Our second interviewed link research specialist this week is Christiaan Bollen, whom we would like to thank for this opportunity, I’m sure that all our readers are going to read this with huge interest and find the information’s they are looking for.
Christiaan Bollen is a gambling affiliate. But he also owns a company, Boljoro (http://www.boljoro.com), that offers web development, online marketing and SEO consultancy. His experience in the highly competitive gambling industry was the start of his SEO knowledge but Christiaan wanted to learn more and became an LRT Certified Professional. To stay updated and keep learning he goes to many SEO conferences. With the combination of all this knowledge he can give professional advice to his clients.
EEG: Tell us a bit about yourself, we want to know who Christiaan Bollen really is. Where were you born? What was the key idea of developing these skills that got you so far in the industry?
I am born in Maasmechelen, a normal town in Belgium. In the first years of my life people didn’t have computers at home yet. By the time I was 10 we got our first computer. As a young child I played games on it and used it to make summaries for school.
When I got older my interest in the computer and the processes grow. Soon I started creating my first website. A website with recipes my mom had written down in a book in the kitchen.
As teenager I started with dating affiliate websites and had small additional income to my pocket-money.
At high school I was studying Industrial Sciences. At university it was an obvious choice to study for Industrial Engineer when you did Industrial Sciences at high school. But I always had that big interest in computers. So I made the less obvious choice to study for Software Developer at Xios University College (now renamed to PXL). It seemed to be a good choice as this was the kind of stuff I always wanted to do. It was fun to go to school and I had no troubles passing my exams.
After graduating I started working as a software developer at Xtendit. It was a great job and I really liked it. When I came home from work I created websites as a hobby. In 2012 the Belgian Gambling Commission introduced the new gambling law. There was a lot to do about this new law in the news, people could get fines and even jail time for illegal gambling. Around the same time I was looking for a new project, so I decided to make a website that gave a clear overview of all the websites where it was legal for Belgian citizens to gamble online. That first website I created is still my biggest website at this moment, Goedgekeurde Goksites.
In the beginning there wasn’t much going on my website. But I kept working on it and posting new content, it was my hobby. After a few months the first registrations and income was a fact.
Months later my income from Goedgekeurde Goksites got almost as high as the income from my job. Being self-employed and owning a company was always something I hoped to achieve one day. I never thought it would be this fast but in August 2012 I started my own company, Boljoro. The company started as a web development company and my affiliate websites. My hobby became my work.
Belgium is a multilingual country. Goedgekeurde Goksites was only in Dutch and I wanted to start targeting the French-speaking people as well. Because the name of the website “Goedgekeurde Goksites” is dutch, it means “Approved Gamblingsites”, I decided to create a separate website for the French-speaking people. This was the start of Jeux de Casino Approuvés my second biggest website.
The gambling industry is a very competitive market in SEO. Working on my own website I got much experience in SEO. Now I also offer my SEO knowledge to customers as an SEO consultant.
EEG: What are your strong points? You never give up do you?
You hit the nail on the head, one of my strong points is not giving up. This is probably one of the key skills you need to become a good affiliate. Many people think they can create a gambling affiliate website and money will start coming in and they will be rich in a year. It doesn’t work like that. You have to keep going on, don’t stop updating your websites. Especially in the first months it is hard. You work many hours on your websites and nothing happens. You get some visitors but they don’t deposit.
Another strong point is leadership. For my websites I use the help of freelancers. It takes time to find good freelancers, delegate them and have good communication.
EEG: We do see a lot of travelling, could you share the most interesting events that are dedicated to SEO and link building?
That is correct, I travel to many conferences. I learn a lot on top of that I really visiting all those cities and networking is also an important and fun part of the conferences.
So far I found the german conference in Cologne, SEOday and its sister conference SEOkomm in Salzburg, Austria, the most interesting. Too bad for most of your readers, these conferences are in German. Two other conferences that I found good and are in English are Friends of Search in Amsterdam and Brighton SEO.
EEG: What is Boljoro all about? We need to know more about your venture.
Boljoro is the name of my company. It was hard to find a unique name that didn’t exist and where I could get all the major domain names for.
My main activities are my own affiliate website. Apart of that I do web development for local companies and SEO consultancy. In the beginning I didn’t do any SEO for clients but because I got so much experience in the highly competitive gambling industry I can now offer my knowledge to clients.
EEG: As we know, you are among the few LRT Certified Professionals in the world. How does that feel and has the experience helped you in creating your business? Could you share a bit of insight?
Being one of the LRT Certifieds is great. We are a small group of SEO experts that share a lot of knowledge with each other. If someone has a problem we are always ready to help.
But it is not only for the knowledge that it is a great group. Also outside of “work” we have activities where we socialize. When we see other members at conferences we always have fun. We became friends.
EEG: Since Google rolled out it’s mobile-friendly update on the 21st of April, have you seen and huge impact on your mobile traffic? I know we have….
I didn’t notice any changes in SERPs. I wish I did, one of my biggest competitors didn’t optimise his site for mobile and he is still ranking better than me in the mobile SERPs! Maybe the update is still rolling out and didn’t fully impact Belgium yet.
EEG: What can you advise affiliates or affiliate programs that are looking to get that juice from mobile rankings?
As I didn’t see the impact yet I can’t give any advice yet.
EEG: There was another update that has been rolled out these days, it was the one targeting doorway pages. Have you seen any drops in pages that were using this technique?
So far I haven’t.
EEG: Do you think there are going to be any major Google SERP updates this year?
The normal panda releases and probably also some more penguin. I expect that they will do something else that will have a big impact.
EEG: As for now the readers have probably made an idea of who Christiaan Bollen is and they certainly be looking to get started contacting you. How can they start and where can they contact you?
You can find me on all the major social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Or find my contact information on my company website http://www.boljoro.com.
Be careful that you contact Christiaan Bollen from Belgium. In the Netherlands there is a guy with the same name, he is an event manager.
EEG: Alright, here comes the fun part….favourite food, where would you like to travel in Eastern Europe, some part of the region maybe that you haven’t visited yet and favourite destination around the world.
My favourite food is Belgian Fries and Belgian Chocolate, with a good Belgian Beer.
I’ve only been to Budapest, Hungary once. But I would love to explore all the other countries from Eastern Europe. Last year I planned to go to Romania but I had to cancel the trip, that will probably be the next Eastern European country I will visit.
At this moment Barcelona is my favourite place. But while I travel the rest of the world that can change.
EEG: Where you wouldn’t want to travel in Eastern Europe?
I want to visit every country as long as there is no war going on. I don’t want to die yet.
EEG: What is your opinion about EEG(Eastern European Gaming – eegaming.org)?
EEG doesn’t exist that long. But since you started I saw a huge grow in content and brand awareness. I see a great future for Eastern European Gaming.
EEG: Thank you for this opportunity and have a great one!
Thanks for the interview!
