I quickly located and downloaded Audacity for OS X (Windows version also available at the same link). I then hunted around for a plugin to present the audio in the blog. Tami suggested PodPress, which is very common, and is one she uses. My search result also turned up Podcasting, and after checking it out a bit, I decided to give it a try.¹ I was also swayed in part by the 4.5-star rating given Podcasting, compared to 3-stars for PodPress

Installation is very straightforward, and if you actually intend to publish podcasts to iTunes, Podcasting makes it very simple through its configuration screen. (Incidentally, Podcasting will also handle video files as well as audio.)

To include the player in your post, you simply upload the audio file (MP3 format), then call it with 

Pretty straightforward, no? So expect to see that little audio player appear in future posts, as time and circumstance (and the nature of the article) permit.

Kestrel’s Aerie: Now With Audio! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

EDIT: I was extremely remiss in failing to credit this article at Gingerwench.com, where ComLuv for Intense Debate was tested and refined. Seeing ID at work, together with CommentLuv, and seeing how seamlessly they worked together was a further impetus to install ID here at the Aerie. Thanks, Ginger, and again, my apologies for the oversight!

Another benefit of Intense Debate is the ability to register with ID (even if you aren’t a blogger) and follow other commenters you enjoy, regardless of where they comment. For bloggers, we can moderate (if necessary) and reply to comments directly from email: No need to log into the WordPress dashboard!

Obviously, I’m excited about the possibilities ID presents, not only for the Aerie, but for enhancing the community aspect of the blogoverse. But I’m also interested in your perceptions: Is ID too intrusive? What about the comment rating system? (I’m not a huge fan, to be honest.) Any other thoughts about Intense Debate?

Intense Debate Now Active! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Just to double-check things, I reloaded my site…and there was nothing but a blank page. And then I remembered: I never updated my wp-config file with my new database name, user, and password! Ooops. So I got that all done, but lots of stuff was still missing. I FTP’d my /wp-contents and /wp-includes folders again, and it appears I finally have stuff where it belongs. So what follows this paragraph is what I originally posted Saturday afternoon, and what you probably saw in your feed readers earlier. Needless to say, I gave myself a bit of a start, but I’m glad I figured out what I didn’t do. And that’s just one more argument in favor of a good, step-by-step written checklist.

Twitter followers may have seen me looking for suggestions for a web host early in the day, then later last night, for a step-by-step guide to successfully moving a website; as I remember it, I ran into a couple minor snags when I moved from GoDaddy to HostICan. I did find one, but really, it wasn’t needed. (And thanks, @Lassirra, for the link. ) Interestingly, the most important step is not included in any of the guides I found.

Step 1: Do your research before you commit to a new host. 

I laid out for myself some basic requirements, based on my current file sizes, bandwidth, and projected needs. Then I added a fudge factor, and set the following as my minimum needs: 1 GB storage, 20 GB monthly bandwidth, 5+ domains, 20+ subdomains and parked domains, to allow for future expansion. I also wanted all this at a reasonable price. I ended up reading scores of reviews at http://webhostingstuff.com/ (WHS). Fairly quickly, I limited my search to "5-star" hosting sites, and made sure none of the reviews complained about CPU-cycle throttling by the host, which was my single, deal-killing complaint with HostICan. (I also submitted my own review of HostICan identifying that issue: I’m willing to put my mouth where my money is!)

After evaluating every single suggestion I received, I narrowed the list down to two: ICD Soft and Arvixe. There were three factors that tipped my decision in favor of Arvixe: First, price: ICDSoft was $6/month, while, with a discount due to the referral from WHS, Arvixe was $3/month (both for 2-year committments). Second, Arvixe is the third-highest rated hosting service listed at WHS; and third–and most importantly–Arvixe guaranteed 6 domains available to my account level, while I couldn’t find anything at ICD to indicate more than one domain. A minor factor is the fact that if I transferred my domain registrar to Arvixe, I would get free domain name renewals as long as I maintained a web hosting account with them. Now, that’s only five or six dollars a year, if that (I think it was $3 at GoDaddy), but it’s a nice perk.

The only minor hiccup in the whole process was that I forgot to unlock my domain at GoDaddy so Arvixe could transfer it. Oops! Once I responded to the email from Arvixe (after unlocking my domain at GoDaddy), it was a matter of minutes before the domain was transferred and my site was pointed to the new nameservers.

Previously, I’d downloaded my site to my computer; once my account was set up, I simply FTP’d it back to the new server. I also backed up my WordPress database via WP DB Backup, and after I had created a new MySQL database at Arvixe, I simply exported the SQL file from my desktop to the new database. [Edit: I really don't understand why what I uploaded on Saturday didn't "take," and why I had to upload it again at midnight, but all's well that ends!]

As far as I can tell, everything is where it’s supposed to be, but if anyone notices any glitches, please let me know through my contact form or through a comment here.

Oh, and performance? I logged out of the site, cleared my Firefox cache, and returned to the Aerie. I think the front page loaded in about 4 seconds, compared to around 10 seconds with my previous host. Yeah…that fast!

New Webhost, One Small Problem is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Let’s start with why we blog (well, why most of us do, anyway): We want to establish a rapport with our readers, and we want to interact with them. The genesis for this post was Brajana’s article on tips to improve blog usability at Mend Pet. She makes several excellent points, so by all means follow the link!

I read a lot of blogs–over 100, almost evenly split between WoW and non-WoW. Many of the non-WoW blogs are "professional blogs," that is, written by people whose livelihood is blogging. Still, I’d like to see some of the items I mention below on their blogs.

So what do I mean by "reader-friendly"? You may recall I posted last month a "Friday Five" article on reader-friendly WordPress plugins. I identified add-ons I use to improve the interaction between myself and my readers. However, there are other things you can do to facilitate that interaction, without addons.

• Make your RSS feed button PROMINENT. Definitely put it "above the fold" but preferably right at the top of your blog. And for heaven’s sake, if you have more than one "Subscribe" button, be sure they all point to the same place! A lot of bloggers have a FeedBurner button, but their theme also has a "Subscribe to RSS" link that points to their default feed–which pretty much defeats the purpose of using FeedBurner. (Yes, you’ll need to edit your theme to remove or change those additional links, but it’s a pretty simple task. Let me know if you need help!)
• Speaking of RSS feeds, give your subscribers a FULL RSS feed! Believe me, I’m not the only person who follows a hundred or more blogs each day. Even the most successful professional bloggers provide full feeds, and count on reader interaction to prompt click-throughs on their ads. (If you don’t have ads, then why insist readers click through to your blog?)
• Provide your readers with a way to communicate with you. There are a number of reasons a reader may want to write to you, other than by commenting on a post. I use a Contact Page, but just an email address or link is helpful. If you don’t want a clickable link for all the world’s spammers to use,¹ there is at least one website that will turn your email into an image.²

And yes, there are even more steps you can take with add-ons to make your blog more reader-friendly:

• Let your readers edit their comments. Sure, we ought to spell-check our comments before hitting "Submit," but who among us hasn’t read a comment we posted and said, "Oops!"? Or had a second (or third!) thought we wanted to add? I don’t know about you, but I hate commenting two or three times when one would suffice. (Sure, I ought to be more organized in my thinking, too, but hey…I have a hundred more blogs to read!) For self-hosted WordPress bloggers, I recommend WP Ajax Edit Comments. There are others out there (although I’m not sure what’s available for wordpress.com or blogspot.com).
• Speaking of comments, include a Subscribe to Comments link for each article. I do it through Mark Jaquith’s Subscribe To Comments. Once again, though, other solutions are available. This really encourages readers to follow a conversation. I find it especially handy for sites like Tami Moore‘s Blue Moon and Choose, where I interact not only with the author, but with other readers as well. And isn’t that what we REALLY want to do?

What tools and techniques do you use to keep your readers active and engaged with you and your blog? Share with all of us in the comments.

How to Make Your Blog Reader-Friendly is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Last week, as you may recall (the link is there in case you don’t), I showcased a handful of addons intended to enhance your interaction with your audience. This week, I want to talk about five more WordPress (WP) plugins I can’t blog without.

Bad Behavior 2.0.28
» Michael Hampton (url)
Deny automated spambots access to your PHP-based Web site. Bad Behavior catches between 600 and 700 spam attacks against my site every week. Together with Akismet (provided with every WP installation), there are probably between 1000 and 1500 spam threats each week. I have to manually delete perhaps one a day from the live comments, and between 10 and 20 from my spam box each week. Those numbers should give you an appreciation for how much work I don’t have to do to keep the Aerie spam-free. The result: I don’t need any pre-publication moderation of comments, whether you’re a first time visitor, or have been coming here for two years!

 One Click Plugin Updater 2.4.13
» Janis Elsts (url)
Upgrade plugins with a single click, install new plugins or themes from an URL or by uploading a file, see which plugins have update notifications enabled, control how often WordPress checks for updates, and more. WordPress has included a lot of the functionality of this plugin in recent updates; however, this add-on is, for me, still a bit more elegant, especially for installing new plugins directly from a hosting website.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu 3.3.1
» Ozh (url)
All admin links available in a neat horizontal drop down menu. Saves lots of screen real estate! Again, recent versions of WordPress have vastly improved the administration user interface, but I find Ozh’ programs (this one, and the Better Plugin Page listed below) provide enhanced ease-of-use, and they simply look better!

Ozh’ Better Plugin Page 1.4.2
» Ozh (url)
Adds a little sliding plugin list and buttons to toggle display of Active/Inactive/Out-of-date plugins to the “Manage Plugins” page. When I think of "at-a-glance" functionality, this plugin has it, and that’s why I continue to use it, despite the improvements to WordPress’ provided plugin monitor.

 WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.2.5
» Keith Dsouza (url)
WordPress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions. Want to induce a panic attack in a blogger really quickly? Simply leave out a step in the WordPress upgrade/update process…such as backing up the database, or layout (theme) files…then have the upgrade itself choke. Or, you can use this plugin, and as long as you can read simple instructions ("Click Here"), you can blithely upgrade WP in about 5 minutes, instead of taking 5 minutes for each step, checking and double-checking that you are proceeding in the proper order and haven’t skipped anything. While others are still sweating bullets, you can be Tweeting about how you just finished, or you can even write another article for your blog!

 Tomorrow: Remains of the Week

Once again on Saturday, I’ll share with you the cool stuff I found and shared with my Google Reader followers throughout this past week. In the meantime, I’d love to see in the comments the WordPress tools you can’t live without, as well as any suggestions you might have for future Fridays.

Friday Five: Absolutely Must-Have WordPress Addons is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

One of the smaller changes I’ve made was prompted by this article at MattFlies.com. Matt showed how to style the CommentLuv box (see last week’s Friday Five to see what I’m talking about) to make it a bit more attractive. Although I didn’t quite follow how Matt said to apply his code, I was able to add it to the CommentLuv .css file in /wp-content/plugins/commentluv/style/cl_style.css.

If the thought of modifying a plugin file frightens you, it shouldn’t. First, get FileZilla, a multi-platform (Linux, OS X, Windows), open-source file transfer program.¹ When you set it up, identify a text editor to call from FZ. For OS X, I use the free Text Wrangler; for Windows, I recommend the open source Notepad++.

NOTE: Before you change anything, copy the file to be modified to your computer in case something blows up and you need to revert!

With cl_style.css open in your editor, find the following:

.cluv {
border:1px solid #fff;
padding: 5px;
display: block;
font-size: 100% !important;
text-transform: none !important;
}

Replace² the five lines between {curly braces} with the following:³

display: block;
padding: 8px;
border: 1px solid #E1E1E0;
background: #CFE9FF;   //This can be any color you want for the background of the CommentLuv citation
text-transform: none;
font-style: normal;
letter-spacing: 0;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
margin-top: 8px;

The result will give you something that looks like this: 

Note the nicely rounded corners. If you look at the post I linked above, you’ll see the background color fits in nicely with the overall theme, whether it’s in an original or nested comment.

The text output has been modified from the WordPress Settings > CommentLuv page. (The default is "Kestrel’s last blog..Recommended Reading"; if anything, I prefer a true ellipsis (…), and my last blog is my current blog!) You could also change it to something like "Kestrel last blogged about Recommended Reading" but that might make for some strange reading, depending on article titles.

I hope you enjoyed this little diversion into how you can make your blog just a little cooler, but if you have any questions on anything I’ve covered here, please ask! And look for similar articles in the future.

Quick’n'Easy CommentLuv Style Enhancement is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

1. CommentLuv

CommentLuv shows a link to the last post from a (blogging) commenter by parsing the feed at their provided URL. This is probably one of the best and most effective ways to grow your readership (and for your commenters to grow theirs!): Each time you leave a comment on a CommentLuv-enabled site, a link to your latest post appears, encouraging the site owner and other commenters to follow that link back to your site.

Andy Bailey is the very active and involved developer of CommentLuv, and you can follow him @andybaileyon Twitter.

2. FD Footnotes

John Watson is the author of FD Footnotes, which I’ve found to be an extremely easy-to-use footnote add-on. Once installed, no other setup is required.² To add a footnote, you simply type your footnote (including number) inside [square brackets] where you want it to appear. You don’t even have to number them correctly: The plugin automatically parses them in order when you publish, so you can go back and add footnotes as desired, if you think of something you want to annotate later in your composing process.

I tend to go off on tangents occasionally, so I find footnotes the perfect way to include such info, without making my readers break their train of thought just to follow mine.

3. Subscribe to Comments

Most people don’t want to subscribe to the full comments feed from a blog.³ On the other hand, many readers are interested to know if their comments elicited a response from the blogger or other commenters. But how many of us remember to revisit a blog article where we commented, on a regular basis, to see if the conversation is continuing (or even got started in the first place)?

Especially if you use an RSS feed reader for most of your blog reading, even remembering where you commented may be a Herculean task. Enter Subscribe to Comments, by Mark Jaquith. This plugin places a simple checkbox below the comment box to enable email subscription to the selected comment thread. It’s a great way to effectively and easily enable two-way interaction with your audience, and, to me, is every bit as important to my blog as CommentLuv.

4. Top Commentators Widget 

The Top Commentators Widget,⁴ from Lorna Timbah (WebGrrrl.net), is a nice, compact way to recognize those who (other than yourself) contribute the most to making your blog a “happenin’ place.” It may also encourage more comments, but of course, there is always the quantity vs. quality balance to consider.

Configuration options allow you to specify the number of commenters to showcase; whether or not to display number of comments; change the sidebar heading; and change the update frequency, from an hour to a year.

5. Twitter Widget Pro

The final entry in this week’s Friday Five is Twitter Widget Pro, written by Aaron D. Campbell. This plugin is a “widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It can even display profile images for the users.” It requires PHP5, so be sure you have that enabled from your web host’s control panel.⁵

Among the options for this widget is one to not include replies by you, which, at least in my case, are often non sequiters, at best.

Wrap-Up

So there you have it: five WordPress plugins, each of which can enhance your interaction with your readers. After all, which of us isn’t interested in growing our audience?

If you’re a blogger, what one thing do you do, add-on or otherwise, to encourage your readers to comment or otherwise interact with you, your blog, or other readers?

If you’re just one of my hundreds of loyal readers, which of these tools (if any) do you most appreciate? Which do you think might be less useful than I think it is?⁶

Friday Five: Reader-Friendly WordPress Plugins is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

At any rate, I’ve implemented a "Subscribe to Comments" addon for the site.

It’s always been one of my goals to interact with my readers and commenters, and I do so by replying to comments. Now, instead of trekking back here to see if I’ve replied to your comment, you can simply elect to subscribe to comments for a post on which you commented. To my knowledge, it doesn’t work unless you’ve commented on the post, but you might be able to work around that by editing your comment, if you’re that shy. *big grin* Understand that you’ll be notified of any subsequent comments to a post, whether it’s directly from me or if it’s a comment by another person.

I hope you will all take advantage of this opportunity for dialog; I know I’m looking forward to increasing our give-and-take!

Website Note: Subscribe to Comments Now Active! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

All the cool kids are talking about it! Well, Lorelle on WordPress is, anyway (but I found it before she blogged about it; for once, I’m ahead of the curve!).¹

Ozh, from Planet Ozh, has created the Liz Strauss Comment Counter.² Simply put, anytime a comment is added to your blog, the counter goes up by one.

Let’s face it, one of the reasons most of us blog is to invite interaction with our readers. I have never heard of any blogger complain about getting "too many comments." And comments, while they certainly aren’t a hard measure of readership (neither, believe it or not, are Technorati ratings or Feedburner subscriber numbers), do indicate the degree to which our readers interact with us.³

How-To

Using Comment Counter couldn’t be easier: Download it, extract the zip file (unless you’re using One-Click Plugin Updater), copy the resulting folder to your /content/plugins directory, and activate it within WordPress⇒Dashboard⇒Plugins. Then, simply use it as a widget. Configuration is simplified through a very well-designed configuration screen:

One of the cool things about the configuration screen (not shown in the picture above) is a nice little summary of your blog’s comment status. Here’s mine:

As of today, there have been here on this blog 1169 comments, 50 pingbacks & 5 trackbacks. Given that you currently have 251 posts (including pages), this makes a conversation ratio of 4.88 comments per post. 

Why Comment Counter?

Well, why not? I know I’m not the only blogger who revels in conversing with my readers through comments. So, we can see at a glance how much "conversation" is going on. If you’re a regular visitor, you have probably noticed I try to reply often. Especially now I have installed WordPress Thread Comment, I work even more diligently at conversing with my commenters.

Why not make a game of it? How long can we keep a relevant conversation going? Of course, we can do that via Twitter as well, or e-mails. Blog comments are just one more way we can continue our socializing. Ours is a culture of measurement (Olympics, anyone? "Faster, Higher, Stronger").⁴

For that matter, how quickly can we hit 1,500 comments? 2,000? 5,000? Contests, anyone?⁵

Just as I was an early adopter of CommentLuv, now in vogue among most WoW bloggers, I predict we’ll be seeing the Comment Counter badge popping up all over the place!

Go forth and comment!

New Toy At The Aerie: Help Make It Grow! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

While troubleshooting my IE problem (see the "IE HELP WANTED!" post above), I happened to look at my WordPress dashboard, and who (or what) had linked to the Aerie recently. Besides Ratshag and Lady Jess was the following: List of 100 CommentLuv WordPress Blogs.

While I know a LOT of WordPress WoW bloggers use Commentluv besides me (CommentLuv is the plugin that puts "So-and-so’s last blog post: " in the Comments), it was kind of neat to see mine as the only WoW blog listed (and I think only 2 or 3 gaming blogs at all).

That said, I probably got more hits from Ratters & Jess than from CommentLuv’s website.

Cool Linkage, I Think: CommentLuv Love is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie