Help needed with WordPress/Website

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

Hey guys,

 

As many of you know, I have a website hosted at WordPress.org for my podcast. iTunes is now carrying the podcast (it will be searchable by Monday), but it's not quite carrying the info on the podcast I would like, including the graphic. See below:

 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/knights-of-the-cat-cable/id431505094

 

I don't necessarily need someone to fix things for me, although any volunteers for that effort would be appreciated. What I do need is someone that is simply willing to take the time to see if it CAN be done, and if so, what options I may need to enable to make it happen. It's possible that I would need to pay extra costs to enable CSS editing to create/edit meta-tags that will ensure that iTunes displays everything correctly, but I don't want to fork out additional money for something that will not give me the results I want.

 

If it comes down to it, I can just leave it as-is. The fact that the podcast is on iTunes to begin with is beneficial to everyone with an interest in it.

[Hajimoto]

Fatal - Is the image 300x300 JPG??

 

See Itunes FAQ below:

 

Why do I need cover art?

Attractive and interesting cover art attracts new subscribers to your podcast. Podcasts must have good cover art to be featured on the Podcast main page or the Store main page. Most good podcast images include an image as well as a title, brand, or source name. A 300x300-pixel JPG is the recommended size and format. Using this relatively large format, the iTunes Store automatically generates the various smaller images you see in the podcast directory. Before you settle on the art for your podcast, you may want to review the Top Podcasts pageand note the various elements that contribute to compelling art.

 

[PANiC]

adding the pic would be easy but i'm no coder or familiar with itunes podcasts at all.

 

looks like you have some kind of rss feed / xml file which links to itunes? but i dont know where that file is hosted... on your webspace?

 

change the line:

 

<itunes:image href="http://example.com/podcasts/everything/AllAboutEverything.jpg" />

 

to the path of a square jpg or png image (itunes recommends 600x600 px) on your webspace.

 

if the rss file is all that can be edited then things will be pretty simple because the data you can add is very limited, seems this way because generally all the posdcast pages seem to be almost identical.

 

 

what other info are you looking to add?

Edited April 15, 2011 by PANiC

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

@ Hajimoto: Yes, the pic is 300x300 and is embedded in the MP3 file as part of the ID Tag system.

 

@ PANiC (and everyone else, really): Perhaps I should be more clear. I've already found the info that you've linked to and provided. The issue is with the fact that the site is hosted through WordPress, which, unlike most sites, does not allow me any access whatsoever to the file directories. I can't use FTP or anything like that, I can only use the site design tools that WordPress provides.

 

What I need is someone willing to take the time to look over the site with me; I will give that person administrator access so that they can look through the options and see if what I need done is possible. For example, by default, I don't have the option to do any CSS editing--that is something that I can do if I pay for an upgrade. I'm willing to do that if I know that doing so will allow me access to the page code that let's me edit/add meta-data that will feed iTunes what it needs.

[KalXen~SPARTA~]

Are you using "PodPress", a plugin for WordPress that has the automation for publishing a podcast?

 

Saw this, wondered if that would help.

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

Are you using "PodPress", a plugin for WordPress that has the automation for publishing a podcast?

 

Saw this, wondered if that would help.

 

Unfortunately, as stated earlier, my site is actually hosted via WordPress (the company), not just using the WordPress toolset on another hosting site. As such, I don't have access to my site via FTP or any other similar avenue. EVERYTHING has to be done using the WordPress menus that I get when I, as an administrator, log-in. I can't use PodPress or similar plug-ins because they require that I first be able to upload them to my site. With WordPress, I have no way to do that.

 

So again, I need someone that knows a bit about web design that is willing to log in to my site with me and look it over to see if I am missing something or if I can add something via the tools available to me. Maybe there is something I am missing. If not, then it's ok, it probably can't be done, and it's not a super-huge issue.

 

** EDIT ** If you read further down the article about PodPress, you'll see that it no longer works because it's very old. WordPress has been updated many times since that article, and what PodPress did no longer works.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

ISSUE RESOLVED - Sort of.

 

The definitive answer from WordPress is that hosting through them will not allow me to use plug-ins or make custom modifications to my site. I always have the option to switch to another hosting service, but them I am looking at both additional costs and the need for me to take additional time to acquire the technical know-how of setting up a website from scratch, be it using WordPress tools or any other set of tools.

 

The price difference is substantial. I have no problem with telling you that I paid $37 for an entire year's worth of service via WordPress, and half of that was an upgrade that gets me 8GB of storage space with unlimited bandwidth (important for streaming the podcast from the site) for an entire year. I didn't even need to pay for the upgrade, which would have made my yearly cost only $17, but I liked the idea of having the podcast files stored at the same site as the blog. There are many other advantages I could go into, but the biggest one is that, for a non-web-html-type person like me, WordPress is incredibly easy to use. Minor tweaking aside, I had that site up and running in one day.

 

Even if I wrote off the cost I've already paid to WordPress (I still have 2 weeks to get a refund on my $20 storage upgrade), as a hobby, I think $37 is a great price to pay for what I am getting. If I were to move the site elsewhere, I not only have to create it all over again without the easy-to-use tools, but I then have to pay around $20 per month just to get the same basic capabilities that I'll need that WordPress is already giving me (again, this is mainly the ability to store the audio files with unlimited streaming/download capabilities.)

 

SO I'll stick with what I have. Maybe I don't get a fancy graphic and a full description on iTunes, but the podcast is there nonetheless.

[Hunter~SPARTA~]

Glad it worked out for you, Fatal. I'm not trying to advise either way, you seem to have it figured out what you want, but should you run into this dilemma again where you're looking for an alternative, check out this host: iPage Hosting

 

Its cheap, but its not "get what you pay for". By that, I mean, its actually quite good. I use them to host a page for a work website.

 

However, I personally rent space through Mediatemple Hosting. It is expensive and far more than you what you need for your project, but I hardly use mine at all anymore. So if you'd like, I can give you some space on there to give it a try. I will tell you, setting up a WordPress on your own is very simple. So that shouldn't be your worry.

 

So to answer your initial question, I can help you with web related matters. I am not great at making things "look pretty", but I am pretty good at writing back-end PHP scripts.

 

 

- JHunter