Presentation given at WordCamp Baltimore on September 8, 2012

1. Beef Up Your Website with
Audio and Video - It’s Easy!
(With Intro to Podcasting)
Presented by Melodie Laylor
WordCamp Baltimore
September 8, 2012

2. Connect with Melodie
email: melodie@melodielaylor.com
web: http://www.melodielaylor.com
twitter: @melodielaylor

3. A Little About Me
From Virginia Beach, VA
B.A. in music performance
Classically trained soprano
Married with 4 kids, 3 stepkids
Me and husband both computer geeks

4. A Little About Me (cont.)
Worked with WordPress 5-1/2 years
Currently do freelance web design
Organizer of WordPress Hampton Roads Meetup
Maintain a church website with 2x weekly sermon
podcast/vodcast

5. Why Should I Put Multimedia
on My Website?
Grabs attention far better than the written word
Holds interest
Drives traffic
Cheap and effective way to get your message out
(in the “good ol’ days” you would get radio or TV slots)

6. Why Should I Put Multimedia
on My Website?
The central focus of what you do is spoken, performed,
or visual - something that you would record, or already
do
If you aren’t putting this content online - WELL,
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Another whole audience awaits
Your content could be a saleable product

7. Audio Basics
Recommended file formats:
.mp3 (iTunes)
.m4a (iTunes)
.wav

8. Audio Basics
Software for recording and production:
Audacity - open-source cross-platform
http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Mac OS:
GarageBand
Podcast Publisher (Lion Only)

9. Audio Basics
Software for recording and production:
Windows:
GoldWave - $49 lifetime, $19 annual
http://www.goldwave.com
Industrial Audio Software (trials available)
http://www.industrialaudiosoftware.com
• ePodcast Producer - $249.95
• ePodcast Creator - $89.95

10. Audio Basics
Software for recording and production:
iOS:
GarageBand - $4.99
Voice Recorder HD - $2.99
Recorder Plus + HD - Free/$2.99

11. Audio Basics
Software for recording and production:
Android:
HiFiCorder - $4.99 (free Lite version)

12. Video Basics
Recommended file formats:
.mp4 (iTunes)
.m4v (iTunes)
.mov (iTunes)
.avi
.wmv

13. Video Basics
Software for editing and rendering:
Mac OS:
iMovie
Final Cut Pro (X)
Final Cut Express (discontinued)
Adobe Premiere

14. Video Basics
Software for editing and rendering:
Windows:
Windows Movie Maker
Adobe Premiere
Pinnacle Studio

15. Video Basics
Software for editing and rendering:
iPad (iOS):
iMovie - $4.99
Pinnacle Studio - currently FREE thru 9/18/12
Avid Studio - now Pinnacle Studio
Android - no recommendation, but a number are on
Google Play store

16. Where Do I Host the Files?
Well, you *can* upload them to your webhost,
BUT...

17. Where Do I Host the Files?
If you’re using shared hosting, you’ll quickly use up
storage, especially with video
Also with shared hosting, if you get a lot of traffic, you’ll
quickly exceed bandwidth limit
That will get your site shut down
You could host on a dedicated server (EXPENSIVE)...OR...
Host the media elsewhere from your website
Numerous Free and Reasonable-cost solutions

18. Where Do I Host the Files?
Video:
YouTube (www.youtube.com)
FREE
For videos up 15 min each
Verified accounts may be able to post longer videos
Social Media site - a way to drive traffic to your website
RSS feed supported on iTunes

19. Where Do I Host the Files?
Video:
Vimeo (www.vimeo.com)
FREE Basic account 500MB/wk, 1 HD video/wk
Plus account $59.95/yr, 5GB/wk, unlimited HD
Pro account $199/yr, 50GB storage + 250,000
plays
Drawback: RSS feed doesn’t support iTunes

20. Where Do I Host the Files?
Video:
VideoPress by Automattic
(http://www.videopress.com)
Self-hosted users must create WordPress.com blog
and purchase this as upgrade
$60/yr + space upgrade
1GB per video limit up to space limit, no time limit
VideoPress plugin for self-hosted users

21. Where Do I Host the Files?
Video AND Audio:
Amazon S3 (http://aws.amazon.com/s3)
Free Usage Tier for first year -5 GB storage,
20,000 Get Requests, 2,000 Put Requests, and
15GB of data transfer each month for one year.

22. Where Do I Host the Files?
Video AND Audio:
Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
Amazon Cloudfront
MaxCDN
Cloudflare
Edgecast
...just to name a few
Use W3 Total Cache plugin for CDN integration

23. How Do I Link My
Media Files to My Site?
(I thought you’d never ask!)

24. How Do I Link My Media Files to My Site?
The Quick and Dirty Way
Go to www.jamahost.com/mahvelous
No plugins needed
AUDIO or VIDEO simple upload: click movie or music
icons at top of editor
A link is posted - user clicks and their default media
player will load and play it either in their browser or launch
separately depending on their individual setup
Watch out for file upload limits! These are set by your
webhost

25. How Do I Link My Media Files to My Site?
The Quick and Dirty Way
Go to www.jamahost.com/mahvelous
Watch out for file upload limits! These are set by your webhost
Edit php.ini - should be in public_html root folder but depending on host
may have to access it through hosting control panel - contact your hosting
company for assistance
Find these lines and edit them or add them (numbers may be different):
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
You may have to adjust the 64M up or down, but don’t set it ridiculously
high like 1000000M, PHP will reset it to something like 1 byte and you won’t
be able to upload anything

26. How Do I Link My Media Files to My Site?
The Quick and Dirty Way
Go to www.jamahost.com/mahvelous
Watch out for file upload limits! These are set by your webhost
Better way - workaround using FTP - my fave client is FileZilla, it’s
cross-platform and full-featured.
Know your file path, you’ll have to hand-code the link to the media
file
This is for smaller media files or when you’re uploading only a few
If you’re going to keep online an endless archive don’t store files on
shared hosting
Upgrade or BETTER consider offsite hosting as mentioned before even
if you upgrade hosting due to traffic needs

27. How Do I Link My Media Files to My Site?
The Quick and Dirty Way
Go to www.jamahost.com/mahvelous
VIDEO embed: Just insert a YouTube or Vimeo URL in
your post or page
use EMBED code for customizing inline player output
WordPress embeds it automatically

28. How Do I Link My Media Files to My Site?
Using Plugins - Inline Media Players
Standby - Flash players
DRAWBACK - iOS doesn’t support Flash, Android
other mobile dodgy
HTML5 - not compatible with IE below v. 9, FF below v.
12, Chrome 20
Use a media player that supports both, does failback

29. How Do I Link My Media Files to My Site?
Using Plugins - Inline Media Players
AUDIO
Jetpack Plugin - use shortcode with medie URL
Ex. [audio http://www.jamahost.com/mahvelous/wp-content/uploads/
samples/dr_ed_wing_cbnhr_10feb2012.mp3]
VIDEO
JWPlayer by Longtail Video - WARNING ADVANCED
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress/
Jetpack Plugin - useful if you want custom parameters vs. using embed code
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=OFzXaFbxDcM&w=6400&h=480]
NOTE: you must put an “&” immediately after the URL

30. What is a Podcast?
According to Wikipedia:
Combination of “pod” from Apple’s iPod and
“broadcast(ing)”
However, use of term “podcast” predates iPod and
iTunes support
There were online “podcasts” or “webcasts” in the late
1990’s
June 2005 - native podcast support in iTunes 4.9

31. What is a Podcast?
According to Wikipedia:
Can also refer to each individual episode or each media
file itself.

32. What is a Podcast?
According to Wikipedia:
Posting videos is also called Vodcasting or Vlogging
(short for video blogging)
A Vodcast is a video podcast/webcast
A Vlog is a video blog

33. Why Podcast or Vlog?
Media grabs people’s attention better, especially video
Submitting your feed to the iTunes Store provides
another traffic source
iTunes Store now supports both video and audio
podcasts

34. My Favorite Podcasting
Plugin
Blubrry PowerPress (www.blubrry.com or
www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/powerpress)
The only plugin you need if you use it - does it all!
Blubrry PowerPress has Flash and HTML audio and
video players built-in
Full iTunes Store support - settings include fields for
submitting to iTunes
Blubrry in use at www.ceicva.org

35. Podcasting Links
iTunes: Making a Podcast - http://www.apple.com/
itunes/podcasts/specs.html
iTunes Podcasting FAQs - http://www.apple.com/
itunes/podcasts/creatorfaq.html
WordPress Doc on Podcasting - http://
codex.wordpress.org/Podcasting

36. I hope you enjoyed this
presentation!
THANK YOU!