One particular blogsite I’m designing at the moment consists of a lot of coordinated elements that work in conjunction with each other, of which some are podcasts.

Uploading audio files such as podcasts onto your blog is easy, as WordPress has done all the hard work for you behind the scenes; they have made it so all you need to do is to click some buttons and not have to worry about any coding or whatever.

So this post will show you how it’s done. First start with the words that are linked to the podcast:

Go into the Dashboard (via http://URL/wp-login.php and then type in the username and password):

Click on the ‘Pages’ link in the left sidebar and find the relevant page:

When you mouse over the page title, you’ll get additional links such as ‘Edit’ come up, which when clicked opens the page:

Highlight the words you want to become a link, and then click on the podcast (or audio) icon (which looks like two quavers) after ‘Upload/Insert’ above the contents field:

Click on the ‘Select Files’ button to bring up your computer’s browser:

Find the right file that corresponds with your link on the page and open it:

Wait for the podcast audio file to download (the length of time will vary according to size):

When it’s finished ‘crunching’ it will be stored in the Media Library:

Here you need to check the name of the file as it will be seen as the link, and click on ‘Insert into Post’:

The podcast’s name is now a link. If you click on ‘Update’ you’ll be able to see it live:

If you want to find it in the Media Library for future reference, go back to the Dashboard and find Media >Library in the left sidebar:

And there you will find the audio file you have uploaded:

Now if you go back to your published page and click on the link for this particular podcast, you’ll be directed to its own page (with its own URL or permalink) which has been automatically created for you by WordPress:

And if you click on the podcast’s link it will open up and start playing for you:

Enjoy! Now all you have to do is to repeat this process (only updating after all the podcasts have been uploaded) and your podcast library will be complete!

There is a lot more than just writing posts in blogging. Even in a WordPress.com blog there are extended facilities not many people realise are available, or know what to do with them.

My analytics revealed a lot of interest in password protected and private pages. This is quite exciting, as it allows WordPress users to create a simple membership-only portion in their blog; somewhere where only invited readers are allowed to access and read the contents within.

I first came across this idea from another blogger, who used his e-newsletter to communicate to his followers, informing them that only they, as special members of his list, were allowed to have a password that unlocked specific pages in his blog to learn the vital information they contained.

This favouritism certainly worked on me, and I felt honoured to be party to this secret system. It was a clever ploy to keep me in the fold and make me feel special, to ensure I would value the information he was allowing access to, and to maintain the concept that even though it was free to me, it might not be so to others.

If this was used within a WordPress.org blog, there could be some monetary value added towards the access criteria, or it could merely be a practical resource to enhance an ‘Inner Circle’ type membership, which a coach may have set up for specific clients in certain fields.

And once past the main password protected page, there could be a veritable maze of protected pages available for individual members, each containing sensitive and confidential material only available to those who know how to gain access.

And private pages? Their contents are only visible to Administrators who have access to the Dashboard within the blog, so I suppose if the blog was a complicated and intricate website, with much information to conceal from the outside world, then they would be valuable here.