SMOjoe.com

Sunday Feb 28th, minutes ago Canada won the gold medal in Men’s Ice Hockey and my Twitter feed erupted with mostly one word tweets. Truly amazing - no other event could so singularly dominate that space except perhaps an alien invasion. I follow two hundred souls @Roberrific and fifty more and mostly different folks @Lenzr but it would seem that everyone who matters in my Twitterverse is 100%  Canadian.

Speaking of Lenzr, tonight, the international ice hockey event was just the opening act. Tonight all three photo contests will end at midnight! Who will win  the Locaboire wine tour? The automated scoring system leaves no doubts about the prize winners.  I’m very curious to see who will win the Best Gourmet Food photo contest because that person will share a Locaboire escapade through eastern Ontario with The Wine Ladies (and myself) in the middle of March.

Last week Smojoe had some fun at Fastlane at Dermatologica watching the ladies go crazy over cosmetics and creams, drinking protein shakes and wiped their fingers every ten minutes with all natural hand sanitizers.

There was a real push to get men into the chairs, and all the clinicians had this strange and powerful obsession to put product on boys. As soon as I entered the venue I was ushered (past the bar and) into the white room.  Oh their eyes lit up when they saw me.  My pasty white skin needs help, and they wanted at it… But the white walls and white tile floors scared me. Yes I fear the cruel knife. Lots of stainless steel in here told me this was also an operating room, despite the crowd of laughing people drinking cocktails and nibbling on fruit I wasn’t comfortable and instead held court in the reception area (beside the bar).

Earlier that same day,

Deb Weinstein mentored with Rob Campbell at Personal Brand Camp 2

Deb Weinstein, President of Strategic Objectives is a fascinating person, and someone I should probably study. Here she is lurking behind me at Personal Brand Camp 2 at The Church on Berkeley, Feb 23rd.  We had a few moments before the crush of eager Humber PR students came to gather our knowledge, packaged and sold as Question #16: What are simple but effective social media practises that I can adopt?

My answer was never really defined - there are so many possibilities, and its different for everyone. But Deb brought a flip chart and had ten sheets of wisdom to bequeath. And of course I learned a great deal from her presentation too, and benefited from hearing it three times in rapid succession. My favourite part was when she asked the students to define themselves, because I could never guess exactly what they were going to say… and they were always so different.

Anyway I was so terribly inspired by the whole affair, and the quality of the ‘experts’ and the genius of Michael Cayley and his Memetic Brand that I blogged about Smojoe at Personal Brand Camp 2 and recorded my experience and observations (mostly about Deb W) for posterity right on the Humber PR Ning website.

Elizabeth Verge of Brain Possibilities

Earlier this week I explored the dark areas in my own brain with Elizabeth Verge of Brain Possibilities. She has invested time and money into the practice of mapping the human brain and studying brain activity as recorded by electromagnetic energy which is captured and observed as brain waves with EEG amplifiers and computers. Elizabeth’s computers process the brain wave information and translate the brain waves into an optimized pattern in the form of sound.

Brainwave Optimization with RTB™ encourages some brain waves and discourages others so the brain will begin to function differently - it will create a balanced condition. Basically her patients accept that harmonizing their brain waves can balance them into optimized patterns.

Do you believe this is true? I do.

As far as we know all human brain activity functions through tiny cells called neurons which interact and connect with each other forming neural-networks. These grids are activated based on stimuli. When given new stimuli they might be trained to behave differently, or use different routes to create different networks. Elizabeth claims that her clients have recognized the benefits of her unique treatments after just three sessions, but she likes to schedule 30 sessions to make the benefits permanent.

Brainwave Optimization with RTB™ is a completely non-invasive, individually tailored process of balancing and harmonizing the brain. Elizabeth and her system work to balance brain activity from the lobes of one side of the brain to the other, and from the front of the brain to the back.  Harmony refers to the way energy patterns function together from low to high in the various regions of the brain. The sole objective of brainwave optimization is to establish balance and harmony in the brain.

Do you think I should continue to explore brain wave technology?

‘Anyone that watched Smojoe present Story Funnels to Buckstops came away with too much new information. Rob’s scatter gun approach gives audiences a glimpse into the mind of a madman.’ Anonymous attendant.

That review is from a friend of mine who said he would publish it on his blog, if he had one. I laughed and copied it and now that document has evolved into this blog post. I’m publishing it on my blog because I’m my own worst critic, and clearly there’s a lesson to be learned. I’ve just got to get better at presenting thoughts and ideas in a linear progression.  Perhaps I do need to lay it out on a boring old power point, and practice it alone at home in front of my pals? Rehearse the material, going slow and steady and explaining everything in great detail…

Smojoe sprang in action this week at the Spoke Club on Tuesday Feb 2nd downstairs in the gallery at night. That occurrence came courtesy of Deb Lewis and her City Events team. She’s Toronto’s best event producer with an obsession for details. Deb is constantly pushing technological boundaries and at this event she debuted new social technology that puts YouTube videos in emails. City Events has a powerful newsletter with over five thousand subscribers and Deb’s bi-monthly blasts enjoy a 25% open rate.  Deb’s events are always packed with devoted followers as I discovered when I rudely interrupted her on the floor to indicate that she should speed up, or better yet wrap it up; the audience feedback was very critical of my behavior… but in my defense it was only so I could have the full hour and half that was promised me in order to slow down and present my linear ideas…

On the evening of Feb 2nd 2010, Deb Lewis and I discussed How To Market Events in Toronto and of course I got a little too specific on how to use the toolbar in a Wordpress blog to craft beautiful keyword rich articles and Craigslist advertisements etc and what 3rd party event marketing widgets are most effective on your blog sidebar and why.. I think people came to learn secrets and discover new high tech magic wands they can use to magically bring traffic to their events.

The next morning Gary Puppa of Epixome twittered about joining EventPeeps which looks terrific and I wish I could have imparted that web address to the audience. But I did tell them to read my blog, and follow me on Twitter @roberrific

Smojoe with Rapport Communications in the National Yacht Club Feb 4th

Two days later on Feb 4th 2010 I wore my other pair of fancy pants to The National Yacht Club in Toronto. In this venue, at 12:00 noon I worked with the team at Rapport Inc specifically Bill Tibbles and Denise Breen and I followed Faith Seekings on stage to hold the floor for two and half hours discussing exactly how to write compelling content for humans and robots, and how to make story funnels to buckstops work for you, and how to feed search bots juicy keyword sandwiches. It was my own brand of madness from start to finish.

Here’s Faith and Will Web setting up a fancy new digital projector at the National Yacht Club.

Presentation Points – Secrets of Smojoe Social Media Marketing

Its no secret that Smojoe believes the blog is central to good social media; it’s a really fertile field where great content can be easily made, and harvested. It’s cheap to make content here and good posts accrue more and more value over time. The blog is the cornerstone of good social media marketing, and the sidebar is a content catalyst that’s too often neglected.

The blog is at the center of every story funnel because it connects so nicely to all other components, and the keyword rich crops grown here are quite often the most compelling, information rich threads in your social net – the blog is the source of daily content and soon becomes every expert’s most powerful influence tool. If your business were drawn as a stick man, the blog would be the mouth.

Story Funnels To Buckstops

Don’t put the whole story on just one page. Fragment your media so curious clickers have to travel to multiple platforms as they assemble the adventure in their heads.  Break your content into chunky bits and leave hooks in photo descriptions, articles, blogs and in discussion forum posts.  Make each piece of media link to another piece; some should link up to articles, but most will link down to your Buckstop.

You buckstop is your conversion form, and incoming links should be embedded under keyword rich text to tell robots what you are offering.

Writing Content for Humans and Robots

When bloggers take advantage of all the ways that Wordpress and other content submission platforms can index content ie headlines, subtitles, alt text under pictures tags and categories they can make truly information rich packages.

How To Make Keyword Sandwiches

When blogging, its possible to make tasty keyword sandwiches for robots by following this precise writing ritual: 1) in the back of your wordpress blog import a picture as URL from your Flickr account that has a proper headline, description and tags, and insert it in your blog. Then put keywords in all the right places on the picture as title, alt text and if possible tags.  2) Write a good rich media blog post around the picture using the same keywords in headline, subtitle, tags and categories, and then publish the blog post. 3)  Bookmark your post using Digg, Delicious, Reddit or StumbleUpon to add the same search terms to the package again -  that’s how you create a keyword sandwich, and this rich media is exactly what search bots most love to eat!

There really is no proper update on my Jan 20th presentation at the Centre for Social Innovation.
Nobody took any pictures! All parties, including Deb Lewis of City Events totally forgot to get any images of Smojoe presenting ‘story funnels to buckstops’, and  I blame Billie Mintz as he distracted me by pointing a video camera  at me.  When I asked Billie for screen grabs he politely postponed me, and so I guess he’s really busy too.

Smojoe Speaks Again Feb 4th, 2010

On Feb 4th, Smojoe will be appearing alongside Faith Seekings in an event co-produced by Bill Tibbles and Terri Carson at the National Yacht Club. There’s details on Rapport Communications website, and the Rapport blog, and why not  follow @FaithSeekings on Twitter.

A blog is the cornerstone of good social media marketing because it’s the cheapest and best place to tell the whole story.

Business bloggers, event marketers and brand managers are strongly encouraged to register and attend a comprehensive discussion on how they can make their blogs more enticing to readers and search robots.  In this session I’m really going to drill down on what works, what search engines want, and why blogs are the most powerful media distribution tools ever invented by man.

How to make money with a blog?

Yes I’m going to answer the most popular question of them all, ‘how bloggers make money online?’

Which sidebar widgets are best for your blog?

After I demonstrate how Smojoe binds keyword rich images and text, I will illustrate with examples how blog sidebars can become content catalysts for building premium social capital.  I put Flickr, Twitter and MyBlogLog what’s new with me? widgets in my sidebar to legitimate my expertise, and leave clues for detectives that want to dig deeper en route to my buckstops.  During this chapter I’ll be sure and include insights on what you can do to help your blog post find wider audiences.  Unlike other speakers I don’t share statistics or bullshit affirmation stories, I get down and dirty and actually demonstrate the specifics.

Toronto Dentist Scrutinizes Smojoe’s Smile

Late last week the Kids in Action photo contest launched on Lenzr and already there are ten great photos and over 100 votes in the system.  Sponsored by Toronto dentist Dr Natalie Archer D.D.S., the youthful photography theme should help remind kids to play safe and take care of their teeth. Or maybe it will inspire parents to preserve their white smiles alongside images of their kids at play… whatever.  You know I actually wanted the contest to be “Jobs Without Dental Plans” but other Lenzr staff members thought that theme might produce overly abstract results.

Located a few steps south of the Sherbourne St Subway station in Toronto, Dr Archer and the other dentists at Rosedale Family Dental Care will do everything from cleanings to fillings, right down to root canals.  My own mouth was scrutinized and extreme close-ups were obtained for a ‘before and after’ series to showcase Dr Archer’s skill at cosmetic dentistry.

The prize is a premium tooth whitening system, the NiteWhite tooth whitening kit is at the core of the prize package offering; the gift basket also contains a year’s supply of toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss and mouthwash.

Sean Turrell is a humble Toronto television director and overall cool guy.

Sean Turrell is a Canadian television director and hipster. He’s one of my oldest friends in Toronto, and yet we barely ever see each other and never make plans.  In the past we used to find ourselves together at events, or upstairs at the Drake, but those days are over now and all we have are good memories.  I remember the camera tests we shot together at York University, and the half dozen rock videos we made in 1996 and 97 in which I was chief lighting technician, and Sean was Art Director. Dave Greene was D.O.P. and Brad Walsh was director at Projecktor.  After a quick search I found Sean Turrell on SHOT magazine in connection with Spy Films.  I didn’t know he directed Michael Buble in the ‘Everything” video, and Sean is far too humble to say anything about it. That video probably really helped his career.

SHOT: Michael Buble - Sean Michael Turrell, director

Spy Entertainment director Sean Michael Turrell with Michael Buble on-location at a downtown L.A. factory for the “Everything” video shoot.

artist: Michael Buble
song: “Everything”
label: Warner Bros.
director(s): Sean Michael Turrell
production co: Spy Entertainment
DP: Adam Marsden

Build Social Capital with Smojoe
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Centre for Social Innovation
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 120

On this evening, I, Rob Campbell the Smojoe will demonstrate exactly how to build ‘Story Funnels to Buckstops’ and together with audience members we’ll work through the little known principles of article replication, blog and discussion forum marketing as I show off the methodology my firm uses to put clients on the first page of search engines, diminish negative press, and increase our clients’ overall findability.

Keri the Canadian Explorer on Canada Blog Friends

Earlier this month I got a chance to meet and share stories with Keri the Canadian Explorer in the back of the Starbucks at Queen and John.  We talked about the dream job of creating web videos for a living and what it takes to succeed in that business. Without question, @KeriCDN is going to try.

It wasn’t long after that meeting I profiled Keri the Canadian Explorer on Canada Blog Friends and was halfway through writing the article when she emailed me to tell me the late breaking news - she has just been contracted by Canoe.ca and Sun Media to travel to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and attend opening ceremonies and all subsequent athletic events as an official member of the press.  Its a dream come true, and in fact this was exactly Keri’s dream.

Connie Behr on HGTV home renovation series House Poor.

While flipping through TV channels on Saturday January 16th, I spotted Connie Behr as a guest star on a new HGTV show called House Poor.  It was quite a surprise because eight years ago I was madly in love with her.  Indeed, she broke my heart.

This elf girl is really smart and funny and quick - the best word to describe her is nimble.  So of course she drove the episode, especially at the end when the reactions came and the couple had to pretend they were seeing the renovations for the first time.  Her facial expressions were magnificent.

The simple fact that the host labeled the couple ‘Connie and Sebastian’, and put her name first, tells me that she drove the show. She’s an actress on the verge of another big career boom, and oh the fella she married is slightly younger blond cameraman whose TV credits include Kenny vs Spenny.  He’s horribly attractive blond hair blue eyed guy, beard and all.  But he’s shy and diminutive, and I hope he’s not too boring for her.

When the show ended I scanned the credits for more stalker details,  but that’s really not possible on Global TV anymore. The names go by too fast and are too small to be comprehensible.  But rest assured, the jilted lover in me is satisfied.  I can reflect back without emotion on my journey knowing she is happily married with at least one child and a house that she paid $440K and after renovations some of which were subsidized by a television company, the downstairs basement apartment will carry half the mortgage making their payments $1200 a month. More like fourteen hundred I imagine as they’ll have to give a break on the basement apartment in Toronto’s condo rich rental marketplace.

The Toronto Blog Girls package a Value Proposition

Here are the five founding members of the Toronto Blog Girls and if you click through the link you’ll end up on a Tumblr page that collects their blog feeds. They all have uniquely different styles and content themes. Where some write a lot of text, others post more images than sentences.

Casie Stewart - Daily blogger, social butterfly and Digital Marketing Girl at Much MTV

Carly-Anne Fairlie - Agent and owner/founder of the Fairlie Agency

Carol Zara - Geeks Lover, Digitally Blonde show, voted Top 3 “Women of Geek Culture” by G4TV

Lisa Charleyboy - Pop culture with an indigenous twist

KeriCDN - Video blogger and Canada’s biggest fan.

Look for these writers at all the hottest parties, wearing the latest fashions, trying new beauty products, reviewing spas, shopping and attending live theatre throughout the city of Toronto this summer.

My Brother’s Bicycle Helmet Video Camera Contraption

Yesterday my Brother Ian used a helmet camera, which a small video camera strapped to a bicycle helmet that’s strapped to his head, to record a rather brisk bike ride through suburban Seattle. This was just a test ride, so he could record a video and post it on Youtube and then send the link to the company that provided the camera. There were some earlier bugs that this ride proves are now fixed. Ian writes that he had to use super-glue to mount the camera to the base, and then shim us the base to my helmet so it wouldn’t move. He notes that It was inputting a lot of annoying noise because the device was moving around as he rode his bike.

Tomorrow, Ian will be riding in the mountains and viewers will see some really interesting scenery on Ian Campbells YouTube Channel. I did embed the video below, but its too slow and bogs down all of Smojoe.

Lots to talk about, here in January 2010.

Three photo contests ended on Lenzr on January 1st, and are slowly being replaced. The matches were not as dramatic as previous finishes, as the winners established an early lead and maintained it over the entire course of the contest. You can read all the developments on the Lenzr blog including our endeavours to make a better scoring algorithm.  In the next session, the voting results should more accurately reflect each photographer’s skill, as decided by the people, and be less about his or her ability to promote the page to friends. We are rewarding comments now, and reducing earlier metrics that were set too high.  Congratulations to members seguini and ve3bnw

Macro Photos of Life winner (right) was submitted by a prolific member named ve3bnw which sounds like a license plate # and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is, considering he describes himself as a commercial truck driver that’s interested in photography. The image titled Time to BEEHAVE magnifies a shiny wasp.

This member will receive an Eastern Ontario wine and brewery tour set for early next month and there’s more information on Locaboire.  Smojoe will almost certainly accompany the winner on this journey and, of course, write lots of travel and wine related content afterward, for your reading pleasure.

New Photo Contests on Lenzr are slowly coming to life, and more challenges will launch next week.   Already there is an offering entitled Everday Tangled Web which asks members to upload images of the most beautiful tangles in their life, if possible.  Its a difficult assignment.

Sponsored by S.E. Telecom, a business phone systems provider in Toronto Ontario, the challenge hopes to showcase the messes we make, as individuals and as a society, when we run lines and make connections without properly organizing a system.  But even an ordered network can look confusing from certain angles. There’s lots of chaos in my home, but none of it is very beautiful.

The Prize is a Plantronics Voyager 510SL+ Bluetooth Headset System with Lifter, retail Value $429.00

Enjoy wireless freedom in the office or on the go with the Plantronics Voyager 510S Bluetooth Headset. Ensuring lightweight, all-day comfort, the Voyager 510S delivers superior sound quality and provides WindSmart technology for clear voice transmission. You can read more about the reasoning and reward in the Everyday Tangled Web photo contest on the Lenzr blog.

Ruth Wilgress Begins Blogging

Ruth Wilgress is starting a business that provides expressive arts therapy in Toronto and will be blogging and updating friends and collegues as she advances in this discipline.

Ruth is working hard to perfect new programs and new methods of helping people through the practice of creating art. Here’s The Rat Race which is one of her best pieces. I absolutely love her colour choices she used.  Who would have believed that lime green and pink compliment each other?  I also like how the picture is punctuated by computer chips.

Lisa Charleyboy, veteran blogger takes up article marketing

Lisa Charleyboy is Toronto’s most fascinating native girl blogger.  Graduating York University this year, she’s already a veteran author that has outgrown a blogspot and has advanced into article marketing as a hired gun for some big name fashion portals. Lisa has a very bright career as a freelance writer ahead of her.  It was over a year ago that I profiled Lisa Charleyboy on CanadaBlogFriends.ca

Want to read her latest stuff? Her last year’s Top Five posts. Each of these articles probably got more readership than my Smojoe blog did all year, but I’m not jealous. Its a different audience.
1) Holy Cowichan
2) Native Model in Bazaar Spread
3) Urban Warrior: Anthony Collins (aka Thosh)
4) Could Canada’s Next Top Model be Native?
5) Urban Warrior: Tatanka Means

Abel DaSilva shares a hole lot of secrets with Dumpdiggers

Just after the holidays, I wrote and published two stories about a Sunday Jan 3rd afternoon spent with Abel DaSilva, who is Toronto’s foremost excavation site bottle merchant and also a knowledgeable antiques aficionado on eBay, and power seller and prolific discussion forum participant.

Shopping for Antiques at the Sunday Market in Toronto with Abel DaSilva is an informative article that details the St Lawrence Hall, Sunday Market setting and chronicles the purchases of a wise man leveraging his knowledge of history.  Abel understands tricky niche markets for collectibles and how to buy local and sell global using eBay and related Yahoo antiques collecting groups.

Sightseeing with Abel DaSilva in Downtown Toronto sifts through half a dozen stories about four different lots in the downtown core in which historically significant antiques glass bottles were unearthed.  There were truckloads of antiques buried under just about every condominium building on the shoreline. What’s even more fascinating, is how Abel befriends the excavation company employees, site supervisors and heavy machinery operators by sharing his knowledge of the specimens they unearth in their digging projects. Abel was very generous sharing tips, but redacted some of the juiciest stuff after reading my first draft. My favourite anecdote is the King City car chase where Abel was followed by other diggers from one landfill site to another.

In closing, let me say the most satisfying metric that any freelance business professional could ever hope to measure is the amount of opportunity that he or she receives per week.

Its Christmas time, and Smojoe is busy.

My weekdays have become a parade of sales meetings and training sessions. Evenings and weekends are when I work,  completing the orders, writing proposals and reports, and generally keeping my promises.

On Tuesday Dec 15th, Smojoe met Molson Ferg

Ferg Devins is a master storyteller on Twitter; @MolsonFerg is the real time hero of a three adventures a week.

That’s how we happened to come together, again.  I was sitting at my desk on a hot afternoon and spotted a tweet from @MolsonFerg in which he described himself ‘enjoying a cold Molson Canadian while watching the air show from a boat in the Toronto harbour’. It sounded divine, and when I messaged him back we chatted about our mutual friend Billie Mintz, and his corporate social responsibility expertise, and then how Smojoe markets Canadian charities, and finally how to promote and reward contributors in user submitted content web marketing.

I really wanted to impart the mechanics of my Lenzr photo contests on him, but there wasn’t enough time and this wasn’t the right conduit. So I sent a power point document later that afternoon. Next week Ferg contacted me and we set a date for a meeting… which I missed.  So he set another date and that was Tuesday Dec 15th 2009 at 1pm, at Molson.

Together with Tonia Hammer and Adam Moffit we convened in the Heineken Room and used the overhead projector to look at a dozen different social media properties and blue sky advanced internet marketing tactics for big brands.  Then I got specific about life in the trenches.

After some brief introductions,  I directed the conversation with a detailed look at the processes by which I propagate brand stories with links.  I lectured on exactly how Smojoe distributes sponsored content in articles, blogs and discussion forums. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at Chapter 3, the mechanics of Lenzr. My dissertation included a sneak peek at the link building ritual that perpetuates the contest’s remarkable keyword acquisition abilities.

Then Ferg described his challenges and the concepts they cherish and it was my turn to listen and learn and finally see their approach from the treetops. Above is a snapshot of Ferg encouraging me on at Molson – taken by Tonia Hammer.  And here is a picture of the gift I received at the end of our visit. I haven’t cracked this 12 pack or Molson 67 yet because I’m waiting for friends. Christmas is coming.

SE Telecom signs up to sponsor Lenzr photo contest

On Weds October 16th I journeyed north of the City of Toronto with Chris Binet of BCommunications.ca . We zipped up to 231 Amber Street, Markham Ontario, the headquarters of SE Telecommucations and there talked with a smart young CEO named James Stortz. I was impressed with his knowledge. He at once demonstrated the courage and thought power necessary to blog and share valuable insights on business phone systems. I have no doubt he will grow a popular portal and become a trust agent for all manner of mobile technology. I’m going to help him. Its official.

Will Webb of Innate Media Group has also been contracted, and will perform surgery on the website.  Improvements will include a white hot Wordpress blog with plenty of well integrated 3rd party widgets to build and harness a telecom savvy community and position SETelecom as market leader with valuable experience and plenty of wisdom to share. Look for much more on this subject, including direct links to the new SE Telecom blog in the days and weeks to follow.

Melani Chong is Soy Based Cosmetics Expert

Melani Chong of Soya Boutique is almost ready to launch her new ecommerce website.  She’s still soaking up the last pieces of knowledge she needs to craft a comprehensive strategy that will best disseminate her advanced skincare offering.

Her challenge is to link soy and cosmetics together in everyone’s minds and then dominate that niche on the web with great content.  Her ideas have to be catchy and unforgettable, to be super bookmarkable.  She can offer local perspective on Chris Binet’s new Health and Beauty Toronto ning community, which is still an infant. Keep an eye on that portal and watch it grow in 2010.

I asked Melani to think up some hooks. Perhaps, how the miracle of soy can be used as an anti aging ingredient? or in anti wrinkle creams? and I discovered she’s a natural. When I asked her if she had an anti aging story, she said ‘how about Ways to get rid of the scrotum under your eyes? Is that catchy enough?’ I laughed and she kept on talking about ball skin, and how to tighten away this testical-like skin .. anyway  Smojoe found that hook very compelling. But until she actually launches her soy based cosmetics website and e-store, you should join and follow Melani’s SOYCULT on Facebook

On a sunny Thursday Dec 17th 2009 afternoon

Smojoe had the pleasure of watching Richard Carmichael of FRANK Ideas and Execution meet Dave Dingle of Shrinkray in the wooden environs of Boomboat located at 220 King St West.

Dave is very excited about the recent release of the Shrinkray which allows users to create a mobile browser as easily as they might otherwise draft an email. The system is very straightforward in the manner by which it allows business owners to import elements from their website into a custom field that becomes their new mobile website.

On Friday I trained staff at Wellpath Clinic.  My presentation was directed at the new office manager as I outlined the A,B,D’s of marketing an ecommerce business.  I also showed Richard Porter and Dr. Kathryn Nobrega Porter how to cultivate link opportunities simply by being experts in one or two (or ten or twenty) facets of natural medicine.

The lesson centered on the proper execution of one story funnel. To make a perfect example, I wrote and published an original article entitled Wildcrafting Medicinal Herbs in Ontario and I showed the team how to do basic article marketing and social bookmarking which is the top of the story funnel. Then I discussed how to blog about this new Wildcrafting article and link up to the featured article, and down to the Wellpath website, creating a story funnel.

I wrapped up the lesson by showing how to write discussion forum posts that link to the article - including my favourite thread on Mulberry Trees in Urban Toronto.ca and if you visit this thread please know I’m quite serious about creating a Toronto Mulberry Forager mobile application for the benefit of all humanity.

What is social capital?

I saw Julien Smith on December 1st 2009 inside the Berkley Church in downtown Toronto and he talked about Trust Agents and how to value social networks. He waxed poetic about advice his father had given him concerning perspectives on friends and potential employers. His script was pretty flat actually, and there was no deviation from the template - a couple times he paused for laughs and there werent any and I suspect he was used to laughs in those places and missed them.

In my humble opinion, Julien mislabels social events as Social Capital. These things Smojoe considers to be ’social currency’ which can build capital.  But that’s me being knitpicky … The only thing that kinda bothered me in this presentation was that Julien did not once define social capital in the plainest terms, and so most of the audience is still mesmerized by the abstraction of something that is, in fact, a very real and calculable thing.

This is NOT how Smojoe defines social capital.

In his Third Tuesday in Toronto Meet-up Presentation on Dec 1st 2009 in Toronto, Julien Smith described the idea of building premium social networks and using tools to prep managers before you ask for a promotion, and win jobs before you submit a resume, etc.  His presentation makes sense for bank employees and insurance brokers building careers, but he didn’t say what to me is the most obvious answer to the question ‘what is social capital?’

So what is Social Capital?

From an internet marketing perspective, social capital is a measurable array of incoming links each buried in keyword rich text and from respectable, highly usable sources. This is how Google measures social capital, and this is what puts your URL on page one of search engines.

Every webmaster knows what I’m talking about - to grow a successful ecommerce website today you have to be findable in search engines. The best way to get found first is to rank high on page one of Google for the most popular keywords that best define your offering. The way to the top is to earn links.

As more and more business goes online, more and more URLs compete for the same keywords. For all business owners my advice is the same; now is the time to win as many search terms as possible, because your media will only get stronger and appreciate in value over time.

An example of a social capital bank

The best example of a social capital bank that I know would be the Miss Teen Canada-World pageant, and how they now rank first for the term ‘Miss Teen Canada’ because they have the most social capital, the highest usability and the most trust… yes trust, because even trust is measurable.

The people who join and help build this social trust also withdraw its benefits when they show friends, potential sponsors, project managers, college registrars and potential new employers their blogs. In just about every case, the girls who participated in the 2009 MTC-W Blog Army used their own names in the OnSugar blog link URL, and now these blogs are the first results that appear when they type their names in Google. This gives them findability, credibility, and trust.  There’s a list of all blogs in the 2009 MTCW Blog Army here http://squidoo.com/missteencanada

On Sunday December 6th the Miss Teen Ontario - World pageant brought together fifty hopeful teenagers from all across the province and filled the St Lawrence centre for the Performing Arts on Front St with 500 or more family members and friends. This part of the MTC-W pageant is really popular now and business is booming because of an improved online presence in search engines, and a very strong MTC-W Facebook community.  With hundreds of incoming links from dozens of rich media offerings, press releases and OnSugar blog posts created by the MTCW Blog Army, no other Canadian pageant production can successfully compete against this massive link building machine.

This pageant raised $30K for Free The Children in 2009 through direct appeals from participants to personal sponsors. Thats an example of how to leverage social networks for cash, but the organization has more goodness to share with society.  Associating with the Miss Teen Canada - World pageant is a dream come true for sponsors.  Now businesses that donate to the production enjoy triple rewards. They harvest the traditional media buzz, and enjoy conversational word of mouth advertising, and they leverage the MTCW social capital bank and its powerful link building mechanisms.  So now corporate sponsors get their logo printed in the programs, and their company name mentioned in press, but more importantly the sponsor businesses also get link love from social media press releases, articles, photo captions, tweets and unique blog post links from an army of bloggers who reference them in connection with assignments and activities relating to the pageant.  The sponsor’s online goods and services are connected to more valuable stuff, and so their URLS appear higher in search engines.  So the MTCW social capital bank rewards sponsor businesses with increased findability, credibility and usability.

Build Social Capital With Smojoe

Rob Campbell will be at the Centre for Social Innovation Wednesday, January 20, 2010. I’ll be showing folks exactly how I execute complicated story funnels that capture readers on multiple platforms and bring them home to a ‘buckstop’.

Build Social Capital with Smojoe Wednesday, January 20, 2010
6:00pm to 9:00pm at the Centre for Social Innovation
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 120 Toronto
Social Media Workshop: $40.00 CAD per ticket plus service charges and taxes.

Story Funnels to Buckstops

Bring your laptop and blog with Smojoe! Learn by doing as Rob Campbell demonstrates exactly how to build ‘Story Funnels to Buckstops’ and works through the little known principles of article replication, blogvertising and discussion forum marketing.

Story Funnels to Buckstops is the methodology Rob uses to put clients on the first page of Google search, diminish negative press, and generally increase his clients ‘findability’.

On Thursday November 19th, Rob Campbell the Smojoe ventured west down Lakeshore Blvd to meet Michael Cayley the thought leader behind the Social Capital Value Add (SCVA) and professor at Humber College.

On that day (National Fearless Day), I was asked to give a presentation to Micheal’s Humber PR media class. Much to my delight, I was actually encouraged to get specific about how I start brand conversations and distribute sponsored content on the web.  This particular subject is my greatest passion, and I was happy to oblige. My own thoughts, lists and processes have culminated in the creation of several varied and powerful online resources which I like to show strangers, much as a florist likes to show off his prize winning chrysanthemums.  Indeed I have a garden full of social media marvels and I employ these properties to drive traffic in advanced Smojoe social media tactics.

You may have noticed that the old website for Smojoe is gone. It will be replaced by a new site presently. The new domain will explain many things to many different types of readers using the same text.

Writing that text is the challenge. I’m concentrating on composing new page copy to vastly improve the offering, and speaking aloud at Humber about the fundamental precepts of my business helps me refine those short sweet critical messages. Like this little nugget,

Smojoe is a web savvy choir of bloggers and skilled idea sneezers that write compelling stories for humans and robots.

Bloggers are like farmers. Every post they publish plants two hundred keywords in the fertile soil of their domain. With more time and content and incoming links the keywords mature into search terms to bring traffic to the enterprise.

Story funnels to buckstops is a brand message distribution system that uses interesting hooks to tempt readers across multiple social media platforms and into conversion tools on the client website.

There is a method to the madness of telling stories on the internet. The first rule of thumb is never give the whole story in one place. Its far better to fragment the media and draw curious clickers to multiple platforms en route to an informative and aesthetically pleasing buckstop. When I tell stories on the internet, my practice starts with exclusive articles to which I link blogs and discussion forums. I bookmark the best media on Digg, Delicious and especially StumbleUpon. Here’s Smojoe getting creative on the white board in front of dozens of curious Humber PR social media students at precisely 1:35pm on Thursday Nov 19th 2009 in room 105 building F of Humber College Lakeshore campus.

Photo by Brandie Blackier of Artistic Tendency in Barrie, Ontario. And thanks to Will Webb of Innate media Group for working my laptop and fielding some difficult SEO questions. This individual has become a big part of Smojoe fulfillment because he does such a capital job creating effective buckstops.

Smojoe with City Events seminar, How to Market Events in Toronto went off smoothly at the Spoke Club on Weds Oct 14th , and we had an excellent audience that came to listen and take notes - twelve folks shared their own ideas in exchange for a free 375ml jar of pure Canadian honey.

The first half of the talk was Deb Lewis doing her thing, sharing her secrets and generally bringing the gathering together. At the very start of the night she polled the audience for a show of hands to determine that pretty much everyone in the crowd was somehow involved in event marketing.

Michael Braun the publisher of Bizbash.com was waiting in the audience and came forward to share his business model with everyone… He made it clear that his magazine is always willing to help promote and market events, and his specialty is of course publishing high quality articles with nice glossy photographs detailing the production of upscale parties.

Smojoe Gets Specific About The Path to Web Personality

One thing about my presentation, like my blog, is that it’s filled with good information, and lean on positive affirmation. I don’t butter up the crowd with useless success stories, or tell bogus tales of personal empowerment, because I have so much real information to communicate in such a short period of time. My talk is like a checklist of things to do to complete a long journey.

My speech comes complete with short anecdotes outlining mistakes, scams and things to avoid. The greatest payment I get is seeing the attendees scribbling notes and filling their pads with website URLS and insights and new marketing ideas for their own enterprises. One lady made three pages of notes!

At the end of the evening I walked away drunk with sore feet and a fist full of business cards, promises and compliments; I left a twenty seven dollar bar bill unpaid in the lounge and my half finished paperback novel in the gallery.

Attending the event was David Yohands, a gifted composer and audio production engineer, singer, songwriter and piano bar crooner. David is a class act and likes to laugh and listen and learn things about social media – we put out laptops together at the Dizzy gastro pub on Roncesvalles on Tuesday Oct 20th.  Despite the traffic problem and the loud construction outside, the restaurant is still my first choice for meetings because it has free wireless, a great burger, and commercial free classic rock from sattelite. It was an enjoyable meeting because nobody tried to sell anybody anything; we just shared ideas as we explored the audio tech keyword landscape together.

Everything Smojoe knows about how to market an event in Toronto will be revealed on Weds Oct 14th, 2009 starting at 6:00pm - 8:30pm inside the Spoke Club 600 King St W, Toronto.  Get tickets in advance here they’re cheaper.
https://secure.gettickets.ca/?event=15422

Deb Lewis has certainly outdone herself with this picture she has created to help promote the upcoming How to Market an Event in Toronto seminar at the Spoke Club. This is why Deb Lewis of City Events is one of the best event marketers in the city. Her Photoshop creation is strangely compelling and the bees represent buzz, but they might also represent the honey that I’ll be dispensing to reward audience participation.

Can Social Media Work for Event Marketers?

Social media is defined as using online networks to connect and share stories and information with friends. But its my opinion that effective social media marketing campaigns need time to generate interest before they can affect strangers outside the storyteller’s own sphere of influence.

Most marketers are disappointed with their results after they attempt to use online tools like Facebook and Twitter to sell tickets and ‘put bums in seats’ at actual live events. Nine times out of ten it just doesn’t work, and if you are starting from scratch then building short term solutions is doomed to failure.

Because online media lasts forever, good stories should be used to engineer audiences in long term scenarios.

Smojoe has lots of experience event marketing weird things like ballet movies for Empire Theatres, plays at Shaw Festival and comedy at Second City.  My moment of epiphany came while marketing the Miss Teen Canada-World pageant event this summer. That’s when I went on a quest to find and index all manner of online services that are built to capture event listings. That’s what I’ll be talking about on Weds. There are so many ways to shout out so many different types of messages, but unless you’re actually having conversations with your audience, it isn’t really true social media. Twitter followers and Facebook friends have real value to event marketers, but only if they are niche targeted and qualified to appreciate the messages.

Online Marketing is different than Social Media Marketing

When people ask to use my tools to help sell paid attendance to events, I generally caution that social media shouldn’t be used like that, and any money spent creating perishable stories will be wasted. Rather, I would digitally market their event using Craigslist and Kijiji.com and Eventful etc more on this Oct 14th * You can build widgets on Eventful.com that can be posted on your friends’ homepages.

How to use Social Media Marketing to Build Ready Audiences?

I would attend and document the artist’s event and make videos, take photos and write stories. Then I’d comb the media for the very best story hook. I’d certainly write about any celebrities that attended, detail the fight that happened outside, the forgery that was discovered, the food… whatever I’d combine the media in wonderful stories split across classic Smojoe story funnels that spiral down to the artist’s gallery and blog. I’d hope these destinations have proper conversion tools necessary to sell paintings or register subscribers so the artist’s work is better known and easier to market next time they host a live event.

On Thursday July 23rd 2009, Rob Campbell, the social media director for The 2009 Search for Miss Teen Canada - World was invited to judge The Preliminaries at the Betty Oliphant Theatre.  At 9pm, fifty four girls got off a charter bus outside with dresses, fancy shoes and all their costumes.

Betty Oliphant Theatre is cute little venue on Jarvis Street. It’s one of only a half dozen non union theaters left in Toronto, and has a friendly and accommodating staff that still love their craft and are keen to show visitors and trespassers like myself exactly what’s possible in a modern venue. Smojoe was treated to a preview of the lights and sounds of the upcoming pageant preliminaries, an hour before they actually happened. And I should NOTE the show went seamlessly. Great work guys.

Anyone familiar with the Miss Teen Canada- World beauty pageant knows the pageant director Michelle Weswaldi is the benevolent ‘boss of all aesthetic things’.  She bought or licensed the World title a few years ago, and has been growing the pageant ever since. Unknown to me before I accepted this contract, a national beauty pageant is a year long activity, with regional pageants all across the country in every province; the MTC-W pageant culminates in a week long event in Toronto Ontario at the end of July.

This year, the final moments of The Search For Miss Teen Canada World will occur on July 25th in the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention center at 8pm, and I’ll be sure and post a detailed account of that evening in upcoming dispatches.

Michelle Weswaldi runs a tight ship, like someone that’s organized a fashion event once a month for three and a half years.  Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of watching her interact with some of the young contestants. She has the ability to focus on each one individually all at once. She listens just long enough to determine what’s important, and then interrupts with the answer before the girl is finished describing any of the symptoms of her problem. You get the feeling Michelle has heard it all before, and doesn’t play favourites.

What should the judges actually be judging in a teen beauty pageant? I know the answer to this now.  Beyond physicality (tall thin pretty etc) and whatever strikes them as beautiful, judges look for style.

Michelle Weswaldi, seen wearing an orange dress and shuffling pens in the photo above, was carefully to elaborate on exactly what Judges should look for when ranking performances, and she tried to describe the special confidence she seeks. Its personality, and stage presence.

Thinking back on it all now, there was one contestant (I don’t rememebr which one) that walked a little slower than the beat, but still in time if that makes sense, and she gave the entire catwalk a special charm. And there were girls who were obviously very nervous and gave it nothing. During this experience Smojoe gained insights and a new understanding into the origins of personal style.

The show started at 9:15pm and was done by 10. The first girl to emerge from the curtain was Wendy Huang and she rocked it.  A petite girl,  her performance set the bar pretty high, for me anyway.  She has a bounce and a nice bright smile, and she walked to the very extremes of the stage and waited the precious moments that the audience needs to absorb the full ensemble.  I gave her an eight and I was still watching when she disappeared, with a final wave,  backstage. Wendy had style, and it showed in her walk and her charisma as she presented herself on stage.

And there was applause. Every girl had their fair share of applause, but some of the contestants had personal cheering sections! This was quite effective.  Unlike other sporting events, beauty queen contestants are affected by audience reactions, and having five or eight friends sitting in the audience loudly cheering your performance really helps. It clearly made each of these contestants more confident and sub consciously it plays on the judges too - it lets them know that these girls are somebody’s favourites.

This is Brittani Gray, one of the youngest contestants in this year’s pageant. Her blog is good and full of pictures of herself and she writes with the skill and ability of someone much older. Her performance in the preliminaries was strong, especially her evening dress, which was spectacular.  I include this photo here because its the only one of any swimsuit model that wasn’t blurred or red eyed or badly under exposed, but of course its all of those things.

The Judges marked the papers with numbers that represent ‘beauty’, an intangible something that each contestant strives to possess, both inside and outside their bodies.

Paradigm Events in Muskoka is proud to present Muskoka Connects, a series of educational and networking events bringing people and businesses together in the Muskoka region.

Michelle Planche, CMP and president of Paradigm Events Inc has contacted me and tempted me north to share my wisdom with strangers for greater glory, one free drink, a hearty meal and a hotel room.  It promises to be quite an adventure, and I agreed to appear  because I’ll do just about anything to escape the city in the summertime, even for a day.

Leveraging the Marketing Power of the Internet
Determine your Accountability, Marketability and Accessibility Online, and how to use Search Engine Marketing Software.

Smojoe is set to discuss the fundamentals of business storytelling, and how to leave fragments of information on four different platforms to build brand experience through discovery.

Thursday, July 16th
5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Regatta Muskoka Wharf
1110 Bay Street
Gravenhurst, Ontario
Sagamo Room

Tickets are only $35.00

Also presenting will be Vanessa Williams who is a renown marketing specialist at Yahoo Search Marketing, and right after her is my old Canada Blog Friends subject, Bill Anderson of Muskoka Outdoors.

If this looks like something you’d like to attend, and or if you’re planning a trip to Gravenhurst anyway,  you can register online TODAY at www.eventsinmuskoka.com or call telephone number 1 877 760 0360

Smojoe Speaks Again

Through the generosity of Ellen Smith, principle at EnCourse Business Development Agency, I, Rob Campbell have been invited to share my social media marketing wisdom and experience at The Verity Club this coming Tuesday June 23rd at 8:00 am in the morning.

My message is simple and straightforward. I tell people exactly how to use four specific tools to increase their online social relevance, and how and why expert stories translate into more traffic from Google search.

Smojoe themes like The Search For Experts Drives The Internet, and Build A Bus And Drive It will be explained and exemplified in easy to understand case studies.

Smojoe report templates detail the exact roles played by three different types of media. Articles, blogs and discussion forums work best when combined to communicate different parts of the same story.

The Smojoe Social Media Manual will be available too; the 32 pg instruction booklet makes a great notepad.

I just used my Roberrific Twitter account to update my 114 followers that tomorrow’s Smojoe Social Media Marketing event has been moved to 533 King St West because of high demand for seats. The seating requirements have already exceeded the capacity of The Spoke Club gallery.  Its a nice problem to have, but a problem all the same. With just twenty four hours until the start of the scheduled event, Deb Lewis and her team must now race to get the word out about the venue change, rent chairs, buy beverages, and set up a digital projector and screen at ICON home design (533 King st West) which is on the south west corner of King and Spadina - I pray to God that the internet connection will work flawlessly and so I’m importing Will Webb from Innate Media Group as an insurance policy.

How To Be Famous On The Internet is actually focused more on the business of blogging, and features guest appearances by Raymi the Minx and Petite Fashionista, who are certainly two of the most influential bloggers in Toronto with large international followings. Its so great to have them both together in the same room actually, as they have very different styles and approaches to web journalism.

Date: Weds May 27, 2009

NEW Location due to high demand, ICON Home Design, 533 King Street West SW Corner of King and Spadina) www.iconhomedesign.com
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Networking
For tickets go to: https://secure.gettickets.ca/?event=15051
Cost: $45

Raymi The Minx Vs Petite Fashionista

As discussion forum moderator, I hope to glean from these two local bloggers exactly how they’ve used their blogs to create online community and hype. The event highlights the idea that every successful business in the 21st century will blog out of necessity, but the best will profit from the activity in many different ways. I hope to get specific about the fundamentals of online marketing and demonstrate exactly how Smojoe uses blogs and bloggers like Raymi and Christa to build social media marketing campaigns that win Google searches.

This is another great event by Deb Lewis of Toronto City Events and I sure hope I see you there.

WordCamp is an information buffet.

There are times when you can learn as much as you can handle as fast as you can handle it. At WordCamp, everywhere you look there is someone very interesting and very knowledgeable waiting to talk, and their name and business is printed right on their badge. For someone like me, a hermit who stays home and surfs for one gem a week, this is information overload, and that’s probably what this post will look like…
This blog post will celebrate the gems of knowledge that I learned at WordCamp Toronto 2009.

Friday morning I arrived at 8:30am and recruited help getting my laptop setup. When I asked eight strangers which of them was the smartest, one tall man stood up and introduced himself. John Leschinski of Leschinski Design fixed my new PC’s networking issues at WordCamp 2009 in a Toronto second. Now I follow John on Twitter and hope he’ll continue to school me. That’s Lorelle on Wordpress hanging off him.

Twenty minutes later I watched Terry Smith of B5 Media digest Splendicity.com which is unique because it’s built using Wordpress MU (Multi User) with elements from Buddypress and bbpress.

Then I had lunch with Dan Zen who treated the occasion much like a round table discussion and asked everyone to introduce themselves and then explain what they did for a living.

Friday Afternoon at 2pm Smojoe social media anchored a round table discussion in Track3 wherein I outlined some of the basic constructs of my own social media marketing tactics.

Friday at 3pm in Track1, Erin Blaskie

Erin Blaskie and her sister, Trina traveled from Ottawa

At 3pm Erin outlined how she’s using social media tools to make her alter ego Erin Games famous on the internet. I had to smile when I saw that she’s using the Brian Gardiner Lifestyle ‘Revolution’ template (the exact same one that I have asked Darryl at Deezilla to customize for Queen West Girl.)

Erin has mass knowledge about how to make YouTube videos go viral and seems to have her finger on the pulse of the videogame community - she showed off some other powerful media tools that let people watch her gaming. They are hungry for tips and tricks that will give them an edge over their friends. Erin has had a lot of success as a guest blogger on some big video game websites, the names of which didn’t catch…

After her presentation there was some discussion in the audience about the mental shift that’s required to stop being just a documentarian and start becoming the star of your own blog. Its all about finding the confidence to hand your camera to your friend and ask them to photograph you at the event, because you are the focus, and the event is just the backdrop

The next day, Saturday I attempted to learn something about PostRank.com

I’ll admit some of this stuff just goes right over my head

Joey deVilla is a Microsoft evangalist

Joey was one of the superstars at WordCamp. He is very approachable and immensely entertaining. His website Global Nerdy is excellent, and his personal blog, Joey deVilla.com is definitely worth a gander.

Here are some pictures of Joey playing his accordion to much applause at The Drake Hotel. While outside sunning our bodies he related more wisdom from the empire. Joey mentioned a book by Maggie Mason, “Nobody Cares What You Had For Lunch” and he believes every blogger read it… ok well that’s not exactly what he said, but that’s what I took away…

WordCamp Toronto 2009 Opening Night Party at Lou Dawgs

The basement restaurant that hosted the opening night party was fashioned from concrete and decorated with a thin veneer of paint and wood. I thought it was odd that they only served Sleemans brand beer, but that wasn’t the only negative about Lou Dawgs - worst was the acoustics. In this environment there was no place for the sound to go… Any band would have been too loud.  The blues band, Spy vs Spy was over 30 decibels too loud, and consequently most of the attendees left the bar to continue their conversations out on the sidewalk.

Many thanks to David Peralty the writer and thinker and photographer behind Branding David. What a great beer shot! This is Paul Perrier and Andrew Ainsworth and me.

On Friday April 3rd, 2009 Rob Campbell was in the right place at the right time to rock out with Rob Reiner, the drummer of Anvil. There I was strolling through the movie theatre lobby when i spotted the rock legend holding court at the base of the escalators. He was surrounded by some attractive leather clad, middle aged groupies with big hair.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

At fourteen years old, best friends Steve Lips Kudrow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal,” influenced a musical generation including Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. Though Anvil never made it, they never stopped playing or believing. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now well into their fifties, set off to record their thirteenth album, “This is Thirteen,” in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dream.

http://anvilmovie.com
http://facebook.com/anvil

These are the albums / CDs that Anvil has released over the years.

• Hard ‘N’ Heavy (1981)
• Metal on Metal (1982)
• Forged in Fire (1983)
• Backwaxed (1985)
• Strength of Steel (1987)
• Pound for Pound (1988)
• Past and Present - Live in Concert (1989)
• Worth the Weight (1991)
• Plugged in Permanent (1996)
• Absolutely no Alternative (1997)
• Speed of Sound (1999)
• Anthology of Anvil (1999)
• Plenty of Power (2001)
• Still going Strong (2002)
• Back To Basics (2004)
• This is Thirteen (2007)