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.
I saw an article at Daily Blog Tips today that made me laugh. It was all about how to keep motivated to post to your blog.
To build a successful blog, you need motivation.
Motivation comes easy when you're making lots of money from your blog.
When you're making very little or no money however,...
[read more]
by Antone Roundy | Affiliate, Entrepreneurship, Joint Ventures
I've been thinking a lot about collaboration between internet marketers recently. My impression is that most of us don't do nearly enough.
To learn more about how internet marketers do and don't collaborate, why or why not, and where we could focus attention to improve collaboration, I've put together a short survey.
Take the Survey...
[read more]
A concept you'll hear about periodically in internet marketing is "moving the free line".
As a marketer, you'd like that to mean that you can push the line forward and charge for things you've been giving away for free. But alas, what it really means is that you need to pull the line back and...
[read more]
Today, let's sing the praises of people who deserve praise. Name the best internet marketing product you've ever bought, and tell us what's so great about it.
It could be an info product, a script, a coaching package, a membership, a seminar you attended -- whatever. As long as it made a difference in your...
[read more]
by Antone Roundy | Blogging, Link Building, Social Media/Networking, Traffic Building
You've heard the old philosophical question: "If a blogger posts in The Cloud and no birds are there to Tweet him, does he make a noise?"
Well, it goes something like that.
Bloggers are always looking for ways to make more noise and get more listeners -- more traffic. Blog Riffers was created to help....
[read more]
I'm posting a little late tonight. I spent most of the work-day dealing with furnace problems -- not something that can be ignored in Nebraska at this time of year.
My furnace guy (a.k.a. friend who does furnace work, who I know won't recommend $1,000 in unnecessary repairs) is out of town today, so I...
[read more]
Recent valuations of some big websites have gotten me thinking -- what is a website worth?
A quick look at the valuations for Facebook and Groupon makes me wonder what people are smoking. At $50 billion, Facebook is valued at about 100 times last year's earnings, and at $15 billion, Groupon is estimated to be...
[read more]
If you're interested in getting into the copywriting business, today's interview is for you. Copywriter Ryan Healy recently took time out of his schedule to share his insights and experience on topics like who might enjoy and do well as a copywriter, how to get started in the industry, and more.
You can listen to...
[read more]
by Antone Roundy | Mailing Lists, Monday Question, Social Media/Networking, Traffic Building
There's no shortage to internet markets who'll teach you ways to build traffic, get followers, or build a mailing list. Not as many teach how to build influence. But without influence, traffic and subscribers aren't worth much.
For mass influence, the "A-List" dominates. If you can get "anointed" by them, and don't botch the opportunity,...
[read more]
If you distribute eBooks (whether free or for sale), have you created a Kindle version yet? I haven't. But I'm going to!
If you don't think you need to (or that you can't since you don't have a Kindle), here are a few thoughts for you to chew on.
* A few days ago, I...
[read more]
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
Blog & Tweet Easier
Guest Post
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.)
