Part One dealt with recording and manipulating your voice. For those who came in late, you can learn about Audacity’s use for Podcast.

Ok, where was I? I had just finished recording my booming voice, but I didn’t know how to  integrate the podcast into Wordpress?

I asked Google this question and found there to be a few plugins that deal with podcasting.  (If you have experience with any I found, please let me know.)

PodPress: supposedly the perfect plugin to get your podcast out to the world. It features automatic RSS creation for every major arena, including iTunes and BitTorrent, download options, graphical stats, and audio comments to name just a few.

I may give this a shot. To be honest, I overlooked this plugin on my first pass. I think this may be the most suitable solution.

PodCasting: I tried this plugin. It created the white page of PHP death on WordPress version 2.3.3. Supposedly it works for that, but I had to diagnose the error at the server log level. I finally gave up and deleted the plugin folder. The plugin can do some of what PodPress claims to accomplish. It was created during the Google Summer of Code 2007.

Plugin Tune Out

The PodPress solution would have been perfect, but I overlooked it. After fiddling with the Podcasting plugin to no avail, I decided to turn on FeedBurner’s SmartCast feature. This basically allows you to syndicate different forms of media. You have a few options when you configure SmartCast, including creating enclosures for audio, video, or image files, linking in a podcast image file, and entering title, and keywords. This all helps integrating your podcast with iTunes and other services.

So after I activated the SmartCast feature, I created a post, made a link to the podcast, and published. When I tested my feed in Google Reader, the media enclosure worked fine. I had a podcast with the media right there in the feed. Now I only needed people to listen to it. But that part I left up to all of you.

I didn’t wholly understand what a podcast brought to a blog and to an audience. It develops the richness of communication and opens up a whole new level of interaction with site visitors. If you’re thinking of doing a podcast, I encourage you to make the leap. I enjoyed making my first podcast, and hope to continue the practice in the future.

Last week I was very busy with various work efforts and with this blog. I did manage to post my first podcast. I was inspired by some of the podcasts I listened to a few weeks ago, and thought why not do my own. Over a few weeks time, I traversed the internet in search of some help on creating my first podcast. I found it, but it was in many different places. I decided to put it all together in an end-all-be-all-podcast post smörgåsbord! I hope you enjoy part one of this two part podcast series.

Podcasting Tools

My need to podcast led me high and low for the perfect solution to recording my voice. Of course, to do this on your computer you first need a quality headset or microphone. I used a microphone headset specifically designed for Skype. It worked well, and gave me the ability to move around a little while I was recording. Everyone’s preference may vary on this piece of equipment.

Once you’ve found the right mic, you need the right software to record your voice. I found many sites recommending Audacity as the perfect open source solution to audio recording. I first downloaded the program to my Ubuntu machine, then remembered Linux is still terrible with audio, so I downloaded it on Vista.

Using Audacity to Record a Podcast

At first Audacity looked like one of those giant soundboards at a rock concert, I was just standing back trying to figure out the knobs. I toyed with recording audio, making the obligatory noises to test decibels. One, two, three — voila! I had recorded my very own audible countdown. I was on the road to podcast mastery. Well, not quite yet.

I now had my voice recorded, so i simply closed out the audio track (the small X inside the program), and began recording for real. I must say I did most of the Boombox Episode One podcast in one take. I tried the opening a few times though, but the bulk of it was one recording. After I nailed it, I realized I forgot to say one thing in particular. I had already stopped recording and couldn’t figure out how to start recording inside a specific time.

I selected the end of the audio file with the finger pointer, then on the toolbar I selected record. This action created a new audio track, where I could say what I wanted to say. I recorded the few seconds worth of information and now had to figure out how to plug that blurb into the existing podcast.

Pasting Audio in Audacity

You can copy and paste pieces of audio in Audacity. Before you can do any copying or pasting, make sure you have not simply paused the recording but completely stopped it. You cannot paste when the recording is simply paused. Now you can select the portion of the audio you want to copy by dragging from left to right across the audio file. Once you have the area selected you want to copy, just hit CTRL-C or select Edit>Copy. Now go to Audio Track 1 inside your Audacity window, use the finger to select where you want the audio pasted, then hit CTRL-V or Edit>Paste.

When I finished, I disliked the number of “ums” and wanted a way to strip those. I highlighted these “ums” and also removed some of the more obvious pauses in my podcast. This tightened up the audio and allowed me more freedom when recording. I could curse and mutter all I wanted, just as long as I remembered to cut those out of the end product.

I saved the audio file as an Audacity Project file, but also exported it to MP3 format. I then uploaded the MP3 to my server in order to stream the podcast.

At this point, I have my Audio podcast ready to be streamed. I don’t know quite how to do this though. I searched online. I watched tutorial videos. I installed faulty plugins that momentary took down my site. How did I get the podcast to work with Wordpress? You’ll have to wait for Part Two to find out how I got the podcast to work with Wordpress. Stay tuned!

How to Podcast with Audacity and Wordpress Part Two is now online.

February has come to a close. It was my first full month of running this blog. How exciting! I’ve made some major steps. I’ve joined a blog network, rewrote parts of my About page (although there’s more to come there), and created the first Boombox podcast episode. All in all it’s been a good month.

Happenings in February

I wrote an article that received quite a bit of traffic entitled “Creating Your Blog’s Perfume Page.” I wrote many other accomplished posts, including a followup post to the perfume page one. I’ve made many connections with other bloggers throughout February. I think that’s the prized accomplishment. I’ll do my earnings report right here: I made fifty dollars!

Traffic and Subscription Report

Before we jump into February’s results, I want to look back over the goals I set for myself.

February’s Goals

1. Receive 200+ unique visits a day.
2. Increase my page views and time spent on site. I want a sticky site.
3. Network with other bloggers.
4. Join in discussions on the Bloggeries.com forum more often.
5. Guest post at least once.
6. Comment often on other blogs in my niche.
7. Raise exposure through Entrecard.

I think I’ve accomplished many of the goals for February. I raised my exposure on Entrecard by offering various services for sale in the shop. I have networked with other bloggers. My pageviews increased quite well. I didn’t do a guest post, but have agreed to do on one a neighboring site. I’ll do that soon, maybe this week. And I think I’ve commented quite a bit on other sites.

Now for the numbers:

Pageviews: 7,880
Unique Visits: 4,953
Time on Site: 1:45

Top Referral Sources: Entrecard with 1,169 and close second to Stumbleupon with 1,018.

Organic Searches found my site 103 times. I brought people for keywords of my site name, Nantucket, and spandex mostly. I need to work on that.

The most viewed page on my site was the homepage, with the most viewed article being the 100 Why Not Activities for Bloggers.

RSS Subscriptions

Many of you can now monitor my RSS subscriber numbers with me. On the first day in February, I had 41 subscribers. Today I have 60 subscribers. I had a high of 62 earlier this week. I hope to build that number by at least another 20 in the coming month.

Goals for March

Let’s hope March continues to expose my blog to new readers. I have joined a blog network and am seeing a good amount of traffic from that already. I am going to focus more on writing quality content this coming month, and try to take my eyes off the stats. I think it makes me too jumpy and sensitive.

1. Receive 200+ unique visits a day.
2. Increase my page views to over 10,000.
3. Increase time spent on site to average over 2 minutes. 
4. Network with other bloggers.
5. Guest post at least once.
6. Comment often on other blogs in my niche.
7. Raise exposure through Entrecard.
8. Increase RSS subscription numbers by 20.

Upcoming Explosions

I’m going to write a post on how to podcast. Believe it or not, there were not many sources of inspiration on this topic. I found no end-all-be-all posts on the subject. I want to create the how to podcast post to rule them all.

I have already begun thinking about my next boombox podcast. My wife says it needs to be more interesting. I agree, but the first one was just me testing out everything. Ok, no more excuses. The next one is going to rock!

Other’s Explosions

I want to start a new section on Sundays where I look at other posts throughout the week that influenced me. I have found quite a few recently that intrigued me.

Andrew Pavelski has started a new series focusing on successful blogs and how they got to be that way. I loved the first installment, and hope everyone takes a minute to check it out.

Jeff at BuzzMyBlog.com ignited a quality discussion about Entrecard this week. Graham Langdon responded with an in-depth view of the Entrecard economy. It’s a good read.

Mr. Javo will be celebrating his birthday this month. In recognition of that fact, he’s holding a contest to give away quality ad space and Entrecard credits. He even has a Jason Boom dot com banner on there! Go wish him a happy b-day by signing up for the contest.

Boombox Podcast: Episode 1 | Listen Now!

I’m releasing the first Boombox podcast. I am anxious to hear what my readers think. I’m not a radio personality, but I think I did fine. Definitely not the best voice for radio though. I need to work on that.

In this podcast episode, I discuss why I began the Jason Boom dot com site. It’s a basic podcast, lasting all of about six minutes.