I know this is way overdue, but I actually have to work sometimes. So apologies.I already wrote a general overview of SphinnCon Israel. The next four posts will cover the sessions, and the information that I thought was most interesting and useful. Barry Schwartz from Rusty Brick and Search Engine Roundtable kicked off the event with an introductory presentation. He explained that he was here for his nephew's bar mitzvah, and the event was planned around that. So a big thanks to his nephew for being born 13 ...

As I wrote a few days ago, SphinnCon came to Israel this week on February 5 in the form of SphinnCon Israel. It turns out that this wasn't only the first SphinnCon in Israel, but it was the first SphinnCon ever! So, this is yet another example of a first for Israel, kind of like how the first WordPress conference, WordCamp, to take place outside of the US took place in Israel. I took extensive notes at each session, which I had planned to ...

SphinnCon Israel is sold out! SphinnCon Israel is a SphinnCon networking event focused on search and internet marketing, and is taking place this coming Tuesday, February 5 at the Jerusalem College of Technology (also known as Machon Lev). This event is exciting thanks to the incredible lineup, with representatives from well-known international companies like Google, TechCrunch, Kenshoo and Yedda (see my previous interview with Yedda's Lior Haner, who will be speaking at the conference), and thanks to the location: Jerusalem! For once I don't have ...

Yes, we've revamped our website, and it's about time! If you're reading this in a feed reader, come on over and check it out. Our old site was divided into two parts: one part was a static site built on old-fashioned HTML, and the second part was the blog, sitting separately on WordPress. There were a few problems with that setup: Updating the static site was not fun, especially if we needed to update elements that were repeated across the site, like the navigation bar, or the footer. The blog should have been tied into the site for better search engine results. The blog was sitting on a really old version of WordPress. It was the old story of ...

This past Thursday, our new media site, israelplug, reached digg's home page. As we watched in disbelief, tens of thousands of readers flooded our site (and brought it crashing down in the classic "digg effect"). This was both exciting and frustrating. We learned a lot from this experience, and I would like to share some of these lessons with you. First, here's some background: we started to officially launch our new site on Thursday. As part of our launch strategy, we began to bookmark articles on the major social media sites, including digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Facebook. Within minutes, one of our articles was picked up by diggers and the number of ...

Netvision apparently thinks that they are the rulers of all things Internet in Israel. They may have a large market share of Internet accounts, but their bravado with regards to Internet standards really takes the cake. Background: Like many services or technologies that are used worldwide, such as telephones and electricity, the Internet has Standards. These standards ensure that websites are accessible to all in all places because they all follow certain rules related to domain names and the like. The organization that develops and enforces these standards is ISOC, which is short for The Internet Society. ISOC has many branches all over the world, including ISOC-IL, the Israeli branch. It ...

Like many people, I use more than one computer for my work. Some people use their computer in their home plus an office computer, and some like myself, have a desktop and a laptop. My laptop allows me to be mobile and work wherever I like and take my material to meetings with clients, but laptops have their drawbacks. First of all, their processing strength is almost always weaker than that of a desktop. Users of heavy graphic programs may be limited by their laptops. In addition, you can't beat a 17 inch screen for readability and usability, and a real keyboard for preventing carpal ...

In yesterday's post, I argued that a business should have a website right from the start so that they look professional for the first potential client that they meet. There are more reasons that a business should have a site from the beginning, and all of them have to do with vision – a big vision of where you want your business to go is an essential part of achieving your goals. Therefore, your first steps should take into account where you want to be in a year, or two or three from now. Unless you have venture capital funding or a PhD (Papa ...

A friend is currently enrolled in the MATI Small Business Course, a comprehensive course designed to provide budding entrepreneurs with the basics needed to start their own business. According to many of the lecturers at the current MATI course, it is not recommended for new businesses to invest in a website. These lecturers explained to the participants that first you need to have customers who will go to your website, so first get the customers and then get the site. They said the same applies to printing brochures. I strongly disagree with this approach as far as websites go. I do agree with them on the brochure issue, since designing and printing a brochure is very expensive and inflexible – once ...

A customer has walked into your store or has arrived at your web site. This person is interested in your product and plans to buy, whether from you or your competitor. Your price is reasonable and the quality of the product is good. But the person ends up leaving your store/site and buying the product elsewhere. Aaargh! So where did you go wrong? It's not always possible to say, but an important part of making a sale is erasing all your customer's fears and insecurities about buying your product from you. How do you do that? Use the shoe-burning method! Burn the Shoes One summer I needed sandals, and I headed to Jaffa Street in downtown Jerusalem. ...