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.
Way back in the last millenium, I took a high school debate class. One of our assignments was to perform a "dramatic interpretation".
I had a week or two to prepare. I skimmed through a file of short stories, but didn't find anything I liked. So I decided to write my own.
To make a...
[read more]
by Antone Roundy | Blogging, Podcast, Product Reviews, Social Media/Networking
David Frey asked his Twitter followers a question this morning:
QUESTION: I'm building a new blog. Should I use a commenting system like Disqus or Facebook comments? What say you?
I'd been thinking of blogging on the subject, so I guess today's the day.
I, for one, don't like third party comment systems, for a...
[read more]
A few days ago, I shared a checklist for creating a marketing story that hooks readers and holds them long enough for you to show the benefits of your product. The first two points were that your story should be unique and interesting.
Today, Troy White posted an article over at The Makepeace Total Package...
[read more]
Yesterday, I posted a list of 12 blogs I follow and why I read and recommend them. The authors of 3 of them posted comments. If I were a "bootstrap guru" (someone who takes a small success, blows it out of proportion, sells it as a money-making system, and uses those sales as proof of...
[read more]
I've never had a blogroll on my site because a simple list of blogs with no explanation doesn't seem very useful to me. In the early days of blogging, when visitors were looking for more blogs to read, a blogroll may have made sense. These days, with millions of blogs to choose from an any...
[read more]
As a marketer, whether affiliate or merchant, one of your challenges to is to choose the right products to promote. A few obvious things to look at when considering a product include:
Is the product any good? Is it worth the price?
Is it targeted at your audience?
How much commission does each sale pay...
[read more]
Last month, Leigh Peele posted 11 Tips For Writing A 15 Minute Article over at Yaro Starak's blog. I usually spend more than 15 minutes on my blog posts. But the tips are useful whether you spend two minutes or two hours per post.
Today, I'd like to share my thoughts on a few of...
[read more]
Internet marketing gurus claim that anyone can make a fortune online following some system or other. And it may even be true. But that doesn't mean internet marketing is right for everybody.
Lots of people get started in internet marketing hoping to make a quick and easy fortune. They're lead to believe that they can...
[read more]
We chased our pleasures here
Dug our treasures there
But can you still recall
The time we cried
Break on through to the other side!
Yesterday, I talked about the importance of choosing a marketing niche that you enjoy to help you keep moving forward when the going gets tough. But even that isn't always...
[read more]
The first concrete step in internet marketing is choosing your niche -- choosing what market you're going to serve. Until you've done that, you can't choose a relevant domain name and create a website. You also can't decide which products promote or develop.
Since profit potential varies widely from niche to niche, it's worth spending...
[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.)
