The Guy Behind the Domain

I Built My First Web Page in 2000

Back then nobody was calling it "content marketing." We were just trying to figure out how to get people to find us without paying for every click. I've been at it ever since — through every algorithm update, every platform shift, and every get-rich-quick trend that's come and gone.

I'm a disabled veteran. Working online wasn't just a business choice — it was a practical one. As long as I don't have to be on my feet, I can build websites, run campaigns, and grow businesses. Twenty-five years of proving that.

I didn't just read about internet marketing. I studied under Corey Rudl in person — Southern California, around 2003. He handed us a notebook and a pen, and the first thing he made us write on page one was:

"Poor people have big TVs. Rich people have big libraries."

He said if you don't understand that, nothing else he's going to teach you will help. He was right. Corey died too young, but that lesson has stayed with me for over twenty years.

The Fork in the Road

The path almost went a different direction. I loaded my truck with all my photography gear — a Nikon D100, one of the first truly great digital cameras, and a bag full of lenses — and drove to a Quarry Route event. At that point I was genuinely deciding: internet marketing or professional photography. Both were real options.

Someone broke into my truck at the hotel overnight and walked off with over $6,000 in equipment. Decision made. Not the way I would have chosen, but it was made. Photography was out. Internet marketing was the direction going forward.

I still pursue photography — it eventually led me to do all the product photography you see on AirTanksPlus and other sites I run. But the theft at that hotel is the reason I'm an internet marketer and not a photographer. Sometimes the path chooses you.

What I Actually Built

At my peak I was running 375 domains in an AdSense network, generating $3,073/month in passive revenue. I tested everything obsessively — ad colors, placement, page layout. My best single click paid $5 on a mismanaged PPC term.

I built a vacuum sealer empire from a family German sausage recipe — seven domains, a Kindle ebook, a physical product line, and over $1.5 million in ecommerce sales before Amazon decided they didn't need me anymore.

I spotted the Crosman Marauder PCP airgun before Crosman's own PR team understood what they had. Built a forum around it that hit 3,500 unique visitors a day. Used that platform to launch AirTanksPlus.com — a brand with real products I own outright, that no platform can cut me out of.

What Got Me Burned

I've also been taken advantage of — multiple times, by people I trusted. Verbal agreements for equity percentages. Sweat equity with nothing in writing. Building markets for companies that later handed me walking papers.

Every one of those stories is on the Hard Lessons page. I'm not hiding them. They're the most valuable thing I can offer you — because the tuition I paid was real money, real time, and real trust I'll never get back.

What I'm Doing Now

I run AirTanksPlus.com with a business partner. I handle web, email, and ecommerce. He handles assembly and shipping. We're a lean, functional operation selling products under our own brand — no Amazon exclusivity agreements, no handshake deals.

I'm also rebuilding my entire site network the right way — static sites, GitHub, Cloudflare Pages, AI-assisted development. Doing in hours what used to take weeks.

On my 58th birthday I treated myself to a 30-mile ebike ride — around Lake Natoma, up the Johnny Cash trail, out to look at the outside of Folsom Prison, along the dam edge of Folsom Lake, back down through the loop past Shadow Glen horse stable, and home. Then I purchased a Claude subscription, sat down, and spent the rest of the day rebuilding this site from scratch.

Not a bad way to spend a birthday.

We all have a story and a path. This is mine. Stay tuned — I'm not done yet. Like my dad says: don't count me out yet.

The domain name still says exactly what I believe: if you're not trying to dominate your market, why bother?