Gary Eckstein

For my regular Website visitors you may have noticed a few changes over the past two weeks; my URL has changed to http://eckstein.id.au, the ‘look and feel’ of the Site has changed and the content has had a refresh (the blog posts remain the same however).

The reasons for this are;

1. The work I perform has changed since I originally set up my Website; I now perform far more custom training as well as deliver training for certificate and diploma courses (specifically in Management/Business and I.T.) in Sydney.
2. For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, aligning my URL Top Level Domain (TLD) with the location of my target audience is the best thing to do (my target customers/clients are those in Australia therefore a .au TLD rather than a .com is most appropriate).
3. I love training and want to keep increasing my exposure as a freelance/contract trainer and deliverer of custom courses. The new Website affords the opportunity to focus on my training and assessment interests.

I was very fortunate with my old URL (and the content) to have some significant highlights such as being listed on a Wikipedia Quality Management (specifically the Theory of Constraints) Wiki as recommended further reading. Reddit and Digg also helped to refer over 10,000 visitors a day for some time J. Having built up an Online reputation it takes serious consideration to change a successful URL however I firmly believe that, even although the number of visitors to http://eckstein.id.au will likely decrease, the quality of visitors will increase in proportion of the total number of visitors (SEO is about quality and quantity).

I am very excited about this new Website where I will be continuing to post technical and management articles to the Blog however will increasingly add further training, education and assessment related articles. I will be communicating more effectively on this site as to the services I offer which include working for Registered Training Organizations (RTOs) as a trainer and assessor as well as expanding the offering of custom courses where demand has far exceeded my expectations (e.g. ‘How to Create Simple and Effective Electronic Newsletters’ and ‘Create and Manage Your Own Professional Website’).

As an aside, for those wondering, yes I am still an avid WordPress fan. Just as the Site before, this Site is powered by WordPress.

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It’s too darned hot… Yip, it’s going to be a hot one here in Sydney today. Already it is humid and sweltering…

Sydney, Australia Weather Forecast

free online clock desktop clock

Reminds me of that great song sung by Erasure on ‘Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute To Cole Porter‘ – It’s Too Darn Hot (lyrics below)

It’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot I like to sup with my baby tonight Refill the cup with my baby tonight I like to sup with my baby tonight Refill the cup with my baby tonight But I ain’t up to my baby tonight Cause it’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot It’s just too darn hot I like to coo with my baby tonight And pitch the woo with my baby tonight I like to coo with my baby tonight And pitch the woo with my baby tonight But brother you fight my baby tonight Cause it’s too darn hot According to the kinzy report Every average man you know Much prefers his lovey dovey to court When the temperature is low But when the thermometer goes way up And the weather is sizzling hot Mr. Pants for romance is not Because it’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot Oh, it’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot I like to coo with my baby tonight And pitch the woo with my baby tonight I like to coo with my baby tonight Pitch the woo with my baby tonight Brother you fight my baby tonight Cause it’s too darn hot Mr. Gob for his squab, A marine for his queen, A G.I. for his cutie pie is not Oh it’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot It’s too darn hot I gotta get the heat down Gotta get the heat down

I thoroughly recommend that anyone who has not watched the Red, Hot and Blue video/DVD to have a look. Description below from Amazon.com:

‘The wildly successful Red Hot + Blue project, featuring such world-class artists as U2, Annie Lennox, Tom Waits, and Sinead O’Connor, and such acclaimed directors as Wim Wenders, Alex Cox, and Jonathan Demme, is finally being released with the care that it deserves. Originally issued in 1990, the Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute To Cole Porter album created massive media attention for AIDS relief and became the first release in a 15-album series. An eclectic musical homage to the legendary songwriter Cole Porter, it went platinum, spent 24 weeks on the Billboard charts, and generated $3 million dollars for AIDS charities worldwide, but its companion piece, a VHS collection of music videos, was somewhat relegated to the shadows. That changes with the 2-disc Special Edition package of Red Hot + Blue, which contains all the music videos on a DVD and the album, complete with a much-needed remastering, on a CD, both in the same package.’

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I was interested to see the article this morning in the Sydney Morning Herald titled: ‘First it was the march of the cane toad … now the brush turkey is eating Sydney’. We have a few brush turkeys (also called scrub turkeys and bush turkeys) around our house; we live in the bush – officially a ‘rain forest’ which these large-ish birds love. They certainly aren’t the prettiest of birds however they have a lot of character. The only problem we have had with them is that they chase our two year old daughter and sometimes wander into the house.

Apparently a large amount of damage may be done to gardens when the brush turkeys gather vegetation to build large mounds in which to bury their eggs (which the male attends). So, they may not be the prettiest and they may not be garden friendly but they are great to have around.

P.S. They belong to the family ‘Megapode’ (also known as Incubator Birds and Mound-builders)

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I love Sydney and especially the Ku-ring-gai Council area which is leafy and beautiful. Unfortunately some idiot state government people have decided that Ku-ring-gai needs LOTS of high-rise apartments.

Image by Amit (Sydney) via Flickr

Lend your support to Not so High in Ku-ring-gai or let your opposing voice be heard through the various petitions going around.

Just in case you don’t know which suburbs encompas Ku-ring-gai here they are; Gordon, Killara, Lindfield, Turramurra, Wahroonga, Pymble, Roseville, St. Ives,

P.S. Dictionary.com describes the planners of this high-density housing a bureaucrat as ‘an official who works by fixed routine without exercising intelligent judgment’. How true!

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In parts one and two of the dozen simple and effective SEO essentials the following Search Engine Optimization tips were described; fresh Content, text styles and formatting, descriptive URLs, sites linking to your webpages, Sitemap.XML, Robots.txt, Meta Tags and validating HTML. In the final part, the following are illustrated; Social Networking SEO, DMOZ, page load speeds and unreadable content.

Twitter, Mixx, Digg, Reddit and the Read the rest of this entry »

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