As promised, today’s big announcement is quite simple. I launched a new blog: Scottsdale Real Estate Blog. As you probably know, I’m a resident of Scottsdale. Since starting Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog, I’ve wanted to have a venue to write exclusively about Scottsdale, but as a business decision I didn’t feel that made the most sense, and thus this blog was born with a wider topic.

PAREB will still be my forum to discuss City, State, and National real estate (and non-real estate) topics, but when it comes to Scottsdale, that will be over on Scottsdale Real Estate Blog. Scottsdale itself is also a big topic, so with regard to real estate I will primarily focus on McDowell Mountain Ranch, DC Ranch, Windgate Ranch, and Silverleaf. Ironwood Village and Greyhawk may get an occasional mention, but the “Ranches” will be my focus. I liken this to Dru Bloomfield’s focus on McCormick Ranch Real Estate (if I could only write as well).

I think the best part of the launch was that I did it during the Arizona Real Estate Blogging Network work group session that I ran this morning. Seven up-and-coming bloggers that are all itching to create their very first blog, saw a guided tour as I set up the domain, installed the theme, installed the plug-ins, and published the very first post. Heather Barr just called me wishing she was there, as it was the perfect topic for someone that is currently on Wordpress.com and wants to use Wordpress.org, as I discussed on the significant difference that the two platforms offer.

Funny enough, Dru Bloomfield, attending in a different session at the same venue received notification about my post via twitter, on her smart phone. She made a mental remark, “I thought Steve was here…how could he be posting right now?” That she found out about the new blog, viewed it, and made a mental note about it, almost real time, shows just some of the awesome power of social networking.

What I had to present wasn’t really something I could do a second time, so I was given a pass for a second session. During the second session, I was able to listen to Jay Thompson talk about writing for a blog and SEO basics. As I listened, I was 100% in agreement with everything Jay said. Nearly every piece of advice Jay had for new bloggers is something I do and would encourage other bloggers to do. For those in attendance, they were treated to pure gold. But that’s not the main reason I’m mentioning Jay right now. Rather, it’s because with 30+ or so people in attendance, Jay mentioned at least 20 times, if he mentioned it once, “and when Steve Belt links to me…”. I’ve linked to Jay’s excellent Phoenix Real Estate Guy Blog in the past, but honestly, not as often as it deserves. There’s little chance that you are reading this and don’t know about Jay’s blog, but if you don’t, it’s absolutely worth the click.

In summary, with this new blog, I now author 4 blogs, and am a contributing author to a 5th blog. That’s a stunning total for somehow that doesn’t consider himself a writer, or even enjoys writing to much degree. I do, however, have a lot to say. Thanks for listening.

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