LotusJump Blog

UPDATE: Darren is not in the future. Unless the future is Australia. Which it is. (Especially if you’re in the United States like me).

Guys, this is big–I’ve just discovered the secret to Darren Rowse’s success! If you aren’t familiar with the name Darren Rowse, you might recognize him by his massively successful moniker, ProBlogger.  I discovered the secret today when I was visiting his TwiTip website and noticed that–brace yourselves–he blogged from the future!!

Make no doubt about it. Today is January 15th and he definitely published his latest post from the 16th! See the undoctored screenshot below (with timeclock for verification):

[Note: If you visit the site and the TwttrStrm post has been changed to read that it was published on the 15th, it's obvious that Darren doesn't want the world to know about his other superhuman ability (the one besides his superhuman blog skills). And who can blame him? He'd be treated like the mutants in X-Men.]

BUT, back to the point. Thursday’s tip is this: If you can, learn how to blog from the future. Think about it–you’ll be able to get first dibs on all the breaking news, you’ll be able to anticipate important trends and you’ll be able to make your readers aware of awesome things from the future, like how in 2010 Matt Cutts gets passed over for a promotion at Google and leaves to become a blackhat SEO. For example.

Editors Note: Our legal department wants me to add that time travel is probably really dangerous. Blog from the future at your own risk. LotusJump can not be held resposible for limbs left in different dimensions.

I came across this week’s Jump of the Week (JOTW) when a friend was showing me some breakdance videos. Pretty sweet!

[Every Wednesday LotusJump highlights a Jump of the Week (JOTW). It can be any kind of jump (over tall things, in search engine rankings, through hoops of fire, whatever). Submit your favorite Jump via comment and we'll consider it for future Wednesday JOTW's!]

Today we’re spotlighting the LotusJumper Brooke Burton and her blog Food Woolf, Brooke is a food writer, blogger, and restaurant insider from L.A.:

We asked Brooke what the inspiration was behind her blog, this is what she had to say:

A food focused honeymoon in Italy made me realize that despite spending my adult life working in restaurants to pay my bills while working as a freelance writer (radio journalist/screenwriter) I had never once wrote about my love of food. Upon returning to my home in Los Angeles, I began my food blog, Food Woolf. In my blog, I write about life (in the kitchen, in restaurants, in the world) from a culinary insider’s perspective.

When asked what achievement she was most proud of, Brooke said:

My blog has become an incredible platform for my food writing career. Freelance writing and in-house marketing/copy writing assignments have resulted from people reading and enjoying my blog. I am currently in the process of shopping a culinary guide I wrote (with my writing partner Leah Greenstein of SpicySaltySweet) to publishers. In addition, Food Woolf has brought me incredible friends within the food blogging community and has fulfilled my dream to get paid for writing what I love.

We asked Brooke why Internet marketing is so important for her blog, this is what she had to say:

As a writer, I’m perfectly happy to write all day and never have anyone see the end result. Writing in a cave, however, isn’t the smartest business plan for someone that hopes to make a living as an artist. Creating a valid internet marketing campaign has brought me a bigger audience and has encouraged me to be fearless about my work.

We gave Brooke a chance to give a “Creative Marketing Tip of the Day”, this is what she said:

Invest in yourself. After a year of using a point and shoot camera, I am finally purchasing a Digital SLR to improve the quality of the food photography of my site. I am also investing in a redesign of my website with Delicious Design (to be completed by the end of the month!).

Leave a comment if you think you’re worthy of a Friday spotlight, and tell us why!

A LotusJump user recently submitted a terrific idea that helps him get the most out of his company’s LotusJump account–

Every day, this CEO has his three employees do three LotusJump tasks each, first thing when they arrive in the office. Besides creating an effective schedule, it also trains employees and accelerates their overall internet marketing success. If you have any staff with down time (perhaps a receptionist?), set them up with an account to maximize efficiency!

This week’s Jump of the Week (JOTW) was submitted by Andy, a fan of vertical achievements. I apologize for the poor video quality…the awesomeness of the jump makes up for it though:

[Every Wednesday LotusJump highlights a Jump of the Week (JOTW). It can be any kind of jump (over tall things, in search engine rankings, through hoops of fire, whatever). Submit your favorite Jump via comment and we'll consider it for future Wednesday JOTW's!]

Today’s tip comes to us thanks to Lynette Chandler from BlogEnergizer.com:

Guest blogging is a great way to reach more people and build credibility with your target market.  Start looking for opportunities to become a guest blogger by searching for blogs related to your company.   It doesn’t have to be an A-List blog (although the bigger the better!), but any blog that is related and relevant to your company who has a decent following works well.  Once you’ve found a relevant blog, send the site administrator an email complimenting them on their stellar blog and then offer them original, creative and exclusive content that would be of interest to their readers.  (Note: If at first you don’t succeed… don’t give up! Rejections and non-responses are quite normal and you’re going to have to solicit to more than one blogger before you find someone who is interested!)  Not only does this give you free exposure, but you’ll also get to interact with the audience of that blog and build valuable relationships.  Add a link to your site within the blog post and eventually the readers might become regular visitors to your own site.

Leave a comment with your tip and we’ll consider publishing it with a link to your website in future Tuesday Tip editions!

A few members of the LotusJump team got to go to Vegas for the Affiliate Summit West, which turned out to be a pretty awesome event. IMHO, one of the cooler stories to come out of it was a charity auction held by Jeremy Schoemaker (aka “Shoemoney”).

Leading up to the summit, Shoemoney offered to wear the t-shirt of the highest-bidding company, and donate the proceeds to charity. Since he’s “kind of a big deal” in the online community, he netted $5,200.00 for the winning bid. On his blog, Jeremy relates:

“The winning bidder, Train Signal, emailed me and said they had allocated $10,000.00 for this and would like to donate the full amount.

So at Affiliate Summit west I will present a check to the Affiliate Marketers Give Back, who’s chosen charity is Fighting Breast Cancer, on behalf of Train Signal for the amount of 10,000.00!!!!”

Well, during the “meet market” portion of the summit,  I got to meet Jeremy and snap a pic with the man and 10k t-shirt. Without further ado:

Pretty cool gesture on both Shoemoney and Train Signal’s part…it’s nice to see the big guys giving back!

We at LotusJump are pleased to announce that Google has finally updated its PageRank toolbar to register LotusJump.com at a PageRank of 4 (up from it’s “new website” status of zero!). The LotusJump blog has also improved to a PageRank of 3.

In case you’re wondering, PageRank is what Google uses to determine the importance of a web page. It’s one of the many factors used to decide which pages appear in search results and where.

Want to see the PageRank of your website? Try downloading and enabling PageRank with the Google Toolbar. To improve your PageRank, we’d suggest two general approaches:

1. Create content on your site that’s so good/informative that people will want to link to it naturally
2. Use LotusJump to find and build relevant backlinks to your website

These steps will help you improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and help you establish a successful online presence!

Today we’re spotlighting the LotusJumper Knoxville Quality Inn, “your home away from home in Knoxville, Tennessee”.

We asked Knoxville Quality Inn what the inspiration was behind their company, this is what they had to say:

I first wanted to own the first hotel I managed in 1976.  A customer dared me to go into the owner’s office and offer to buy the hotel for $1 (down).  I never did it, but never forgot it.  In 2000 after consulting with 250 Holiday Inn hotels, I went to one hotel owner and asked the question.  He said, “Yes.”

When asked what achievement they were most proud of, Knoxville Quality Inn said:

We started with no capitalization on May 1, 2001.  The Lord has provided the increase since.  It took 18 months to buy that first hotel.  Since then we have purchased 3 other hotels.  Our finest achievement was to buy 4 contiguous lots, tear down 3 houses and build a beautiful new 102 room Hampton Inn & Suites on 2.5 acres, a $12 million project.

We asked Knoxville Quality Inn why Internet marketing is so important for their company, this is what they had to say:

Internet hotel bookings continue to rise.  Toll free reservations centers are closing all over the world.  The internet is still the new frontier in hotel marketing and sales.

We gave Knoxville Quality Inn a chance to give a “Creative Marketing Tip of the Day”, this is what they said:

Try Twitter!

Leave a comment if you think you’re worthy of a Friday spotlight, and tell us why!