Jonathan Fields started his career as a high-powered, six-figure, big-firm attorney in New York City. After the stress of that job landed him in emergency surgery, he evaluated what he wanted to do with his life.

Since then, he has worked as a personal trainer, started a successful Yoga business, written a popular blog about online business and online marketing, and just this week, became a published author. His book, Career Renegade, is already ranked #1 in the Job Hunting category on Amazon.

Jonathan graciously spent some time talking to us about his amazing career path. He also shares some tips and resources for folks looking to become a "career renegade".

Interview with Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade

There's a new phishing scam making the rounds at Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites.

Phishing (as in "fishing", get it?) is a form of identity theft where the scammers try to get you to reveal private information -- usernames, passwords, account numbers, etc. -- by posing as a legitimate entity.

These latest phishing scams entice you to click on a link with a message that goes something like, "hey! check out this funny blog about you..." When you click on the link to the website, it will look like the login page for a legitimate website (say, Twitter), and asks you for your username and password. The end result is the scammer hijacks your Twitter account.

Internet marketer Wiep Knol has written a list of 69 link building strategies for 2009 at Wiep.net. His updated list works off highly regarded link building suggestions published in 2002 and 2006 ("which is ages, in internet terms").

The updated list is broken down into the following sections:

• 7 internal link building strategies
• 10 beginner strategies
• 12 places to submit your site to
• 12 old school link building techniques
• 12 ways to make people write about you
• 12 common business tactics
• 4 important considerations

Link building is perhaps the most important aspect of search engine optimization. Your link profile -- the number and quality of inbound links to your website -- accounts for 7 out of 10 of the most important factors in determining your search engine rankings! So while having good on-page keyword usage is nice, getting lots of quality inbound links is much much better.

Read it: Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics For 2009

I just read this mini-rant by Jonathan Mead about the futility of learning how to be a better blogger by reading how-to articles: Trying to Learn to be a Better Blogger is a Waste of Time.

It’s so easy to get distracted. It’s so easy to think that reading a bunch of “how to” manuals on better blogging, or better anything, will really make you better. It’s so easy to think this is productive.

What’s not easy to face is the truth. Most skills and knowledge comes not through mulling through instructions, but with actual real practice. Hard work. Failing a lot. Being really crappy at times. Writing things your mother would not be proud of.

While Jonathan is talking specifically about blogging, his point can be applied to any activity that has a learning curve.