Antone is the creator of White Hat Crew, and the owner of Gecko Tribe, LLC. He's an internet marketer, blogger, and programmer.
Unlike some people who know what they want to do by the time they’re out of diapers, my path to internet marketing has taken a few twists and turns.
I don’t recall what I might have wanted to do early on, but by the time I graduated from high school, my interests were mostly in writing and music. I entered college as an English major.
After a year of college, I took two years off, which I spent in Japan. By the time I returned to school, I was thinking more practically (which may or may not be a good thing!), and registered as a math major.
Math is one of my strengths, but it didn’t take long to realize that math majors spend 99% of their time studying mathematical abstractions rather than the interesting real-world math I’d studied up till that point (hey, it was interesting to me!) And they take very few classes that deal with history, philosophy, the arts, etc.
Next, I considered majoring in business. I soon decided that marketing was the only area of business that wouldn’t bore me to tears. But before I could switch majors, I switched schools and ended up as a Japanese major instead.
I considered double majoring in Japanese and marketing, but eventually decided it would be better to graduate in whatever major I could complete most quickly. Japanese beat out marketing by one semester.
After graduation, I worked for a few years in the Japanese department of Claris, a subsidiary of Apple Computer, first as a software test engineer, and then as a programmer.
The 3 1/2 years I spent there were good, but then in 1998, it was time for a change. Aside from a few short stints as a contractor, I’ve been working independently ever since.
Today, I’d describe myself professionally as a programmer, internet marketer, and blogger.
Personally, I’m a husband, married since 2002, and father of three.
Some people may be born to be entrepreneurs, but even they have to be made.
My dad was an entrepreneur. He got his PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford, discovered a new way to measure the output of lasers, created a company, and (after many years of struggling, during which we kids thought McDonalds wa...
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by Antone Roundy | Blogging, Copywriting, SEO
The other day over at BoostCTR, Ryan Healy wrote about a change to Google's search results format that's been bugging me:
If you look closely, you'll notice that the URL is now appearing under the title instead of underneath the body copy.
...
Is the title even more important than before "” because the URL...
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This post is about marketing -- not religion -- but the Bible sure put it well.
Something Seth Godin posted today got me thinking:
The naive farmer farms as his parents, grandparents and great grandparents did. She plants, hopes and harvests...
The professional farmer measures. She tests. She understands how systems work and is constantly...
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I have a question for you (I'd appreciate it if you'd take a few seconds to drop by an leave your answer in the comments): do you read the comments on blogs? Do you only read them when you're considering posting a comment yourself? If you've left a comment, do you go back to engage...
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Google+ has gotten me thinking about ways to control the signal-to-noise ratio on social networks. I've got a few more suggestions for them.
The term "signal-to-noise ratio", for anyone not familiar with it, refers, for example, to how much of the sound coming out of your stereo speakers is music (signal) vs. how much of...
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Yesterday, I finally got an invite to Google+ (I'd been waiting all of a few days -- it was horrible!) So far, I like it. But there's one feature I'd really like to see added. I'll call it "Spheres".
First, in case you've been purposely ignoring everything that's been written about Google+ so far, let...
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Outside of ornithologists, most people would probably agree: angel = good, vulture = bad. So it makes sense that you'd want to market more like an angel and less like a vulture. Right?
As I read a recent post by John Carlton today, it occurred to me that the line separating marketing angels from marketing...
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A common problem with internet marketers is that they jump from trend to trend, gimmick to gimmick, loophole to loophole, always hoping that this time, it'll be their turn to hit the jackpot.
Just like the lottery, it's true that people do win. But the odds are probably about as good, er, bad.
I once...
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by Antone Roundy | Product Creation, Social Media/Networking
You've heard the advice: "add a social component", "build a community", "make it interactive". So would it surprise you to hear that a major player in social networking succeeded by moving to a single player model?
Yesterday, Gabe Zichermann posted this over at Mashable:
The first incarnation of the location-based networking field was littered with...
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I saw a stat today that suggests Google Chrome's market share may pass Firefox by October. A quote from the report got me thinking:
There is also a new innovation initiative to bring back a perception of a browser that not only copies features Chrome is pioneering, but lives a culture that delivers unique new...
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Split Test Content, Exit Intent Popups, Hover Stripes, Seasonal Ad Rotation, and much more.
TriggerNote is an Interaction Engine for your website. Use pre-configured "Recipes" to create exit hover ads, exit interstitial ads, etc. Or mix and match your own combinations of over 20 Triggers and Actions to make your website respond to visitor actions, grabbing attention, and customizing on the fly to speak to each unique visitor.
Hi.
I'm Antone Roundy.
I'm a strong believer in ethics, and have always tried to practice and promote ethical behavior in an industry where many slip over to the dark side.
At White Hat Crew, I'll share insights into internet marketing, with extra emphasis on ethical issues.
Read my Internet Marketing Ethics Manifesto
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New to this blog? Start Here
Riffs on a Purple Cow is a Kindle eBook containing collection of articles I wrote, inspired by Seth Godin. Download your copy from Amazon.com.
It's also a demonstration of the blogging and business method outlined in my eBook, "How to Build and Operate an SEO Content Factory", which you can download for free in either of these formats:
PDF | Mobipocket (Kindle, etc.)
