When you're trying to build a business online, it pays to know the people who are already know how to get around on the Net. Many of these agents are also trainers, and these trainers are former agents, and they are happy to share their insights with you.

Some coaches are active in real estate, while others have given up their real estate careers for full-time teaching. Most trainers and coaches have realized that doing business online is a great way to share their hard-earned knowledge and help more people than they would otherwise be able to reach. While many of the most famous Internet trainers, such as Michael Russer and Stephen Canale, don't do individual coaching, they offer newsletters of great interest to the online Realtor.

Russer, aka Mr. Internet, is the driving force behind the e-PRO certification program now in full swing from the National Association of REALTORS®. Russer, unlike many trainers, does not do product endorsements, but instead focuses on the business practices that will help the Realtor improve his/her skills on the Internet.

Ditto for Canale, except that he does promote products but not for personal gain. If there is a better email program, ISP, or virus protection software, he'll tell you.

Just visit their Web sites and email them that you would like to start receiving their newsletters. If you'd like to meet them in person, be sure to attend your local, state and national real estate conventions where they make regular appearances. They also will be happy to provide you with a schedule of their speaking engagements.

If you want more personalized or ongoing assistance to get ahead, you might want to consider hiring a personal coach. Personal coaching is a profession that has recently burgeoned in the last 10 years as business people realize that top performers in all fields can excel faster when they use a coach.

"Just as Olympic athletes and opera stars use coaches to help them leverage and maximize their strengths, savvy real estate agents are finding that a coach helps them achieve success faster and more easily," says Joeann Fossland, real estate coach. "A coach can help an agent to create a compelling vision for their business, can offer an outsider's point of view, can help the agent stay focused and on track and will be their best supporter."

Coaching by email is gaining popularity because of the ease, convenience and effectiveness of online contact. Some coaches combine email with phone calls, whereas others are finding clients get the full benefit with weekly emails that include discussion items, accountability factors and items that will build the agent's "personal foundation" of effectiveness.

If factors such as time, cost and distance have held you back from hiring your own business coach, you may find that some of the most respected business coaches can assist you via email.

Fossland models her email coaching after her phone counseling: 1 session per week. She sends her Realtor clients a pre-session focus form which they answer, and then she sends additional comments, suggestions and resources. Among the questions are:

• What did you accomplish this week?
• What did you plan to do that you didn't?
• What opportunities are available to you right now?
• What challenges do you have right now?
• What are you grateful for this week?
• What do you want to use the coach for this week?
• What do you promise to do or need to focus on for the next week?

"The client sends me this form each week at the same time," says Fossland. "In addition, we'll be focusing on specific goals identified in the initial sessions as short and long term goals."

Hiring a coach is a matter of choosing the right person for your personality and goals. If you have trouble with motivation, you would probably benefit from the boot-camp style of Dirk Zeller, president of Real Estate Champions. He uses email, but also phone contact and exercises to help you gain independence and strength.

"Coaching is a one-on-one relationship," observes Zeller. "From an electronic medium you have a harder time because it doesn't take into account all the communication options. If I have a client struggling with scripts and dialogs, for example, I can't convey voice inflection, power, delivery, or conviction via email.

"I use email for regular communication as a value-added tool rather than the base tool to communicate with our clients between live coaching sessions phone sessions,)" says Zeller. "It is a great way to have access to somebody, and as a coach, I can work it around my schedule. When I have 5 minutes, I can email a response. If we did all the coaching by phone, there might be times when the client couldn't get me or I would return the call and couldn't get them."

Some coaches, such as Patti Brotherton, specialize in categories such as new agents and broker/managers. She can help you by email, newsletter, and with her new book for new agents which takes them week-by-week through the first six months of their career. Brotherton specializes in the gamut of training from new agents to brokers and managers.

If you are a new agent, you will enjoy her online book for new agents, "Blueprint for Real Estate Success," at http://www.eproven.com/newagentbook.htm.

According to Brotherton, coaching keeps you focused and helps you with ideas that you hadn’t thought of before. A coach can help you put systems into place that are designed just for you.

"A coach gives you encouragement," she says, "and tells you things that you don’t want to hear, but need to. A coach listens."

Adds Zeller, "Coaching helps solve one key problem we all experience - implementation. The availability of knowledge is not the problem for most agents. It's the application and implementation of that knowledge that makes all the difference."