About Me - Tony Herman - Website Design, WI

First, About this Website

With this website and blog, I cover whatever topics I’m interested in. I’m not trying to have the best website on only closely-related topics, which is why you’ll find a wide range of topics discussed – from cleaning an air mattress to canonical tags. This is my show, basically, so I’ll write about whatever I want.

Some of the content here is mainly for my reference. If I can’t find an answer to something, I’ll write a post about it so I can find it later. If it helps other people in the process, then great – that is what I want. There are certain bits of code I need from time to time, tools I need, or other bits of data, and I use this website as a source for myself. I figure maybe it can help other people, too. If I can run a few ads or make a couple bucks in the process for the work I put in, then great.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming…

OK, So… There’s Me

Me? Well, I live in Wisconsin (which is great – brats, cheese, beer, Packers and great people). Since I’ve been 29, I’ve owned businesses. I like to be outside if I can but I also like working on my computer, being creative there. In the summer, I’m outside on my bike, in my kayak, going camping, going to games (Badgers, Packers, Brewers), and hanging out with friends. In the winter, I teach skiing to people and I end up doing a lot of skiing myself. It’s fun to teach people things.

I’m an NFL Team Owner – you’d think that there wouldn’t be too many people who could say that but in Wisconsin it’s pretty common since the Green Bay Packers are publicly owned. The state is full of NFL Team Owners, which makes Wisconsin pretty unique.

School / Awards / Certifications

University of Wisconsin – Madison: BA in Communication Arts (Radio/TV/Film Emphasis) (1995)
Associate of the Year Award – Full Compass Systems (1997)
Time Magazine Person of the Year (2006)
PSIA Member (2006 – Present)
PSIA Level 1 Ski Instructor Certification (2008)
PSIA Level 2 Ski Instructor Certification (2015)
PSIA Children’s Specialist 1 Accreditation (2017)
NASTAR Men’s Bronze 45-49 Medalist (2017)
PSIA Adaptive (Cognitive/Visually Impaired) Level 1 Certification (2020)
Lurn Student of the Week (2020)
CEN-Adaptive Level 1: Cognitive Disabilities/Visual Impairments (2020)
Navaquest – Onboarding and Sales Playbook (2023)
Teaching Families and Groups E-Learning Course (2024)
M.A. over Coffee-Alpine (2025)
Alpine Skiing Fundamentals Course (2026)
Alpine Movement Analysis Course (2026)

I Might Be at the Track

I’ve enjoyed taking my car to the track and learning how to take turns and skillfully drive a track. Here are some of the cars I’ve owned and taken to the track:

I’ve done autocross on tracks and parking lots, no wheel-to-wheel (I’m not made of money). It’s fun and challenging. You learn your car, how to drive a good line, and it’s fun hanging out with the people there, talking about cars.

What I’ve learned is you definitely need racing brakes on the front in order to do a track. Get the larger discs, calipers, pads and stainless brake lines (if the car is heavy) because that brake fluid boils. You’ll be able to brake later into turns and it just feels a lot better. You’ll shave seconds off your lap time with better brakes. Parts run about $1400 + labor but it’s worth it. After that, go for performance upgrades, suspension, and always have good tires, of course.

I drove a Lamborghini Superleggera 750 out in Las Vegas for my 40th birthday with my brother:

And Then I Travel

I have a team in India that works for me (they’re great).

I can either get there via Frankfurt, Germany or else going west, which can be through Taipei, Taiwan or Tokyo, Japan or Singapore (I love Singapore). I’ve been to the Bahamas, too. I have more continents to explore!

I Thrive on Creativity

I’m also a drummer (highly intelligent?). I played in my church band for years and led the group a few years. I’ve also learned a little piano and guitar. I’ve done video production as well (that’s what I went to school for). I play in a basement band now – we just jam and play covers (see below).

I love photography, too (yeah, everyone kind of does now). I can also do some graphic design but most of all, I know what looks good – I have the “eye” you could say.

I Might Be in a Fictitious (or Real) Band or Two

It nice to join jam sessions with friends even though I’m just a “so-so” drummer. Or, I make up album covers like this for fake bands.

Or maybe a basement band I’m in:

And I’m Technical (Code for “Super Geeky”)

I learned to computer program when I was 12 years old – in Basic and Extended Basic. It was on a Texas Instruments computer (the TI-99/4A) and it had 16 kb of memory – that’s less than most images you see on websites (memory was WAY expensive back then). I used to write programs so large, they couldn’t run. Storage was cassette tapes (not disks or memory sticks).

My parents bought the computer with some money that was left for us when my grandpa passed away. I think it was a good investment because I learned a lot and it shaped who I am today.

I’ve also learned HTML, JS, Perl, MySQL, CSS, some PHP, some Swift and I’ve done Linux Admin. My first HTML editor was Navipress… which is something I’m sure not many people are familiar with. My first web browser was Mosaic, and then Netscape, which became Firefox. Even before that was Gopher (pre-cursor to the Web) and Veronica (a search engine… first one?).

I published my first website back in 1994 when the World Wide Web was just created – an AOL site. It was called “The Background Deli” where I had cool backgrounds and textures I collected and created – since having cool background images was all the rage back then. I could have had one of the first 10,000 websites on the web maybe.

My first email address was at CompuServe, then at my college I had a wisc.edu account. I used to connect with a 1200 baud modem. I’m ancient.

The web was nothing back then but I was there. I feel fortunate to be alive during that time, seeing computers and the Internet rising up. Check out one of my first websites from the 90s that’s still up for some, odd reason.

Health

I’m alright. I do have an article about the tumor I had, where I was going blind and would have been blind at this point. I did a post about it just to help people know they should get checked out if strange things are happening. They might not be just “getting older” kind of stuff. My vision came back, thank God. I’m very happy for that, and like others who have gone through something wild, I’ve learned to appreciate things more, and I’ve learned to give people more grace. You never know what someone is going through.

Internet Marketing and SEO is Fun for Me

Solving puzzles is something fun for me. When it also involves marketing, the Internet, business and computers… I’m totally there. I’ve had some good success and I own 100 or more domain names still. I’m always experimenting and trying SEO stuff.

My first real success online was I think back in 2007 with a store I set up that had Amazon products on it. It was the “perfect storm” for affiliate marketing because I had it on a domain that had good age and traffic, I was one of the first people to use that software and have a website like that and it was a month and a half before Christmas. I was earning commissions of $125 per day for 30 or more days and I got a check for $4,500 from Amazon that month! That site died down but it was fun while it lasted and it got me hooked.

I then started working on Internet Marketing more. I took a course called “The Keyword Academy” which was great. I met some great people and I was able to put in the work and I made some websites that sold for a lot of money. I still have websites that get good traffic and bring in some extra income, which is nice. I’m working on it more and my goal is to make this website another top earning website by providing great content. I do like writing and I’ve learned a lot, so I hope I can help people.

God and The Bible

I’m really into reading the Bible and growing closer to God. I’ve learned so much these last, few years. It’s really interesting to me.

Growing up, I had a youth pastor who really steered myself and others in the wrong direction where I ended up in a cycle of guilt. I finally broke free of that a little while ago, and I’ve written more about how I found salvation. This really corrects the wrong things I was taught, and I pray it helps others.

I Love Skiing!

Colorado is just… awesome. Even skiing is Wisconsin, Minnesota and U.P. (with da Yoopers up dere, you know… ya) is so great. Some days are just absolutely beautiful:

Really, my favorite place to ski is anywhere there’s snow!

With skiing, you meet some really great people. I have a whole group of friends now from skiing and I found that when you go to new places and meet people, they’re all really great. I used to hate winter and now I love it and can’t wait for it. Yes, it’s cold but if you dress right, it’s not really a problem.

I just can’t believe people sit inside and watch TV all winter when they could be outside enjoying a beautiful world. Get out there and enjoy it!

I also snowboard from time to time when the snow is soft. It’s another, great way to get down a run. The thing I like when I snowboard is that it brings me back to being a beginner skier because it’s something that’s still fairly new to me. I can make it down a blue run (in the Midwest) and I can ride switch. People aren’t used to seeing me on a snowboard, so I like the reactions I get when they see me.

I love ski instructing. It’s definitely a passion of mine. It’s just a great sport to be able to teach. It’s a combination of anatomy, physics, and art/style. Combine all that, put it on snow (in nature) and you get FUN!

How you do know if someone is a ski instructor? They’ll tell YOU. 🙂

Yeah.

I’m pretty laid back. I’m happy with life and try to enjoy things and be the best that I can. I’m blessed with what I have and what I’ve accomplished. I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others and helping people. Life is too short to just sit there.

-Anthony C. Herman, BA

Find out more at PowDrift LLC.

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