BC Soundliners Inc. is a marine tourism and transportation company founded to develop and operate pocket cruise ship(s) called “The Soundliner”.

The Company will offer passengers day excursions and overnight travel with accommodations with a unique tourism experiences in the coastal towns and waters in the region often referred to as the Salish Sea.

We have been working with them for the past six weeks developing their brand identity and this is their new Logo…

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Dear Steve,

I am writing to say how delighted we are with the marketing tools and web site you created for the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary.

Working with The Steve Roper Group was a positive experience from start to finish. The re-design of our organization’s logo and stationary began the process, and set the stage for the new look and feel of the web site. All of the new design elements were skillfully incorporated into a very welcoming and visuallyintegrated visitor experience on the web site.

That, combined with a substantial increase in search engine presence, has significantly raised our profile in the community, which is already being reflected in an increase of donations coming in.

The ease of updating the page content was incorporated into the design as we requested, and that will allow us to maintain fresh and current content to keep the visitor’s interest.

We look forward to working with you on other projects in the future.

Sincerely,
Terry Morrison, Executive Director.

Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary

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Proven products. Expert advisors. Personalized service.

This simple formula is the reason Angel Accessibility Solutions has become, and continues to be, so successful. After 16 years of designing, servicing and delivering ceiling lifts, they’ve decided to share the fruits of this success through this website and I am thrilled to have been chosen to work with them to achieve that goal.

Angel pioneered the Total Injury Prevention Solutions model (known as TIPS) — an unbiased, evidence-based approach to identifying needs, choosing equipment and supporting staff in the successful adoption of a safe patient handling program.

This innovative spirit is one of the reasons Angel was selected as the designated ceiling lift vendor for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, the Interior Health Authority and Northern Health Authority, and was recently chosen as a strategic supplier to San Francisco’s renowned Laguna Honda Hospital. A commitment to technical innovation, exceeding client expectations, and patient-focused solutions continues to set Angel apart.

Integrating a Wordpress Blog seamlessly into the new Angel web site offers many advantages to Angel, some of which are as follows;

A Blog, which I have been promoting for several years now, is a highly useful online marketing tool which allows clients the following opportunities and advantages;

1 – It allows Angel in this case, to update their own web site frequently without changing static html pages, resulting in constant relevant content for search engines. Fresh content attracts more attention from search engines. Search engines love fresh content and there is no easier way to create relevant regular content than a blog.

2 – It maximizes backlinks which are relevant to increasing online page ranking.

3 – Fresh informative blog content can help a site be seen as a greater authority on a topic

4 – A blog containing original ideas and opinions will be an invaluable way to attract links from other blogs and websites in your market, improving the overall footprint of your website and business across the Internet, while raising your profile within your relevant community/industry.

However, the decision has to be made to dedicate the resources to maintaining a Blog. Integrating a Blog and not having the dedicated resources really does not make much sense so before you choose to integrate a Blog, make certain you are prepared to maintain one.

As an integral part of the development of Angel Solutions as a Thought Leadership site, Angel had budgeted for bi-monthly updates.

Our goal with Angel Solutions was to create a Thought Leadership Website, where visitors’ could express their views on topics related to Angels business. A Website forum is like a virtual round-table conference, where visitors can virtually sit next to each other and bounce ideas and views across the room. The knowledge that they can offer could be beneficial to all who participate in these forums.

The advantage of hosting a forum on a Website is that the views and advice offered by visitors’ stays on your Website for all your visitors to see. Thus, any visitor can read the views of another visitor even if he or she visits your site after you post those views.

Another advantage is that forums attract a wide section of society to express their views. This means that your Website generates additional traffic not only for those wishing to type in their views but also for those visitors that might want to read those views. This traffic can successfully convert into paying clients once you manage to collect the email addresses of those visitors.

By hosting a forum on your Website, you automatically attain credibility as an expert in your field of activity, thus establishing the Thought Leadership quality we are looking for, even as you get much needed advice from tips posted by your visitors.

Such a forum can also help you collect valuable data and feedback about your industry which can be implemented to improve your business. A forum thus turns your Website into an interactive tool that is useful to communicate with your visitors. This will help in creating and building a rapport with your visitors, which can turn into long-lasting relationships. This will increase the trust factor of your Website and this will result in your visitors recommending your site to their acquaintances.

The biggest advantage of forums is that apart from gaining credibility and increasing business, a solid Website with good forum topics can weave a strong community around it, and you too can benefit along with other visitors who take part in such forums.

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Waimea Canyon is the largest canyon in the Pacific and very beautiful to drive through and stop at the numerous vantage points along the way.

The canyon measures 10 miles long, 1 mile wide, and more than 3,500-feet deep. It was carved thousands of years ago by rivers and floods that flowed from Mount Waialeale’s summit. The lines in the canyon walls depict different volcanic eruptions and lava flows that have occurred over the centuries.

Even though smaller than the Grand Canyon of Arizona, Waimea Canyon certainly rivals it’s beauty.

There are numerous lookouts and hikes along the drive which offer terrific views of every aspect of this natural wonder. The canyon is protected by the Koke’e State Park which encompasses 4,345 acres of land and has 45 miles of trails that run through the canyon and the nearby Alakai Swamp.

We did not visit the swamp as signs were telling us that if it has been raining, mud can get thigh high… no thanks.

The elevation makes the air 10-15 degrees cooler than in the valley and by afternoon many areas are often shrouded in clouds, but we discovered that those clouds also move quite quickly and if you visit and it is cloudy, make sure you wait an hour.

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Just 17 kilometers from downtown Victoria, Goldstream Provincial Park lies amid the splendour of a spectacular old-growth temperate rain forest.

Besides being a beautiful day trip within a short distance from downtown Victoria, from October through December you can see a world class salmon-spawning stream with thousands of Salmon returning. And quite literally, within arm’s length. During this period of the year, the Goldstream River is the scene of one of nature’s spectacles as chum, coho and chinook salmon enter the river via Finlayson Arm from the Pacific Ocean. Three to four years previously, these same salmon were born here before traveling to the sea to grow and mature. Their return to spawn and die in their ancestral spawning beds is fascinating.

It doesn’t stop there. During this amazing time of year you can visit the park and it’s always-changing Visitor Centre. The centre is named after Freeman King, an early naturalist who probably reached more children than any other naturalist on Vancouver Island. The centre is at the mouth of the river, overlooking the Goldstream estuary, nestled among giant black cottonwoods and red alder trees.

If you are ever in Victoria and have a couple of hours to enjoy something wonderful, visit Goldstream Park.

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While driving home from my sister’s wedding in northern California in 2008, we stopped at a place we had stopped in at several years earlier while on our road trip from Vancouver Island to Belize… Ruby Beach, and found it just as mystical as the first time we visited.

A short quarter mile hike opens up to a beautiful vista with a river flowing in from above, which is where the photo here was taken.

Both times we have visited, the fog has been thick and created an eerie but mystical feeling of wandering along the beach where large rock outcroppings rise out of the water just feet from shore.

For anyone visiting the area, we recommend a visit for an hour or two.

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I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to teach scuba diving off the barrier reef of Belize for close to four years, and that is enough to spoil most anyone as southern Belize is one beautiful place to spend your days diving.

The reefs are still pristine and in places like my personal favorite, Seal Caye, at the bottom of the Sapodilla Cayes, almost unbelievable. If you anchor carefully, you can set your anchor in 8 feet of sand at the front of your boat and 80 feet at the stern, then slide off along one of the most beautiful mini-walls you can imagine. And easy to dive. You can do a number of different profile dives here and end the dive in ten to fifteen feet of crystal clear water before surfacing.

This is a truly world class dive. You can head down to 80 plus feet if you want but from my experience diving this many times, I found the best marine life and coral well above 65 feet, frequented by Eagle Rays who flew past just off to your left if you are travleing clockwise around the reef.

There are tube sponges as tall as a full grown man along the walls here. So, if you are in southern Belize, check this spot out.

Off Ranguana Caye, top center photo and top photo on the right, towards the south, there is a difficult to find site called The White Hole. If you leave the island from the southern side and head towards the reef about five miles away, you will find three breaks in the reef and three sandy ravines which lead to the wall.

It’s very hard to find and I suggest you find Arthur Westby in the village and have him show you where it is. Arthur was my divemaster and friend for the years I dove in Belize and he’ll show you the spot.

It features a large canyon of gleaming white sand at 45 feet which runs down to a large opening and a lip which surrounds the sand as it settles at the top of the wall. As you swim to this lip at 55 feet and peer over, there is virtually no bottom. I brought many advanced divers that I was certifying there so they could experience the wonder of a true barrier reef wall dive.

Moving along the wall at 55 feet is a magical drift dive as you travel beside the wall on your left and the coral on your right.

To the north of Ranguana lays a garden of spur and groove formations just west of the wall that you can easily spend dozens of dives exploring. In between the grooves are home to resting Nurse Sharks and a wide variety of marine life too varied to list. Worth several dives.

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Designer, stylist, visual artist, and retailer, Sally Yep believes that fashion represents an opportunity for women to express themselves, to indulge their whimsy, and create impressions for every occasion.

For twenty years, under her Sally Yep Design label, Sally Yep developed personalized garments, from the first conceptual sketches, to fabric selection, to manufacture, to the finished product.

In 1992, she won the prestigious Elle Quebec Designer Award. She was the creative force behind three stores in Montreal and Westmount before opening Sally Yep Bis.

Explaining her philosophy, Sally says,

“Whether your goal is to be fashion forward or fashion current, I can help assemble an outfit or an entire wardrobe to fulfill the image a woman wants to project of herself. Just as there is no one-size-fits-all, there is no one-style-suits-all. But, for each individual we can find a look that makes her feel comfortable and look fantastic. More than anything, I want our clients to always feel happy about themselves and what they’re wearing.”

SallyYep Bis is a modern turn on the lost art of the full service boutique, offering personal fashion coordination, comprehensive wardrobe consultations, and client privileges such as fulfilling exclusive purchasing requests.

Sally has the unique talent to customize garments and, with her highly skilled on-site alterations department, to ensure the perfect fit and look.

She puts her fashion savvy, attention to detail, and ability to listen closely to good use in building bonds of trust with her clients.

She has a particular eye for trends, for quality, and for what works on each individual.

We are pleased to have completed her first web site. Check it out here >

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Jack Daley was and is a pioneer in the Canadian Advertising scene and I was fortumate to work with him for a period of eighteen months at BBDO in Windsor Ontario. Some years later, I asked Jack to write me a testimonial, and in his usual gracious way, he acknowledged that he would… but I did not expect this;

‘It was my privilege to have worked with Stephen Roper when I was General Manager of BBDO Canada’s dedicated automotive unit (then named PentaMark Worldwide Canada).

To put things in perspective: In late 1999, BBDO Worldwide acquired Ross Roy Communications (subsequently and temporarily re-branded as InterOne Marketing Group), and I was seconded to integrate the communications activities of both agencies, to best serve all of the business intelligence, strategic planning, creative development and media channel deployments for our client, Daimler Chrysler Canada.

Mr. Roper was Acting Creative Director at InterOne Marketing at the time, and his experience in multi-channel communications, combined with a visceral appreciation for client relations and consumer ‘triggers’ made him a highly valued member of the team, as we endeavored to build the first truly integrated, multi-disciplinary communications services consultancy in the Canadian industry. Without his help, we could not have made that happen.

Most importantly, he was eminently successful in delivering results.

In addition to raising our creative standards, he engineered one of the most well recognized new vehicle launch efforts in the history of Canadian automotive marketing… the 2000 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

Steve oversaw every element of the pre-launch activities. In the early days of internet marketing (1999), his wild-postings (dedicated ‘funky url’s) and on-street vehicle displays, drove more that 650,000 online requests for information prior to product launch… a resounding success, even in today’s terms… which was further enhanced by dealer events (tail-gate parties) that zeroed in on target, while demonstrating product versatilities.

As one might gather, I have great respect for, and confidence in, Mr. Roper’s craftsmanship and marketing savvy. I have no hesitation in recommending him as a valued addition to any team, in meeting any challenge that requires excellence.

I would be pleased to handle any and all enquiries about Steve. He is, without doubt, a credit to our craft.’

Jack Daley. President. The Daley Group

Thanks Jack.

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For the past four years, I have been consulting with my clients to reduce their costs on non-trackable forms of advertising and focus their marketing budgets on web site development and optimization.

As such, the majority of my clients have weathered the recession rather well but more importantly, have emerged stronger and better positioned to build their businesses in the foreseeable future.

It’s a well used phrase but the words ‘paradigm shift’ trickle through my mind as I write this… what seems obvious to some is not so obvious to others …

With todays technology, if a company does not focus their marketing efforts online and continually evolve with the developments, they are making a mistake. Falling behind in all of the elements of online marketing and all of the pieces of the puzzle that accompany it IS where all the majority of businesses will have to be paying attention to.

Facebook has changed the rules of the game, Google will work towards moving everything into the Cloud and Apple will continue to develop game-changing technologies. The applicatons that are subsequently developed upon those technologies are changing so fast that when many of my clients decide they need to get on board, I often say they are too late but at least they then begin to recognize the opportunities of these new technologies.

And of course, then there is good design versus simply having a web presence.

I believe that when consumers look at web sites, they make the majority of the decisions to purchase a product based on the quality of the overall design of a web site, which includes visual and navigational architecture.

IF you are serious about your business success, be serious about your web presence.

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