After being asked by a friend about podcast options on Reclaim, I started playing with the podcasting tool Podcast Generator. I heard about it thanks to this thread by Tim Klapdor on the Reclaim Hosting Community Forums. It’s a really simple content management system designed specifically for podcasts. It provides a stripped down space to upload files and simple metadata like title, description, and categories. It also provides iTunes integration and an OG RSS feed.
I was intrigued so I finally tried installing it, and it took all of two minutes. All I needed to do was upload the zip file through File Manager, extract it, and then move the contents of the unzipped folder into the root directory where the application will run. After that, I just open my browser and point to the URL it is installed at and I am greeted with a wizard that simply asks me to create a username and password. Part of the simplicity of this install is there’s no database, it’s running a flat file structure. It is easy enough that even I may be able to build an installer for Installatron through Reclaim Hosting. That is a small project I am setting for myself over the coming weeks—although it is so easy it may be unnecessary.
Tim Klapdor ultimately rolled his own using Jekyl, which looks quite good. I’m sure there are a million recipes through WordPress given the resurgence of podcasting over the last few years, and I’d be keen to learn how folks are approaching their setups both within WordPress and beyond.
Glad that you and Reclaim are looking into podcasting – with the help of some more tech-savvy folks at edufunk (among them Jöran) I am running my podcast using Podlove which works really well for me as it has a strong and robust community. Check it out if you like: https://podlove.org/ http://edufunk.fm/
Hi Jim, just to +1 this post – we’re using Podcast Generator for the TIDE podcast and it’s great! Really easy to set up, pretty much zero maintenance: http://tidepodcast.org
It’s good to see both that people are doing podcasts and doing okay running them self hosted. I had a bit of email exchange with Bryan Alexander, who is wanting to launch one. I am setting one of for one of my local business web clients.
The thing is, and I bit hard to gauge, when it is a problem hosting the mp3s from your web host. The stuff you read all recommends a file host, like Amazon or the services which cost $ like Blubrry. Bryan will likely get a big audience, but my client is smaller, and we are doing like 15 minute or less shows.
Just to give it a try, I put their first show on Soundcloud and posting the notes on their WP site http://thatbrewery.com/podcasts/ I like the embedded player. Yeah everyone says they are dying, but so has flickr for the last 10 years.
I guess you know it’s a problem when your web server grinds to a slow halt?
It’s easy enough to do a category in WP and get a podcast enclosure feed w/ no fuss. I kind of like though, this podcast generator approach, I might give it a try. It’s a bootstrap theme so should not be too hard to customize the appearance. I’m not sure the host site needs a huge fancy layout; if people subscribe they won’t need to come back. It just need to provide a good workflow for uploading and putting in a show description, RSS takes care of the rest.
What comes around, comes around.