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.
by Antone Roundy | Advertising, Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Podcast, Premium Content
Whether you're a multinational corporation or a hobbyist making a few dollars off your blog, your brand -- the name, logo, slogan, etc. that identifies you -- can make a big difference in your current profits and future possibilities.
A recent Mashable article quotes Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at New York University, saying:...
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by Antone Roundy | Blogging, Link Building, Product Reviews, SEO, Social Media/Networking, Traffic Building
Dan Thies and Leslie Rohde are launching Link Liberation 2.0 today. It looks like a great product, but the price tag is going to be hard for a lot of people to swallow. Scratch that. It's going to be impossible. Fortunately, you have an alternative.
Link Liberation is a combination of SEO/link building training and...
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by Antone Roundy | Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Premium Content
I usually wait to write my blog posts till the day they're published. But the subject matter for this one has me motivated, so I'm writing it Saturday, and scheduling it for Monday.
But before you praise me for beating procrastination, I should point out that I've been putting off two important tasks for about...
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With all the millions of blogs in the world, how do you get people to subscribe to yours? Over at Copyblogger, Carol Tice offered this answer:
Every writer has a secret weapon only they can use. Know what it is?
...
There is only one you.
...
Only you have your memories, experiences, ideas, and...
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by Antone Roundy | Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Product Creation
Ray Edwards is at it again, posting assertions that I just can't leave without comment:
Realistic is not where the money is.
Realistic does not change the world; it does not shake up the status quo; realistic does not create legacy.
Ray's right, of course. But the thought needs to be expanded on a little....
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Have you ever heard the fable of the blind guru? I don't know how you could have missed it. It's been bouncing around for at least 5...um, minutes...in my head.
Here's how it goes:
Once upon a time, there was a blind man in a small village.
One morning, he walked out his front door,...
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Last week, Ray Edwards posted an interesting assertion about truth in marketing -- I'm trying to decide whether to find it disturbing:
Myths are stories that teach us something about our best selves, that inspire us to reach for something better, or that caution us against grave error.
...
Marketing, in its pure and noble...
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Tomorrow is election day around here. Which party is the most successful at convincing people to vote could determine who's in control of the country for the next few years. Last week, I read a report about techniques used to get people out to vote, and it got me thinking about marketing.
In the run...
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There are two types of messages you can send to your list: "follow-ups" that are sent to each subscriber in a scheduled sequence, and "broadcasts" that go to the entire list at once. Each type has its strengths and weaknesses.
Follow-Up Messages
Follow-ups are ideal for sending a coordinated sequence of messages designed to turn...
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by Antone Roundy | Mailing Lists, Marketing, Podcast, Product Creation, Tracking, Traffic Building
There are four ways to make more money from your website:
Increase the amount of targeted traffic coming to your site.
Convert more of your traffic to paying customers.
Increase your revenue per paying customer.
Decrease your costs.
Let's work through the list backwards.
Decrease your costs
In some ways, this is the least i...
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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
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.)
