Red FLag Deals Thread about #GrowthHackTO which hosted the first ever SMOJoe SEO Show

The SMOJoe SEO Show was at Growth Hacking TO Meet-Up happened on Weds April 23rd at 243 College St. It started at 7pm and wrapped up at 10:30 pm. It was solid infotainment
http://www.meetup.com/Growth-Hacking…nts/174390812/
Growth Hacking Toronto This was a free Meet Up event and perfect for people who wanted to learn SEO rudiments so they could properly marvel at the most advanced new technology – it was fashioned for beginners and veterans alike, so both could come away with tips and new techniques for growth hacking to gain more users.
Someone was going to win a coffee maker courtesy of Vigorate Digital ecommerce software which really is a growth hacking tool chest filled with custom digital marketing solutions, pin code loyalty programs, online auction software, and easy to install photo contests templates etc . Growth hackers want more users.

Cristian Contreras is the face of Growth Hacking in Toronto.

What is Growth Hacking?
A marketing practice with an absolute focus on growth – the discipline encourages marketers to use advanced methods, tools, and best practices to grow user base or data, content or customer reach. Growth hackers often use resources that weren’t available in the traditional marketing repertoire a few years ago, and very often they made these tools themselves. The quintessential growth hacker is the coder who writes script to collect content and customers from larger more unwieldy corporate websites – ie like how Airbnb fed on Craigslist.

The second part of the show is a live diagnostic and content publishing festival whereby people in the room win prizes from an office coffee solutions company that is sponsoring the event. Don’t miss this unique educational evening – it will be like nothing you’ve seen before or likely to ever see again – stay tuned here for updates on how it evolves and what happens and why .

Every participant who is willing to play along, tweet, blog and do Facebook updates right there in the room is eligible to win bags of free coffee, and somebody is going home with a brand new office coffeemaker.

Follow #GrowthHackTO and Rob Campbell is @roberrific on Twitter. Last edited by Arob; Apr 16th, 2014 at 11:43 AM.

People are talking on Twitter and adding voices to the discussion about Growth Hacking on Smart Canucks and we’re expecting some contributions to this beautiful post about GrowthHackTO on Free Ads Planet.

Then after weeks of planning IT WAS SUDDENLY HAPPENING..
Toronto is Awesome ran this picture on Sunday April 20th,

There are still quite a few seats left and even if you don’t reserve a spot or get ticket you should just come anyway because you’ll probably get in – some of the people registered have already said they cant come in the comments at the side of the Meet-Up page . .

Rob Campbell and Jane Wang of MyHealth Sphere dot ca
UPDATE – The event was a big success. Jane Wang won the charity choice SEO spot in a heated race between eight contenders!  She volunteered her domain and won the crowd’s sympathy.

Edwin Frondozo

https://twitter.com/drgnmeme/status/459148906295615488/photo/1

After Jane won, we all took a whack of pictures and then endeavoured to use them in our homemade media; at this point we all went to work optimizing her health apps domain and her intriguing game Health Challenger. Its cool. She’s helping people get healthy and that’s a great cause.

You can read more in a terrific blog post about it courtesy of Dan Wood, http://seohowto.ca/2014/04/seo-growth-hacking-session/ and he wrote that while sitting in his chair in the audience . Dan’s a real smart guy. and Cristian Contreras wrote here,
http://growthhackingtoronto.ca/seowinnerhealthapps/
Jane Wang a start-up health apps designer takes paper from the bowl

Cristian was blogging at the front of the class in front of the audience, who were dropping off more and more every minute . aha  ah well live blogging isn’t the most exciting thing to watch at ten pm.  I dont take it personal. The audience dropped from fifty to less than twenty souls watching in the second half of the show – it was exciting for me. Maybe this should be a daytime event. A weekend workshop.

The grand finale, the draw for the office coffee maker – the ticket was pulled from the popcorn ceramic bowl by Jane Wang.

Smojoe – Rob Campbell holds the Bowl for Jane Wang who picks David Woogan, to win the coffee maker . .

Dan Wood sitting in the audience did a tremendous courtesy by listing the process and order of things necessary to achieve page one rankings. He writes, “…in a simple form these are the steps:

  1. Choose a keyword that will have a valuable return for your website (or your client).
  2. Take original photos and host them on trusted websites (Flickr, WordPress)
  3. Devise creative, interesting stories that relate to your product/service in some way and get this article published in the best, biggest, most trusted magazine or newspaper or other publication that you can
  4. Bookmark this article on social bookmarking sites and social media
  5. Write secondary articles and publish those on other sites. Use the same photos from their original source
  6. Bookmark and interlink those with the original article.

What he left out was the secret ingredients that I don’t tell anyone. Dan went on the record how I compared my modern day existence to a 14th century troubadour who goes from tavern to tavern and sings about heroes and highwaymen who pay him to make their exploits more well known , so they are feared , respected and paid tribute or presented with big opportunities. Its the same today online – the more famous and important you are in a particular  category and have earned links in articles, blogs and forums etc, the more likely your URL will show up on pg1 in searches done by needy townspeople.  So a modern SEO practitioner is a digital troubadour.

green living blog

Green Living Blog TV Show in Toronto

Yesterday I donated 336 Glass Jars to the Bleecker Welselley Activity Network for their upcoming cooking classes. You can read more about my Earth Day charity action on the advice of my green living blog friend on Smojoe
336 glass jars donated to the Bleecker Welselley Activity network for senior citizens
Dog appIn other news, Urban Dog fitness spa / interview with Susan Rupert the owner of this amazing business is profiled on The Distillery District blog which showcases the use of modern technology including close circuit televisions so dog owners can watch their pet exercising with other dog remotely, to improve the quality of life for pets and owners and create jobs and happiness. The dog app was featured on Mashable.

Its a cool story all around and fits nicely beside the iPhone dog app innovation to allow dog owners to get together to walk their dogs and share their neighbourhood parks and scenic streets and maybe there is safety in numbers

The Urban Dog profile story got a lot of attention on the Distillery Facebook page.

coffee table made form recycled hardwood pallet

Toronto green TV blogger Nikki Fotheringham writes a green living blog in which she often demonstrates that green solutions can be aesthetically pleasing as well as environmentally sustainable.  and in many cases success depends on a third criteria which is whether or not the green option being showcased is economically viable as a market alternative.

I have begun crowd sourcing ideas for another TV show – green house

Earlier today I asked for ideas and pictures and ideas for recycled industrial material as household furniture items. I asked about green living on University Network, and i asked about green living furniture ideas on Red Flag Deals which i expect will get lots of attention. And i asked about green living blog on Canadian Content discussion forum and its got some feedback already.

Artfest 2012 Toronto, Pikto Top Pick PhotoContest in the Distillery District

There were dozens of skilled artists here in Toronto at the Distillery District over the Sept long weekend in connection with Artfest 2012.  You can read about Mario Beaudoin, Carlo Allion, Scott Cameron, Kevin Joyce, Patrick Lajoie, Tiffany Horrocks, and Christian Aldo

Mario Beaudoin paints Balzacs coffee Mario Beaudoin drove in from rural Quebec, to paint the interpretation of Balzacs Coffee House at right.

The Distillery District’s red brick buildings and cobblestones make the Sept long weekend Artfest truly memorable for the artists and visitors that attend the annual festival. This really is a one of a kind art show in the oldest and most historic region of Toronto which is filled with sophisticated tenants, artisans, and patrons. The Distillery District and Artfest in particular is a great place to exhibit art and get feedback as well as healthy sales.

This is a place to network with busy interior decorators, buyers, and curators of all descriptions who saunter through the grounds over the course of the four day long weekend. Two more high rise condominiums are still unfinished behind the Victorian age slate tiles Toronto roof of the buildings that border the cobblestone courtyards.

Carlo Allion, 2012 Artfest, Distillery District

Carlo Allion paints fantasy, surreal dream images

Carlo Allion finds his best ideas for new paintings from dreams and half conscious reflections into murky pools of mental states. Allion is different from the rest of us because he has the ability and the great skill necessary to put his visions on canvas and shape moments he saw in his mind into great art that we can all behold.   He says he paints ‘…statues that have come to life.’

Carlo Allion art work is perfect for international bank headquarters, talent agencies and jitterbug dance halls .  Carlo’s brush strokes  seem to have devil-may-care mood and evoke Terry Gilliam’s nonsensical whimseys. Art into a sophisticated personal style. See more artwork at CarloAllion.com website. Mr. Allion’s fun loving paint brush molds outrageous proportions to give his art an amazing fresh perspective

Christian Aldo at Artfest 2012

Every year at Artfest, there’s a charismatic young painter named Christian Aldo who uses glue and denim and buckets of acyclic paint to make three dimensional figures crime alive inside the frame.

Korean Girls snapshots at Christian Aldo booth, fine arts painting

Korean girls travel to Artfest Ontario 2012 and share memories against Christian Aldo art work.

Here is Christian Aldo in front of his Piano Player reacting to the Korean girls snapping his picture

Chrustian Aldo art at Artfest 2012

Pikto Top Picks Photo Contest in Toronto

For almost a decade Pikto has been at the center of photography art in Canada. The store is filled with skilled professionals who have been helping artists prepare for fancy wine and cheese style art shows with professional photo printing and photography mounting and picture framing  and picture hanging services.  Pikto probably best known for its custom photo books which are easy to make and present artists with a very compelling presentation mediums.  Andre announced that Pikto is having a contest and the Distillery District Blog has a write up about the event.

If you win the contest, you will  get your own art show at Pikto, for two months.

Pikto Top Pick photo contest asks three judges to gauge at all submissions and decide whose work should hanging in the Pikto gallery in Toronto for the two months.

Artists who develop and enlarge film and photographic prints probably already know about Pikto darkroom services, ie and they are aware that the firm also does photo printing and picture framing etc The shop is located in Case Goods Lane of the Distillery District and has been popular in this location since early 2003. The store today

The Judges include,
Gina Martin – Photographer Rep, Nat Geographic Collection, Chris Buck – Commercial/Editorial Photographer, Johan Hallberg-Campbell who is the Chief Curator at the Pikto Gallery,

Pikto, art gallery, photography contest, photo booksThe Pikto Top Pick photo contest has no entry fee. The deadline to submit your work is November 1, 2012 at midnight.

Every submission should include fifteen examples of photography intended for exhibition.  And of course that material should be electronically prepared and viewable  The images should be  .jpg (1024×768 pixels maximum image size) and all applicants are advised to use a consistent naming system as well as number all images (e.g. 01Smith.jpg, 02Smith.jpg).

Here is the gallery where the winner’s artwork will be displayed.

Cafe Culture: Balzac’s in The Distillery District, Toronto

Espresso bars have become a very commBalzac's Coffee in the Distillery District Torontoon fixture in Toronto neighbourhoods, but a lot of them feel boring to me.

That’s not the case with Balzac’s Coffee Roasters, which has one location in Liberty Village and one in the Distillery District. Both are nice spaces that have been around for quite awhile, but it’s the Distillery spot I really dig. It’s in an old building with high ceilings and tons of character. Think exposed brick, a wooden bar with a marble top, wicker chairs, a giant antique looking chandelier, and a staircase to a more private upper seating area. The pastry case, crammed with croissants, scones and glass jars of various cookies, squares and biscotti, is easy to drool over.

And then there’s the coffee, which is rich, bold and always very fresh. Balzac’s uses their own beans, which can be bought for home use, and also offers the usual rundown of espresso-based drinks (cappuchino, latte, Americano, etc.) and a selection of tea from the prestigious Mariage Freres brand from Paris. I’ve never had a bad drink there. Another pro? The takeaway cups are 100% biodegradable and compostable. Plus, they look a lot nicer than Starbucks cups.

The cafes don’t have Wifi, which I assume is a deliberate choice since the space seems much better suited to reading books than reading iPads. It would be nice to be able to do work from there, but I guess it can’t be everything to everyone.