Zillow.com, Redfin and Other Real Estate Bloggers Unite for a Holiday Yankee Swap

RISMEDIA, December 20, 2006-Yesterday, when loyal blog readers logged on to get their daily fill of local real estate scoop, many found something else. RSS Pieces, Inc., a Florida based real estate blogging firm, held their first annual Yankee Blog Swap, bringing together 30 of the most influential real estate bloggers for the Internet equivalent of a "Yankee Swap."

Household real estate names like Zillow.com and Redfin traded blogs for the day with real estate pundits and man-on-the-street Realtors® to offer consumers and real estate professionals a full spectrum of information on everything from current market conditions to the future of online real estate services.

At a traditional Yankee Swap, each guest arrives with a gift, in this case, it is a blog and each guest and blog is given a randomly selected number. Then when the numbers match, that's the assigned blog for the day.

Drew Meyers of Zillow.com explains, "The Yankee Blog Swap is a great way for real estate bloggers to discover new voices in the industry, network with other participants and gain exposure to new audiences. Zillow Blog is excited to be a part of this groundbreaking event." Additionally, the Blog Swap aimed to raise awareness to consumers that real estate bloggers can be valuable resources for those considering a real estate purchase, sale or financing.

When asked what the value of the swap to the average homeowner would be, Jonathan Dalton, a multi-million dollar producer with Century 21 Arizona Foothills, said "I'm looking forward to sharing my perspective on the real estate market with readers in Minnesota and also hope my readers here in Phoenix learn something from Bonnie Erickson. With consumers' thirst for information, the more viewpoints they see on the state of real estate, the better."

And their prospects did just that. Dalton, for example, reached out to Erickson's readers in Minnesota, speaking of his past experiences in the blustery Minnesota area. Highlighting his trip and must-see spots, he concluded his free-for-all with a note to those who were interested in their daily real estate-clever networking via a description of the Phoenix area followed by a link to his normal blog address. Mission accomplished-exposure to new markets via a little creativity and humor.

This inaugural event launched , a site dedicated to connecting bloggers in related industries for the purpose of expanding their respective readerships with fresh viewpoints from various authors. Bloggers can use the free Yankee Swap network to find guest writers for their blogs or participate in the frequent industry events.

The first Yankee Blog Swap kicked off across the Internet early Tuesday morning, December 19 with the following bloggers swapping sites:

- Transparent Real Estate's Pat Kitano vs. Zillow Blog's Drew Meyers
- RSS Pieces' Mary McKnight vs. Future of Real Estate Marketing's Joel Burslem
- St Paul Real Estate Blog's Teresa Boardman vs. Phoenix Real Estate Guy's Jay Thompson
- Ocean Real Estate's Kevin Boer vs. SLC Real Estate's Nigel Swaby
- Issaquah Undressed's Larry Cragun vs. Maury Properties' Andrew Maury
- Chicago Home Weblog's Geno Petro vs. NY Houses 4 Sales' Christine Forgione
- Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog's Jonathan Dalton vs. Real Estate Snippets Bonnie Erickson
- The boys of Sellsius vs. Real Estate Tomato's Jim Cronin
- ML Podcast's Michael Price vs. FamousAgents.com's Elise Wright
- My Tech Opinion's Reggie Nicolay vs. Ubertor's Steve Jagger
- Redfin's Glenn Kelman vs. Rain City's Ardell DellaLoggia
- CondoDomain's Anthony Longo vs. miOaklandCounty's Maureen Francis
- The San Diego Home Blog's Kris Berg vs. Urban Dig's Noah Rosenblatt
- The Property Monger's Jon Ernest vs. XBroker's Jeff Corbett
- The Mortgage Report's Dan Green vs. Realty Blogging's Richard Nacht

For more information visit, .

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