Cyrius News

Cyrius Media Group is proud to have launched Angas Park's new Website in December 2009 – www.angaspark.com.au

Famous for their dried fruits, such as prunes and apricots, Angas Park also has retail shops in Angaston and Mildura, in the heart of their fruit-growing districts.  The new Website features a wide range of recipes as well as a full e-commerce online store.  Cyrius allocated our company resources to the project, including designers, editors, coders, usability testers and project management, to ensure every little detail was taken care of, with the materials the client supplied.  The end result is a Website that is visually appealing, informative and easy to use.  Within an hour of launch, the online shop made its first sale – the first of many as the festive season commenced.  Cyrius thanks Angas Park for the privilege of being involved and looks forward to supporting you for the life of the site.

We are proud to announce the launch this week of two new Websites – downsizingwithease.com.au and ntsyntheticsurfacing.com.au.  Both Websites use a range of features designed to market and promote the businesses.

Downsizing With Ease came to us with their logo and branding, and a mission to grow their business into a new market.  The Retirement Village industry depends on reliable suppliers to help retirees adjust to the big step of downsizing into a new home.  Lorraine's business specialises in just this service.  The Website has tips, articles, news of presentations and seminars, gallery, mailing list and a content management system so it can be updated in-house.  We are very proud of this new site and wish Lorraine and her team all the very best as we begin the Website marketing and promotional process.

NT Sports and Playground Surfacing covers half of Australia – not literally, but their service takes them deep into the Aussie outback, providing safe playground and sports surfaces for kids to play on.  The new Web design brings together all of their experience, capabilities and portfolio and delivers it in a big, dynamic portal into the surfacing world.  They came to us with a logo, a simple brochure and a few photos.  We worked very closely with them to design the wire-frame for the site, the content and navigation and set up the site in a way that makes it grow over time as their portfolio fills with more and more big projects and more outback adventures.

Cyrius created a 'coming soon' Website for NTSPS that was a cut above your average 'coming soon' site.  In fact, while we were developing the main Website, the 'coming soon' site attracted a large number of lucrative enquiries.  The new site positions them squarely at the top of their field and promises to bring in many more projects over the coming years.

Yesterday, we were very privileged to host a small business Website workshop at the NSW Industry and Investment Parramatta Headquarters.  The seminar was well attended with about 60 small business owners braving the afternoon traffic to attend the two-hour event.  Stefan used the opportunity to pass on a wealth of experience from his 13 years producing, marketing and writing about Websites.  The two-hour session was only just long enough as there was so much to cover and so much great involvement with audience participation.

The subjects covered included:

• How a wire-frame mock-up of a site ensures a better end result
• Designing the right Website for each individual business
• Choosing a Content Management System
• Using Multimedia to enhance your Website
• Marketing techniques
• Social media and social networks
• Functions and objectives of a Website.

A couple of attendees graciously offered their Websites up for assessment and critique by the group by putting them on the big screen to discuss them.  This was a lively part of the workshop with many excellent suggestions being made to improve the Websites and make them more profitable.  At the end of the event, feedback forms were handed in and the opinion was unanimous – that the event was useful, informative and, for many, inspirational.  We look forward to meeting the attendees to hear how they got on applying their newly gained insights.

Thanks to the whole team at Industry and Investment for the great efforts promoting and holding the event.  http://www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/pages/default.aspx

We are excited to announce that DSRD (NSW Department of State and Regional Development) has selected Cyrius to present a seminar as part of the E-Talk business seminar series in October.  We hope to see you there.

Here are the details:

http://events.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/Events.aspx?eventid=1168

Creating a Website: Building the ultimate Online Media Channel for a business – 22 Oct 2009 4:00–6:00pm

In this seminar, you will discover how to create your Website as a marketing tool, PR agency, media outlet and shopfront, that will bring high returns and value to your business – attracting the right customers, building your brand and generating traffic.

This seminar will cover:

• The Website wire-frame
• Content and design
• Marketing techniques
• Multimedia
• Social media and social networks.

What will you learn:

• Understanding online media
• How to market your business on the Web
• Formulas for a successful Website
• Pitfalls to avoid
• Managing and maintaining a Website
• How to get a good design.

Who should be interested?

• Small to medium business owners
• Marketing managers
• Owners of Websites who are not happy with their current site
• Employees responsible for company Websites.

Where?

Western Sydney Business Centre
NSW Department of State and Regional Development
Level 2, 470 Church Street (corner Harold Street)
North Parramatta, NSW 2151

How time flies!  It is hard to believe that it has been 12 months since we launched our ‘new’ Website.  The last year has seen us very busy, taking care of our clients, designing and developing many new Websites, revamping Websites and doing Website maintenance for our existing clients.  We have clients all over Sydney, from Cronulla to Palm Beach, Bondi Junction to Penrith.  We even have some clients in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin and Coffs Harbour.  They do keep us busy, but that is the way we like it – taking care of many great Website projects and consulting to ensure successful outcomes.  We have taken on a few new clients to do a variety of custom programming jobs, graphic design work, marketing, Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click management.  It has been an exciting year.

Now, 12 months on, we are managing to find the time to update our own Website.  We have already upgraded the Web Design portfolio page – and will be adding more as we have a few new Websites in the pipeline.  Now we are going through the rest of the Website and making many improvements, using our CMS, blog software and other programming tools.

Thank you for checking it all out.  Thanks also to all our clients who have stuck by us through the “global financial crisis” – which we all seem to have weathered quite well, thanks to smart marketing and using all our Websites to good effect.

(by Allen Horrell) Last Tuesday, Ryde Rotary hosted their annual “Pride of Workmanship” Awards.  Once again we had a great group of five “do-ers” as Maxine was later to describe them, and an equally impressive five sponsors who put these people forward for recognition.

Gladesville Local Area Commander Phil Flogel spoke for Leading Senior Constable Simon Hack, who was appointed to lead a team that went on to arrest hundreds of drug dealers and other wrongdoers making Gladesville a safer community in the process.  It was a tough job but Simon could hack it!

Then Martina Fox introduced Beth Stewart who has given Ryde Hospital the last 33 years of her life as a Pink Lady Volunteer, and has been the President of the Pink Ladies for the last 10, and raised over $26,000 for the Hospital during this time.  What an example of dedication and giving back to her community!

Next up another member of the Ryde Hospital family, Joanne Uttley was praised for her dedication by Site Manager Linda Davidson.  Among many other things she has done in transforming the operations of Ryde Hospital, Joanne got to spend the $26,000 that Beth and her Pink Ladies raised for her.

Maxine said later that “we have a Rolled Gold Health System in this Country” and we should be proud of it.  I think it is actually Gold leaf, it is rolled so thin in places – where would we be without Beth’s $26K, and Ryde Rotary’s many donations to the same hospital over the years?

Toni Scott of the Christian Community Aid Service gave a glowing tribute to their Administration Officer Diane West, who worked with their large team of carers, 80% of whom come from non-English-speaking backgrounds, but do a marvelous job in our community, caring for the less fortunate.  Diane has become an expert in dealing with government agencies and helping them correct their bureaucratic errors where these have a negative impact of her clients.

Then Peter Marcon of the Eastwood LAC gave a spirited account of the work of the Eastwood policing team’s good work and in particular that of Detective Senior Constable Martin Wilson, whom he described as “the last man you would want chasing you if you had done something wrong”.  I can’t think of higher praise for a Police Officer, especially from a commander of the calibre of Peter Marcon.  He also addressed us as a Club, praising the importance of this recognition we give to his officers each year.  In her keynote speech Maxine McKew praised the Eastwood officers for their community policing, café society style!  She also spoke of the society transformation brought about by people who never make it into the History books, and often do vital work without acknowledgment.  But not tonight – that’s our job!

It seems incredible that this Rotary International Vocational Project started right here in our Club, the brainchild of PDG Les Whitcroft, with his slogan “Do it once, Do it right!”  The Club’s thanks go to Burkhart Foertsch who did it right for the Club again this year.

Maxine spoke very well and with heart tonight, and even I have to admit she is better looking than John Howard!

Pictured:  Stefan Sojka with fellow Ryde Rotarian, Allen Horrell, hanging out with Federal Member for Bennelong, Maxine McKew at the recent 2009 Rotary “Pride of Workmanship” Awards

Our new website is launched.  After 5 years, our old site was ready for retirement.  We have evolved a great deal since then – this new site is a reflection of what we have become.  The whole team is proud to have been able to contribute to this new Website.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Creative Director Stefan Sojka recently presented two major events for the State Government’s “Small Business September”. “Concept to Delivery” at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in North Ryde and “Small Business is Big Business on the Internet” in Parramatta.  Both presentations were well received by an enthusiastic audience of small businesses looking to improve their on-line performance.  A podcast of one of the presentations can be found here.  Video excerpts will be available soon.

Creative Director Stefan Sojka presented a workshop for home-based businesses as part of Home-Based Business Week.  A full house of up and coming home business owners attended the workshop, which also featured an excellent presentation on sustainable business, by Pamela Jones, from The Environmental Type – http://www.pamelajones.com.au/  The event was hosted by the Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD) – http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/ and was an excellent way to highlight home-based businesses and provide them with information and inspiration.