Behind the Scenes of Outsourcing My New Website Design to the Philippines with Archie Alibasa

Absolutely thank you for giving my website such a good upgrade .

And if you're listening to this podcast and you have not looked at the YouTube channel yet , go to the show notes below , click on the subscribe to the Art of Online Business YouTube channel link , get over there and watch this so you can see just how good of a job he did or how bad of a job I had done before .

I mean , look at how the website looked before compared to how it looks now , absolutely night and day . And this is the second time that Archie has been on this podcast . The first time was in a previous episode , which was episode 763 .

The link will be to it below , but that's where we talked about what matters most for your business's website to leave a great impression , and we go into all the good stuff there . So if you haven't heard that one , go listen to that one after you listen to this , or listen there and come right back here .

But , archie , if you have not seen him on the previous episode , he is the one who made my new website , which looks really good . He's made two websites for Rick already , the previous host of this podcast . He's been building websites for 15 years . He's done about 20 in the past year or so and he's based in the Philippines .

And if you don't know me , hi , I'm Kwejo . I'm the host of the Art of Online Business the new host , if you will and I am based in Mexico and you can find out more about me . There's a link to the episode where Rick introduced me and explained some of his future plans , which are now his current plans , because we're recording from the future .

That link is in the show notes below . Now let's get into the episode . I figured you would want to see behind the scene just to understand what it's like to outsource with a talented individual who's not sitting right next to you . But they're building your website and designing it for you or redesigning your website that you already had .

So with that , I just want to say first of all , archie , I wish I had did the thing sooner .

Like I told you the last episode , I'll say it again I feel like since the website went live back in December kind of like the very end of November of 2023 , the number or the frequency at which people applied for me or Facebook ads management just went up and that I have to thank you for .

But it's very clear when we're looking at the screen right now and , by the way , if you're listening to the podcast , only on Apple podcasts or Spotify go down to the show notes below and click through to subscribe to the art of online business YouTube channel , where you can see the actual screen that we're looking at .

Because look at this old website compared with the new one , the new one right here . The old one has , like my logo , super small , and it says apply for Facebook ads management or , you know , it says I'm your strategic traffic partner who will bring you more leads , profit and sales .

It's on the same blue , it's on a blue background , but then there's like a customer testimonial under there and text and some boxes which I which was my poor attempt to steal from Archie's good design . But then the new one , it like has the logo up top of the art of online business . It has menu headers that change color when you slide over them .

Like the fonts are better . They're not generic fonts . I don't know what font I use , but I can tell that you use really cool fonts from my brand guide , thank you . Like there's a very clear call to action button that says scroll down to work with me . You got me on there with my needs , full of personality . It's like .

This one is just way , way better , archie . So thank you for that , and it has made a difference in my business already , like I said . So what did I wish I'd done sooner , archie ? I wish I had actually just had you do the website sooner , I believe . Well , you are a professional and I'm so glad that Rick introduced you to me .

One thing I do want to say , though , archie , is I didn't know how long it would take , as a business owner , like I had , yeah , and you were actually quick .

You were very quick and comfortable you're going to talk about that right now but like it took me figuring out how to like get my act together and respond to your like prompt questions for this project to move along . So I guess , like this would be a good time to just ask you , like , what do you feel like ?

Makes you stand out , archie , as a website developer , builder and designer .

Well , before I talk about that , I just let me just say to everyone out there that's listening to this episode right now , to all business owners , especially coaches and professionals go and get your professional photos taken , because that's what Quagio had for me on his new website , which you didn't have before , because it helps a lot with presenting yourself as a

you know , like a professional coach . Go and do that , because that's super important for your website . It was such a pleasure to work with you and Rick . Just give a quick shout out to Rick for , you know , putting his trust in me and and hiring me to do this website and for introducing me to Quagio .

This was actually a very fun project to do , quagio , because you kind of given me the creative freedom to do what I thought would be the best possible approach and a presentation for website , and I would just say that the collaboration was very easy .

It was a fun project to work on and I say Kwejo , this project your website is probably one of the easiest projects I've done in the past , in recent memory , primarily because you already had everything in place before I went in .

It was we weren't building anything from the ground up , so we had something that was already there and you just wanted someone to kind of take it and give it a makeover , overhaul everything and make it more overhaul .

people when they try to outsource their project is because mainly of the time difference , and I would say so because I'm in the Philippines . I'm 12 hours , 12 to 13 hours ahead of the US Eastern time , so that's a lot of time to cover .

But , you know , I'd like to say that the Philippines is the number one destination for outsourcing , so it's one of the biggest industry that drives the economy is a lot of US companies , north American companies and , to some extent , european companies come to the Philippines to outsource and operate over here .

So the time difference is actually not , you know , really a problem for us , like I and this honey , because a lot of clients really , you know , are surprised and when I say that I work well , into the early hours of the morning and I'm so used to that doing that , you know , for the past 15 years .

I start working at 9 pm the evening and get off work at about five six in the morning , which is definitely your natural for me , and that's true for a lot of Filipinos in my country , so definitely not a problem with the time difference .

And then , whenever you needed something from me , like you sent me . Like I said in the last episode , you sent me emails with like bullet points like why do I need you to decide this , this , this and this ? And then here's a link to watch and then I will click on the link .

I would be able to watch , like what exactly you needed me to make a decision on , so that I could understand what it was you were writing to , Like it . Just , it worked really well working with you . I don't think the time difference well , full disclosure .

Like the rest of my team , other than two Canadians that I contract with , they're in the Philippines , but still , even if I wasn't used to working with somebody in the Philippines , I don't think the time difference was even a thing , because so many things like you need to do on your own time anyway , and it's like I would wake up in the morning and there

would be an email from you , and so I would just respond to it , and then we kind of worked asynchronously . That's the magical word .

You know there's just got to be a scheduling conflict here and there , and you know just the ability to adapt and make it as seamless and frictionless as possible for the client , I guess , is what really makes us stand out .

Apart from being , you know , doing a website , designing your website , we also have to be a project manager , because we do understand that collaboration , especially in the online space , could be quite challenging . And so let me just give a shout out also to your VA , giselle .

She did a terrific job of you know being a liaison connection between you and I , so that really made it my job a whole lot easier to organize and collaborate . You know , because that's the one of the , I'd say , challenging part is you know a lot of the files .

You know the equation , like I need your images or send me a logo or send me a brand kit , so , and you know , with busy people like you it's you know , it could be challenging to really kind of like find time to really do that .

And so having someone like us and you know and this is also true for Rick and his project manager , erica that kind of really just made the whole experience as seamless and enjoyable , is that there was a lot of collaboration and we were leveraging technology . We knew how to use technology to make a project seamless and quick .

We emailed back and forth . We used loom , actually . So I used loom to record my screen to give you feedback on , like , design elements of the new website , and you used what was it ? Vimeo Vimeo okay , I didn't actually know that . Vimeo . Yeah , had a screen recording feature .

With Vimeo it's completely free , no restrictions whatsoever , and that's the reason why I use it , because sometimes when you record your screen , it takes you like 20 , 30 minutes to do it , and that's the big advantage . But I'd say loom will always be my top choice .

Yes , question into the email and that made it go like that was the way for me to make it even more efficient than it already was , but we so we use loom and video to record our screens , and that covers the visual aspect of the website , and clearly Communicating about that made it . It was really easy , actually . And then we use Google Drive .

I think we were working .

I took all of my app website asset and put those in a Google Drive folder that you had access to , and then we had a Shared Google doc , right , and I think you had organized that doc by like each individual website page , and then there were questions in there about things that you needed and I just kind of answered those questions and it was super organized .

And then I used Canva just to kind of right Re-re-edit , reposition , whatever you want to call it . I use canva to edit some of my images before sending them over to you . Speaking of all this , what would you say are the best practices , like for clear email communication ? Can you give me like an example without naming names ?

Can you give me an example of , like , poor email communication and then how you do the email communication so well , because I feel like the listener would benefit from you just breaking down how you made those emails to me so clear and so effective , so bad example , and then how you do yours right .

In our case , you know , we were leveraging , really video recording and email to kind of that , just to go back and forth . Now here's the problem with email . So ideally we use a project manager for organizing tasks and deliverables and track the status of projects and then in some cases with like with the equation we were

a leveraging . Enough probably with email is it's easy for information to get buried from all those . You know it changes every now and then . So what I would do that's what we did with for us Quajote is we sent out separate emails for different topics . So if we were talking about design , it was one email . We were talking about copy , it was another email .

If we were talking about the back end of technology was another email . That way it's easier for us to go through . Oh , what did Archie say last week ? That's one thing . That's a very , very effective way to Segregate and categorize the exchange of information .

The other thing is and Again , this is what I learned way back when I was just starting out in this industry . And shout out to that business coach that , stephanie , I worked with her for nine , ten years early in my career and she really was the first person who really taught me how to Work with people . You know like tone .

You always have to be professional , you have to be polite all the time , but I would say the one thing that really really has helped me in my career Is that brevity is the name of the game . Huh , yeah , when you're exchanging information , you don't want to send out three , four paragraphs of information , right ? You want to be as concise as possible .

You want to be as short and direct , as straightforward as possible , and then you want to organize that information into bullet points . So , if you remember equation , that's how I share Information with you I try to be as as as concise and short as possible .

It and I Organize it into bullet points because it's easier for for my clients to understand what we're really doing .

You know , as opposed to , like kind of rhyming , a whole paragraph about it and if it does Require me to explain things , that's where the video really comes from , that's where the video recording comes in because , you know , sometimes you can't really explain things with just bullet points , so that's where we record things and then , you know , show exactly what

we're trying to do to explain , especially with with website development and design , which involves a lot of technical aspects . You know we leverage video recording .

I even remember you were showing me what you're considering as you were putting in testimonials and you would just come here and be like okay , in her picture . We need a different one , and I'm gonna . You told me how you were gonna group the , the testimonials in such and such a way .

That would be different from how I did them on my old website , and you were just explaining to me . I liked how , at times , you explained to me the reason behind change and like you were courteous enough to like not just say Kwejo , your previous website looked ugly . But you were like .

You were like , if you take this and you make it like that and this is why I'm gonna make it like this it will present your business better . And da , da , da da .

And you talked about like page load speed and how my website could load more quickly and we won't get into that because we covered that in the previous episode link again in the show notes below .

But the way you used technology was and just the way you communicated was impressive and I would say again , I was used to already communicating with my team , who many of them are in the Philippines , many of them . It's three people .

It's not like I have a 20 person team , but somebody who hasn't yet worked with a VA in the Philippines might be concerned about how communication would happen . Speaking also of concerns , before we go back to the website , I have heard this one often , which is like I start working with somebody and I had a friend who got ghosted .

He'd up front for the project and then the person they were working with just disappeared and like I have heard that , but at the same time , like before you talk about that , the first thing I want to say is is like you are ultra professional and I just trusted you would finish the job before I ever worked with you , because Rick , who is like the founder of

this podcast , who has a very high quality standards for people who he works with , and you have to as a podcast host , because the podcast episode is going to be here forever , you know , and so it's like you have to be careful who you work with , because people two years from now could listen to an episode and take a recommendation based on what you said .

And when Rick told me he worked with you and then I knew that he was working with you on a second project I was like , okay , cool , I'll go with Archie , because I used to work with Rick , right , Right , right . I've been out with him for three years .

Like I've seen him give service providers the proverbial acts , so to speak , and terminate the relationship because they just weren't doing up to par work . And I actually asked him about you before I decided to work with you .

But yeah , what's the way let's say somebody's working with you or somebody else , like what's the way to work out let's call it payment or something like that . Like how do you work out payments with your clients in such a way that there's mutual trust on both sides and the client is at ease with the project and how it's going along ?

you . I always tell my our clients that one of also the main advantages of working with us is how flexible we are with the way we conduct . You know money , but you know with finances and pricing and all of that . There's all too often .

We've always heard of these horror stories where you pay someone , all of a sudden they don't show up or they kind of give you like a happy , problematic website and there's no way to reach out to them and find them , especially because they're located halfway across the world .

And so we try to nurture a sense of trust with the client , and one thing that we do for that is we try to be flexible with the way we conduct business with them . And so typically what we do is for , like , large projects , we do like 50% upfront and it kind of like work out the scheduling milestone where we have deliverables .

We are very clear with you know scheduling , you know what's supposed to be delivered on this certain date . What am I supposed to deliver . What am I doing so far ? Try to be as transparent as possible , especially with our communication , because that nurtures a sense of trust , because , you know , at the end of the day , working online is a matter of trust .

We don't really know each other and where we're physically not within the same location .

So it's all about trust and we do that again , you know , by being very flexible and trying to accommodate the client as possible , because it's always a challenge , especially for us , queijo , like we're in the Philippines right , and so a lot of people are not really familiar with how it is working with someone , you know , that's from Asia , with a different culture

, background , with a different time zone . It's always a challenge and that's what we do . We try to be as accommodating , as flexible as possible , especially with pricing , for typically , you know , for smaller projects , typically the client , especially if they're referrals , they just pay everything upfront .

But for larger projects , like Rick and yours , we do that , you know , scheduling type of thing that we're , you know , 30 , 50% paid upfront , just so that we establish kind of like an agreement between us and then we also have a contract and then we are very clear with our scheduling and deliverables and timeline .

And so far it's been a very positive experience for us and I'm happy and I guess that's also one of the reasons why we've survived for 15 years is because we stuck to that principle , that because otherwise you could only just be dishonest , for , you know , if you don't do your job well , you're not going to get a lot of business and eventually you're going to

go out of business and no one's going to refer to you . So I'm just happy and blessed that . You know , this worked out for us and I've met wonderful people . A lot of the people that I've worked with in the past have become my friends I'd say a lot of with . I probably would have more friends outside of the country than inside a country .

You know , and that's the kicker in that a lot of the clients that I've reworked I worked with have become my friends and I look forward to like I look forward to seeing you , meeting you someday in the near future and break . I will get over there , yeah .

By the way , the next time that you're going to be on this episode will be talking about some of the mindset like roadblocks that people have , including one that I had , which is I was like I wanted to do it myself and I wanted to use Squarespace . And even when we first started working , I was like Archie , can you just design it on Squarespace ?

And I know there's other online course creators , membership owners , coaches there , who who are on Wix or Squarespace or even just a Kajavi website , and maybe they're scared about working with WordPress . They think WordPress is super complicated and crazy , like I did . So we're going to talk about that in another episode .

But if somebody's willing , like right now , to work with you , to have like to upgrade their brand , so to speak , on their website , what would be the next steps ? Great .

We do WordPress maintenance , we do hosting and all other tech issues that you may have right now . We work with all technology and when you do book that meeting with us , don't forget to mention that you found us .

You've heard about us through the art of online business podcast with Clayjo , because we may have some bonus for you as a thank you hook Cool cool .

Until the next time you see me or hear from me , be blessed , take care and goodbye .