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.
You've heard the argument before: "Facebook is the biggest site on the internet. They get 70 gajillion hits a day. If you're not marketing on Facebook, you're missing out on the biggest traffic opportunity on the internet."
You'll hear the same thing about YouTube -- it's the third biggest site on the internet. Therefore, only...
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Last July, I posted an article, inspired by Seth Godin, entitled Do Only Cheaters Prosper? Something one of my Twitter followers, Robert Medak, wrote recently brought the question back to mind yesterday. He said:
Treating customers ethically and honestly is good for your bottom line, customer retention, and word of mouth advertising.
What you are...
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The verdict is in on auto-DMs -- those direct messages you receive shortly after following somebody on Twitter. The judge and jury agree: everybody hates 'em. Some people unfollow anyone who sends one. Don't use 'em.
But wait...breaking news! The decision has been overturned on appeal!
That is, if you know how to write an...
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If marketing had 10 commandments, one of them would be "thou shalt know thy customer".
It's not difficult to get a general idea of why this is important. For example, you have to know your customer to know what kind of sales pitch will appeal to them. If your product has two benefits, and most...
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I was thinking today that I'd like to do something for my subscribers -- something to benefit you, and to build some relationships. Those are themes that keep popping up in different ways in a lot of the things I'm doing and reading recently: do a favor, work together, build relationships.
Nice ideals. But without...
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Amazon.com is running an ad on TV where they brag about all their innovations. And they deserve to brag. Heck, I'll brag for them. My dad bought me a Kindle for Christmas nearly two years ago, and it's the one present I've used every single day since getting it. Awesome innovation.
Another thing they brag...
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You've seen the ads offering to sell you 10,000 followers on Twitter. How valuable do you think it would be to have 10,000 followers?
If all 10,000 were actually listening to what you have to say, it'd be worth a fortune! But how many really are? Somewhere in the neighborhood of none? Probably. At least...
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You've heard a million times that you can increase your profits by asking customers the equivalent of McDonald's' "Would you like fries with that?" But what should your upsell be, and how should you price and pitch it?
Terry Dean offered some good advice on the subject today:
A pre-purchase upsell is when you mentio...
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Ever since I stopped working for "The Man", back before the turn of the century (does that make me sound old or experienced? :-), I've been working from home.
While I was single, it was easy enough. But marriage and children have made it a bit more challenging. For example, at this very moment, my...
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For the next 5 days, you can download a free copy of my new Kindle book, "Riffs on a Purple Cow: a Collection of Articles Inspired by Seth Godin" from Amazon.com. If you don't have a Kindle, get a free Kindle reader app for your computer, tablet, or smartphone here.
If you've been reading this...
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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
Join a Blogging Team
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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.)
