Custom WordPress Theme Design

So I find myself working on a podcasting solution for an old client that now wants to share a weekly 30 minute talk with the world and it got me thinking.

Podcasting is something that is so simple, but so often misunderstood. I remember only a little more then a year ago talking to otherwise intelligent, tech savy, people who asked me how a podcast was different then a mp3. I tried to explain to them about the metadata and subscription aspects of podcasts but I rarely convied the true power of podcasting.

Wikipedia says:

A podcast is a media file that is distributed by subscription (paid or unpaid) over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

Okay, fine - but what podcasting really does is allow the masses to simlplify the distribution of content they’ve created. The xml file that describes the media file allows everyone - itunes, thisblog, technorati - to learn about the latest mashup that you created in GarageBand, why you did it, when you did it, and where one might subscribe to the other media files that you are going to publish in the future.

Get a decent rss aggregator or podcast specific app ( even itunes ) and subscribe to a few active podcasts.

That being said, here’s a list of my favorite ( mostly ) talk radio type podcasts - try one or two, almost all of them are better then the standard mainstream media swill.

1. Free Talk Live - while not a pure-play podcast, this is easily the most important podcast on the net today imho.
2. The Onion Radio News - The Onion Radio News is a daily newscast from The Onion’s award-winning news team.
3. DiggNation - Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories.
4. Coverville - A Podcsts about cover songs. How can that be good? Tune in, find out.
5. Movies You Should See - Brtish movie reviews - an amazing amount of detail about the movies discussed even though they stray off topic so often.
6. The RU Sirius Show - A MondoGlobo Production…
7. Common Sense with Dan Carlin - Sometimes topical, sometimes historical, always worth listening to.
8. Rubyfruit Radio - Where it’s all girls, all the time.
9. MacNation - One Nation Under Pod.
10. Red Bar Radio - Listen to MIke D. harshly judge pop culture .

Very interesting work day today. I am spending the first couple of hours this morning writing up a consulting doc about why a high profile national campaign should install and publish with WordPress instead of the other “real” content management systems out there.

It helps that I have experience with Mambo/Joomla and EZ Publish - The former being problematic, the latter a nightmare.

I think the main advantages of WordPress are:

• It is xhtml valid, semantically marked up
• Secure and stable ( compared to Mambo/Joomla especially )
• Small core installation - and then a world of plugins to extend it
• SEO Friendly right out of the box

Of course there is more to my document then just those 4 bullet points, but you aren’t paying for my consulting, are you? So yes, I do more then create WordPress themes - if you need some consulting give me a shout and I’ll be happy to discuss your project.

Just wanted to let everyone know that Michael is out of the hospital and back home. He is doing much better and I wanted to thank everyone that sent him cards, flowers, etc. they really cheered him up.

I am still playing catch up professionally, but I’ll get everything back on track over the next week.

Allright! In all the confusion I thought that I had lost podcast #3 but it turns out I had just uploaded it to a strange place. So without further ado I am happy to present my best podcast to date and the last podcast to that will bare the This Damn Blog Name:

Podcast #3

It’s about 11 MB and 5:30 mintues long.

This is a compilation CD, showcasing 20 of Club Bootie’s favorite mashups from 2006. Compile in order with no gaps between the songs – perfect for parties! They are calling this the biggest bootleg mashup party in the world with the zip file containing all 21 mp3 tracks, plus artwork.

DeadHeads are known for their ability to identify the year of a bootleg by listening to just a few notes. But for even the most “dead”icated listener, the band’s 1976 New Year’s Eve concert presents a genuine challenge. Rarely does any Dead show display the essence of several distinct periods of their sound, but this release contains the best elements of three or four clearly defined eras, and the sum of the parts adds up to one of the most interesting and inspired concerts of the band’s 30-year performing career.

The three-disc set includes more than 180 minutes of music capturing the Grateful Dead playing in their Bay Area backyard at the peak of the group’s live prowess and just a few months before the release of the band’s ninth studio album, Terrapin Station.

Tune in for a taste: Windows Media or Quicktime

This is a sticky post, timely content below…

As some of you know 80% of my time has been spoken for over the next few months, so I am not cranking out the WordPress themes the way that I used to for the public at large.

It also means that my availability is different these days - I am only taking on selected clients and projects to work on in the other 20% of my professional time.

I am giving preference to “good” former clients BTW - the cost of a custom WordPress theme is now $500.

UPDATE: My time is spoken for through February, but I’ll still be happy to speak to you if you are interested in discussing a future project.

As part of a New Years resolution I am selling off a dozen great domain names. Some have traffic and some are listed in a few search engines from the previous lives.

Here’s the list:

• alt-news.com
• atlanta-business-online.com
• blogmeld.com
• commonscontent.com
• nickjuana.com
• op-co.com
• scrums.net
• soundloads.com- Sold
• templatizeit.com
• thedailylinks.com
• video-blog-directory.com
• z3productions.com - Sold

I’ll set them as ready for transfer so that you can move them to your registrar when payment is made.