PRblogs.org

PRblogs.org has been growing a great deal over the past few years. Thousands upon thousands of blogs are happily churning along.

So, with the increased usage and traffic, James Farmer of edublogs.org has kindly upgraded us to the full blown Edublogs Campus edition.

What does this mean for users? Several things, and I’d like to share those with you now.

The good news is, this platform offers us all a lot more stability, security and also some excellent new features in Site Admin.

We can still do podcasting using the Anarchy Media Player function. I’ve embedded a podcast below using the two different approaches. (1) Just use the upload function in your editor. (2) Just use a plain old href URL link pasted in using the yellow “A” button on your editor. Either way it will put an “Audio MP3″ image in the post that, when you click it, reveals a player.

Also, the themes have been upgraded. You have a wider variety (and “Widget” enabled) group of themes to choose from now.

Sample PRblogs podcast - audio mp3 | Download

By the way, in that podcast, when I say “PRblogs has moved to edublogs” what I really mean is - we’ve been upgraded to their Campus edition. We haven’t actually ‘moved’ anywhere. :o) You’re URL will still be PRblogs.org, too.

Finally, below all this, just to show you how video works now … I’ve placed an example of a video embed from a recent conference we attended.

Something We’re Considering

Always wishing to be upfront with you about our hosting and blog offerings, please consider this new idea for our blogs.

One new idea we’re considering is the inclusion of Adsense in the blogs. But, let me explain how it works. We are not going to just place ads on all the sites. The cookies used at PRblogs.org will keep you, your regular users and visitors from ever seeing the ads. The people that see the ads tend to be first time visitors that may land on your site from a Google (or other) search engine link. I just want you to know how infrequent ads might show up. Also, (repeating here, I know) you should know that you, your students, and regular readers may never actually see any ads yourself.

Also, this has not started yet. It is just being considered. So, here are the details for your consideration.

For clarification, please check out this post in the edublogs forums to see what it is all about - On ads « The Edublogs Forums. The basics (most important info) for you is as follows:

We’re considering trying out some adsense, in the same way that the folks at wp.com do it.

What this would mean would be that:

- You would never see any ads
- Your students would never see any ads
- Your regular readers would never see any ads
- There wouldn’t be any ads in feed readers
- Noone who has bookmarked you or types in your URL would see any ads
- No logged in Edublogs users would ever see any ads

In fact, very few people would see ads at all, but enough search engine visitors might in order to help us cover the bills and continue to grow and (help) develop Edublogs. (Our nice hosts.)

So, please comment below with your feelings about this. The rationale for starting to use Adsense is to help the good people that support our hosting of PRblogs.org. Hey, they are giving us a great free service. I’d like to help them. Also, so you’ll know, I will not be receiving any of the funds. They all go to the hosting and maintenance of all the edublogs.org sites, of which - PRblogs.org is one.

So, let me hear from you. Thanks.

Just as we are using YouTube to embed video, we can now embed audio podcasts at PRblogs.org.

Go to Utterz.com and sign up for an account.

Then, record your podcast using your cellphone (or other phone) and embed it into your post, like this.  Well, the embed didn’t work.

So, here is the link to the Utterz podcast.

I’ll work on getting the embed to work.

In the past, Wordpress MU (WPMU) did sometimes pose obstacles with regard to posting video from YouTube and other sites in your blogs.

This has all changed with our recent upgrade. Now, in your blog’s editor, just look for the little yellow circle with an “A” in it. Click that and place the YouTube URL in the little pop-up window. That’s all. It works very well and is quite simple to do. Just enter the full HTTP address (url) to your YouTube, Google Video, iFilm, Revver, Metacafe, MySpace or GoEar web page. Check the Anarchy Media Player site for the full list of supported sites.

But, that has been solved with recent versions of WPMU. You may enable Viper’s Video Quicktags in your “plugins” area on your blog. Now, you only need to choose the proper button in that plugins tools to enter the appropriate URL for the video. It will paste / post the video into your post in your blog.

Here is one from Camp ASCCA, for instance. So, have fun with videos at PRblogs.org.

Good news and many thanks to James Farmer of Edublogs.org.

In our most recent upgrade, there was a quirk causing some random characters to appear in some blogs. I believe this has now been fixed. Check your blogs. Please report back here with a comment if you find anything to the contrary.

Thanks.

Podcasting - both video and audio - is now possible at PRblogs.org.

You can host your videos at any of these sites: your own files from some server (like DivShare), Google Video, YouTube, MetaCafe, iFilm, Revver, MySpace and GoEar. You may also post video from DailyMotion and iMixes from iTunes. For information about iTunes iMixes, check out this story at the Washington Post. (Subscription may be required, but I got in without one.)

Remember. You are responsible for only posting videos and audio, and any other content, for which you retain ownership or own the rights to publish on the Web. Don’t steal. That’s not nice.

Right now, to podcast from your PRblogs.org blog, you may do the following… Read the rest of this entry »

Many thanks to James Farmer of edublogs.org for his tireless work over the past few weeks.

A complete revamp of the PRblogs.org software platform is essentially finished. I’m still looking around to find any possible quirks that may have arisen. Please feel free to comment with any problems you may encounter.  The Flickr plugin is a little goofy right now, for instance.  We’ll get it.

Also, we have our own PRblogs Forums coming up.  Thanks, James.  That will allow us to better communicate our FAQs and report any bugs. I’ll alert you when that comes on-line.

Frequent users have likely experienced sluggish service and downtime at various times over the past few days, especially. I apologize for the interruptions in service. We are growing and experiencing those unfortunate growing pains. I believe this upgrade solves those problems.

Also, we can’t forget that PRblogs.org is a free service.  Still, we want to bring you the best service.  Your patience is appreciated.

PRblogs.org is hosted, along with almost 65,000 other blogs, at edublogs.org.  James has been our benefactor all this time.  We are very lucky and grateful to have his assistance.  I hope to have further news in the coming days about other positive movement for PRblogs.org, too.

Our blogging platform, WordPress Multi User (WPMU), is now upgraded to WPMU 1.0. This is the same platform being used by The New York Times, Yahoo!, Harvard and Le Monde magazine. Also, edublogs.org is the prime example of WPMU implementation highlighted by WordPress.com / Automattic as a WPMU blog hosting provider.

PRblogs.org, like edublogs.org, is free to all. No ads. James has recently launched Edublogs Premium, an even more robust and affordable enterprise option for edublogging.  Check that out if you are interested in something for your school or enterprise, for example.

There are new tools for posting videos, audio, photos and more. Podcasting is now possible at PRblogs.org.

Here is one example of how video may be posted to your PRblogs.org site. This is the Singapore version of the Dove Real Beauty Self-Esteem Fund video. I use it because it is also using the new divShare Wordpress Plugin. It is the new plugin that enables PRblogs.org to accomplish complete podcasting (video and audio) capabilities.

DivShare is “a free file hosting service for everyone. No registration required!”

They claim - and I have no reason to doubt them :) - the following:

It’s easy:
1. Upload a file
2. Get your download link
3. Spread the word!
Features:

* Upload unlimited files
* Serve unlimited downloads
* Files stay online forever!
* No pop-up ads or spam
* Incredibly fast, reliable servers

So, please go check out your blog - or get a new one. We welcome all public relations and marketing communications students, faculty and practitioners to our community. Check the RSS Feed for PRblogs.org community posts, too.