we decided to claim this offer. Said - done!

Our rafting tour started Saturday morning from Tbilisi (minibuss waited for rafters next to Radisson Blue and it was supposed to leave Tbilisi at 9:00 AM)

As usualy doing something unexpected I don't plan it very detailed - for me it was clear - it's rafting, what should I plan here? I'm paying my money - and everything rest is handled by organizators.

We started our trip to our destination place - Khetvisi fortress:

In above map you can see our route - according to Google maps the distance from Tbilisi to Khetvisi fortress is about 211 km and time to drive 2 hours and 51 minute. We made this route in 5 hours. Well we did stop to take some scenic views:

Update:

One of the team members - Bogdan Egikov, pointed that my map is not precise, he gave me route according to his records:

Stop in mountains

…

Flights to Mestia from Tbilisi will resume starting July 18th by Service Air

14 July, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 8 seen

Today I red splendid news on Georgian news - <a href="http://newsgeorgia.ru/economy/20140714/216770339.html" target="_blank">starting July 18Th flights from Tbilisi to Mestia will be resumed</a> - and will be performed by Georgian flight company - Service Air.According to news - the flights will happen 3 times in a week - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Flight will leave Tbilisi at 11:00 and will return from Mestia 14:00. Ticket price will be 65 GEL.I was so impressed and eager to visit Svanetia, I immediately called "Service Air" company - to make a reservation. Unfortunately women at the other end of phone - explained me - that they (Service Air) don't know anything yet, and full confirmation should be announced today/tomorrow. Answering on my question - yes, but the news are already in newspapers, she told me - that newspapers have rushed events.Anyway - that's great news - and I do believe flights will resume to Mestia soon. It's awaited that flight duration will be about 45 minutes - that's just brilliant - instead of 7-8 hour drive by car -…

Vazhatravel.com - tours and travel in Georgia

13 July, 2014 | Drupal Development | 11 seen

Vazhatravel.com was a Drupal-powered site a built for a friend. Vazha Travel offers one of the best rates for tours and transfers in Georgia. With Vazha Travel you can order airport transfer from Tbilisi airport to the Tbilisi city centre as low as 25 GEL (Most taxis at Tbilisi airport will ask you more), so do you can book a transfer to and from Kutaisi or Batumi airport.

The further developments of Vazhatravel website has been canceled, though the service is still available, feel free to contact Vazha by phone numbers listed in this article or visit VazhaTravel Facebook page, alternatively see: Organized tours in Georgia

This site is built with Drupal 7 under its hood, and its expected to use the multilingual feature on it soon. It's awaited to add Russian, Polish and other languages. Right now it's more just the "core" with more functions to come in future.

Vazha Travel front page.

One of the features I wanted to build into this site - booking function - availability for customers to book online tours and transfers. For such a behavior I'm using simple, but yet powerful combination of Drupal nodes and node…

How I turned my Instagram account into a Photo Blog

12 July, 2014 | Drupal Development | 10 seen

In April I bought my first ever "smartphone" - Android phone with Dual SIM... It actully has WI-Fi router built in and in days I have no "ground" Wi-FI I can use Mobile Internet to connect to my laptop. Anyway - I'm very satisfied with my first Android phone.

I must admit I'm using phone for it's sole purpose - to call, but that has changed - with my new Android phone - I'm using few apps on it (Google Adsense, Google Analytics, some news apps and Instagram).

Some already probably knwo - I'm an expat in Georgia (South Caucasus), when I first arrived here, more than 3 years ago. I arrived already with an aim - to build Travel site for Georgia. Since I didn't know anything about this amazing country - I decided this will be amazing expierience. To put my Drupal knoweldge together with something exciting - exploring a new country from A-Z.

I wanted to build something fancy, something cool - I wanted to build kinda a Lonely Planet site for Georgia alone. I believe I created a really good job in terms of site architecture. Site involved complex structure, it used XML feeds to Parse Flickr, Wikipedia, it had geotagged content attached to almost every node.…

18 Kutaisi Hostels That Won't Break Your Travel Budget

11 July, 2014 | Hotel reviews | 8 seen

Kutaisi although second largest city in Georgia, comes with pretty bad infrastructure. In 2012 new Kutaisi airport was opened in Kutaisi (actually it's located some 30 km out of Kutaisi city centre). Wizzair cheap avio flights come to Georgia, new routes from Kiev, Warsaw, Vilnius and other destinations has been added and new hostels popped like a mushrooms after a rain in Kutaisi. These hostels are not typical hostels with standards you might seen somewhere else in Europe. Most often they come with basic necessities. My observations - that many owners of Kutaisi hostels are Ukrainians. I guess the reason is Kiev-Kutaisi flights. Anyhow -  if you are one of the "lucky ones" arrived at Kutaisi airport, and are desperate finding an accommodation for your future discoveries in rest of Georgia, then here is the list with:18 Hostels in Kutaisi with price less than 50 GEL for 2 persons per night. <h2 class="item"><a href="http…

Setting my first Booking.com affiliate goal

10 July, 2014 | Blogging | 11 seen

I'm new to affiliate marketing and I'm new to Booking.com affiliate marketing. Although I have been using Booking.com affiliate marketing for more than one year already - I haven't made much of it. But that doesn't mean this affiliate marketing program sucks. That means - my affiliate marketing tactics sucks. And I have decided to change that. To make changes we must change our behaviour. It so simple. If I want to succeed with Booking.com affiliate marketing - I must define some goals at first.

I could now write down - how I plan to get 80K in a year from Booking.com - but I wont do that. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be happy to make 80k with Booking.com, what it means - I'm to small to make such a money in such a short time. Instead I will write how I plan to send my first 50 visitors in a month to Booking.com site.

Yes, that's right -

My first Booking.com affiliate goal is to send 50 visitors to it in one month.

I'm not talking right now for any actual bookings, I'm talking to drive traffic to my site(s) to drive traffic to Booking.com

Why my goal is so modest?

As I already…

Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze died at 86

7 July, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 13 seen

Today at 12:00, Tbilisi time - former president of Georgia Eduard Shevarnadze after continues illness has died. Many including me - remember Eduard Shevarndadze not only as president of Georgia, but also as a foreign minister of Soviet Union. There were time Mr. Shevernadze was considered second person after Mikhail Gorbochov in USSR.Eduard Shevernadze after collapse of Soviet Union became a 2nd president of Georgia in 1995 and held his position till 2003, when resigned from office after Rose Revolution, which led Mikheil Saakashhili in power.There has been many talks about Mr. Shevernadze impact on Soviet Unions foreign policy as well his role in newly independent Republic of Georgia. But one is for sure - such an important political figure be hard to find soon in Georgia.Taking in consideration that Mr. Eduard Shevernadze was not in active politics for last decade, he was considered prominent consultant. I remember some time ago I red an interview with Eduard Shevernadze, where  - quote:<blockquote>Mikheil Saakashilli was best gift Russia could dream…

Feature Film Mayrig Review

7 July, 2014 | Worth to Watch | 58 seen

Mayrig is a feature film about Armenian immigrant family living in France, shortly after they have emigrated from their motherland - Armenia. Set on the streets of 1920-ties in Marseilles, France this film shows different aspects of life and struggles of an Armenian family.

You can access this movie on Youtube

A chapter or some 30 minutes is dedicated to Armenian Genocide in 1915 - when Ottoman empire humiliated, starved and mass killed a large population of Armenian people.

Mayrig movie is about a mother. As far as my Armenian language knowledge reaches - Mayrig, means mother in the Armenian language.

The story is told by young Armenian boy - Azad Zakairian, who later becomes a famous director of theater and changes his name to Pierre Zakar. He never forgets his native Armenia.

There is a great scene in this film when young Azad together with other French schoolboys attends Sunday school at French Catholic Church, and pastor impacts to schoolboys - There can be no forgiven without Catholics Church, young Azad silently in his thoughts replies to the pastor:

Armenian Apostolic church was built 17 centuries…

Related nodes based on taxonomy terms

5 July, 2014 | Drupal Development | 29 seen

Today I will show you, how you can create a list with related items for your Drupal site using taxonomy terms and Drupal views. At first you will need you actual content with taxonomy terms on it. If you are not familiar how to add taxonomy terms to your Drupal site, you might want to read this guide on that.

I presume you have your content set up, it's tagged with different terms. Now lets add a block with related items on that.

Related nodes based on taxonomy terms

In above screen you can see an example with node page and related nodes in block. You can see a live example as well here.

This is achieved by using views and placing it on themes region.

Related nodes by taxonomy term using views

Create a new content based view - call it Related Items (or so) add title, image and body fields to it. We will need to use 2 contextual filters. Nid and Has taxonomy term id.

Configure your nid filter as following:

Provide default value: Content ID from URL
Under More tab - Check next to Exclude

Configure your Has taxonomy term…

Turtle lake - My working place for today

5 July, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 11 seen

In summertime it's hot as hell in Tbilisi city - there are two options - air conditioner or Turtle lake. I prefer second option.

The features of working at Turtle lake - here is a free Wi-Fi internet available, all across the lake (Silkspot), here is a great coffee bar - Intelligentsia, which Turkish coffee is among the best available in Tbilisi and Georgia overall.

Turkish coffee at Intelligentsia coffee bar (Turtle lake)

And best of all you can get out of your everyday Tbilisi routine. Did I mentioned? Weather here is more windy and for a few degrees lower than in city? Why it so? That's an easy question - Turtle lake is located up in the Tbilisi mountains, the altitude is some 400-500 meters.

Simply put your laptop on table, connect to Silkspot and enjoy

Intelligentsia coffee bar

I must admit it's not about working only - it's about being outdoors and getting breath of fresh mountainous/lake air.

Speaking of internet connections here, as I said - here is free Wi-Fi available, but in case it's not working (it's Georgia) you might to use your phone as a Wi-Fi router. I do…

Tbilisi hostels: 15 hostels in Tbilisi for couples

4 July, 2014 | Hotel reviews | 12 seen

Tbilisi is a brilliant city.  Once heading to Tbilisi you might consider your options for safe and clean home away feeling. In this article I have listed 15 hostels that are suited for those who travel as couples and offer great value for even better price.Although Tbilisi is a home for some 2 millions inhabitants, don't be scared, it's pretty easy to navigate around Tbilisi. Good strategic locations for your hostel could be considered - Rustaveli Avenue  or Marjanishvilli neighbourhood.. anyway, there is plenty of taxi's who will take you to any destination in Tbilisi and even beyond.Most of the hostels listed here are close to the city centre, and all offers Free Wi-Fi internet. In this list you will find some guest houses and boutique hotels as well.For budget travellers - Tbilisi offers great hostels, guest houses and even boutique hotels. Most of here listed hostels varies in price from 30 - 50 GEL ($17 - $28 or EUR 12.5 - EUR 20) per night. If you are really on tight budget you might consider to book a dormitory room. …

SPAR enters Georgian market; SCANIA to produce fuel from wine making waste; Georgia celebrates EU AA and Free Trade

3 July, 2014 | Living in Georgia | 16 seen

On the other day I spent interesting afternoon walking around one of Tbilisi's neighbourhoods - Saburtalo. Made a ton of instagrams, visited local shopping chain Goodwill, tasted sushi and other different activities.On days like that - is great opportunity to observe what is happening around in city and in country. You might ask how? Well, it's easy with your eyes. I usually prefer free business newspapers available in different city's place. So it got my free newspapers at <a href="http://www.tourgeorgia.eu/goodwill-saburtalo">Saburtalo Goodwills</a> shopping centre. <h2>Georgian Press Review</h2>First SPAR supermarket to open in Georgia - interesting article about Dutches owned supermarkets store, soon will be available in Georgia - it seems that SPAR will acquire two other local Georgian supermarket stores - IOLI and Foodmart. I have no idea what is Foodmart, but IOLI is small chain with few store across the city.I guess after entrance in Georgian shopping market - SPAR will aim to get 1st place. On the other hand there are…