The Internet

Training Without Leaving Your House

So if you're reading this page, you obviously know what the Internet is and don't need an explanation about the power of the it. When it comes to having access to unlimited amounts of information on any topic you can think of, there's only one place to go.

Real Estate Investing in particular is a very sought after topic (one of the reasons why I created this website to begin with). But no matter what topic you are looking for information on, the Internet has several great ways to further your education and training without ever leaving the comfort of your home and for zero cost.

Websites (just like this one)offer great educational and training resources. You can have access to a wealth of articles, books, cds, seminars, etc., all from one site.

One in particular that I like is REIdepot , Real Estate Investing Courses and Books. They offer a Directory of Real Estate Investing Resources, such as listed courses, books, tapes, software and services, plus free real estate articles, forms and message boards. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Webinars are like seminars on your computer. You sign up for a specific topic at a designated date and time. Using a special conference call phone number and access code, hundreds or thousands of people can be on a webinar call at any given time.

A typical webinar format is a mediator will serve as a "host", welcoming you to the call, setting the ground rules, and introducing each speaker that may be on the call. Most webinars have the ability to take questions from the cyber space "audience" via an e-mail like format, since normally no one but the host and speakers can be heard. It is then the hosts job to ask the speakers the highest quality questions.

Normally there are only one or two speakers per session, and sessions usually last about an hour or so. If you decide to sign up for a training program of some kind, make sure this is one of the formats they use to teach. It is so much easier to run in the door at 5:55pm, get on a call, listen to high quality content for an hour or so, and then go back to your evening. Compare this to sitting in traffic just to go sit in some stuffy hotel conference room and arrive home at 8 or 9pm

Forums are starting to be more and more common on the Internet, and can be found on almost every website you visit anymore. Formerly referred to as "chat rooms," this term eventually received a negative connotation and has since been replaced with the more civilized term.

Also referred to as message boards, discussion groups, and bulletin boards, Forums are a place for holding discussions and posting user generated content. Most forums have mediators or moderators who police the content to make sure the forum rules are being followed.

Forums are a great place for like-minded individuals to go and post a question, problem or concern. You then wait for your post to be reviewed, and later, at your leisure, you can return to read any replies to your post. If you are part of a forum that has a high level of activity, then checking more frequently can be beneficial since it can be hard to go back and locate your post if there have been a ton of them since yours.

Using forums is a very anonymous way to ask a question that you may otherwise feel silly or uncomfortable asking and get many different perspectives in return.

Blogs are more like an online diary. Entries are displayed in a reverse chronological order. People are allowed to comment or respond to your entries, much like a forum, but the main content for the blog generally comes from the creator themselves.

Some common blog categories are social, travel, political, music and art, entertainment, etc. If you can think of a topic, there's someone out there blogging about it.

All of these Internet resources can give you a wealth of information, access to people and ideas you may never be able to get on your own, and all without leaving your computer screen - pretty cool!