blog/podcast - need advice

When I make an audio track with a lot of noise I use a program called Audacity (it's freeware) that has a function which automatically analyzes the audiophile and substantially reduces the level of noise.

Kane Jamison wrote:
Use these instructions, except skip the iTunes test at the beginning, you're fine on that end:

http://www.8barloop.com/using-wordpress-and-feedburnerto-manage-your-podcast/

I kept getting confused - but yesterday my brain was mush, so I focused on easier tasks (I got two videos ready for upload).  I seem to be in better mental shape today.

What does this mean: "and enter the location to your audio file next to “Link URL”"  ??

Am i not setting my blogs up right?

Kane,  I made a blog category called podcast.  I see you have a few others in there.  Do you have a link that might help me to understand the value of tags vs. categories with wordpress?

Feed burner set up:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulWheatonPermaculture

There were feedburner things that were different than what was mentioned in the 8barloop article.  I hope I set it up right.

I guess I can't put it off any longer.  I have to fire up my old laptop and get itunes set up on it.

Feedburner left me with this link that is supposedly about a wordpress plugin helping to connect feedburner to a wordpress instance on my server. 

http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=78483

That took a while. 

iTunes Store Welcome


Dear Podcast Owner

Your podcast feed, [ http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulWheatonPermaculture ] was successfully added and is now under review.


Sincerely,

The iTunes Store Team

Not sure, I haven't done a podcast upload to iTunes since 2006 so I'm certain it's changed.

Categories vs Tags:  Categories are Hierarchical and tags are just descriptors.  Use Categories for frequent topics that you'll cover, such as permaculture, wofati, Sepp Holzer, podcasts.  Tags should be labels for visitors and search, but stuff that's not necessarily used as opten.  Examples would be ponds, chickens, missoula, fukuoka, pigs, zone 4, etc.

See: http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories-vs-tags/

paul wheaton wrote:
I kept getting confused - but yesterday my brain was mush, so I focused on easier tasks (I got two videos ready for upload).  I seem to be in better mental shape today.

What does this mean: "and enter the location to your audio file next to “Link URL”"  ??

Am i not setting my blogs up right?

They're just making sure that you have a standard <a> link to the mp3 file in your post, which is covered by the "download" link on each one.  On blog posts that don't have an mp3 file, there won't be a podcast created in iTunes.

Am i done?

paul wheaton wrote:
Am i done?

Not quite

In your feedburner control panel, go to the Optimize tab and turn on SmartFeed (Not just smart cast)

Then go to publicize tab and turn on Email subscriptions.  Under the email subpanel titled subscription management, copy and past the HTML that starts with "<form" and email it to me or post it here.

Still under the publicize tab, turn on pingshot.

Now you should be good to go as far as Feedburner is concerned.

smartfeed:  activated!

email subscriptions:  activated!

<form style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:3px;text-align:center;" action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.open('http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=PaulWheatonPermaculture', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true"><p>Enter your email address:</p><p><input type="text" style="width:140px" name="email"/></p><input type="hidden" value="PaulWheatonPermaculture" name="uri"/><input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US"/><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" /><p>Delivered by <a href="http://feedburner.google.com" target="_blank">FeedBurner</a></p></form>

pingshot:  activated!

Boom: http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/rss-feeds/

EMAIL: Click on the link above to sign up for email updates.

iTunes: If you’re looking for an iTunes subscription, open a new browser and type in this address (no http:// is necessary):  pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulWheatonPermaculture

Alternatively, iTunes subscriptions should be available in the podcasts section of the iTunes store fairly soon, it sounds like Paul's approval is pending.

It's working (I had to do that in IE, wouldn't work in chrome...)

Emerson White wrote:
It's working (I had to do that in IE, wouldn't work in chrome...)

Yes, that itunes link isn't ideal, but it works fine until everything is approved for the itunes store.

The email signup should work fine for everybody.

I have a new podcast to upload .... are you ready to see if notifications are working?

the new blog is up:  http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/51-diatomaceous-earth-podcast/

I just checked with iTunes and the latest podcast does not appear to have made it on yet...

paul wheaton wrote:
I have a new podcast to upload .... are you ready to see if notifications are working?

Podcasts are good to go.  However, I realized this morning that there may need to be a second feedburner feed created that does not contain "I am a podcaster".  This is because currently, only posts linking to a *.mp3 file are showing up in the feed.  I'm tinkering with my own version of your feed to see if it can be done with the existing setting or if you'll need to do a second "full" version.

Emerson White wrote:
I just checked with iTunes and the latest podcast does not appear to have made it on yet...

This is because the feed hasn't updated yet...  I'm not sure if it's on a delay or just hasn't refreshed.  Should be updated soon.

I've still got nothing.

Paul, did you ever get it hooked to twitter? sorry i was on vacation and got behind on this thread.

For facebook I prefer to manually put each post on my fan page. This way I can add a personal note or question

Example:

An article I wrote about root cellars... have any of you tried anything like this?


This encourages my audience to be engaged....

I haven't really figured out twitter too much, thus my low follower count... for now it is just automated using a wordpress plugin and a bit.ly plugin for that plugin... i can look up the names for you if you haven't done this yet

Also regarding noise... it is pretty easy to remove in audacity and here is a link that will show you how




Now that i showed that to you... i'll say don't worry about the noise... jack spirko built his entire brand doing it in the car with TERRIBLE audio quality

The noise removal tool is a pretty quick fix though... just highlight a sample of a noisy part (between parts where you are talking, highlight some of the "silence" and then go to the plugins and do noise removal... hit the "get sample" button.

Then select the entire file... go back to noise removal... run the plugin ... it should remove any noise that closely matches the sample and in general does a decent job of it

if your content is good people will like it. We don't need to have professional condenser mics... just get it out there and get it up often... don't get mired in sound quality issues...

oh ,.,.,.  to subscribe to the podacast in itunes just hit "advanced" then "subscribe to podcast" then paste in this url http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulWheatonPermaculture

works fine

I just now got the email from itunes saying that i have been approved.  Not sure what to do next.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/permaculture-blogs-podcasts/id426013000 should take you to it, ep 4 still isn't up on the feedburner so it's not on iTunes either.

paul... did itunes give you a podcast ID in the email?

I literally just posted that information saveourskills.

(brain is out of order today)

This is the email they sent:


Your podcast, located at http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulWheatonPermaculture, has been approved. You should expect to see it on the iTunes Store within the next few hours. When it's available, you will be able to access it with the URL below.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/permaculture-blogs-podcasts/id426013000

Your podcast will be findable through a search within the iTunes Store in approximately one to two days.

If you have other questions or wish to change your podcast, consult the technical spec at http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/techspecs.html. It contains detailed information about key topics like adding cover art and changing your feed URL.

There is also an Apple Discussions Forum for podcast producers, located here: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1107. If you have a question that the technical spec doesn’t answer, the community of iTunes podcasters may be able to provide guidance.


Sincerely,

The iTunes Store Team

Since I've never fiddled with itunes I have no idea:  is this stuff working?

you still only have the first three in your feedburner, but it appears to come through iTunes alright, I'll know for sure if you ever add more to the feedburner.

Travelling today.  Will probably push up a video tomorrow (sat).  Sunday?

Spammers have found the blog already.

I'm trying to turn off the comments on the blog and instead direct comments to the forums. 

If you see a spot where comments are allowed, please let me know and I'll try to figure out how to turn them off.

I hope that you realize that you bring this on your self. If you were lousy at SEO spammers would never find you.

paul wheaton wrote:
Spammers have found the blog already.

I'm trying to turn off the comments on the blog and instead direct comments to the forums. 

If you see a spot where comments are allowed, please let me know and I'll try to figure out how to turn them off.

Go to setting > discussion and you can turn them off.  There are excellent spam plugins that will catch them all, but we still have to set up a FTP account for your server to be able to do any plugins.

Kane,

I left "trackback and pingback" on.  Is that good?

I had to go to each previous post and turn off comments.  I think I got to them all.

Have you been able to set up the ftp stuff yet?

paul wheaton wrote:
Kane,

I left "trackback and pingback" on.  Is that good?

I had to go to each previous post and turn off comments.  I think I got to them all.

You can turn those off, no point to keeping them on IMO.

Haven't been able to do anything with FTP.  Last time I tried to login to the server it didn't let me in, I wasn't sure if you changed it back to your usual password or if I had entered it incorrectly, but I didn't try it again.

If the server login/pw is still the same, I'll try to login there again and create the FTP thing that I need.

I have this morning available.  i need to promote the new video and the upload the next podcast and then start editing some more videos.  But all that can be shuffled around.  Call me if I can be of help.

Jack said something yesterday about adding a plugin for wordpress for podcasts.

Should I hold off on uploading the next podcast until you're ready?

the next podcast is up:  http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/72-urban-permaculture-podcast-005/

Did it trigger stuff the right way?

Downloading #5 right now, #4 still isn't up on iTunes...

paul wheaton wrote:
the next podcast is up:  http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/72-urban-permaculture-podcast-005/

Tried it multiple times a few minutes ago and could not connect to it.  Got an error message. 

Of course, this is one I really wanted to listen to.  Hopefully it will work this evening.