Using Wordpress to Podcast and Video Blog
Rich and I have been working the past few days on putting the finishing touches on PCMechTV.com, the new multimedia branch of PC Mechanic. There’s a bit of a sneak peak, actually, because other than one little link on PCMech to this site, I haven’t even announced it yet. Now, I recently got into using Wordpress to blog. I started using it with BUZZscreen and then converted this site over to it. Putting the PCMechTV domain was on my to-do list for a little while and I decided the easiest way to go about it was to, once again, make use of Wordpress.
As others have also realized, the blog is an ideal format for publishing a podcast. It is also a good medium for video blogging. The search engines love blogs. Blogs have built-in RSS feed capabilities. And, most importantly, the system of trackbacks and pings in blogs is great for networking and notifying other sites that you’ve just posted. Blogs also invite feedback and comments. This all comes together to form a very potent publishing platform for any website. I am a fan of Wordpress because it is widely used, which means it’s tried and true and there are a lot of plug-ins available. And, it’s free, too.
Now, out of the box, Wordpress does not support podcasting or video blogging in the way I like. Sure, you could link directly to a video or MP3 file and Wordpress will properly include the file in the RSS feed, but most of the time when one publishes a podcast or a video, you want to have that file playable right on the web. Plug-ins are the way to go. Here is my list of plug-ins for podcasting using Wordpress:
- Podpress. This is the plug-in we’re using on PCMechTV and is one killer plug-in if you ask me. It supports multiple file formats, covering both video and podcasts. For video, it will show a Flash-based video player. For audio, it will show a small-form Flash player. The plug-in also provides multiple options for Itunes-compatible feeds, RSS2, Atom, and Bittorrent RSS.
- Wordtube. Another option I tried. I like this plug-in, however Podpress has more features. What is nice about Wordtube is that you insert the file wherever you want using the post editor in Wordpress. This provides more flexibility on the location of the player. It is better suited to video, though. Audio files use the same player used for video, which means audio files will show a black, blank screen where a video would normally be.
- Audio Player Wordpress Plug-in. This one looks to be a variation of Podpress, allowing the player to be inserted anywhere in the post.
For podcasting, the MP3 file is the de facto standard. Easy. For video blogging (or doing any kind of online video for that matter), there are more formats to consider. With the release of Flash 8, Flash has become a very popular method of streaming video over the web. Youtube, Google Video and others all use Flash. But, don’t discount the Ipod as a big contender in the video world, and as this very good tutorial points out, Flash video is not supported by the Ipod. So, Flash is probably the ideal format for online video in a web browser, however if you want the video to be portable (which is probably the case if you’re video blogging), you need to make the file Quicktime or MPEG4. Quicktime Pro has an “export to Ipod” option which does work, but our own Rich says its a dirt-slow operation.
Multimedia content is a fast-growing market on the internet today, as the ultra-fast rise of Youtube made so clear. You can get into it too, using Wordpress.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...
- How to Submit a Wordpress Powered Podcast to Itunes
- AdBrite InVideo Is Launching
- How I Converted a Non-Blog Site to Wordpress
- Wordpress EasyFeeds Plug-In
- Why Podcasting Won’t Reach Mainstream
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Maddy
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
