I saw this about facebook and job hunting on CNN.

Personally, I think it is your future employer’s business. I would never hire anyone that bashes a former boss or manager. Period.

It is a question of character. If someone is willing to bash a previous employer they will do the same to future employer. They cannot be depended on. They do not care about past co-workers, managers or people that paid them.

I would hire someone that drinks and has a good time – that is a bit different. As long as you are not degrading people or out of control, go ahead and have a good time. You might want to take it easy on how much you publish online though.

The question I have for readers is this: If someone makes their profile private does it send up flags that this person is hiding something? I think yes. I might not hire someone because they have locked down their profile. What about you? Would this be a warning sign?

I have blogged for business purposes for many years. Over that time, I have gone from not taking blogging seriously, to taking it very seriously and focusing on it, and then to refining my blogging strategy to that of lead generation and SEO with blogs.

What about building a reputation with blogs?

It can work, but it is not easy. In the last month, several huge bloggers have cut back on blogging or refocued their efforts. See Chris Brogan here.

I like Chris and he is one of the few bloggers I read. However, because he blogs every day I mostly do not read his stuff. (Occasionally something jumps out at me and I check it out.)

One the other hand, my favorite blog is Tim Ferris of 4 Hour Work Week.

The number one reason it is my favorite is he only posts 1 or 2 times per month and it nearly never is boring. I do not always agree with him, but he is interesting and there is a quality to what he does that could not be done on a daily basis.

Also, Tim tells you in no uncertain terms that he enjoys life and does not have time to talk to you. Chris, on the other hand, tried to help people and has been overwhelmed. I like them both, and I wish Chris well, but for people that are already busy with a business, you need to either become a celebrity like Tim Ferriss or you need to see your blog as a part of your online lead generation strategy and not worry too much about building personal relationships with everyone. It is just not scaleable. (It is nice, but will probably hurt your profitability)

Blogging for lead generation is not as sexy as being a celebrity. But it has clear metrics and ROI and takes much less time than fooling yourself about brand building. You can see what I mean in our free video tutorial.

And in case you have not guessed yet, I am trying to get you to sign up and become a lead – that is the purpose of business, after all.

While I work with many fine, big businesses to help them grow their business using business blogging software to generate online leads, I also find that I end up mentoring a lot of people on creating Internet businesses. The problem is that they do not like what I have to say, which is that it takes time and work.

Here are 10 reasons it takes longer than people think (or hope) for building online income.

1. Google sandbox – while this is unofficial, most SEO people know that the first 6-12 months are much harder on a website with a new domain. It does not get consistent good ranking from Google until it ages. If you just quit your job and started an Internet business, I hope you were planning a year in advance and set up some niche sites.
2. No email list – Sure, there are faster ways to build a list. But starting from zero is just going to be a lot of work, especially if you have not done it before.
3. Selling something they are unfamiliar with – lets face it, no one likes to sell something that they do not understand. If you just started and you are selling a money making opportunity, and you are not making much money yet, how are you going to convince other people?
4. Lots of Internet Marketing courses – If you are buying a lot of Internet Marketing courses and programs you are probably not taking action – just learning more. Make sure to take action asap.
5. Focusing on one site – It is OK to focus on one site – but only if you are well targeted and are going to really make an incredible effort on that site.
6. Not testing – If you are spending money on pay per click or advertising but you are not building your list or making sales to a decent percentage of visitors, you are going to burn through your money with little outcome. Traffic is not the goal – conversion is the goal.
7. Not planning goals in tiers – Your goal cannot be to make $100,000 in 6 months from zero. OK, you can have that goal if you want to, but consider this. I always suggest someone set daily goals and when you are just starting out, learn to make $10 a day. I know that cannot support you, but until you know how to make a little you cannot scale up and make a lot.
8. Pick products that can be sold, not one’s with the highest payout. The places I make the most money besides working with clients are mid-priced products that have incredible quality and are very valuable.
9. Too complex of a plan – remember that people will not find your new website unless you promote it day and night. Keep your plan simple and focus on relentless promotion, value and content.
10. Giving up too quickly. Lastly, people do not make money fast so they think everything is wrong and they jump to the next idea. Unless you focus on a few things and do them well for an extended period, you cannot be successful.

Bonus: Especially when you are just starting, do not build many different business models. There are a lot of ways to make money on the Internet but you cannot do them all. Really master one and then learn a second.