Work.com: Helping guide RE agents to success

If you are looking for some how-to guides to improve your real estate business, be sure to check out Work.com.

Work.com is an interesting service from Business.com that looks to tap into the "wisdom of the crowds." It bills itself as "the entrepreneur’s owner’s manual to where to go, what to know, and how to get the most value from the ever-growing array of Web resources for the small business owner/operator." As independent contractors, real estate agents are all entrepreneurs in at least some sense, since they are responsible for generating their own business (read: income).

One key part of any entrepreneur’s business is the marketing plan. For those real estate professionals looking to put together a marketing plan themselves, Work.com offers plenty of help, including Using Zillow.com in Your Real Estate Marketing Plan (written by Zillow’s own Chicago Market Manager, Sara Bonert). Zillow is not the only tool available to market yourself, but it provides great opportunities to build your online brand by interacting with the buyers and sellers who are researching homes on the site.

Many of the how-to guides on Work.com are applicable to any industry, but there are several other real estate-specific guides you might find especially useful. For instance, take a look the Guide to Real Estate Sales Training and the Guide to Real Estate Advertising. To see what else is available, simply do a search for "real estate".

Learn, discover, and share — and improve your bottom line in the process.