Hot Spot Interview – Bruusk From The Netherlands!
17 October 2009 | Vadym
Vadym:
Howdy, Bruusk, thanks for letting me interview you.
Let’s start off with all of your personal info, including how you got into Internet marketing, how to access your bank account, and all the passwords required.
Bruusk:
My bank account and passwords: I am sure Vadym and his programmers can help you to those for the right price 
My name is Martijn, and I am from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. How I got into IM: I never was a career tiger fighting for a corporate job. I just didn’t have anything that grasped my interest enough to pursue it with all my heart, and I hate dress codes and the like.
So I studied Journalism for a few years, wrote some columns and magazine articles, then quit university and worked in a videostore. Great job! 12 hours shifts, my own store, sit on my arse watching movies all day and smoke, and bullshit with the customers. Good times.
But at some point I got an itch to go “do something with my life”, so I moved to Dublin, Ireland. I lived in Ireland for 3 years doing callcenter/tech support work. They have dresscodes overthere, even in call centers. Need I say more?
When I came back in Amsterdam I was kinda clueless and looking for my next move. I wanted to stop f*cking around and use my potentional. So I started my own Communication & Copywriting business.
Got some clients on, and the business was not doing bad at all.. But I still wasn’t really happy doing work for others. That wasn’t what I started a business for, felt too much like a job.
So short story long.. Downloaded loads of marketing ebooks, (even bought some ) tried direct linking in adwords, lost money BUT MADE SALES. At that time it clicked. If I could sell stuff online once, I could do it again. Just had to figure out the right way. Have been looking for the “right way” ever since, and I have a pretty good grasp now.
Vadym:
How long have you been fighting the uphill IM battle?
Bruusk:
Not too long. When I started out I was refreshing stats all day long, for months, without actually doing sh*t. So I don’t really count those months. (Or I try to forget about them anyway )
I came back in Amsterdam in April 2008, it took some time to incorporate and then discover IM.. So let’s say I am at it for 15 months now.
Vadym:
Do you have 3 moments where it just felt like the fog cleared, and you realized something big and important?
Bruusk:
3!! moments? Man that’s some question..
OK let’s just start at 1 and see.. First one must have been when I realized I could get all that PPC traffic for FREE if I just used SEO.
Second one follows from that.. The moment I actually SAW that I could rank for stuff that other people were trying to rank for too (or paying money for ads). The realisation that I could compete and defeat online.
Third one, I don’t have an exact moment for this, but by now I am confident that I can set a site up and rank it. So that makes me confident that I can reproduce my income even if I get screwed by google (again). I am not 100% effective yet, some trial and error still, but every new project is better than the last. (Bottle neck here fore me is monetizing the ranking). But I know I can build on my experience and use it to build more and better and hopefully more profitable stuff. That’s where I am now.
Vadym:
What’s the poison that keeps you working late into next day? Coffee? Vodka? Something else?
Bruusk:
Instant cappuchino in the morning and afternoon, red wine in the evening and night. Tobacco from waking up till rolling in my bed.
Vadym:
What’s your biggest, most proud IM accoplishment to-date?
Bruusk:
I think that would still be my first clickbank paycheck. I had to bike all the way to the other side of the city to cash it, I had the sun on my face, city of Amsterdam is great to bike through anyways. I remember thinking that I finally found my place in society, doing things on my terms without bowing down to the norm, and exploiting my abilities for my own benefit only. Great feeling.
Vadym:
What’s been your worst moment in IM thus far? Why?
Bruusk:
I’ll have to pick one of the times Google slapped me. This has happened in SEO as well as PPC. The most hurtful was when my best performing site got wiped of the face of Google search results for 2 or 3 months. My girl even wrote me a really funny condolence RIP card for that one because I was so depressed about it. The site came back with a vengeance though! “Google giveth, and Google taketh away”, in the words of the mighty Howie Schwartz. It tought me to be careful with linkspamming.
Vadym:
Any last words and/or websites to blatently advertise?
Bruusk:
Listen to your mum, eat more fruit.
)