Just like many other people, I am fascinated by the deep well of information and entertainment provided by the Internet, in particular, Blogs. You have probably heard of Blogs. No, not the swamps! A Blog is short for “Web log” and is a Web page that has frequent updates made to it. It’s like a Web journal or “what’s new” page.
The variety of specialized business blogs available for reading are countless. Lately, I’ve been taking time to sift through some of the highly read business blogs out there for my evening entertainment.
A favorite blog, gapingvoid is written by a dry witted Brit named Hugh MacLeod. Hugh has a large international following of readers for his daily posts and daily cartoons drawn on the backs of business cards. If you take a look at his site, be warned he uses an extra strength locker room version of the Queen’s English and his language may offend some.
As I was reading Hugh’s marketing rant one day, I came upon a picture and reference to a horseman Darren Wetherill’s horse training blog. Don’t go away for long because the rest of this article is about making more money, but click here to see what I’m writing about.
Darren’s Blog, Horse Bliss is a collection of photographs and horse training tips Darren uses as a marketing tool for his training business.
I had the opportunity to have a telephone conversation with Mary Risavi who maintains Darren’s blog and website. She has a computer background, but found that she had a few things to learn about web publishing. She has gotten help from others and is also self taught to create the electronic web world for Darren’s business.
Mary told me that Darren’s philosophy about training horses is developed from the work of many of the “natural horsemanship” trainers. He is a“level 4” Pat Parelli graduate. I asked Risavi, who has a marketing business background, what made him different from other trainers and riding clinicians.
She told me Darren Wetherill’s brand focuses on:
- The fun of horses
- Being happy at training clinics and making people laugh and telling jokes
- Spending time with each person individually
- Being passionate about his business
His mission is to share with people how to understand the way horses communicate and to help them develop the skills to be effective and happy in their relationship with horses!
His blog, admittedly by Mary to be in the “learning” stage, does a good job of presenting that brand to me. He gives away some tips about horse training, uses photos to show how to have some fun with horses and suggests that training your horse does not have to be complicated if you follow his philosophy.
My question for professional horsemen this week: Is your business’s marketing plan ready for a blog, website or electronic newsletter to tell your story?
Consider the electronic path about how I (and you) found out about Darren Wetherill, horse trainer.
Kathy Sierra, blogger and horseman, convinces her friends Darren and Mary to start a blog. Sierra, friend of crazy blogger Hugh MacLeod in UK mentions Darren’s specialty horse trainer blog. Hugh mentions Horsebliss blog in his blog, gaping void. Emerson, with thousands of others, reads the post, e-mails Darren and sets up interview with Mary. You, wherever in the world you are today, now know of Darren Wetherill and Mary Risavi.
That path only took about three weeks. Yeah but, you say, having an electronic presence on the web is hard work. Of course, I answer, but if you had a problem with hard work you wouldn’t be in the horse business, would you?