If you ’re looking to promote your rocking horse , try out to develop customers , or just want to entertain the mass , the Web is rapidly becoming the medium of selection . These day , that means setting up a blog — preferably one that feature video and podcasts as well as text . Starting a multimedia blog is n’t gruelling . Mainly you demand tools for creating and entrance capacity and the means for staying up - to - date in your area of expertise — technology , in my case .
When I accepted Macworld ’s challenge to build a complete blogger setup for less than $ 300 ( you may check into out the rule here ) , I know I ’d have to make some rugged decision and a few via media . Here ’s what I ended up with .
The setup
Because of the multimedia prospect of the task , you ’ll postulate a reasonably powerful Mac . I started with a 13 - inch MacBook , but an iMac would also equip the card . I ’ve assumed that you already have a camcorder — any DV camcorder made in the past several years will do nicely — though if you were desperate and willing to put up with lower - quality picture , you could also get by with just the iSight make into your Mac . The residual we ’ll take caution of with our $ 300 budget .
Words, words, words
To get my message to the world I ’ll jump with a blog — a place to pass around and link to the content I make . Although an AppleMobileMe accountprovides a endearing Web space for such a blog — complete with painting and video recording galleries , beautiful guide , 20 GB of file computer memory , and 200 GB of monthly data transferee — it ’s a $ 99 - per - year proposition , and that kind of money just does n’t grow on Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
Thankfully , a variety of free blogging services are available . The two most popular are Google’sBloggerandWordPress . I signed up for both and found that while I like the more professional face of WordPress ’s templates and its spacious 3 GB of repositing ( though you ca n’t use this place for audio or video recording with a complimentary account ) , Blogger was easy to get started with . The armed service offers just 1 GB of storehouse ; however , I could easily tack to WordPress later if I wanted to take advantage of its greater storage and configurability .
MarsEdit 2Because I prefer to craft my web log offline with text edition tools that are more pliable than what Blogger provides , I also picked up a copy of Red Sweater Software ’s $ 30 MarsEdit 2 ( ) . The blog editor program is slimly more expensive than illumineX ’s $ 19.95ecto , but I bump it more reliable and prefer its intuitive interface . And since I like to put to work with plain text and add my own HTML tag , I did n’t miss ecto ’s copious - text editor in chief , which lets you bring without worry about HTML code ( if you do n’t speak HTML and do n’t care to learn , ecto is the better choice ) .
MarsEdit 2
For long blog entries , I also snagged Bare Bones Software ’s freeTextWrangler . This powerful text editor offer neat hunt and data format potentiality , which make function with lots of text much easier . I can then glue the results into MarsEdit .
To avoid have to type the same text over and over , I decide to utilise a textbook enlargement tool , which automatically expands abbreviation into a block of text — bbiofor my current biography , for example . Here I was torn between Riccardo Ettore ’s $ 27TypeIt4Meand SmileOnMyMac ’s $ 29.95TextExpander . Their functionality is really close . Although I have been using TypeIt4Me for days ( and like it a stack ) , the many predefined abbreviations that ship with TextExpander gave it a wooden leg up for new bloggers .
Finally , to ensure that I have a rich stream of content to blog about , I grabbed a costless written matter of NewsGator ’s RSS proofreader , NetNewsWire ( ) . The RSS accompaniment built into Safari is OK , but there ’s just no light way to take to — and quickly view — masses of news flow than NetNewsWire .
MarsEdit 2
Media Mogul
A podcast just is n’t a podcast without a microphone to read it . The intimate microphone on my MacBook does n’t create professional - sounding results , nor do I care for the sound of cheesy USB headset microphone . For these reasons , I dropped another $ 75 ( via Buy.com ) on MXL’sStudio 1 USB microphone . Complete with stand , carrying case , and USB cable , this is a well - sounding mic for the price .
My mike foreign mission was n’t complete , however . For my picture screencasts , I needed a mic that better upon the one built into my DV camcorder . Thus , another $ 26.49 get for Radio Shack’sHands - destitute Tie - Clip Omnidirectional Electret microphone .
iShowUFor editing my sound and television , GarageBand and iMovie , which occur bundled with my Mac , provided all the tools I needed . However , I also wanted the choice to catch the activity on my Mac ’s screen so I could attest how to use software . The Mac OS can capture still , but I also needed video capture . While I ’m a liberal sports fan of both Ambrosia Software’sSnapzPro Xand Telestream’sScreenFlow , their various $ 69 and $ 99 price tag put them out of the track . or else , I chose shinywhitebox ’s $ 20iShowU. It does n’t enamor stills — I’ll have to stick with OS X ’s construct - in tools for that — nor does it have ScreenFlow ’s ability to foreground and soar up in on objects , but it ’s otherwise a able motion - gaining control utility .
iShowU
Finally , I also like the theme of interviewing other people for my screencasts and podcasts . Skypelets me do free audio or video confab with any other Skype customers . To memorialize both side of those interviews , I chose Ecamm Networks ’ $ 14.95 Call Recorder ( ) . And because I can never count on every Edgar Albert Guest in my podcast mouth at the same volume , I also downloaded a copy of The Conversation connection ’s liberal Levelator ( ) , which equilibrise the volume of any recording feed to it .
Broadcasting
The toll of podcasting and screencasting calculate on how broadly you want to pass around your subject matter and how much grunt work you ’re uncoerced to do .
To work around having to pay to host telecasting , I pick out to upload my video to YouTube and then imbed a link to the videos in my blog . The videos seem as an integrated part of the blog , and this method saves the cost of have to purchase memory blank space or make up for bandwidth .
I could have used the same coming for hosting my podcast ( this would ask appending a picture to the podcast , economise it as a movie file , and then uploading it to YouTube ) , but since I want to get that content into iTunes , I require to store it in a dependable localization . That meant pay for a host service . To stay within my budget I choseLiberated Syndication ’s libsyn50 plan . For $ 5 a month I get 50 M of storage per calendar month and unmetered bandwidth . This intend even if my podcast is a smash , I wo n’t pay up more than $ 5 a month .
iTunes distribution also ask that you generate an RSS feed for each episode . Although I could do that by script - tweaking an XML file , it was completely deserving the $ 39 I compensate for Reinvented Software’sFeeder , a creature that make make these files and publishing your podcast a child’s play .
Compromises
The splurge
Once I was done with my shopping fling , Macworld inquire what I would do with an extra With an extra $ 300 . Here ’s what I ’d add …
Back up my filesWith a bit of extra cash in my pouch , my first purchase would be a good backup effort . When seeking inexpensive computer gear wheel , Newegg.comis a good place to start . There I found a Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB USB 2.0 extraneous hard effort for $ 70 .
Get more storageFor $ 12 a month ( which get to $ 144 for a year ) , I can up my Liberated Syndication account to the libsyn250 architectural plan , which gives me 250 M of storage per month . This is enough for me to store two 10 - minute iPod - quality videos per calendar month , with enough room to part with for my podcasts .
Illustration by Jeff Grunewald
