Too many people venture online without understanding which type of Internet business they are best suited to. They either go for the first one they come across that promises early wealth, or, having viewed a few options (without gaing any real insight on what exactly each one will deliver), they hurl themselves at several simply because they can't make a choice.

Both of these strategies is dangerous. The first, because any site that promises pots of cash early with very little work is nothing more than a scam (1000's of people have lost money to these schemes) and the second because if you try running too many ventures too soon you'll spread yourself thin and be unable to devote necessary time to a single opportunity.

There are many legitimate ways to make money online and discovering which one is best for you is an excercise well worth taking some time over.

In part one of this series you posed 4 questions to yourself:

1. How computer literate am I? (not at all - 1, very - 5)
2. How is my self-discipline? (bad - 1, excellent - 5)
3. How positive is my outlook on life? (terrible - 1, bright - 5)
4. How much can I afford to fail? (Can't - 1, Doesn't matter - 5)

And answered each of them with a score of 1 to 5 accordingly.

These four simple questions were carefully worded and directed at understanding not necessarily *which* business you should go for, but whether indeed you should look for an income online at all.
No matter what you're told by all the get-rich-quick sites about how easy it is to make a residual income on the Internet, or how your life will change as soon as you become a member of their program, there will still be the necessity for some input from you. In fact a lot of input from you - a lot more than they ever let on in their sales copy.

Once you are signed up therefore, and you have experienced your first few sessions working on your new 'opportunity', you will then go through a period of disillusionment as it finally dawns on you that alot more work is required than you originally thought, and alot less income is forthcoming than you were promised. Many people give up here, or go and find something else and the whole process starts again.

You can save yourself this heart-break and inconvenience by being honest with yourself at the start. Just take a moment to write down an answer those four questions. (each one should be a number from 1 to 5). Do it now before you read on.

So, lets see whether you should be pursuing an income online after all. If you scored less than 8 then you shouldn't even think about it. With a score this low, you will definately not have any success online and you'll be wasting valuable time if you try. With a score of 9-12 you might be OK but there will be something that will have to change - perhaps you need a backup plan so you can afford to fail a little more, or perhaps you should brush up your computer literacy with a software course. Maybe you marked yourself down on your positive outlook because you were in a bad mood at the time. If that is the case on any of the questions, revise the score to reflect your average outlook over a number of months. (remember, there are no zeros scored here).

With a score of 13-16 you should be good to go, and with anything above 16 you're either lying, or you should be kicking yourself for not starting online sooner!

The Next Step.

Right, so once you know you're OK to continue, your next step is to research and critically assess the full range of options available to you as a budding Internet Marketer.

In the next part of this series, we'll examine each of the money-making opportunities that exist online and identify characteristics of each of them so that you can decide which ones you're best suited to.