Carl Ocab – Breaking Boundaries with Internet Marketing

Hi and welcome to another episode of the Outsource Accelerator podcast. My name is Derek Gallimore, this is episode 132. So today, I’m really excited about Carl Ocab but we are joined again by Carl Ocab of the Web Design agency “Carl Ocab”. So he was I supposed an internet prodigy when he was younger, started at 13 years of age and became a slight internet sensation. So he’s a really good person to listen to in terms of web building and SUS aspects. So we deep dive in this one and talk about his web design agency, who, which serves mainly people in the US. So interesting conversation there. If you wanna get in touch Carl or know anymore about this episode then go to our show notes which is at outsourceaccelerator.com/132. Enjoy.

Derek: Hi and welcome back everybody.  Today I’m super excited to be joined by Carl Ocab again he is an almost a child prodigy here in the Philippines, he was a very successful blogger from the age of 13. So, Hi Carl, thank you so much for joining us.

Carl: Hi, Derek.

Derek: Pleasure. And so without me trying to give everyone around you. Can you maybe just introduce yourself and your journey to this point.

Carl: Yeah, Sure. I started in the internet marketing 13 years ago.  I’m sorry I think around 10-11 years ago when I was 13 years old. And basically, I started with blogging and then from that, I sold software, word pristine and eventually after finishing college, after graduation. I started my own internet marketing agency and our main focus is serving clients in the states and partnering up with internet marketing agencies and web design agencies in the states and building their client’s website for them.

Derek: Fantastic. And so, of course, that URL is Carl Ocab and because of your direct personal experience and knowledge-based of both content generation of website or WordPress and that seems that of very natural progression obviously for you to get into. And so you know its comprehensive service offering and quiet sort of I supposed understanding, understandable what the service offering is but it is somewhat unique and you are based Philippines catering almost solely to the US but also you’re positioning yourself as a  kinda B2B wholesale. How did you decide to focus on the US instead of the Philippines but then also why did you focus on kinda wholesale relationship?

Carl:  When I started blogging most of my readers were in the US and most the internet marketers that I partnered with they were in the US as well. Because of that, you know I got to know a lot of people in the states I got partnered up with, the old internet marketing era and because I realize that the buying power in the states is it’s way bigger compared here in the Philippines. And that is not a bad thing that I’m here in the Philippines because of that I can hire people here, and you know I realize that it pays much bigger in the states. So it started with that idea but then oddly enough more people from the states where coming to us instead, here in the Philippines. Because most of the sights that featured my blog before or from the States and of course since they like our service, most of them just refer agencies and internet marketing experts to us. So it started with just word of mouth at first but then eventually when I was able a sales team of my own, I tried to cater local clients as well but they don’t still invest that much compared to other countries so we still opted partnered with agencies in states.

Derek: That is interesting isn’t it that you have right from the early age pretty much grown up online and you’re probably tapping more into the international community on many levels on sort of cultural level, on the learning level, on the forums that you’re in I supposed to on a localized level. Are you seem that more and more now as kind of the nerdy kid just spending on their computer that really exposed to international kind of environment as opposed to the Philippine environment or wherever they were sitting.

Carl: Yeah. Definitely, because, you know, the internet connects everyone. Even kids! I mean my brother who I think 8-9 years younger than me. He started his youtube channel and through his youtube channel, he was able to buy his own computer just by making videos about games. So, and he also caters to an international audience. So you know even if you here in the Philippines or in another country you can still connect or even do business with people in the states and that’s a very good thing because you know it’s a win-win situation they save money and u make a lot more than what you can locally.

Derek: Yeah, and it’s incredibly powerful for the new generation for the Philippine economy really isn’t it?, And you  can compete on even level and even marketplace because it’s more meritocracy based as opposed to where you sitting or what school you into, It really is exciting time for the Philippines I think.

Carl: Definitely.

Derek: So what do u do? I mean you build websites it’s kinda like a wholesale model. You have SEO strategies you create content but how far do you go with your service offering

Carl: Our main service is website development and design, So basically we develop the sites on WordPress and compared to other agencies, countries our builds its called framework in WordPress community. So basically it’s a, I would say the proper way on how to sites on WordPress because through WordPress frameworks the builds that we create last for a number of WordPress updates because compare to other WordPress builds that if they create WordPress theme and then WordPress updates, and updates and updates.. Eventually, the WordPress theme wouldn’t be compatible to the current version of WordPress. So what we do is we strictly follow WordPress standards. Since you know it has been my expertise for 10-11 years we strictly follow WordPress standards and we build this themes from this frameworks that it already has or it already on page optimized. And it’s very cheap because we only sell it for three figures and they can sell it, I mean the value of those sites, with that kind of build in the states is around 5,000 to 10,000 dollars. So they make a lot of money by just selling this WordPress themes.

Derek: Do you still build out the complex site or you going more for the kinda high volume the mom and pop shops where it’s kind of five-page brochure. Where is your speech in terms of the value of a proposition?

Carl:  Well i think around 50-60% percent would be the simple corporate sites, 5 page, 10 page websites but those 40% percent some of them are complicated that sometimes we would connect POS systems to their websites, to their e-commerce sites and of course that wouldn’t be using WordPress anymore so we also developed on other cms. But, you know the fast moving corporate websites we make a lot of money through that. And aside from that of course what we offer is search engine optimization. So our SEO is definitely white hat because we do not do a black hat or grey hat as SEO. Since you know we want our clients and their clients our partner’s clients to invest in something that would last, rank them for a long time.I mean if you dot black hat as SEO rank 2-3 months and then lose their ranking in 5-6 months so your investment will go down to drain but if you do white hat SEO it will last a long time but it takes time, and it takes manual labor because we have writers doing our content for them, you know doing link outreach. So basically what Google would want us to do and we strictly follow google guidelines as well.

Derek:  Yeah I think basically realizing that Google is getting brighter and it’s gonna get more difficult to tricks really isn’t it and outrun it.

Carl: Yeah. Definitely the recent RankBrain update.

Derek: I like to hear about that actually. Is that about the backening quality of things?

Carl: RankBrain is basically when you search for something, for example, you search for a recipe on google and then you click on a certain result and then you don’t find what you are looking for in that result so basically you just hit back and just bounce off the page. Google takes note of that, for example, the number one result has a high bounce rate or people spent a minute or just minute or thirty seconds of that page. Google takes note of that and then compares it to other results. So now our rankings are not just based links and the code of your website and it also the time they spend on your website, So basically it boils down to you know just having great content.

Derek:  Yeah. It’s interesting in the best you know the best AI cannot compete with what they are now doing which is more of an observational science of just checking the behaviors of people that get sent those sites and stay on there then it’s a pretty good indication that it’s a genuine value piece. It’s fascinating its almost kinda full circle really isn’t it, it just really you could throw away a lot of ai interpretation and then just watch the user behavior. How do you see the opportunities of the cost differential of outsourcing and do you see that, do you think you are the luckiest guy on earth. I would be imagined you wouldn’t want to be web developer agency sitting in America right now because I would assume that they just can’t compete with you both in terms of price but also quality and starting expertise.

Carl: Yeah because here in the Philippines you know, I think one the biggest hurdle would be the communication, I think most of the web outsourcing the biggest hurdle is communication and based on our partners when pitching and when looking for other partners who want to outsource their work to us, their first issue is communication. So that actually a good thing that was here in the Philippines because almost all the people here can speak English some can speak very good. So we make sure that we get the right PM’s, the project managers can speak fluent English, can write very good English as well. Because of that, that’s the enticing part for them on why they partnered with us.

Derek:  Yeah, Absolutely. And as a sort of mention, I think the differential between the Philippines and wherever you know, the US or Canada or the UK. There is gonna be no difference anymore it’s kinda in 10,20,30 years because everyone is gonna be speaking same language learning from same resources in the same forums and really will be one marketplace for the economy.

Carl:  Oh yeah definitely, Because even here in the Philippines I actually see other web design agencies other SEO that is on the same level compared to the States. And you know they charged lower so eventually, you know I think like you said the differential would slim down and eventually it will become just one marketplace.

Derek: Fascinating. Fantastic. Thank you so much and I wanna get you back on a week, I wanna talk about the future direction and possibilities for outsourcing. But if people wanna get in touch with you, how can they do that.

Carl: Sure. They can just search my name on google, Carl Ocab or they can visit my website carlocab.com

Derek:  Fantastic. Number one in google. Thank you so much, Carl.

Carl: Thank you too, Derek.

That was Carl Ocab.  How was that? Of course, he represents his own Web Design Agency also called Carl Ocab.  If you want to get in touch with Carl, if you want to know anymore then just go to our show notes which is at outsourceaccelerator.com/132 and if you want to ask us anything then just email us at [email protected].  See you next time.