Internet Marketing Blog » Doing Business in Israel

Official Israel Marketing Game Infographics

Dror — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:01:07 +0000

Doing business in Israel can be tough, even when you are an expert. But why get frustrated and mad? Relax and enjoy the challenge, because when you do win a contract, it’s that much more satisfying. For me, it’s like a game. In fact, now you can play too. Announcing, the official Israel Marketing Consultant Game by WebWhile. And if you’re lucky and experienced you might even win a new client and earn yourself a living.

This entry was written by Dror Gliksman.

Ten Plagues of Doing Business in Israel

Dror — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:53:01 +0000

You think slavery in Egypt was bad? After giving and getting service in Israel for two decades, here is my SHORT list of the top plagues of doing business in Israel.

1. Shotef Plus . . . We will pay you (after you email us, call us, beg us and remind us. And an occasional threat may help too).

2. The check is in the mail . . . Via Camel Express? Carrier pigeon? Whose mail exactly?

3. Barter . . . A total perversion of this prehistoric exchange of goods and services method.

4. Yihiye Be’Seder . . . This is the ultimate reassurance that it is time to start worrying.

5. Sweat for Equity – Why should we pay you for your time, work and talent? You should pay us to be a part of such an incredible opportunity. In fact, the suggestion that you want to be paid must mean you don’t believe in yourself, or worse, don’t believe in us!

6. Not Frayerim . . . The ultimate driving force behind every Israeli. Why should I do more than I have to, to get by? What am I - a Frayer? The result- an entire nation driven by the “don’t be a Frayer” fear. And it ain’t pretty.

7. Time table . . . In most Western countries, when you set a meeting, 80% make it on time and 20% will be fashionably late with an apology. In Israel 20% will be on time, 20% will call you later to say you they thought the meeting was in their office, 10% will not show at all and the rest will be fashionably late, with no apology. In fact, you may end up feeling guilty!

8. Parking . . . Need I explain?

9. Traffic . . . Need I explain?

10. Firgun . . . Giving credit to others when they deserve it does not come naturally to Israelis. Why? Because the other’s success is their failure. Hmmm, let’s see how many native Israelis actually “like” or “Share” this list. Maybe I am wrong?

Wise, Wicked, Simple and One Who Does Not Know to Ask

Dror — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:41:10 +0000

Open Source Development in Israel: The Map

Dror — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 11:46:16 +0000

Open Source Software and Web Development in Israel is finally starting to blossom. Stalled by aggressive opposition headed by Microsoft and others in its biosphere, we are finally experiencing real change. Traditionally the domain of web startups, Open Source is now making its way into the enterprise. Linux, Drupal, MySQL, WordPress or Joomla, are not for nerd only anymore. We see that IT managers are feeling less and less threatened by open source system development and beginning to embrace it at the very core of their business. And if they are not doing so now, they better get started!

I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to work with many of the leading Open Source developers in Israel. There are some excellent, world class teams that have been put together here and their accomplishments are impressive. From small apps to global web sites to product development, these guys are doing it all. They are taking the lead, on the cutting edge and willing to take on challenges. Some are better than others, some are more expensive, some are more agile, some lack enough focus. No one is the clear outstanding leader . . . yet. But when you have an open source project, chances are you are going to want to work with some of these companies.

Here is my personal map of some of Israel’s leading open source vendors.
If you feel you should be on this map or want to contribute more information, please
contact WebWhile.

View Israeli Open Source Developers Map in a larger map
Created by Dror Gliksman

Evolution of the Israeli Internet Marketer

Dror — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:25:45 +0000

The nature of the Internet provides opportunities for people from various walks of life to get involved in online marketing. Here is a crude chart mapping out the type of Internet marketers you may have come across in Israel over the years:

Click to Enlarge

I think I Met this Startup, a few times

Dror — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 07:31:05 +0000

Why Bank Hapoalim is Stupid or – When to use WWW

Sheryl — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:21:19 +0000

Ever since I started banking at Bank Hapoalim (and regret the day), I wanted to write this post. I am in the habit of typing in the site URL without the www. But every once in a while, I run into a site that won’t come up without it. Usually I just add it without thinking twice, but in the case of Bank Hapoalim, everything annoys me, so the fact that they don’t correct this issue after so many years, is a good reason to complain about their stupidity.
Most of you probably never thought about this issue much or know it even is an issue. But it can be important for several reasons.

First of all, it just looks bad for a potential customer or existing customer to type in:

“yourbank.com” and get Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to yourbank.com
Did you mean: www.yourbank.com?

Second, you might be losing visitors who think they have the wrong spelling or URL.

Third, it’s SEO basics to make sure that you are using only one URL – with or without the WWW and redirecting one to the other. You’ll hear arguments for both sides — with www looks more professional, without www keeps it shorter . . . But what is important is that BOTH should work and be transparent to the visitor.

SEO Companies, Mafia Style

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:08:12 +0000

Israeli SEO companies going wild

As an SEO contractor takes on a project, they experience immediate pressure to show results. No matter how well they’ll try to communicate to their clients that “whitehat/textbook” practices take time, they will forever be judged by how fast Google ranking for their websites improved.

This pressure leads SEO companies to use aggressive and sometime questionable practices. Contractors use their own existing pool of web pages (some of the more questionable companies even use their other clients’ sites!) to seed backlinks to their newbie client’s website.

There are also SEO companies collaborating with one another to create a strong backlinking cooperation pool. The sophisticated companies will develop a cooperation that is dynamic and categorized by topics and relevancy, thus benefiting from stronger weight in the SE’s. This practice is called link farming. The search engines, recognizing this problematic practice that fill the Internet with bogus content and paid-for links, have vowed to fight the phenomena and punish the link-farmers. But the reality is that little has been done to successfully prevent the phenomena and it is still a prevalent tactic used by the SEOs looking for fast and dirty results for their clients.

While link-farming falls into the gray zone of SEO ethics, the following phenomena was recently brought to my attention and I see growing evidence of some SEO companies actually blackmailing their clients. It goes like this. A company asks to terminate their monthly retainer based SEO contract with Acme SEO Consultants. Acme, in turn, threatens their client to immediately replace all their existing backlinks with those of a new (competitor perhaps) client. Using dynamic engines, it will take them seconds to make the replacement and the ranking will be effected almost immediately. In many cases, the client actually paid for each of those links but probably without knowledge that they were on sites belonging to the SEO company!

If you are about to contract SEO services, there are two lessons to take from this post.

1. When contracting any SEO company, make sure your agency acts on your behalf and that you own access to every link.

2. The other lesson is to ask your SEO contractor to not deploy link farming practices but rather focus on long lasting tactics that bring real value to your website and your visitors.

Demanding Clients -When it Gets a Bit Unreasonable in Israel

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:36:31 +0000

Dror and I have made an unwritten promise to one another to make every effort to avoid working with clients who do not appreciate our work. I must admit we have not always succeeded but we usually know when to politely refuse the opportunity. Truthfully, it happens often in Israel. Sometimes, Israeli clients have a tendency to be unreasonable and unappreciative.

Anyone reading here , especially those who work in Israel, knows exactly what I am talking about. But my colleague, Itai Raz, just sent me a video that is too good not to share and sums up, with some good comic relief, exactly how some clients approach each vendor from which they want to receive services.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Help Wanted

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