PoP #004 Blogs

Continuing the overview of all the components of Podcasting with why you need a blog, explanation of Content Management Systems like WordPress and Drupal, ways to host your blog (WordPress.com vs. your own host), Akismet will bring you relief from spam.

Listen to the Podcast Once (24 min 20 sec)
[tags]podcasting, WordPress, spam, Akismet[/tags]

Podcasting on Podcasting update
I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback on my new Podcasting on Podcasting show. I hope you like it as a separate show but still in the same feed. It seems to be the best way to give it to those who asked for it but make it really easy to skip if you’re not interested. I’ve had several suggestions to review more tools – like firewire mixers, etc. i need to set the stage that this podcast will ONLY be about what I actually KNOW! I don’t use a Firewire mixer, so I won’t be talking about them. i don’t use windows to create my podcast, so there will be no windows tools. I’m not a fancy podcaster, if you want to get into high level gear that will cost more than I paid for my house, head on over to Gear Media Tech and learn about hardware i’ll never be able to buy or even vaguely understand! This is a simple Podcast on Podcasting, designed for the real noob who has a great idea but is intimidated by all the hard bits. I hope to make it less scary overall. I want you to keep up all the feedback, and as usual you’ll probably push me to go further than I would alone. I’ll keep saying this over and over again, but one of the delightful bits about podcasting is that you never know what it will grow into, so at some point you just START and then ride the wave as it evolves.

There’s SO much to know, I’m doing a gloss over the entire subject, all the components, so if you’re clever and energetic you can dive down into each area with the basic overview and get started. But there’s a zillion subtleties in each small bit. I explained how I encode my audio in iTunes last week – but I didn’t talk about bit rates and sample rates and codecs yet – did I? You can muddle through pretty well without knowing every little detail, so don’t get scared by all of this, but the subtleties are what really gets the optimization

– Last week – overview of software options for recording and a bit of detail on how to do the ID3 tags in iTunes
– I promise to go into more detail on GarageBand, settings I use, how to lay in the music, how to check levels, all that, but later, gotta finish the overview first.
– this week it’s time to cover the importance of blogs
— Blogs are needed so people can comment – participate – invest in the show
— Think carefully about how to respond to comments – defensive or embracing?
– Explain CMS
— content management system
— several pieces of s/w that do it – wordpress, drupal
— I know WordPress (remember I’m going to explain what I know)
— Don’t need to know html
— pick a theme (TONS of free themes)

– Wait back up – it’s like the posting on a horse thing
— Two ways to blog – your own domain, or someone else’s
— wordpress.com – free, no wordpress admin, no understanding databases, doing s/w upgrades, but goofy domain name and I think you get ads
— pick your own domain name and a hosting plan with a company and DIY
— good news is wp is easy to install, and tons of free support options – forums, etc
— Helped a girl scout start her own blog on her own domain in 1.5 hours – from nothing to live and running
— GoDaddy (and others) have installers for WP
— Get ready for spam – Akismet
— free, keeps spam away
— requires wordpress.com username but not a blog there
— get an API key, whatever that is
— in your WP installation, enter the key and activate Akismet plugin – spam free!