Working online is becoming an increasingly popular option that people consider when looking at a career change.

Internet jobs certainly exist and gone are the days when an online career simply meant getting paid to answer emails, stuffing envelopes and things of that nature that most of us wisely ignored.

These days, you can work online and make a good income. Rather than discussing the ways that you can legitimately earn money online - and there are plenty of good Internet resources that already do that - I think it would be more valuable to discuss the realities of working online based on what I've seen and learned during my 2 years of experience working on the Internet.

There are way too many get rich quick schemes on the Internet and like the old adage says, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Here are my tips for working online:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Yes, I just mentioned it above but it's worth mentioning again. If you see Internet ads or emails claiming you can make thousands of dollars per day working from home, don't get your hopes up. If it was that easy to make money working online, everyone would be doing it.

2. Working online is an increasingly competitive option.

Whether it's selling another person's product online or selling your own product online, it is becoming harder to get customers' attention on the Net. You can certainly have an online career selling physical or Internet-based products but your best bet is to find a niche and fill it. With thousands of new websites popping up daily, the competition is increasing every day.

3. Working online can be expensive.

In order to sell products, you obviously need customers. To find customers on the Internet, you often need to pay to find them by bidding on search engine keywords to attract qualified and targeted buyers. Keywords are becoming more expensive to bid on and it is becoming more difficult to be profitable in certain markets. Too many so-called Internet gurus make it sound so easy and cheap to earn money online. That's because they know many of the tricks of the trade such as getting many people to promote their products for them and having these people cover all the costs of finding paying customers. Often it seems that the people who are making the most money on the Internet are the people who charge you money to show you how to make money on the Internet.

4. Building a career online takes time and won't necessarily happen overnight.

If you expect that you can quit a good paying job on Friday and start earning a similar amount of money working online the following Monday, you will be sadly disappointed. Remember the childhood story of the tortoise and the hare? The hare is faster than the tortoise but the tortoise is slow but steady and wins the race as a result. Earning money on the Internet is usually the same way these days: you win the race by being slow but steady. Occasionally you might hit the jackpot quickly but more often than not, online success takes time (and effort).

Working online can certainly be a lucrative option but try to do as much research as possible before diving into the pool headfirst and finding out too late that there is no water.

Look for things that people will be willing to pay for in the long term. Today's fad might be forgotten tomorrow.

Carl Mueller

My name is Carl Mueller and I'd like to thank you for learning a bit more about me!

I feel that I have numerous relevant experiences during my career that come in useful when helping people with their careers:

I know what it?s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand, from 1994-1998).

I've survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.

I have also experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.

I know what it?s like to be self-employed.

I've helped many people find better jobs. I started to work as a professional recruiter in 2000 first as an Information Technology (IT) recruiter and then in general recruitment across many industries including IT, manufacturing and marketing. Since this time, I have helped many people find their dream career and it?s a great feeling.

I experienced one of the slowest hiring periods in recent memory especially during the general hiring slowdown that followed the Y2K frenzy in 1999, the bursting of the dot com bubble in early 2000, and then the employment market bottoming out following September 11, 2001.

These were certainly not great times to be a job searcher in most industries nor was it a particularly good time to be a recruiter.

Following this, I began running the day to day operations of an Internet-based company in early 2003 that focused on developing online software and subscription-based websites for consumers. It was then that I fully realized the power, usefulness and potential of the Internet which really spurred me to set up my own website which you can view in my Personal URL section below this bio.

I?m also a Platinum Ezine Articles Expert as recognized by EzineArticles.com, one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This special designation is earned by having consistently high-quality articles published and viewed on their website. All of my submissions are related to helping you find your dream career and many of my articles get reproduced on other websites by their webmasters.

Good luck with your career and I hope I have been of assistance to you!