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 | Affiliate, Joint Ventures, Social Media/Networking
A few days ago, I mentioned how important having a "mastermind group" is in learning internet marketing. It's one of the best ways to get quick feedback on the flaws in your marketing, and what opportunities you may have overlooked. I promised to share more about how to build a mastermind group in my next...
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A few weeks ago, I posted an article about the difference between internet marketing knowledge and skill. Today, I'll follow up with a few thoughts about how to develop both the knowledge and the skill.
1. Get The Big Picture
When most people first jump into internet marketing, they're like the proverbial blind men trying...
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All the information in the world won't do you a lick of good if you don't develop the skill needed to apply it successfully.
Many people who spend a small fortune on internet marketing training products fail. Then they turn around and claim that the methods the gurus are teaching don't work.
The gurus and...
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About a week ago, I posted some thoughts about how to sell differently to hot vs. cold traffic (and everything in between). If you haven't read that post, I recommend reading it now, because I won't be repeating some important points I wrote about there. At the end of that post, I promised to finish...
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This may be old news to some of you, but it was new to me yesterday, so I thought I'd share for anyone else who may have missed it -- you can download a free PDF copy of Mark Joyner's best selling book, "The Irresistible Offer". (Opt-in required. That's not an affiliate link.)
The book...
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The other day, I read where someone had commented that PPC traffic is cold traffic, and you need to sell to it differently than you would to, say, a warm mailing list. (I wish I remembered where I heard that, because I'd love to credit someone for sparking some big ideas.)
While waiting for my...
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Ryan Lee just posted an email from his merchant account provider describing the rules they've put in place in response to the new requirements from VISA and MasterCard. (As far as I know, some of these rules are NOT mandated by VISA and MasterCard, but by his merchant account provider.)
Personally, I think most of...
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A few weeks ago, Michel Fortin posted two predictions for the internet in 2010. The first was that "internet marketing will grow up":
Yes, the indusÂtry is going through a major shakeup.
(As an examÂple, our recent major announceÂment explainÂing the drasÂtic change in the way we teach InterÂnet marÂketÂing is a reflecÂtion, and the...
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by Antone Roundy | Product Reviews, Social Media/Networking, Viral
[Update: Check the comments -- there's a reasonable explanation after all.] Mike Filsaime's new Twitter/Facebook client app has generated a lot of buzz the last few days. For the most part, it looks like a great idea and a useful app (I've noted some of the problems with the beta version in my previous post...
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by Antone Roundy | Product Reviews, Social Media/Networking, Viral, Web Feeds
What's the best way to keep up with your Twitter friends? You've got 3 options:
On the Twitter website
In an RSS feed reader
Using a dedicated Twitter client
On the Twitter website
There's a reason why so many Twitter clients have been created. I'm not saying the Twitter website is horrible, but it's n...
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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.)
