Creating a Podcast with Blogger

Blogger blogs are free to set up, but don't allow you to upload files directly to your account. However, if you do want to podcast using the platform, there is a workaround which will let you do just that.

Creating a Podcast with Blogger does a good job in explaining the basic process although it neglects to include instructions for adding a player to a post so that you can listen to files straight from the blog rather than in a podcatcher such as Google Reader or iTunes.

For those who prefer written instructions, this is one way of doing it:

Hosting your audio on Podomatic

1. Go to Podomatic and create a free account (put your name in the second box and leave the first blank unless you are happy for your pupils to know your first name.
2. Click Skip for now when asked if you want to add a photo and click Post your first episode
3. Click Upload media from your computer
4. Click Browse and find the mp3 file you want to upload
5. Select the file and click Open
6. Click Upload media
7. When the upload has completed, click Close window
8. Write in an Episode Title and Description and click Next step twice
9. Select Clean next to Filtering and click Next step
10. Click Post Episode
11. Click My Podcast Page
12. Right click the Download link and in the menu that appears, select Properties
13. Highlight the link next to Address (URL) which starts with http:// and ends in .mp3
14. Right click and in the menu that appears, select Copy or hold down the Ctrl key and press C.

Hosting your audio on The Internet Archive

1. Go to The Internet Archive and click join us
2. Fill in your email address, screen name, password and Captcha code
3. Click Get Library Card
4. Click Upload
5. In the box under Enter a title for your work, type the name of the mp3 you are going to upload
6. Click Next
7. Fill in the description and keywords and author boxes
8. Click on the Choose license link and select the type of attribution you want
9. Click Select a Licence
10. Click on proceed
11. Go back to the Create item screen and click Browse
12. Find the mp3 file you want to upload, select it and click Open
13. Click Upload files
14. Once your file has uploaded click on the generated link for your mp3 file under Your Page is Ready!
15. Right click the MB link and in the menu that appears, select Properties
16. Highlight the link next to Address (URL) which starts with http:// and ends in .mp3
17. Right click and in the menu that appears, select Copy or hold down the Ctrl key and press C.

Once you've uploaded your mp3 file to Podomatic or The Internet Archive you can link to it in a Blogger post.

Linking to audio in Blogger

1. Go to Blogger and create a free account
2. Click CREATE YOUR BLOG NOW 
3. Create a Google account by filling in the online form or click sign in if you already have one
4. Create a title and address for your blog
5. Type in the Word Verification code and click CONTINUE
6. Select a template and click CONTINUE
7. Click START BLOGGING
8. Click Dashboard and Settings
9. Click the Formatting tab
10. Click on the dropdown menu next to Show Link Fields and select Yes
11. Click SAVE SETTINGS
12. Click the Posting tab
13. Click Add enclosure link
14. In the Enclosures box under URL, Highlight http://, right click and in the menu that appears, select Paste or hold down the Ctrl key and press V. The link ending in mp3 should then appear in the box. If it doesn't go back to your Podomatic page and copy the link again.
15. Fill in the Title box with the name of your podcast episode and in the main body section, write in a description of the contents.
16. To add a player to your post, go to Blogcastone and in the MP3 URL box, paste in the link again in the same way as above
17. Click on the dropdown menu next to Theme and select one of the options.
18. Click Generate
19. Click in the right hand box containing the player embed code and copy it in the same way as above
20. Go back to the Create Post window in Blogger and make sure the Edit HTML tab is selected before pasting in the code under your description
21. When you are ready, click PUBLISH POST and then the link in a new window to see the finished result.
22. Press the play button to listen to your podcast.

Subscribing in iTunes or Google Reader

1. On your newly created blog, next to Subscribe to click the Posts (Atom) link or if you have the latest version of Internet Explorer, click on the orange RSS icon on the right hand of your browser.
2. Copy the whole feed address ending in /feeds/posts/default
3. In iTunes, click on the Advanced Menu and select Subscribe to Podcast..., paste in the feed in the dialogue box that appears and click OK
4. Click on the title of the podcast to listen to the episode
5. In Google Reader, click Add a subscription and paste in the address and click Add
6. Wait for the feed to load and click on the title of your post. A player should automatically appear allowing you to listen to the podcast.

Finally, run the feed through Feedburner and you're done.

So there you go. You can now add a podcast to your existing Blogger blog or create a new one from scratch and all for free. If you use up the 500MB limit on your Podomatic account, just create a new one and carry on linking the files to your existing feed.

On the other hand, you may prefer to use TypePad and upload directly to it, but for that you would have to pay a monthly fee. It's your choice.

To remove the Nav bar from your Blogger Blog

One of the drawbacks of using a Blogger blog in an educational context is that on the Nav Bar at the top left of the screen there is a Next Blog button which when clicked can take you to a blog which contains inappropriate material. However, there is a way to remove this Nav Bar completely and so avoid this risk. This is what you do:

1. Go to Blogger and sign in
2. Click the Layout link
3. Click the Edit HTML tab
4. Between the line of code Updated by: Blogger Team and  /* Variable definitions, paste the code #navbar-iframe {display: none !important;}
5. Click SAVE TEMPLATE
6. Click View Blog