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've talked before about how some Twitterers follow way too many people. Some do it innocently, feeling obliged to follow anyone who follows them, and others with less noble intentions.
"Fail Whale, meet Fauxlow Fowl"
The problem is that by the time you're following maybe 100 people (much sooner if many of them tweet actively)...
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WebProNews posted some interesting information from a report by MailerMailer about how to get your emails opened and links in them clicked on. Their post focused on the subject line words that get emails opened, but what I found most interesting were the graphics showing open and click rates based on how personalization is used....
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I've been listening to the Stomper Net DVDs. They've got a TON of information packed into them. Honestly though, I wonder whether it's too much of a good thing.
Don't get me wrong -- these guys know their stuff, and if you want to be an SEO Grand Master, their course if for you. But...
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I just finished writing a new free report on the problems facing link exchanges, and how they need to evolve to remain relevant as SEO tools.
If link trading is part of your SEO arsenal, you'll learn how to avoid shooting yourself in the foot by doing it the wrong way.
If you've avoided link...
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Today, Russell Brunson is launching his "Micro-Continuity" training, which teaches how to get a mini-membership site up and running in under 24 hours, and making an INCREDIBLE offer unlike anything I've ever seen before.
He'll send you a free MP3 player (just pay $9.97 for shipping and handling if you're in the US), pre-loaded with...
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The two standard pricing models for continuity programs (things like membership sites where you re-bill customers every week, month, year, etc.) are a cheap or free first month followed by the regular price forever, and just charging the regular price from the beginning. Russell Brunson's presentation on Microcontinuity got me thinking about possible alternatives.
The...
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Is all search engine optimization black (or at best gray) hat, or is it possible to intentionally boost a webpage's search engine ranking without compromising your ethics? Consider this:
Unless your webpage is really so great that it deserves to own the #1 spot in the search results, one could argue that any attempt to...
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Conventional SEO wisdom states that you want to get as many inbound links as possible, and avoid outbound linking. The theory is that outbound links "bleed PageRank" which lowers your position in the search engines.
But is the theory accurate?
Not according to Google's Matt Cutts. A few days ago, he posted an article on...
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That's what I did. I know, it sounds like a crazy idea, but bear with me. There's method to my madness.
One of the big problems with link trades is that your link usually gets stuffed into what I call a "caveman" links page -- a page stuffed to overflowing with totally unrelated links.
Since...
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Displaying other people's RSS feeds on your website (a.k.a. "syndicating") is an easy way to get an automated stream of fresh content for your site. But is it ethical? There are actually two ethical questions involved:
1) Are you "injuring" the publisher of the content?
2) Are you "injuring" third parties?
(Required disclaimer: I'm not...
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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
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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.)
