Archive for the 'Podcasts' Category

Plugin Picks 4: WP Function Reference

Published on March 11, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 4: WP Function Reference

Today on Plu­gin Picks we have a Word­Press plu­gin for all the geeky theme coders or plu­gin devel­op­ers out there. For those Word­Press users who have trou­ble remem­ber­ing all the var­i­ous PHP func­tions used when cod­ing exten­sions for the plat­form, the WP Func­tion Ref­er­ence Word­Press plu­gin adds a dash­board wid­get for quick reference.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

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Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
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WordCast Conversations 8: Anne Helmond on SEO and Social Media

Published on March 10, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

Anne Helmond 300x199 WordCast Conversations 8: Anne Helmond on SEO and Social Media

Anne Hel­mond, New Media Lec­turer at the Uni­ver­sity of Ams­ter­dam and an expert on the rela­tion­ship between blogs and search engines.

When it comes to the rela­tion­ship between blogs and search engines there’s no com­par­i­son to the exper­tise of Anne Hel­mond who has worked for years research­ing blog soft­ware and how it con­nects to Google and other search sites.

This week, she talks to Kym about her research and how it con­nects to search engine opti­miza­tion, Word­Press, blog­ging, and social media.

Guest: Anne Hel­mond

  • New Media PhD can­di­date with the Dig­i­tal Meth­ods Ini­tia­tive at the Medi­as­tud­ies depart­ment at the Uni­ver­sity of Amsterdam
  • Grad­u­ated from the Uni­ver­sity of Ams­ter­dam cum laude with a the­sis on ‘Blog­ging for Engines. Blogs under the Influ­ence of Software-Engine Relations.’
  • Researcher on the sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ship between blog soft­ware and search engines
  • Anne pre­vi­ously joined us on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions when we cel­e­brated Blog Pro­duc­tiv­ity week, to share her tips on being a more effi­cient blogger.

To pre­vent users from com­ment­ing with links to their site sim­ply to boost their search engine rank­ings, Word­Press includes a “nofol­low” tag by default with all links. To change this on your self-hosted Word­Press site, sev­eral plu­g­ins are avail­able. Below are a few of our recommendations.

DoFol­low Word­Press Plugins:

Mak­ing great strides in both the social media and edu­ca­tion worlds, Anne knows first-hand the stigma that comes along with young women in these fields. She shared her thoughts on this, explain­ing that, when there are more men than women, that’s the way it is, and it has no effect on what one can achieve. She also gave us a few of her favorite sto­ries as a teacher.

Of course, Kym brings you the dirt: Anne’s favorite “guilty plea­sure blogs” include XKCD and Perez Hilton

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing con­ver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

Plugin Picks 3: WP Google Buzz

Published on March 9, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 3: WP Google Buzz

The newest social media craze (or flop depend­ing on who you talk to) has been Google Buzz. Inte­grated into Gmail, the ser­vice allows users to keep up with all their friends, at least those with a Google account, as they scurry across the social web

To kick off the sec­ond week of Plu­gin Picks, Kym and Dave take a look at the WP Google Buzz Word­Press plu­gin which allows you to add a “Buzz This” but­ton to your blog posts.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

Plugin Picks 2: Google Analyticator

Published on March 4, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 2: Google Analyticator

This Wednes­day on Plu­gin Picks, Kym and Dave share a plu­gin that allows you to track your blog with Google Ana­lyt­ics with­out wor­ry­ing about man­u­ally insert­ing javascript code in your themes. They also high­light a few extra neat fea­tures included with the plugin.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

WordCast Conversations 7: WordPress and Blogging for Musicians and Bands

Published on March 3, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

Kym Huynh 300x218 WordCast Conversations 7: WordPress and Blogging for Musicians and Bands

Kym Huynh, vocal­ist for electro/pop band sSalvia.

Many of you might not know that WordCast’s own Kym Huynh is quite a pro­lific musi­cian, not only by him­self but in his band: sSalvia — a dance/electronica project. This week on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions, we turn the tables as Dave Moyer inter­views Kym about how Word­Press, blog­ging and social media can be used for musi­cians and bands.

Kym’s Musi­cal Projects

  • Kym’s older solo work can be found at www.kymhuynh.com
  • sSalvia is a dance/electronica project
  • sSalvia runs on Word­Press, and com­pared to sta­tic HTML sites, Kym says there’s no rea­son to not be on WordPress

Essen­tial Ele­ments of a Band’s Website

  • About pages are needed!
  • Like our friend Rox­anne Dar­ling rec­om­mends, con­tact pages are essential.
  • Gigs cal­en­dar: When are you performing?
  • Sam­ples of music
  • RSS feeds are impor­tant to mar­ket to return visitors

Gig Cal­en­dar Plugins

What to Write

  • Don’t just post the extremely big news! Bring the audi­ence into the process.
  • On the sSalvia web­site, the blog’s con­tent is aimed at bring­ing fans into the music mak­ing process.

Social Media for Musicians

  • Even if you have a web­site, you need to tie in all these services.
  • sSalvia’s Twit­ter is used to update peo­ple about lit­tle behind the scenes bits.
  • Face­book is a land­ing page for reach­ing out to new listeners
  • MySpace has always been a big part of music online. Kym uses it specif­i­cally for net­work­ing, but less as his “offi­cial presence”
  • Con­nect your blog to Twit­ter with the Twit­ter Tools Word­Press plugin
  • KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! Don’t make too much work for yourself.

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing con­ver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

Plugin Picks 1: Audio Player

Published on March 3, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 1: Audio Player

It’s the very first episode of Plu­gin Picks, the newest show on the Word­Cast Net­work. Join Kym and Dave every Mon­day and Wednes­day as they bring cool new Word­Press plu­g­ins to your attention.

To kick things off, we’re talk­ing about the Audio Player Word­Press plu­gin, which allows you to eas­ily embed a flash player for music or any other kind of audio on your Word­Press site.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

WordCast Conversations 6: David Bullock

Published on February 25, 2010 in Podcasts. 2 Comments

David Bullock 366x500 WordCast Conversations 6: David Bullock

David Bul­lock, social media strate­gist and co-author of Barack 2.0.

Social media strate­gist and co-author of Barack 2.0, David Bul­lock, joins Kym on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions this week to talk about the social media epi­demic we’re see­ing around the Inter­net today, the bur­geon­ing social media phe­nom­e­non, and how to har­ness its influ­en­tial power for your own busi­ness success.

Guest: David Bul­lock, co-author of the book Barack 2.0 that high­lights the ways social media impacted Barack Obama’s 2008 pres­i­den­tial campaign

  • Barack Obama used Twit­ter, Face­book, and other social media ser­vices in his cam­paign and it was a major key to suc­cess. David tells us how and why.
  • The story behind Barack 2.0
  • Why are Twit­ter and Face­book so powerful?
  • Barack 2.0 was pub­lished through Lulu. David explains why a tra­di­tional pub­lisher was not needed.

David also took some time to explain what the future of social media will be inside and out­side of pol­i­tics, and detailed how Barack Obama’s social media strate­gies can be applied to your own busi­ness, brand, or organization.

We also talked with David about his own expe­ri­ences and his per­sonal story through­out all of his work. High points, low points, expe­ri­ences that taught him lessons both good and bad, and what we can expect from him in the future.

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing con­ver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

WordCast Conversations 5: Roxanne Darling

Published on February 17, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

Roxanne Darling 225x300 WordCast Conversations 5: Roxanne Darling

Rox­anne Dar­ling, one of the top 25 most pow­er­ful and influ­en­tial women in social media and the lead orga­nizer of Pod­camp + Word­Camp Hawaii.

Kym and Dave are joined by Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions’ very first Hawai­ian Rox­anne Dar­ling of Bare Feet Stu­dios, voted one of the top 25 most pow­er­ful and influ­en­tial women in social media, and the lead orga­nizer of Pod­camp + Word­Camp Hawaii.

We dis­cuss her expe­ri­ence start­ing her Beach Walks with Rox show with her hus­band, her blog­ging and social media story, and the story behind Pod­camp and Word­Camp in the Aloha state.

Guest: Rox­anne Dar­ling of Bare Feet Studios

The Story Behind Beach Walks With Rox

  • The Start — Equipment
  • The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
  • Signs of Success
  • Dog­gie Magic
  • The Witches of Lanikai (1) (2)
  • Bikini Shows (1) (2) (3)

Pod­camp + Word­Camp Hawaii – We dis­cussed why it makes sense to bring the Pod­camp and Word­Camp com­mu­ni­ties together when­ever pos­si­ble and appropriate.

WordCamp/Podcamp Hawaii’s Tele­vi­sion Commercial

Hawaii Chairs — Com­ing to Word­Camp Hawaii 2010!

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing wcconver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

WordCast on Beach Walks 300x203 WordCast Conversations 5: Roxanne Darling

WordCast Conversations 3: Blog Productivity

Published on February 6, 2010 in Podcasts. 2 Comments

WordCast Conversations WordCast Conversations 3: Blog ProductivityIt’s blog pro­duc­tiv­ity week here on Word­Cast, and to kick it off we’ve got a Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions episode like no other! Join Kym Huynh, Dave Moyer and a panel chock full of the best and bright­est blog­ging stars shar­ing their secrets to blog­ging more efficiently.

Pan­elists

Tips For Research­ing and Man­ag­ing Poten­tial Post Topics

  • Ever­note is a favorite of our pan­elists for tak­ing notes, man­ag­ing to do lists, sav­ing impor­tant blocks of text.
  • Rea­d­it­later browser add on allows you to save sto­ries for later.
  • Deli­cious allows you to book­mark story ideas on the web, Maria rec­om­mends the Posta­l­i­cious Word­Press Plu­gin.
  • Text edi­tors can work just fine, too! John uses a sys­tem of todos.txt, posts.txt etc. with Ultra Edit.

Find­ing Stories

  • Keith uses the Word­Press IRC chan­nel. In gen­eral, immerse your­self in the community.
  • John sug­gests Twit­ter searches on your topic. (Dave loves his TweetDeck!)
  • Maria also rec­om­mends Twit­ter, by fol­low­ing a select num­ber of peo­ple, but “really fol­low them”.
  • Anne runs through her fee­dreader every morn­ing with her cof­fee. Dave depends on feeds as well.
  • John likes to use a smartphone.

How do we Bal­ance Our Time as Bloggers?

  • Maria says she can write quickly, so the amount of time actu­ally blog­ging is fairly lim­ited. She likes a post per day as a good rule, but if she doesn’t make it she doesn’t STRESS. Her life doesn’t stop.
  • John “spends almost every wak­ing moment in front of a com­puter” but bal­ance is nice.
  • Anne says “don’t be a per­fec­tion­ist”, “don’t be afraid to hit the pub­lish button”.
  • Keith’s Feed Pauser Word­Press plu­gin keeps posts out of the feed for a cer­tain amount of time, so you have a win­dow to cor­rect any typos.

Power Blog­ger vs. Nor­mal Blogger

  • John: A power blog­ger is once a day.
  • Maria: As a writer first, the topic’s the tough part. Power is not how much they write but what their influ­ence is.

Blog­ging “Periph­er­als” – Side Projects Like Mail­ing Lists, Twit­ter etc.

  • John is a Twit­ter freak, but does more read­ing than writing.
  • Anne: All these are impor­tant extras. They don’t replace a blog, they’re supplemental.
  • Maria: “I’m on Twit­ter more than I should be.”

Work­ing With Mul­ti­ple Bloggers

  • Keith: Focus on com­mu­ni­ca­tion within the group. As a leader, you have the job of help­ing oth­ers write bet­ter content.

Desk­top soft­ware: Writ­ing Out­side Your Admin

  • John is a big fan of desk­top soft­ware, sav­ing things out­side of your CMS so that you have a local copy to progress with.
  • John uses Win­dows Live Writer and Ecto.
  • Keith also loves Live Writer, but it can cause prob­lems with Word­Press plugins.
  • Ecto on the Mac is dying and lots love to MarsEdit.
  • Anne is very much mov­ing towards every­thing in the cloud, and local copies aren’t good for that but…
  • Keith rec­om­mends using Drop­box to sync files across the Inter­net so you can access your posts everywhere.
  • Our own Lorelle Van­Fos­sen loves blog­ging in NoteTab Pro.
  • Write­Room for the Mac is loved by Anne and Dave.
  • Anne men­tioned Omm Writer. Dave finds it weird.

HTML vs. Visual Editor

  • Every­one LOVES HTML except Keith. He flips back and forth for dif­fer­ent uses.
  • Anne men­tioned that her stu­dents use both.

Insider Secrets From Our Experts: Final Quick Tips

  • Elim­i­nate dis­trac­tions. Any­thing get­ting in the way of your writ­ing needs to be eliminated.
  • Maria likes to take notes on PAPER about her blog­ging duties. She also rec­om­mends to get posts out of the way, then go about your day. She likes to blog in the morn­ing because she’s fresh and it comes out best then.
  • Keith reminds us to keep your expec­ta­tions con­sis­tent with your posts. If you have high expec­ta­tions for a post, you’ll get no results. If you have low expec­ta­tions, you’ll be sur­prised. Treat all posts the same. Also, make sure you have SOME tool to keep notes, write, etc. You need good tools to do good work. Find what works best for you.
  • Anne tells you to be care­ful of draft posts. What hap­pens in drafts stays in drafts. Don’t spend too much time.
  • Dave rec­om­mends using text sub­sti­tu­tion pro­grams like Tex­tEx­pander or Texter.
  • Kym tells you to set a real­is­tic expec­ta­tion or goal, and set a reg­u­lar schedule.

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing wcconver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

WordCast Conversations 2: The Dirt on WordPress.TV

Published on January 27, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

WordCast Conversations WordCast Conversations 2: The Dirt on WordPress.TVThis week on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions, we talk to Michael Pick and Ryan Markel of WordPress.TV, the cen­tral hub for WordPress-related videos. We talk about the lat­est scoops on Word­Press TV, its his­tory, and get the inside scoop about the peo­ple behind it.

  • What is WordPress.TV?
  • Guests: Michael Pick and Ryan Markel
  • Word­Press TV and WordCamps
  • The Big Dirt (at least we know Michael’s a beer thief) and What It’s Like Work­ing at Automattic
  • Sneak Pre­views of What’s Com­ing Soon on WordPress.TV

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing wcconver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.
Sub­scribe to this pod­cast for FREE on iTunes.

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