We’ve all heard that using the Internet as an employment tool is one of the most effective ways to find a job. Thanks to the magic of the World Wide Web, you have access to millions of job openings at the click of a mouse. You can use your email account to quickly contact potential employers and schedule interviews, so that you can have a job set up as soon as possible.

However, if you use the Internet incorrectly, it can actually prevent you from landing a job. Check out these four common job searching mistakes that you can easily avoid to get hired faster:

1. Don’t email your resume incorrectly – keep in mind that not every computer can read your version of Word or WordPerfect. The only way you can be sure that potential employers can read your resume is to send it in a plain text file. Preview your resume before sending it out, so it looks good upon arrival. Make sure there are no funny breaks between sentences and the text comes out properly. Reformat and repeat until everything looks good!

2. Forgetting the cover letter – when sending your resume off to employers, don’t forget to include your cover letter! Treat an email as you would a regular snail mail letter—always, always put a good cover letter in along with your resume. Why? Your cover letter serves many functions. It tells the reader which job you’re applying for, where you learned of the job opening, and what your qualifications are for actually doing it.

3. Don’t be passive – the tricky thing about applying for jobs online is that it’s so effortless to just sit back and wait for job postings to appear. But once you get yourself stuck in this passive routine, it’s fairly easy to miss out on some great job opportunities. The truth is that most jobs are filled by employers even before they’re advertised. This means that it pays to be proactive. An easy way to put yourself out there is to use social networking sites like LinkedIn or Ryze. Once you contact someone who shares an interest with you or works in the company that you also want to work in, you can make important connections that could lead to a job!

4. Don’t forget who’s REALLY doing the hiring – remember, nobody is hired by a computer! People are hired by other people. Some people spend hours pouring over online classified ads, but never come face to face with an actual hiring authority. At some point, you have to get off the Internet, and shake hands with a real, live person.

Don’t forget—in order to get hired, you need to impress a living, breathing human being. Never lose sight of that goal and you’re sure to do well in your search. Go out and get’ em!