May 20, 2019 – As many young Croatians emigrate in search of economic opportunity, a growing number are living quite happily in Zagreb and elsewhere in Croatia and making a good living online. People like Bojan Bernik.
1. You are living the dream of making a living via passive income. Tell us how you got started and more about your best-known website, https://1klik.hr/
I started 1klik.hr back in 2007. It was a one-page website with bookmarks of the best Croatian websites because Google is great when you know what to look for and the name of the website, but if you don’t, 1klik was the place to go. My father gave me the idea to create it since he was always asking me how to read the news and do stuff online. Once 1klik was live he was all set and could do web browsing by himself. Nowadays 1klik.hr is much more than a bookmark list, it is a news aggregator that helps people find news from different websites and be completely up to date with all the news published on Croatian web portals and blogs.
This website is generating a passive income since it doesn’t have people who write the articles and everything is automatic and computer generated. It has one job – to curate the news in a fashion that makes the end user feel fully informed.
2. You have since branched out into other niches – www.automobili.hr, www.popusti.hr, www.dioptrija.hr. Tell us a little about those and how they are going.
Automobili.hr is one of the most popular automotive websites in Croatia with 250.000 real users according to Gemius Audience. It has steady growth and an audience that loves cars.
Popusti.hr is a groupon aggregator that helps people find deals with 50% discounts and we share the commission with the sellers. It is also completely automatic and creates a passive income.
Dioptrija.hr is a specific eye health niche website that helps people find information about their vision and eye problems. It has more than 100.000 visitors per month, which is huge for a small niche like that in a country of only 4 million inhabitants. It’s a great feeling to know that we help people treat their health problems with sound advice.
3. You also run a digital marketing agency in Zagreb. Tell us about the demand, and why businesses should be using a digital marketing agency.
My marketing agency Morgan Grey is specialized for digital marketing. We do everything online because it can be measured and quantified, unlike other media. Every year digital marketing revenue is growing and more people are realising that you can’t depend only on offline marketing. Our clients are usually companies that are successful and with online we help them reach more audience and increase their revenues further.
4. What, in your opinion, are the classic mistakes which small businesses make in Croatia with their digital marketing strategies?
I believe the common mistake is that people think marketing is something anyone can do. Or when they believe that with a small budget they can expect good results. You need a marketing expert who did a ton of similar campaigns to help you achieve your goals since he has done it many times and knows what works and what doesn’t. Also, be careful since today everyone claims to be a marketing expert, regardless that they studied mathematics instead of marketing during college. If you spend too little on marketing, you won’t get any real results that can be measured. Also, if you spend too much, you are burning money.
You need people like us to know the difference, we’ve been there.
5. Tell us a little about the IT and digital startup scene in Croatia. There seems to be a lot going on.
Lately, there are many startups in Croatia, loads of them we haven’t even heard of since they are targeting the international market from the start. I have a feeling that more and more young people are willing to work in the startup world and have big dreams. I am a more realistic type, I want to make it here in Croatia and get a passive income to suit my needs, and then I will be ready to “play” with something bigger and international. Safety first, says the Capricorn in me.
6. Tell us also about the pressures of finding good-quality IT staff in an age when many are emigrating for better pay in Germany, Ireland and elsewhere.
It has become quite a hassle to find reliable programmers in Croatia. I am blessed with a few colleagues of mine that I work with that share similar lifestyle like I do and want to stay in Croatia and are passionate about creating new websites. One of our clients is an international IT company that has an office in Zagreb and Split, we do their employer branding so they can attract more talent. It is more and more common for programmers to live in Croatia and work for foreign companies. It is a better quality of life than moving abroad.
7. Are you tempted to follow your many countrymen abroad and seek a new life outside Croatia?
Nope, I like to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond. For me, it makes more sense.
8. What are the three things you would change about Croatia if you could?
Only three, come on, I need more 🙂
a. I would penalize public corruption in a way that none would think twice about it. Everyone who knows about it and doesn’t report it would be considered as a complicit. I understand that it’s considered normal to give and receive a bribe in Croatia, and at least 90% of us bribed someone in one way or another because we needed something done (faster, better or done at all). We are all a part of the problem.
b. I would create a national strategy – concentrating on IT services, hi end tourism and health tourism, and organic food production.
c. I would copy and paste all the successful and proven strategies from countries like Switzerland who have a good track record. Buy and borrow their knowledge and software, why spend loads of money creating our own when we can buy it for pennies on the dollar.
9. And finally, what next for Bojan Bernik? There must be a new project or two in the pipeline.
I have just finished a villa in Zadar to be like a real Croat and profit from tourism 🙂 The new version of 1klik.hr is going live in a week, and this year I am concentrating on creating a specialized PR service for clients who need exposure in the media, but don’t know how to do it properly. I believe there is a huge market for this since classic PR agencies don’t do digital the way it should be done, and don’t use it as part of search engine optimization (which is really important to do).
I want to optimize everything I do so I can chase my dream of having a steady passive income. I am only halfway there. 🙂
You can reach out to Bojan Bernic via his Morgan Grey website.