Day 15: Learning the modern ways of word of mouth

When riders find me it's either because someone I teach recommended me to them or they found me via my coaching blog and website. The former much outweighs the latter but I have met some rather wonderful people thanks to that blog.

If not for my Aspire blog I would not have just signed up a rider from South America ( if I ever hear from anyone they struggle with travelling to do something they apparently really want to do I will have to assume they didn't really want that in the first place), I would probably never have met Maria from Norway who has been organising some of my most amazing clinics in Norway (strictly speaking we met via this very blog) and many other opportunities may have never materialised.

After all, what really is a word of mouth if not a trust and feeling that something or someone is on the same wavelength as we are, the belief that what they do might be useful for us and that we feel connected on some levels.

The above are the reasons why I personally like reading blogs over other online presences. They come with a personal stamp of genuine camaraderie which, after reading them for a longer period of time, as if you are meeting for a coffee and a chat with an old friend.

So. Today I'd been doing quite a bit of writing (I wrote two new posts for Aspire blog: 1. The Herd of Aids? - visual and thinking experiment to improve your effectiveness in the saddle   2. How one little ex-racehorse won Olympic gold jumping 1.9m (6ft2in) oxers and 4.60m (15ft) wide water jump… as well as put in a few hours on The Book.

However, the main job for me for the next few months as far as the online world goes is to learn more about the Internet's word of mouth - the SEO...and whatever else I need to know.

Therefore I don't have any more to share with you today other than: wow, this stuff couldn't be more boring! ;) I decided to learn at least the basics and as well as watching You Tube videos on the subject I'd been recommended to read the MOZ 's resources. And this is what I'd been doing.

If any of you guys reading this can point me towards other resources that can help me make Aspire blog more visible in the ocean of websites in the world of Bites, please do share!

:) Until tomorrow! Have a great day!

A very productive kind of day

Early start today which is never easy for me but always worth it. There is something good for the soul in an early morning :)

It all has even more special feel in the winter when light behaves shyly and disappears quickly. I do like those morning bird songs and a little dew on a day that can't decide whether it's supposed to be frosty or mild and has that peaceful "others not yet out and about" aura.

Once a week I teach at a nearby stud but as lessons often stretch out time wise and I end up waiting around for horses to be ready, I packed my laptop and worked on my book, blog and various admin stuff in between the lessons.

You know when you have that productive day feeling at the end of it all? That :)

Horses worked great, I got six blog posts drafted for my educational blog and one fully done and posted. It's my resolution to blog more on Aspire blog providing both original content that pushes me to analyse and reflect more on my teaching as well as share interesting, educational, inspirational, motivational content from various places around the web.
The post I did today I had wanted to write for a while but needed time to play with photos to illustrate my points well. I think it turned out ok but would love to know what you think:

Link to the post: https://aspireequestrian.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/the-forward-thinking-hand-quick-visual-suggestion-to-try-if-you-just-cant-get-it/

Another early morning start tomorrow so off to bed now to catch some bedtime reading before catching some sleep :) Until tomorrow!

My blog has its second Birthday today :)

That's 2 years gone. Big Thank you to all who read, email and comment. Thank you for your support and I hope you will stay around :) I am enjoying reading your posts too so keep on blogging.

All the best,

Wiola