Is Wordpress Useful?

[cinesnob]

My podcast hosting service is BlogMatrix which, not unlike Lybsyn, manages my RSS feed for me. Would it be worthwhile for me to download Worldpress which is supposed to be a PHP audioblogging system. Should one use PHP instead of HTML when podcasting? I'm lost in the ozone when it comes to Wordpress (and PHP). Does anyone out there understand this product and/or PHP?

Steve Williams
http://cinesnob.blogmatrix.com/

[thebes]

... Would it be worthwhile for me to download Worldpress which is supposed to be a PHP audioblogging system. Should one use PHP instead of HTML when podcasting? I'm lost in the ozone when it comes to Wordpress (and PHP). Does anyone out there understand this product and/or PHP?


I am new to podcasting and am still setting up my feed. I am using WordPress, which is a Blogging (not audioblogging per se) package. There is a plugin called WP-ipodcatter which is supposed to be pretty good for making your feed.

I have set up multiple blogs and done significant modifications to stock 'themes'. Wordpress is really a killer app and the price is certainly right!

Wordpress is extremely easy to install so long as your hosting has php and offers you a mysql database. Some hosting services use an interface called cpanel (my dedicated box does this), and this makes it easy to create your database. I'd say that Wordpress is the easiest server side script I have ever installed, as they claim you can really go from nothing to having a working Blog in 5 minutes with very little technical savy. They offer easy, nontechinical instructions.

You do not need to know php at all. There are many 'themes' which you can use for your layout, these will contain all the php you will be likely to need. If you want to edit the theme you use, some knowledge of css would be helpful, most people could get by without editting the css, but that is how you would change colours, fonts, etc.

The WP-ipodcatter plugin looks pretty simple too, perhaps I'll post more on that once I install it tonight.

[thebes]

WP-ipodcatter is very simple to install as well. It was a piece of cake, it could hardly have been easier. I don't know yet how the various agregators and directories will like it, but it seems to be a very well done, easy to use, and useful plugin.

I would say that if you have the resources (server space with php and mysql), and even a tiny amount of technical know-how, it would be very worthwhile to consider Wordpress with the WP-ipodcatter plugin as a podcast publishing solution. Hope this helps you!


Thebes (now officially a podcaster, w00t!)
http://twilightandthebes.com/

[tabulator32]

Thie is probably a typical newbie question, but...

What is the advantage of the feed-creator software when so many podcasting host sites and places like feedburner create them automatically for you?

What changes are made and what things do you do differently when you take the time to make your own RSS feed code?

(Jus' tryna learn!)

[thebes]

What is the advantage of the feed-creator software when so many podcasting host sites and places like feedburner create them automatically for you?


Coming from an adult webmastering background for my most recent employment, I would not trust any company to host my feed or show unless I could seemlessly move to another situation. Commonly in the adult industry a company will change its terms, rip off the webmasters who used its 'free webspace', etc. I have been burned by this and a lot of people I know have too...

Now, podcasters maybe completely different people and may all have perfect morals and intentions; at least there are probably fewer scams than in the adult biz. But, I am a big fan of 'once bitten twice shy'. If your feed is at a domain you have no control over (feeds.somecompany.com/yourshow.xml), not a whole lot can stop the possibility of it vanishing if the company goes belly-up or changes hands. In such a case you might loose a large number of listeners, or worse. DSC recently mentioned such a company folding, though I do not recall the details. From a techincal standpoint the domain's new owner could even redirect the old feeds to their show / adverts / etc in they were an 'industrious' sort.

I believe that some of the companies you mentioned can produce the feed at your domain, that would probably be a far less risky option in the longterm, imho. I suppose you need to look at the possible risk vs the hassle of doing it yourself.

Thebes
http://twilightandthebes.com

[ElNacho]

i write my own feed, then burn it through feedburner
i write it because a) when i started my show i didn't know any other way to do it and b)because it allows me to stick in whatever i want. anything i want to tweak with the code i can. same for my website, hand coded.
i send it through feedburner because they're the best free stats i know about. and das my view on da matter

[cinesnob]

Thanks for all the advice!

[SFEley]

What is the advantage of the feed-creator software when so many podcasting host sites and places like feedburner create them automatically for you?
Feedburner will not create an RSS feed from scratch. It takes an existing RSS feed and adds features to it. Some of these are very useful, but you have to have an RSS feed to start with.

On the original question: if you're already using a dedicated podcast hosting solution (Blogmatrix, LibSyn, etc.) you don't need Wordpress. Your provider is already doing the necessary work for you. However, if you're using a standard Web host and you have your own domain, Wordpress is a powerful way to create a good-looking Web site that's easy to maintain. My Wordpress blog (http://www.escapepod.org) took perhaps an hour to customize the way I wanted it: I simply downloaded a publicly available theme and made some minor changes. (I did commission the logo banner from a friend of mine.) It helps to know CSS and HTML to make those changes, but you don't need to do any programming.

Thanks that hour I spent months ago, whenever I make a new podcast post I can focus on the content and not have to worry about tweaking any HTML to get the look-and-feel right. It's all done for me by Wordpress, along with archiving, categories, searching, etc. And yes, it creates podcast enclosures automatically too. You just have to link to an MP3 file.

That's what it's good for. Do you need it? No. But if you prefer to have full control over how your site looks and operates, it's a great time-saver.