LotusJump Blog

We’re excited this week to spotlight perhaps our most delicious LotusJump user,  Brady’s Beef!  Located in a small mountain valley in the Southeastern corner of Idaho, John Brady and his wife Karen are now the fourth generation of Brady’s on the farm and pride themselves on the superior quality and distinct flavor of their naturally raised grass-fed beef.

What was the inspiration behind your company?
The Brady family has been raising livestock in southeastern Idaho for four generations. Animals raised naturally, grazing in open pastures produce healthier meat. BradysBeef.com was started to help us reach urban and suburban consumers looking to improve their diets with healthier food.

What company achievement are you most proud of?
We take pride in educating consumers about the health benefits of grass-finished beef as well as hearing our customers rave about the improved flavor.

Why do you think internet marketing for your business is so important?
Many consumers are looking for healthier options in their diet at an affordable price. Buying direct from the producer provides better prices and consumers can trust their food because they know where and how it was raised.

Would you like to share a creative marketing tip for other small business owners?
With grass-fed beef we have found that beef tasting events (similar to a wine tasting) allow us to showcase the different flavor exhibited by Brady’s Beef versus grocery store products. With product on hand customers can buy right away.

Thanks Brady’s Beef for letting us get to know you a little better and leaving us a little hungrier!   Leave a comment if you think you’re worthy of a Friday spotlight, and tell us why!

We’re excited about this week’s LotusJump spotlight because let’s be honest, who doesn’t love free things? Check out ILoveFreeThings.com for this week’s loot of free things!

We asked I Love Free Things what the inspiration was behind their company, this is what they had to say:

I Love Free Things was always a hobby to me. The real inspiration began last year when I received feedback from my subscribers saying that they like what I do and my service helps them, especially during an economic depression. It gave me a boost and some new ideas to grow my service into something bigger. ILoveFreeThings.com is still a growing baby to me.

When asked what achievement they were most proud of, I Love Free Things said:

At some point I realized that I was really helping people who wanted to save money or who were going through a financial crisis. Helping others is a great feeling and achievement for I Love Free Things.

We asked I Love Free Things why Internet marketing is so important for their company, this is what they had to say:

Internet marketing is very important not only for I Love Free Things, but for any offline or online company. The wheel will not start spinning without the first push, you’ll also need to constantly give it a small pushes to keep it spinning. Without internet marketing, less people would know about I Love Free Things.

We gave I Love Free Things a chance to give a “Creative Marketing Tip of the Day”, this is what they said:

If you want your business to grow online, then you must use every social networking tool to connect with your customers. For instance, Mr. Bob is always on Facebook, but he just doesn’t get the twitter thing. If your business is on twitter and not on the Facebook, then Mr. Bob will probably never know about your company and/or would not be able to share it with his friends. Talk to your visitors using tools they use.

Thanks I Love Free Things for letting us get to know you a little more! Leave a comment if you think you’re worthy of a Friday spotlight, and tell us why!

One of the first steps to launching a successful SEO campaign is choosing the right keywords or keyword phrases.  Don’t let this task haunt you - there are a myriad of tools out there designed to help you discover which keywords get the most traffic, plus keywords aren’t permanent… more on that in a bit!

Where do I start?

Brainstorm.  Before you start exploring keyword research tools, take a few minutes to brainstorm what someone might search to find your products or services.  What keywords or phrases accurately describe what can be found on your site?  Do you have any pages geared specifically for a certain product, service, or keyword?  (Keep in mind, most people who are searching for your products or services may not be as knowledgeable about industry specific terms so try to think outside the box… what would someone most likely be searching?)

Now what?

As we mentioned before there are a handful of tools out there that will help you with your keyword research.  Our favorite is the Google Adword tool which allows you to type in the keywords that you brainstormed and see just how many people are searching for those terms.  Not only will this tool tell you how many people are searching the term you typed  in, but it will also give you an idea of how many people are searching related terms and it will even give you suggested terms that you may not have previously thought of.  Keywords with higher search volume will take longer to rank on, so we recommend choosing one high search volume term and two “tail terms” (think specific) that may not receive as much search volume, but which you’ll be able to rank on quicker.

I want to change my keywords, how do I do that?

Not to fear, choosing your keywords is not a permanent decision.  Go to Settings in your LotusJump account and select My Domain and Search Terms.  Click Edit and then you’ll have the ability to change your keywords.  Remember, it takes time to rank, so be patient!  It’s not a good idea to change keywords often too often.

Writing articles is one of the best ways to share what you know and to get your name out there at the same time.  Sharing valuable information with readers will help you establish yourself as a knowledgeable source on certain matters and will give credibility and strength to your own website.

Writing original articles can have great SEO benefits as well.  When you leave natural, contextual links back to your site within an article, you are showing the search engines that your site is relevant to what is being said in the article.  If search engines are frequently seeing links to your site surrounded by relevant and accurate content, they’ll give greater authority to your website in regards to those keywords.

Now the real question: What do you write about?

Answer: Anything!

• Are there any current events that can relate to your business?
• Do you have any upcoming company events?
• Are there any community events that you could tie into your services?
• Do you have a flagship product that you could spotlight?
• Search for your keywords on other article submission sites and see what other people are writing about.
• Anything with a human interest angle - bizarre, interesting, heartwarming, out of the ordinary.
• Set Google alerts for your keywords and company name and monitor what’s going on in regards to your business, products, or field of work…write about it!

And Remember….

• Keep a pad of paper handy for those moments where you read something, hear something, or see something that would be good to write about - you’ll be surprised how quickly your list will grow!

When using LotusJump you’ll find that there are a myriad of content building sites suggested as outlets for the original content you create.  While we have a handful of favorites, a useful and easy to use content building site is Knol.  Knol is a Google project that launched a few years ago and consists of user-written articles on a range of topics.   It’s almost like Google’s version of Wikipedia, but with an option for contributors to allow, or not allow, the public to edit their page.

Knols can be on just about anything - create a company profile, an article about your services, a topic relevant to your industry… the sky is the limit.  You can work off a previously created template, or get creative and start from scratch.  Once you’ve written your Knol make sure to add pictures, links and charts to make it even more enjoyable for your readers and then publish your page for all to view.

Writing your own Knol entry is easy and can be fun- especially when you’re writing about something that you enjoy!  So, what are you waiting for? Write your own Knol today!

Setting and achieving your goals on LotusJump is now easier than ever!  If you haven’t seen the lastest reporting tool that is now available, it’s definitely something you want to check out!

See just how many tasks you’ve completed since beginning site optimization with LotusJump.

A detailed list of completed tasks shows you what types of tasks you’ve completed, what keyword you targeted and when the task was completed.

This diagram shows how many backlinks your website has and tracks progression over time.

Want to know what type of linkbuilding efforts your competitors are doing? This graph shows not only the growth of your website’s backlink profile, but the backlink profiles of your competitors.

So, how can you use the reporting tool to your advantage?

Start setting goals.  It feels good to be able to SEE how you’re progressing, so be realistic in how many you’d like to complete and then hold yourself to it.  Heck,  you can even reward yourself with a little something special when you reach your goal at the end of the month.