Quick announcement to Applied Web Vitals’ clients and others using the latest version of WordPress, version 2.6—the plugin PodPress, used for podcasting and video casting, is not working with the latest versions of WordPress. This issue has been outstanding for several weeks now and a resolutions does not appear to be available in the near future. For those interested, I can suggest an alternative to keep going. One that actually offers great advantages in media management, including sideshows, video and audio.

While on the topic of freeware though, some other thoughts have come to mind…

The reality of open and free technology catches up with us eventually. PodPress was developed and is maintained by a gracious individual who doesn’t profit from his work and offers it free to the public. Thousands (141,380 to be exact) have benefited and profited from this great tool. And at the same time, when it stops working, the same number of users come to a screeching halt. While some users like myself are occasional to frequent users, I know that others include large news syndications. What a great deal of faith and operating efficiencies we put into freeware!

Man, it hurts when your tools stop working! But if I tallied up the potential cost of all the freeware tools that I use, my business wouldn’t be able to afford them and wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is now.

…And so we appreciate the great benefits of the latest information revolution

Applied Web Vitals is a web design and development company. Please feel free to contact us to explore your next design, redesign or site enhancement project.

WordPress Plugin: podPress
The podPress plugin is a must-have for podcasting. It adds a flash audio (and video) player to your post when attaching a media file. In addition, it handles the RSS podcast feed options, including iTunes settings.

Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/podpress/

Audio recording
Recording audio will require an additional piece of software. We recommend the audio recording software Audacity (free). The process is pretty streamlined and shouldn’t be too cumbersome. You may even find the additional features with this software to be useful for editing and polishing your audio. Following are the links and steps:

Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

1. Audacity application:
Under Recommended Download, click Audacity 1.2.6 installer (or whatever the lastes version is)
Install the application (remember to disable your antivirus software if possible – generally a good idea whenever install an application)

2. Mp3 encoder:
Under Optional Downloads, click LAME MP3 encoder
This will download a zip file. You will need to extract the files to a location that you won’t change in the future. If you have access to the Audacity folder in the Programs folder on your C drive, you may put them there. I’m not sure what Vista will give you access to.

3. The first time you export a recorded audio file as an MP3, Audacity will ask you location the LAME MP3 decoder file on your computer. You’ll need to navigate to wherever you saved it in step 2 above. This will only happen the first time, provided the decoder file is never moved.

Posting Podcast
On the “Write Post” page (when you’re actually writing a new post) in your blog admin

1. Scroll down to the Upload section, current just below the Podcasting section
2. Browse for a file on you local computer, enter title and description if you want, and click the Upload botton [*Alternate upload option for large files below]
3. The next view that comes up automatically will have the name of the file - i.e. test1.mp3.
4. Right click on the file name and select Copy Link Location
5. Now go to the Podcasting section and click the Add Media File button
6. Paste (Ctrl+v or right click paste) inside the Location field – the url will look something like http://yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/test1.mp3
7. That’s it, unless you want to position the flash player in the post. Insert “” where you want inside the Post body to position the player.

*Uploading large audio files
Depending on the server setting and restriction for your hosting account, you may find the WordPress file upload option to error, indicating that the file size exceeds the maximum allowed size. In this case, you will need to FTP your file to the server and manually enter the URI when adding the podcast to your post.

We recommend the FTP client FileZilla. Once downloaded and installed from the following location, you will need to establish a connection with your server. File > Site Manager > click the New Site button > enter the appropriate login and connection setting for your hosting server account.

Go to http://filezilla-project.org/

Welcome to the Applied Web Vitals podcast. Again, we held our Wednesday 6PM web technology discussion last night at Barnes & Nobles in Market Commons, Myrtle Beach, SC. Following is a podcast summarizing the discussion.

 

 Web Technology Discussion: Blog Plugin Recommendations [8:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (24)

Podcast Topic: Blog Plugin Recommendations

Akismet: A discussion anti-spam plugin that utilizes a central and ever growing database. You will need to create a user account at wordpress.com to gain an API KEY that is required to activate the plugin.
All in One SEO Pack: Create custom page titles, meta description & meta keywords
- Also enable Permalinks in your blog settings and be sure to include the post name (%postname%). Permalinks in tandem with the All in One SEO Pack will produce keyword rich posts with keywords appearing in the page title, url, meta data, and of course the post body.
podPress: This plugin is a must-have for podcasting. It ads a flash audio (and video) player to your post when attaching a media file. In addition, it handles the RSS podcast feed options, including iTunes settings.
Ultimate Google Analytics: Track your blog site traffic with Google Anayltics. You’ll need to create an Analytics account at http://www.google.com/analytics/

Tonight we held our first web technology discussion at Barnes & Nobles in Market Commons, Myrtle Beach, SC. Following is a podcast summarizing the discussion.

 

 Web Technology Discussion: Blog Basics [5:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (21)

Podcast Topic: Blog basics

• Hosting your own blog vs. free blog sites (like blogger.com and wordpress.com)
• Moderating comments
• Creating user accounts

Please return for future podcast episodes. We look forward to coving topics such as web design, content management systems, Internet marketing, search engine optimization, blogging and more…

Blogs continue to provide an incredible “bang for your buck” when it comes to Internet marketing. And for the most part, your “buck” is really just the value of your time since plenty of free blog hosting options exist.

Fundamentals
For those just getting up to speed, you’re reading a blog now. The term blog was derived from the term “web log.” The blog as an application or platform has evolved quickly over time, but the primary format continues to be a chronological arrangement of editorial articles. The software applications behind blogs serve as a content management system, allowing users to edit, contribute and customize the front-end or user-end of the blog via a simple web-based administration panel.

Blog Options
Internal blog - If you’re interested in hosting your own blog, the major blog software applications out there are free themselves (We recommend WordPress, the platform being used for this blog). If you aren’t a developer or aren’t comfortable with digging into the server side of things, having a professional set your blog up won’t break the bank either. Blogs are generally quite simple to install - it’s the customization of design and functionality that starts to expand a blog installation project. It is worth noting that specific hosting features and capabilities are required and depend on which blog software application you choose.

External blog - Conversely, going with a free hosted blog option, like Google’s Blogger, is a great way to reach a large audience. These greater communities consisting of thousands of other blogs, giving you instant exposure to highly searched and search engine indexed networks.

Internal & External - Concurrently, running both an internal and external blog will provide the best of all worlds. This broad Internet marketing mix will take advantage of the blogging community exposure as well as improving your own website. Keep in mind though, search engines provide little or no value to syndicated content that appears identically in multiple places on the web. Consider rewriting or even posting unique copy in each of your blog channels.

Benefits of a blog
Blogs offer a number of fantastic benefits to the small business.

1. SEO: When operating a blog on your own website, the volume, relevance and frequency of content gives your site a shot of search engine optimization adrenaline. Search engines will increase the frequency at which they crawl your site for updates as you reciprocate with those updates. As your archive of blog articles—with relevant content—accumulate, so increases the relevance of your site for those keywords and terms that your articles are about.
2. Reputation: Demonstrate your expertise by writing about your industry, market or product. At the same time, this self imposed regimen of copy writing will continually advance your knowledge in the field.
3. Site Accessibility: If your site isn’t already built on a content management system, the built-in CMS functionality of blog software gives you quick and easy access to posting content on your site. Most blogs even come with the ability to post content by email - it doesn’t get any easier than that!

Start Blogging
Take one of the above recommendations and run with it—you’ll be glad that you did. You can’t make up for lost time, so get started!

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Applied Web Vitals is a web design and development company. Please feel free to contact us to explore your next design, redesign or site enhancement project.