After a bunch of trial and error I think I have it down – at least for now. Making video blog posts that can be seen in iTunes and that play correctly in your blog takes a bit of setting up. However, once you have the framework, each individual posts takes only a few very easy steps to create.
1) Building the foundation
Tools:
WordPress 2.3+
podPress plugin
iTunes Account
iTunes Specs
Once you have podPress activated you need to go through a number of things to get your feed actually working. Check out this tutorial. Excellent wiki post about everything PodPress!
2) Uploading media
The first thing you want to do is upload your media. As long as your files are under 10mb, you can upload them using the WordPress Upload feature right below the editor (where you type your blog text).
[If your file is larger than 10mb, you will need to use FTP. Gather the full path to your files using your FTP program instead Step 3.]
You will want to create two upload files for each video:
A) The actual video formatted for the iPod
B) A poster frame that visitors click to begin playing the video
While it is not required that you create this poster frame, it sure looks a lot better =) Formatting for the iPod allows your video to be seen on the iPhone/iPod touch and downloaded to all video iPods.
3) Send uploaded files to the editor
Why do you do this if podPress is going to create your podcast for you? Simple: you need the location of the files you uploaded. The name is not enough – you need the full path.
4) Copy to location of the files to podPress
Click the “Add Media File” button down below the editor and fill in the fields. I have only gotten the podcasts to work when I used the full internet address (http://yvod.com/etc…) This is the only reason to do step 3.
podPress does nothing but LINK to your uploaded media. It does not handle the media in anyway. That is the key. Use podPress to communicate with iTunes. It handles all the (not so complicated) code of formating your feed and making sure your new podcasts are published to the world. Anytime you fill in the podcasting fields below the editor and publish a post, the world will know about it.
5) Write some copy
Write the something about your video. If you want the video to show up in a specific place, simply put the following code where you want the video to show up:
[display_podcast]
(Note: this is optional. If you do not put this code in, your video will display at the bottom of your post.)
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That’s it. Press Publish and you are done.