The Boston Globe and Yahoo Finance columnist had her book debut with the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Penelope’s book, The Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, says the worker of today values time over money.

Penelope’s 45 short essays distill the workplace as it is today. She backs up her contentions by name-checking the likes of Y Combinator’s Paul Graham, who said in her book, "For the most ambitious young people, the corporate ladder is obsolete."

The essence of the experience she conveys in Brazen Careerist holds that the Gen X and Y people out there want to find jobs that fits their lifestyles, and not the way their parents or grandparents worked. It’s wise advice, considering how workers have almost come to being treated as disposable parts.

She discussed some of her life experience, good and bad, leading into the essays. Several interesting items come up in her writing, including the breaking of several workplace myths into little pieces.

For example, job hopping isn’t a resume killer. If it were, companies would be hard-pressed to find people to hire. And office politics has its uses. Being nice to others increases one’s likeability in the workplace, and gives one a political edge.

We’ve talked about people losing jobs or job opportunities due to their profiles on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. Penelope writes that people should worry more about managing their online identities, especially when it comes to the first link in Google pointing to a person’s name.

Penelope’s enjoyable read hits on a number of valuable points for the youthful job seeker. In homage to her pro volleyball playing days, we’d say she spiked it with Brazen Careerist.

Strolling around the SEO corner the last few days has been a surprisingly fruitful experience, especially given the fact that a lot of the items one comes across in the search engine optimization realm is just regurgitation of ideas and concepts that have been thrown around for some time.

I came across this gem by Jill Whalen over at Search Engine Guide. She outlines a lot of the common myths about what the search engines ascribe value to when crawling a site’s code. I especially found her commentary on how optimizers have developed a phobia of using Flash altogether when, in fact, the engines really only have a problem with Flash when it comes to navigation. All in all, the article is a great read and definitely worth checking out.

Then I stumbled upon Rae Hoffman’s scorching disassembly of Merchant Circle, a service that specializes in “reputation management” for businesses looking to improve their search ranking and community perception. Never one to mince words, Rae publicly tears apart the service limb from limb and lets us all in on some of the less-than-reputable ways in which Merchant Circle actually goes about managing a client’s reputation.

Finally, this story at SEOBook caught my attention. Apparently, Yahoo is getting into the business of selling quick links in its search results to its paid inclusion members. For a company that’s just starting to rebound from a disastrous 2006, this could potentially be a nightmare in the making if it comes out that the integrity of search results has been compromised as a result of link sales.

Some of these myths are, perhaps, widely known as such, but as Chitu puts it, “Maybe Google should do a better job at explaining things that may seem trivial to computer experts, but difficult understand for other people.” (And for the record, I by no means consider myself a computer expert.)

The first myth Chitu addresses is the perception that “Google Desktop indexes your files and uploads the index to Google servers.” In response, he writes, “No. Google stores the index on your computer. If you enable a feature called ‘search across computers,’ Google will securely send copies of your indexed files to Google servers. The feature is disabled by default.”

Chitu also writes about the idea that “Google favors Wikipedia, Technorati, blogs.” His answer is “Well, not exactly. These sites happen to have many backlinks, and oftentimes quality links. I know many people that link to Wikipedia to show an explanation for a concept or an acronym, link to Technorati to tag their blog posts or link to blogs because they are infectious.”

Lastly, Chitu confirms, not denies, myth number 10: “Google will take over the world.” He admits that “those who control information, control the world,” and concludes the article by saying, “Hopefully Google will be a benevolent dictator . . . ”

The rest of the Google myths (that Chitu dispels) can be found here, at the Google Operating System Blog. If only to confirm that you’re aware of them, they’re worth a look.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

Myths of blogging

Myth: Blogging isn’t for everyone.
Truth: If you are an expert in your field and have something interesting to say, be it even toothpicks, you can have a blog to write about your experience (both knowledge and real life practice) in your industry. Just be yourself and find your blogging style.

Myth: Blogging is for everyone
Truth: If you don’t have anything to say about your topic, and you can’t be talking for a while (to anyone) about it, you’d rather reconsider your position on being an expert in your field. If you are just shy, overcome this complex or concede to failure.

Myth: Blogs are not suitable for business websites
Truth: You can establish a blog about any topic (see myth number one). If you write honestly about your opinions on the industry, your business, your product/service and your customers, you’ll have a lot to write about and your customers will see who you really are. If you add your personal touch to the blog, so much the better.

Myth: A blog will boost a business in a wink of an eye
Truth: A blog is just another form of presenting information to the site visitors (officially, a blog is just a content management system, a CMS). So, it is not the software that makes a blog a blog, but what you write about. If you follow the truth number three, you will get loyal followers, in time, which should, hopefully, build your client base.

Myth: Blogging is easy
Truth: Writing text day after day is not so easy as it seems. I’d say, the easier it seems, the harder it is – so judge blogging from this point of view.

However, if you are passionate about your subject, are an expert in your industry and love delivering value to your customers, you will be able to write great posts and turn your blog visitors to your friends, followers and customers (as a bonus).

Myth: I can’t blog, because I can’t write
Truth: Every writer couldn’t write before he/she has started writing. Do you want to write? Then write. That simple. For a start, write what interests your customers or look for posts on how to get blogging ideas. You can write about what interests you on your topic later.

Myth: I have to write a lot
Truth: While this is contrary to the myth about easy blogging, you can write several posts a week. If you want, you can stick to a post a week. But you’d rather deliver something absolutely fascinating, interesting, engaging and (maybe) entertaining, so your readers will eagerly wait for another week to learn more from you.

Myth: I can’t be unique with so many blogs on the same topic
Truth: A topic is not makes a blog unique. If you see the recent blogging ideas posts here (as per link above), you’ll notice that we (me and Steve) have some different points of view on the topic. Personal opinions, angles and expertise make you stand out from the rest of the blogs.

Of course, you can also either report views or write informative posts, or mix both, or write about your real life every day work. There are many angles you can write about a single topic.

Myth: I’ll be losing business, if I reveal my advice on a blog (this is for consultants)
Truth: While it is true that people will use your advice from the blog, it takes effort to collect and apply all the expertise from the blog into one’s life. That’s what professionals are for. So in this case, your blog will be filtering those, who can do everything themselves, from your clients.

Then again, providing free advice will get you recognition as an expert, along with traffic and links.

Myth: No one will read my blog
Truth: While it is true that, unless you place a blog on an already established website, you will be getting little visitors, you need to be patient in your progress. If you write interesting posts, link to other resources (including blogs), comment on other blogs (engage in the industry community), you’ll get noticed. Be patient.

If you setup a blog on an already established website (your corporate website, for example), you’ll be simply providing something to read to your regular visitors. You’ll be getting more traffic and links faster, too.

Myth: You have to be controversial to get noticed
Truth: While, sometimes, patting against fur gets you lots of comments and links, you can build relations with your readers in many different ways: entertain them, provide unique, expert information, give them unique information no one else does (such as information on various search engine patents).

Want more blogging myths? Read this:

• Business Blogging Myths (solid advice)
• Top five myths of blogging
• Five more myth about blogging
• Blog myths and facts (humor)

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Yuri Filimonov is a freelance website optimization and usability consultant, who writes about improving websites to gain more visitors,
customers and profit at his blog, http://www.ImproveTheWeb.com.

In fact, if you’ve been contacted by enough of them, and depending on your site, you may have discovered that a number of different points of view have begun to crop up regarding the proper changes that your site “requires”. This article will help to discover the myths and the realities of what these “Website Design Police” have to say. Often, they’re pushing myth more than anything else.

The first issue that the website design police often tell you is that content is the only thing a website requires, and there should never be any animation, sound, Java, or anything else “extra”. It’s true, the content is the most important part of your website, and it is true that the more you add graphics, Java applets, audio elements, and animations, the longer your website will take to load, however, this doesn’t mean that they need to be cut out altogether.

If your website takes too long to load, a number of your visitors won’t stick around to wait. They’ll simply head over to the next site that doesn’t take as long. Therefore, the trick to using additional bells and whistles on your website is knowing how much you can use, while still being appropriate for fast download speeds under reasonable circumstances.

So when are the additional features appropriate to your website design? It all depends on how your actual content will be complimented. What is your site about, and how will extra website design features make it better? For example, if your website is selling website design services – that is, you want people to buy your services to make their sites better – than having content alone isn’t really going to impress anyone. Prospective customers will be looking at your site as an example of the potential of their own websites. If it’s nothing much to look at, they won’t be around very long. This type of site needs a reasonable amount of color, graphics, and other features that will make it very appealing, yet not so much that it takes too long to load.

The next myth that many website design police like to try to tell you about is that your site is only as good as the graphics it has. This is the exact other end of the spectrum from the first myth discussed in this article. There are other people who think that the more color, animations, graphics, sounds, and other features there are on your website, the better it is. However, these aren’t people who have very much real world experience with web design, or are those who have only ever had a T1 or broadband connection and don’t know the frustrations of waiting for a site to load.

This isn’t to say that decorative graphics and animations don’t have any value. Certainly they’re a fine addition to the right webpage. It makes it much more appealing to look at, and may then be easier and more welcoming to read. However, graphics should be used sparingly, and should be as small as they can be without being difficult to make out.

To try to achieve a good balance, there are a few things that you can put into practice:

Break up your text. Spread out your paragraphs and don’t make any paragraphs too big. Put some space between the paragraphs to make the text more pleasant to read.

If you want to have a colored background, try to make it subtle because readability works best on a white background with black text and the more you divert, the more challenging it will be.

As a final point, remember that when you must choose between your content and making your site beautiful, it should be the content that wins out. Sure, you can come to a good balance that will work, but when you do need to debate whether to add graphics or animations where it would sacrifice content, err to the side of content. No matter what your website is for, few people will be there only to admire your graphics. Those who will be motivated to return will do so because of your strong content.

Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic

Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North http://www.15dn.com , where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.

Cisco exams are no exception. Here are three often-repeated myths and exaggerations regarding the CCNA and CCNP exams.

1. The survey you fill out before the exam determines the questions you’ll get. Before you actually start your exam, Cisco presents you with a survey asking how you prepared and how comfortable you feel with certain technologies. It’s a little awkward to rate yourself on Frame Relay, ISDN, etc., especially since the exam you’re about to take covers those subjects. It’s human nature to think that these questions impact your exam, but they do not.

I’ve seen posts on the Net saying that if you rank yourself as “great” in a subject, your exam will have harder questions on that topic, and if you rank yourself lower in that same subject, your exam will be filled with questions on this topic. Cisco has debunked this myth, so get it out of your mind. Don’t think too much when you’re filling out the survey.

2. If you miss a question, the exam keeps asking you about that topic until you get one right. This is known as “adaptive testing”, and Cisco does not use this kind of testing in its exams. Your questions are drawn from a large question pool before you start the test. Those of us who remember adaptive testing from Novell exams years ago don’t particularly miss this kind of testing! (For those who haven’t taken an adaptive exam, you never knew how many questions you were going to get, only that there was a minimum around 15 questions. Your exam could end at any time after that. Nerve-wracking!)

3. If you use an extra command in the simulator questions, it’ll be marked wrong. The Cisco simulator engine in the CCNA and CCNP exams acts just as a router or switch would. You are not going to be penalized for using an extra command. If the engine doesn’t accept a command, you’ll be told that when you use it. Just configure it as you would a router or switch.

When you walk into the exam room totally prepared with a combination of theoretical knowledge, hands-on experience, and configuration troubleshooting skills, you are ready to pass. Don’t let Internet gossip distract you from the task at hand — passing!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of FREE CCNA and CCNP tutorials and daily exam questions, as well as The Ultimate CCNA and CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” or “How To Pass The CCNP”, and for free daily exam question, visit the website and download your copies!

Kill Bill’s Browser brings a couple of mild chuckles out in citing 13 reasons why people should make the switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox. Besides the obvious profit motivation in getting a Google dollar from each Firefox download that starts from a button on the site, Kill Bill’s Browser’s creators cite a laundry list of complaints about IE as a rationale for creating the parody:

The for-profit Mozilla Foundation is preferable to the for-profit Microsoft Corporation, it seems. Firefox is open source, and benefits from the review its source code can get from skilled programmers world wide. How valid are the complaints the Kill Bill’s Browser site makes?

Let’s go down the list. Numbers one and two cites Firefox’s built-in popup blocking. IE has had that since version 6 became available.

Number 3 said computers will get hacked less if users use Firefox, and noted how much of the world’s spam comes from compromised PCs. That’s more of an OS issue, and blame for this more likely falls on Outlook rather than IE, since phishing scams start in email. And if someone willingly downloads a Trojaned program, it doesn’t matter which browser is in place; the PC still gets compromised.

Point 4 gives Bill Gates credit for using his wealth to wage war on childhood diseases, while 5 humorously blames IE lack of rigid standards compatibility as contributing to “hundreds of web designers” leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Number 6 credits Firefox for having a keyboard shortcut in place to adjust font size. Does the typical non-techie web visitor use keyboard shortcuts? Now that would be an interesting study to make. As someone who’s supported hundreds of non-technical PC users, I’d be surprised to see more than 1 in 100 who do.

Seven said switching will make Gates mad. Probably not, if those Firefox downloads end up running on licensed copies of Windows. And 9 gives Mozilla props for making tabbed browsing a Firefox feature; Microsoft won’t match that by default until IE 7 arrives.

Numbers 8 and 10-13 don’t touch on browser features, just general complaints and Microsoft bashing. Kill Bill’s Browser elicits a giggle or two, but the arguments it makes in favor of Firefox just aren’t very compelling.

For the record, I prefer the Opera browser. Firefox versus IE? Meh.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

There’s more marketing hype published on the Internet in one day than P.T. Barnum generated in his lifetime. Like a worm swallowing its tail, the Internet marketing beast feeds mostly on itself. The vast majority of what appears on the Internet about marketing is designed to help you market products and services sold and delivered exclusively on the Internet.

So what does that mean for the independent professional whose web presence is primarily aimed at selling his or her own personal services? You know, services delivered the old-fashioned way, by humans interacting face-to-face or at least voice-to-voice. At best, the average professional is likely to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Internet marketing advice available. At worst, he or she is being seriously misled by it.

The problem is that marketing your own professional services is simply not the same as marketing a retail product or an anonymous business service. You can’t sell corporate consulting like you do web hosting; nor can you sell life coaching the same way you do an e-book. If you try to market yourself by following advice designed for marketing Internet products and services, you’re likely to make some serious mistakes.

Here are five Internet marketing myths that may be hazardous to the health of your business.

Myth #1 – It all starts with a great web site.

Actually, the place where it starts is with a well-defined service. If you don’t have a crystal clear picture of who you are marketing to and exactly what you’re selling them, the best web site in the world won’t get you clients. Before you even think about building a web site, you should know who your target market is, how to describe your professional specialty, and what specific benefits your work provides for your clients.

The content of your site is much more important than the design. Yes, you should have a professional-looking site, but a brilliant design and dazzling graphics won’t pay off anywhere near as well as a clear explanation of why a client should work with you. Useful material such as articles, assessments, and other samples of your expertise will go much further to persuade prospective clients than flash intros and interactive menus.

Myth #2 – More traffic translates to increased profits.

The only result that more traffic to your web site guarantees you is increased bandwidth use by your web host. Before spending money on banner ads, web directories, or pay-per-click listings to drive more visitors to your site, you need to be sure that they’ll want to do business with you once they get there.

Ask your colleagues and current clients to critique your site. Do they understand what you are offering? Can they see concrete benefits to your target audience? Revise your site based on their feedback. Then personally invite some prospective clients to visit and touch base afterward. Do your prospects seem more inclined to do business with you after seeing your site? If so, you’re on the right track. If not, you still have more work to do.

Myth #3 – Do whatever it takes to build your list.

There’s no question that a substantial opt-in mailing list is a valuable marketing asset, but the quality of names on your list is much more important than the quantity. Acquiring names through giveaways of other people’s material, trading lists with joint venture partners, or purchasing them from a vendor rarely provides qualified buyers truly interested in your services.

Absolutely, ask your site visitors and people you meet to join your mailing list and offer them something of value in return. A well-written ezine, helpful report, or informative audio are all effective premiums. But, your premium should be directly related to the services you provide and also serve to increase your professional credibility. Names acquired from promotional gimmicks or unknown sources seldom turn into paying clients.

Myth #4 – Killer copy is the secret to sales.

Hype-laden web copy may be effective in selling certain info-products or courses, but it hardly inspires trust. You’re not going to convince anyone to hire you individually as a consultant, coach, trainer, designer, or financial advisor by offering “not one, not two, but three valuable bonuses” as if you were selling steak knives on late-night TV.

Your Internet marketing persona should reflect the same professionalism as the work you do with your clients. If writing marketing materials isn’t your forte, by all means hire a professional copywriter. But be sure you hire one with experience writing for professionals like yourself. The copy on your web site should inspire feelings of confidence about your abilities, and communicate your reliability and solid qualifications.

Myth #5 – Just follow the winning formula and you will get rich.

There’s only one surefire recipe for Internet wealth I know of, and that’s the business of selling surefire recipes. There seems to be an infinite number of buyers for every new get-rich-on-the-net scheme that is invented, but paradoxically, a precious few people actually making money on the web.

The Internet may be a different medium for marketing professional services than making calls, writing letters, or speaking to people in person, but the same time-honored principles still apply. There is no new winning formula. The secret to landing clients is what it always has been — build relationships and get people to know, like, and trust you.

If your web site, ezine, and other Internet-based activities contribute to building long-term, trusting relationships with prospective clients and referral sources, you’ll get business on the web. But if you blast your message out to anyone who will listen, aiming for a quick profit, the Internet won’t bring you any more business than standing on a street corner with a megaphone.

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at http://www.getclientsnow.com

The Top of the Top SEO Myths:

1. Meta tags are the key to high rankings.

While meta tags are important part of an overall campaign, and helpful in their own wa, description tags and keyword tags, according Jill Whalen, don’t have much affect on your search engine ranking. In fact, as far as keyword tags go, they are largely a waste of time, according to Danny Sullivan, and may even lead to penalties if the keywords in the tags don’t match the content of the webpage.

2. You need to resubmit your site often to achieve high rankings.

As search engines like Google automatically crawl the web for existing sites, chance are there’s no real need to submit anything. But if you’d rather play it safe, most experts agree that once is enough. According to The General Center for Internet Services, submitting more than once could have adverse reactions.

3. Buying multiple domains increases rank, perhaps pushing your site into the top 20.

“This is another method that can get your site barred. While it is good to have your domain name be a search term, you should try to limit your domain name aliases to less than ten,” says Jigsaw. In addition, multiple domains, especially one-page sites that appear to be nothing more than doorway pages, is a bad idea. Subdomains, on the other hand, may be a better idea.

4. SEO firms can guarantee high rankings, even top 10 results.

This is largely regarded as a hard sell tactic and roundly agreed upon that this is a bogus guarantee. Take it from a seemingly honest SEO firm like iTech Developers.
“NO ONE can guarantee you Top Ten results–not even us. We’re not afraid to say it, because it’s the truth.”

5. Links, links, links, and more links. The more the better.

Links certainly don’t hurt, especially inbound links. But there are guidelines, and more isn’t always better.

“The Truth: Outbound links to related and unrelated sites are factored into page rank. Reciprocated links count higher than unreciprocated links. The more quality inbound links to your site, the higher the PR, but nobody knows exactly how Google factors their PR and their algorithm is constantly adjusted. A million links to and from unrelated sites could drop your PR and if your site is found linking to obvious FFA or link farms, your site could be penalized as being ‘guilty by association’,” says Big Oak.

6. Once you’ve achieved a high ranking, your job is done. Don’t fix it if its not broken.

This is a point somewhat debated, but the majority say that continually updating your page is the key to keeping that ultra-important relevance that got you there in the first place.

Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock says,” maintaining a No. 1 position and growing the quality and amount of traffic that is delivered to your site takes constant monitoring and planning. Keep in mind that as your site moves into the No.1 position, you leave unlimited numbers of web sites behind you that are now vying for the position that you hold. If you want to continue to stay ahead of them, you’ll need to continue to work on adding appropriate and optimized content, building incoming, targeted links, and exploring new ways to tweak and update your site so that you can remain in that top position.

It would be nice if this were a game with clear rules. Alas, that’s not the case. When in doubt, the purists will tell you to rely on content.

“So how do you win?” asks Sullivan. “I still fall back on making sure you have some of the best content you can offer, built in search engine friendly manner. Build it — and don’t put up search engine barriers — and for many people the traffic will indeed flow.”

For more a detailed list of search engine ranking factors, check out seomoz, where you’ll find a rather painstaking account of them. Jill Whalen’s list of SEO articles is another good source.

Want to talk about the coolest way to set up your links? Link to WebProWorld to talk about it. Also, for check out Debra Mastaler of Alliance-Link’s Myths and Facts about linking.

The session, moderated by Detlev Johnson, VP and Director of Consulting at Position Technologies, covered a lot of ground. Along with professor Grehan, CEO of Smart Interactive, was Debra Mastaler, owner of Alliance-Link.com and Eric Ward, CEO of EricWard.com.

In all honesty, Grehan had the strongest voice at this session. He’s a fantastic speaker. He spoke first and was the best. One thing’s for sure, he knows this business. His instruction proved quite educational as he pointed out a lot of facts and information.

First, not all links are equal. Some are more equal than others. Search engines look at anchor text and they are as important as the links themselves. The “click here” isn’t terribly effective. Also use search engines to find linking partners by doing a link check. He said don’t dilute quality content to produce extra pages. Try to keep good content on one page.

Affiliate programs can bring plenty of traffic and sales but can damage a link strategy because they can dilute the power of good links. Don’t fake link data either. Definitely don’t do the spam island deal where you create lots of fake domains going back to your site.

Grehan also emphasize that link building should be done manually, not by bots, and is a time consuming process. Ask for other links but be careful you who link too and vice versa. Stick with it and don’t get discouraged. Most importantly, he said as have others in other sessions, content is the key. If you build great content, than much of the other stuff, like getting links will fall into place.

Debra Mastaler over at Alliance-Link had some great information too. She took advantage of the quietly enthusiastic crowd following the great lecture by professor Grehan.

“Use good anchor text. Use good anchor text. Use good anchor text.” She went on to say links and sites come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t always link for rank. She also said discussion groups are powerful for viral link building. People will discuss your site perhaps link to it.

Overall, this was a great session and provided some great information, particularly for beginners on how to being optimizing your site through linking. As with other sessions, all the speakers emphasized that above all else, content is king and that quality is more important than quantity. A lot of things are important but without the quality content, most of the optimizations won’t go to far.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.