How To Make Money At Home

Last week, I had the opportunity to interview my good friend Carl Ocab, the 15-year-old “kidblogger” who ranks for #1 in Google for the term “make money online”. He has over 12,000 subscribers on his blog, been featured on national media outlets and is one heck of a smart kid who’s way beyond his years. I’m sure many of you know him

It’s just fitting to interview a successful young entrepreneur for a young entrepreneur blog. Trust me, Carl knows his stuff when it comes to making money online. So I highly suggest you to go grab a drink and listen to this interview (43 minutes).  The stuff he delivered are pure gold and can literally make you thousands of dollars. Some highlights include:

• How Carl got started with blogging
• How to get to #1 for the ultra-competitive term “make money online” on Google
• Top 3 ways to build quality backlinks to your website
• Ways to monetize and make money from blogging
• How to convert first-time readers into loyal subscribers
• Getting on national TV & newspapers
• The importance of getting a mentor
• How to come up with blog post ideas
• How to balance between school and business
• The system behind “The New Article Marketing” that generated 500 visitors in one day
• And more!

You can either listen to the audio version below or read the transcript. Enjoy

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Stanley: I’m here with Carl Ocab from CarlOcab.com. So Carl, how did you get started with the whole blogging thing?

Carl: It started on a sunny Sunday afternoon when my cousin and I were playing this certain online game. We’re were playing it for five hours straight and then suddenly someone knocked on the door and it happened to be my dad. He said to us, “Come on, guys. You’ve been playing that game for like the whole day.”

Back then I was around 12 years old. We have to spend our own allowance to buy the Internet pre-paid card because broadband was not yet popular here in the Philippines. On top of that, we had to pay for the card for certain online games so we basically just threw away our allowance for that game.

My dad joked with us, “What do you get from playing that game all day? Although it’s okay to play but the whole day you’re wasting your time and money.” He asked if there was a better thing to do because it was summer and we had the whole day to ourselves. At that time my dad was doing some basic Internet marketing and he introduced us to one field, which is blogging.

The next day we started. We threw up a couple of blogs on Blogger.com and then copy and pasted content from other sites and then plastered a couple of ads inside. In the next week or so we were able to create around 20 blogs. Then we showed it to my dad and he said, “You’ve basically wasted your time. You should have just played instead of copying and pasting content and making these kinds of blogs.”

Later on, bloggers spotted those blogs and they were deleted. It was just a waste of time. After a month, my dad bought me my first domain which is about the game my cousin and I were playing. We installed WordPress on that using Fantastico and then added a forum.

We were just posting everything we knew about that game—tips, tricks, hacks—basically everything we knew about the game. We suddenly noticed that our search rankings on Google were naturally coming and then people were starting to comment and contribute in the forums. After a couple of weeks, we started seeing clicks in our AdSense account and that’s where it started. After three months, we received our first AdSense check.

Then I started to think of other stuff to do because the last blog we had the earnings started to plateau. I started thinking about diversifying. I thought of a new domain and that’s when CarlOcab.com was born.

Stanley: What year was that?

Carl: It was February 4, 2007. Basically, I was just blogging about personal stuff—what happens in school or, “I saw my crush in school today and she talked to me.” After a week, I noticed that no one was reading my blog. Of course, who would care what a 13 year old has to say about his personal life.

Using my knowledge from before, I looked for another niche. I was blogging before about technology, the new iPods and about health although I switched again because I didn’t know anything about health. Then I switched to very weird niches like a celebrity niche about Britney Spears being bald.

Come on, a 13-year-old boy would blog about celebrity news or gossip news? I kept browsing and I passed this make money online blog that has a little banner that says, “Advertise here for $50 a month.” It struck me because $50 a month was more than my online gaming blog was making every month.

What if I start my own make money online blog and share my journey, my vast experiences? That’s when CarlOcab.com was born. After a couple of days, I posted my goal which is actually to be number one for the keyword “make money online” on Google. It just so happened that some people didn’t like that.

They were criticizing me saying, “Come on, Carl. You’re just 13 years old. You’re going around for that highly-competitive keyword that tons of SEO gurus are trying to rank for.” At least that’s what they said. I don’t know if they took action or anything. I didn’t listen to those criticisms. Instead, I took it as a challenge.

After five months, I got to the front page. After the seventh month of my CarlOcab.com blog, I got to number one. That’s where people started saying, “Look at this 13-year-old kid. He’s number one in Google for the keyword “make money online.” That’s it.

Stanley: What strategies did you use in the initial stages of your blog to help get to number one on Google for the term “make money online”? How did you get those backlinks?

Carl: There are two things:

1. On-Page Optimization
2. Off-Page Optimization

On-page optimization is the stuff you do to your website. For example, placing the right keywords on the title tag. What I’m optimizing is “make money online,” so the keywords in my title tag are “Make money online with a 13 year old.”

A few people know that if you place the keywords in the title tag on the first few lines, Google gives more weight to it. For example, “Make money online with a 13 year old,” gives more weight than “13 year old making money online.” That also works in the H1 tag. The higher you place the H1 tag on the code of our website, the more Google gives weight to it.

The off-base optimization is building backlinks. The top three ways I build backlinks to my website are:

1. Link baiting
2. Free Wordpress themes
3. Contests

Link baiting is making something that is newsworthy or can attract links. For example, the tag line of my website which is “Making money online with a 13 year old,” that gave me thousands of backlinks. When people see it they say, “Look at this 13-year-old kid blogging about making money online,” and then they give a link back to my website. Most of them, fortunately, use the anchor text “Make money online” when linking to my blog.

Sometimes in the early days of my blog I gave away three WordPress themes. In the footer part of those WordPress themes, I have a link back to my website that says, “Make money online.” I got a couple thousand of downloads there and a couple thousand backlinks.

In the later part of my blog when it got to the front page, what helped me get to number one was when I started to open contests. I asked for sponsors, their prizes or cash prizes, products. Then for people to win those contests, they have to blog about the contest itself and link to my blog so those are free backlinks right there.

Stanley: How much traffic do you actually get from ranking number one?

Carl: From the keywords alone, “make money online,” I get around 250 to 350 unique visitors per day. It’s not that much but that’s targeted traffic right there.

Stanley: Right. Where does your other traffic come from?

Carl: Mostly on Google on long-tailed keywords and then on other blogs and social networks like or Digg or StumbleUpon.

Stanley: In the earlier stages, what strategies did you implement to help grow your blog readership?

Carl: The number one was basically the traffic I get from the search engines. Right now I’m working on my blog for only 30 minutes a day. What people don’t know is that I spent the whole day on my blog when I first started in the first three months of my blog. I spent the whole day blog commenting, making those WordPress themes because I made them myself and then just basically connecting with other bloggers. For example, I have this blog post. The other bloggers I knew then, I e-mailed them and then told them about this certain post. One of the most popular posts in my blog is the “69 Ways to Drive Traffic.”

Stanley: What obstacles did you face in the beginning and what lessons did you learn from those?

Carl: One of the obstacles I faced on my blog was to keep up with posting. You have to think of what posts to write. I’m not really a good writer. I just learned on my way to blogging. The other obstacle was the technical stuff. At first I didn’t know anything about HTML so I had to learn that by myself. Like they say, if you want to start blogging, if you don’t have the money, you have to spend the time to do the things you don’t know. If you have the money, then you can outsource things.

Stanley: What are your top ways to monetize a blog and make money from blogging?

Carl: There are two categories:

1. Direct
2. Indirect

The direct way is by selling direct advertisements. People contact me directly to advertise on my blog and then I place their banners on my blog and they get traffic.

Another direct way is when I sell sponsored reviews on my blog. People and companies contact me and then they give me information about their product or their website and then I publish a review on my blog. One interesting thing I did when selling sponsored reviews is I hired a person who reviews the site for me. He gets a cut from what the company pays.

Before I was the one doing these sponsored reviews and, man, it really takes a heck of a time to review. You have to check the product. You have to read it if it’s an e-book or manual. If it’s a big website, for example a social networking website, you have to really get the feel of the website to review it in a useful way. So instead I hired a reviewer who does the sponsor reviews for me.

The indirect ways I make money with my blog is I first capture the e-mails of my visitors on my blog. Later on, I send them affiliate offers. I sometimes exchange broadcasts with other Internet marketers and then we both get the lists.

The other indirect way is when I get invited to speak on other marketing seminars. At the moment though, I don’t ask for a fee. I speak for free and then they give a little token and then I get to promote my company, Rich Kid Media, on the stage. It’s pretty good practice I think.

The third, which is probably the most profitable way I made money on my blog, is via selling my own products. A product I sell actually right now is “The Ultimate Blogging Theme.” This theme of my blog helped me rank number one on Google for the keywords “make money online.” The thing is it’s Google friendly and it’s advertising optimized because it’s tried and tested. I’ve been testing it for the whole time on my blog. It’s customer friendly and reader friendly.

Stanley: Where can people purchase that theme?

Carl: You can go to www.UltimateBloggingTheme.com.

[Alternatively, you can purchase a copy of my book eMillions on Amazon for just $16 and you can get this blogging theme as an added bonus for free! Details at http://www.emillionsbook.com]

Stanley: Roughly how much of your revenue comes from direct and how much does it come from indirect?

Carl: On the direct way, on my blog alone I get around 40% and then on “The Ultimate Blogging Theme” I get around 60%.

Stanley: Just now you talked about speaking at events and seminars. How has speaking at events impacted your life and your business?

Carl: It’s kind of great, actually, because I get to meet a lot of people and most of them are business people. My language is kind of influenced or different than before. Sometimes I get kind of stressed out because I have to prepare for the presentation and everything. Overall, it’s totally awesome. I get to develop my self confidence and practice along the way.

Stanley: Do you think it has helped you with your personal brand and generating readership for your blog?

Carl: Yes, definitely. Every time I speak, for example like on topics for personal branding, the sample I use is my blog on search engine optimization. I still use my blog as a sample. What I do that most speakers don’t do when I’m with them is I give out a free report especially for the audience, which is where I capture their leads and then drive the traffic to my blog.

Stanley: How do you overcome the nerve of speaking in front of a large audience?

Carl: This may be really overrated but practice, practice, practice. I remember my first public speaking school. They critique us while we speak. For example, they say, “You speak about this topic,” for example, cancer. Then while you speak at the later end of the class they critique live.

Then I have this classmate in that school that when she speaks really gets so nervous that she has this paper guy and she crumples it while she’s speaking. That’s really hard training. I don’t practice just once or twice. I practice almost every day before a seminar or a talk. So it’s really practice and a lot more practice.

Stanley: I know you’ve recently been feature in national newspapers, TV and media outlets. How do you become featured in those and generate large amounts of traffic?

Carl: Stanley, I don’t mean to brag but they naturally come to me. When they come to me, I don’t look eager for their interview or their feature. It gives them an impression that they really have to get a hold of me because I’m someone who is valuable and my time is valuable. They really have to look and get a good schedule of me. I know you know this, Stanley, because girls do that to guys.

Stanley: Has it generated a lot of traffic to your site?

Carl: Yes. Recently I was featured on a national channel here. It’s on pretty late actually, around 10:00 p.m. It gave me around 1,000 or 2,000 unique visitors which is pretty cool but it didn’t convert.

Stanley: What are your tactics to try to convert first-time readers into loyal subscribers who stick to your blog for a long period of time?

Carl: Actually, on those 2,000 I converted three of them to buy my “Ultimate Blogging Theme.” Basically, it was just giving away free stuff. I gave away the free report on my blog which is the “Kidblogger’s Master Plan.”

When a couple of them replied to the broadcasts, I sent them other info which is about online branding and then funneled them and gave them the special discount for the “Ultimate Blogging Theme.” It’s basically giving away free stuff and increasing their desire to get more information and more stuff from me.

Stanley: What books do you read and who are your role models?

Carl: My favorites are really the basics—Cialdini’s, Psychology and Influence. I don’t remember all of them so good thing I’m beside my bookstand. I finished Mark Joyner’s “The Great Formula.” There is a great one called “Words That Sell” by Richard Bayan. It’s like a thesaurus of words. It makes them more enticing. For example, good, and then it looks for a more enticing word than good. Another one is “Power Sales Words” by Vicky Oliver. Then there’s “Zero to One Million” by Ryan P. M. Allis. Do you know that one?

Stanley: Yes.

Carl: Then there’s, of course, the “eMillions” right here beside me.

Stanley: Who are some of your business role models who you look up to for inspiration?

Carl: You’ve interviewed this guy, right? His name is Joel Christopher.

Stanley: Yes.

Carl: We met back around 2008 or 2007 when Jack Humphrey blogged about me on his blog. Joel Christopher happened to be a loyal reader there. He saw me and then contacted me and said, “Carl, I saw you in Jack Humphrey’s blog and I was surprised that you were a Filipino,” because Joel is a Filipino who is based in Texas.

“What if we meet when I go back there?” So we met and then he proposed that he be my mentor. Did you see Joel Christopher’s pictures?

Stanley: Yes.

Carl: I weighed around 140 pounds when we met. I can say that our relationship was really productive. After a year, I weighed 160 pounds. Every time we meet, he always treats us to pizza, chicken—everything. Seriously, Joel is a hardcore, very intelligent guy.

Stanley: Has having a mentor helped you in your business?

Carl: Definitely. Actually, I really suggest that everyone get a mentor. A mentor is your shortcut to success. It’s your guide. On the first days of my blog, my dad was my mentor. Actually, until now, he’s still my mentor. He coaches me and guides me on the stuff I do. You don’t have to do the things that don’t work.

Mentors give you the shortcut. Later on, Joel Christopher mentored me on how to grow my business into more of a five-figure business. Mentors really have helped me big time in my business.

Stanley: You seem to be able to get many quality guest posts on your blog. How are you able to attract so many guest bloggers to your blog?

Carl: On my blog, I have this text on the side where it says, “Guest posting is available.” I get those quality guest posts because, basically, a lot of people visit my blog. I get a lot of guest post submissions but I don’t post them all. I qualify them. If you want to get guests posts and your blog isn’t that popular or not many people visit it, you can e-mail people and invite them to guest post on your blog.

Of course, list out the benefits of them guest posting on your blog. For example, they get to have permanent backlinks to your blog or you broadcast them to your list. As always, you have to list out the benefits.

Stanley: What about guest posting on other people’s blogs to generate traffic? What is your view on that and how do you go about doing that?

Carl: I have an article about that on my blog. It’s called “The New Article Marketing.” Instead of submitting your article on hundreds of article directories, you can be more productive actually by submitting it on one specific, popular blog in your niche.

I forgot to say that guest posting is one of the ways gives me the most traffic. I remember guest posting on this one popular blogger before and I got around 500 days instantly on the day my article was posted.

Stanley: How would you go about approaching a big blogger to pitch them your guest post?

Carl: The first thing you have to look at is you need to include the article on the e-mail itself. I get e-mails that say, “Carl, I want to guest post on your blog.” How can I see their guest post if it’s not attached? Of course, always personalize your e-mail. Stanley, did you want me to discuss how I hunt for bloggers?

Stanley: Yes, sure. Go ahead, Carl.

Carl: The idea is simple. You submit your blog to this guest blogger and then they post it on their blog. Instead of you submitting your article on tons of article directories, you submit it in one blog and then you get targeted traffic. If it’s a popular blogger and an influential blogger, your article has a chance to spread on other blogs and to other readers of that blogger.

You get quality links instead of submitting it on article directories. Here’s something you should know about popular bloggers. Your post is accepted. The first thing is you have to know the blogger and, of course, the blog. When you e-mail them, you have to somewhat relate to their blog or personalize the e-mail.

For example, “Hey, Carl, what’s up? I read your blog a while ago. I liked that article about making money online by filling out surveys.” Don’t just go e-mail him, also participate on their blog by commenting on their post. Observe what style of posts are popular on their blog so you can get a good response when you guest post on that blog.

Then go ahead and contact the blogger and tell them, “I read your posts and observed that the topic about cats is popular so maybe I’ll guest post about cats. Attached is the article so you can have a look. Tell me what you think about it. If you have other topics you want me to write about, tell me so I can write about it.” That’s it.

Stanley: What inspires you to come up with new blog post ideas for your blog?

Carl: Actually, my blog is more like sharing my experiences, my journey. For example, I made a reciprocity post that people naturally reciprocate. I learned this when we visited a school.  When we entered there, they were giving out these forms to apply at their school.

Then there were presentations and everything. After the presentation, instead of them asking us to fill out the form what they did was give us lunch and then this tasty danish. After we ate, then they asked if you could please fill out the survey spot on the school, blah, blah, blah.

Then what happened there was instead of some students throwing the surveys away we were all filling it up after the lunch. That experience gave me an idea to create a post on my blog. I titled it about reciprocity. I get my post ideas and daily experiences. Sometimes I combine ideas of other bloggers.

For example, this post from blogger A and this post from blogger B and this post from blogger C. You combine all their ideas and then it generates a new post. It’s unique because you combined ideas and then you added your own.. I also use sites to find what other bloggers are blogging about. For example, www.WhosTalkin.com, are you familiar with that?

Stanley: No, I’m not really. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Carl: This thing is just launched last year and I think this should go big time soon. When you do a search on www.WhosTalkin.com,, for example your name, Stanley Tang, it gives results on other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and other blogs too. It’s a good tool. I also use my Google Reader to surf other blogs and what they’re talking about and that’s it.

Stanley: How do you balance your time between school and business?

Carl: It’s really about scheduling and then following that schedule. I have a nifty tool in the iPhone that’s a calendar. It alarms when you have to follow a schedule. If you don’t have an iPhone, before I used notes and I always bring a little notebook and then it’s following that schedule.

Stanley: Do you ever procrastinate?

Carl: Yes. Actually, that’s one of the biggest mistakes I made online. I have this project with my mentor Joel Christopher that was very long delayed. He asked me to write this certain book. A month after, I still haven’t started it and then three months after I’ve only done the table of contents and then a year after I was just half way through.

I’ve wasted a lot of time there. When Joel introduced me to the funnel that we are going to do. I found out how big the project is and how much time and money I wasted. So procrastinating really is something you have to stop. You have to stop procrastinating now, not tomorrow.

Stanley: I have a few more questions left. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? What’s your ultimate vision?

Carl: Ten years really is so far and we don’t know what will happen. I know that in the next few months something big will happen because I’ve stopped procrastinating and finished that book. We’re preparing it to launch along with other up sells and stuff so that’s one thing you have to watch.

I also have something for the blogosphere near December. This is something pretty personal. My goal is that when I turn 18 years old that I’d buy an H2 Hummer. It costs around $30,000 in the U.K. and the shipping cost is $10,000 or near that and the tax here to the Philippines is 100%. So on my 18th birthday I have to have $100,000 to pay this off. That’s my goal.

My vision is a charity. It’s to have kids in the Philippines who didn’t have a chance to do what I do. It’s kind of sad that here in the Philippines that when you drive along the highways or the streets you’ll see kids—one year olds, four year olds—I think being forced to beg for money.

It’s really sad because they were not given a chance to do what they want to do, what they can do. The ultimate vision is to help them to succeed in life, to help them study and finish college.

Stanley: I just have one last question for you. Are you planning on going to college? Do you think education is important?

Carl: Yes, definitely. Unlike before, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, they dropped out of college and became successful. Now your competition has PhD degrees or they finish college. For example, the Google guys are from Stanford. Your competition has the intellect and the thinking of their courses and they finish college. I definitely recommend that every one of us, Stanley, you should also finish college.

Stanley: Don’t worry. I will finish university, Carl. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Do you have any final comments you want to add?

Carl: One thing to succeed online is you have to have a clear vision and you have to turn that vision into a plan and how you are going to get around that vision. The last thing is to take action.

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