For 95% of people out there, the FeedBurner FeedSmith plug-in is a great way to automatically redirect your feeds over to Feedburner’s tracking system.

The problem with the plug-in is it redirects ALL feeds over to one FeedBurner feed. If you’re like me (or others) and have a podcast with two different feeds for two different types of files (like audio and video, or MP3 and AAC), you can still use FeedBurner for stats tracking, but it takes some manual hacking.

Requirement: You must have edit access to a file called “.htaccess” in your Wordpress root directory and your web hosting provider must support redirects. Some web hosting companies, such as GoDaddy, intentionally obfuscate access to “.htaccess” or just plain disallow redirects from it, usually under the flimsy guise of “security concerns”. Your mileage may vary, so check with your web host provider if you have issues.

Disclaimer: There are multiple ways to skin a cat, so there may be better ways of doing this. This works for me on my provider. I can’t be responsible if you break your feed, unsubscribe all your listeners, kill a kitten, or cause Twitter more downtime using this method.

Using my podcast as an example, here’s what a basic redirect looks like. You would add these lines BEFORE the Wordpress code-block that usually starts with “# BEGIN Wordpress” or the like:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner
RewriteRule ^feed(.*) http://feeds.feedburner.com/SufferingFromSanity [R=302,L]

Here’s how this is translated by the web server:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner

This tells the web server that the rewrite condition we’re trying to perform only applies when the “user agent” isn’t “FeedBurner”. In other words, this rule only applies if we’re not FeedBurner. Side note, without this exclusion, FeedBurner rightly complains of a rather nasty circular reference trying to pull your feed.

RewriteRule ^feed(.*) http://feeds.feedburner.com/SufferingFromSanity [R=302,L]

This is the actual rule. It redirects the prefixed website (which covers someone typing in “sufferingfromsanity.com” or “www.sufferingfromsanity.com”) accessing “feed” with or without the trailing slash “(.*)”. It redirects that access to the FeedBurner address with an HTML 302 code. HTML 302 is called a “temporary redirect”, which means web spiders and search engines (like Google, Yahoo, etc.) won’t permanently replace “http://sufferingfromsanity.com/feed” with the FeedBurner in their indexes. The “L” tells the web server the rule has ended.

To do this for different Wordpress categories, just change the appropriate feed being redirected:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner
RewriteRule ^category/podcast-main/feed(.*) http://feeds.feedburner.com/SufferingFromSanity [R=302,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner
RewriteRule ^category/podcast-enhanced/feed(.*) http://feeds.feedburner.com/SufferingFromSanityEnhanced [R=302,L]

When you set up FeedBurner, simply give it the regular feed to look at (e.g. “http://sufferingfromsanity.com/feed/”) and it should handle the rest. With this method, the number of available redirects is theoretically limitless — although if your “.htaccess” file gets really big it might bog down your site’s load times just a bit.

I hope you’ve found this useful. If you found a better or different way of doing this, feel free to leave a comment below.

Technorati Tags: Wordpress, Feedburner, redirect, category

Three tomatoes are walking down the street: a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him… and says “Catch up!”

Uma Thurman — Pulp Fiction (1994)

The buzz of the weekend was the viral e-mail spam assault brought on by a new “social network startup” named Quechup. I was fortunate enough that by the time the e-mails started rolling in, C.C. Chapman had already posted his apology/rant, and I was able to successfully avoid burying my own contact list in a wash of unwanted invites. Others I associate with were sadly not as lucky. This site’s privacy policies being what they are doesn’t surprise me, however. Let’s be honest here: almost every commercially-minded web site will collect some form of personally identifiable information.

So what have we learned from today?

Being An Early Adopter Isn’t Always A Good Thing

Sometimes being the bleeding edge, or trying to follow the bleeding edge, means you end up the victim of these things. If I wanted to take the cynic’s view of it (and why wouldn’t I?), I would say these are the exact people being targeted. The so-called “A-list elite early adopters” are going to be the people with the largest address books, and, consequently, the best fish in the pond for harvesting.

Social Engineering Is Alive And Well

For all our redundant firewalls, intrusion detection systems, network address translation schemes, and password security rules, nothing beats a good, old-fashioned round of social engineering on a social network sized scale.

One of the reasons why this went on for as long as it did is because the people clicking on the links trusted the people the invitation e-mails cleverly appeared to have come from. We want to trust the people that we know and associate with the most, and our usual initial reaction is to believe these people would not intentionally be malicious and subject us to spam, viruses or harvesting. There’s an argument to be made that it was the sole intent of the operation was as a social-engineering experiment.

Look Before You Leap

The domain has a Great Britain domain address with contact information under a e-mail domain registered in the Cook Islands (Pacific islands southeast of Samoa for those geographically unaware). The linked parent corporation specializes in “projects in online dating” and is domain-registered in Nevada. This worldwide round-about has more holes than the strainer I ran tonight’s angel hair pasta through.

Everyone wants to be the next MySpace, and some are willing to cut ethical corners to get there. After all, bad publicity is better than none at all, right? It pays to spend a few minutes checking out a site and searching around the Series of Tubes before clicking on the “Sign Up” button.

First Impressions Mean Everything

Whether through intentional shady practices, very poor judgement without malice, or just very bad programming, this site has destroyed any chance of success it had. In fact, I would go so far as to say it doesn’t matter why or how this happened. You can not repair a first impression any more than you can unscramble an egg. Enough bad press and angry blog posts have been created to permanently stain the name, assuming it was any form of legitimate business to begin with.

As a final thought, it was nice to know that I was important enough to be on so many GMail address books.

Technorati Tags: Quechup, spam, Pulp Fiction, early adopter, social engineering, social network, first impressions

It’s been four months since I railed hard on Twitter, and about three months since I paradoxically started actively using it. Looking back, my rants do come across as unjustified. Now, I think three months is enough time to allow the product to settle during shipment, as it were.

Social

Twitter has become a purely social object for me. Whatever its original purpose, the users have morphed it to become this large, incorporeal IRC chat room — a large stream of disembodied voices, if you will. For some reason, watching the comings and goings of people throughout their day has gone a long way to eliminating some of, but not all, the general feelings of isolation I’ve had in new media spheres.

Connector

There is a significant selection of people on Twitter that I follow and who follow me that I would not be aware of were it not for Twitter. Either through plucking them off the public timeline or off other “friend’s” lists, I’ve made several new connections I would not have made otherwise. Yes, you will have to deal with “rejection” in this space of people that don’t follow you back, and sadly the spammers are still causing their fair share of genuine concerns, but there are literally thousands of connections out there to be made — the network is built for it.

Soundboard

I’ve enjoyed bouncing ideas or questions, philosophical and otherwise, off the Twittersphere and getting several responses. Sure, I’ll never get the immediate flood of responses someone like Robert Scoble or Chris Brogan would, but it still serves its purpose, and it helps provide additional perspective. From it I’ve been able to take serious stock in some of the projects I’m involved in and am moving one in a different direction I had not even thought of. This change would not have been possible without the simple feedback from soundboard group of followers.

Pointed

You have to really have your act together to get a concise, intelligent thought across in 140 characters or less. Many times a single item of this type will turn into a Twitter conversation, but even then each exchange must be fluff-free, or it just won’t fit into the character allotment. When you’re on a serious subject, you can boil the salt out of the surrounding water pretty damn fast when you’re limited to the length of less than an SMS message.

Promotion

Twitter has pushed some traffic to this site as well as the two podcasts, and yes, it’s a valid use of the sphere (as long as it isn’t overdone like the last steak I ordered), but I try to avoid self-promoting through it (or really any channel) as much as possible. People will find my content if they want to. I’m slowly developing a following of people who are promoting it for me, which takes the gut-punched feeling away that I get trying to promote my own stuff. All that being said, as long as it doesn’t go overboard, a bit of shameless self-promotion seems to be tolerated, even encouraged, inside the Twitterverse.

Niche

Let’s face it — it’s not going to be for everyone. My wife tried it for a couple of days and it really didn’t stick with her. Some people get into it and find they just can’t handle the stream/noise or aren’t interested in what amounts to a constant, ongoing conversation. Of course, that’s fine. Not everyone likes asparagus either.

In the end, having heeded the advice I received from people I trust, I now grok Twitter a lot more than I did three months ago. It still has some flaws, technical (scalability, reliability) and practical (signal-to-noise), but as a simple communication tool I think it serves its purpose decently.

I’m finding the key to it though is to remember it’s just a tool, and tools can be used in the right hands or misused in the wrong ones. The tool does not make the person or the social circle — a good tool only enhances the existing social circle and makes its expansion easier.

If so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/abiteofsanity.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, social, chat, social network, connecter, A.Connector, soundboard, feedback, concise, conversation, promotion, self-promotion, niche, Robert Scoble, Chris Brogan

Today’s sermon from the Church of Sanity ™ will probably be a wake-up call for some and will probably upset others, but I feel it needs to be said.

Podcasters are irrelevant. Void of worth. Lacking of importance. A deficit of meaning. Zero value.

Yes, this includes myself.

Why would I take up this radical opinion at a time when podcasting is booming? Why, indeed.

Resistance Is Futile - The Corporations Have Assimilated

Go look at the top one hundred podcasts in iTunes. Go look at the “featured podcasts” page in iTunes. Count the number of shows “sponsored” by large corporations and large non-profits like NPR versus the number of completely independent productions. Come back and tell me with a straight face that the corporations, which were practically ignoring this medium a year ago, haven’t now “embraced” it to the point of completely taking over. The independent voice has nearly been completely squelched by the PR machines and those who seek their pots of gold.

Dash, Cash, Crash - Bigger Is Not Always Better

For every podcaster out there with a great idea for their show, there will always be someone who will be doing it with a bigger budget and better publicity. If one podcast has podsafe music, the next will have “exclusive” podsafe music. For every show out there playing by the “podsafe rules”, there are many more skirting those rules as it suits them in order to grow or keep their audience. For every jingle heard to start a show, you’ll find half a dozen professionally polished musical works-for-hire.

For every video show done with a bedsheet backdrop and a cheap digital camera, there are shows with video equipment budgets that would make charity directors cry. For every great show on a headset mic, there are shows with an audio setup rivaling the cost of a small used car. For every show done with love from the basement with horrible acoustics, there will be another done in a professional studio with enough sound equipment to make my tweaking daughters sound like gods.

For every “amateur” show, there are three done for profit with sponsorships and advertising flowing from every crevice of the MP3 file they can be slimed into. When was the last time you listened to a podcast with sponsorship and the ads weren’t either the usual 30-second spots or painfully rehearsed scripts read by the host?

Go ahead and try to complete with these people — come back and let me know how you do. It’s just not reasonably possible to stand up to groups and companies with budgets and marketing departments that have been trained like Doberman Pinschers to sink their teeth into any medium such as podcasting with such low barriers of entry.

This Bird Has Flown

If you weren’t into podcasting before the iTunes 4.9 release, you missed the boat — period. The signal to noise ratio now means your chances of being heard in the space are slim, and your chances of succeeding to the point of profitability are practically non-existant. The average podcast these days has less than 100 listeners. Short of selling your soul to a guy holding a pitchfork with a bad sunburn, you don’t have much of a chance of getting noticed by the self-described “stars” of this space, who already have their audience and have absolutely no vested interest in helping you develop yours.

Networks Are Now Greater Than Their Parts

Search “podcast network” in Google and watch the results scroll on, and on, and on. The usual course of things is that being part of one network excludes you from all the other networks. It’s like high school all over again, only without being stuffed into a locker by the jock you refused to do homework for. Podcast promotions are increasingly no longer about shows, they’re about networks (and hand-picked shows within same) or the elite immediate circle.

We Attach Relevance Where None Should Exist

Podcasting awards. Podcasting conferences. Podcasting unconferences. Podcasting conventions. Podcasting newsletters. Podcasting websites. Podcasting directories. Podcasting networks. Podcasting feuds. Podcasting software. Podcasting podcasts.

How many people outside the immediate sphere of podcasting care about any of this? Go up to anyone on a corner and start talking about any of these things and you’re going to get looked at like you’re a crazy fool. Go put “won a podcasting award” on your resume and see if it opens any doors.

Instead of trying to promote the medium outside itself, podcasters are too interested for patting themselves on the back for their less-than-one-percent global media consumption rate. Sure, many podcasters have dropped radio and television as their media avenues of choice, but when only 13% of the population have ever even listened to even one show, the overall penetration rate is not anything to cheer about. The echo-chamber (or ego-chamber as Spin puts it) is alive and well in this space, and the majority of people in it still don’t get that it’s not the messenger or even the message that should matter, but the medium of it.

The Finality

I’m not saying podcasting is dead, only that it really needs to change direction quickly if it wants to survive. Podcasting has gone off on that path of old media because we think that’s where success (and the almighty dollar) lies. If we continue down this road we’ll be confined to our own little niche in the corner (ironically, by the forces we seek to emulate) and the so-called revolution will amount to no more than a few people firing blank shells from a toy gun.

Stop looking to other podcasters jealously for inspiration. Stop trying to make yourself look so much better, smarter, or richer than the next guy. If you’re going to produce media, produce it because you want to and because you love what you are doing, not because you think you’re going to be the next hot thing or because there is money to be made. Stop trying to be something you aren’t — stop chasing money that doesn’t exist — and stop caring about what the guy next door has done.

If we continue to make the podcasters more relevant than podcasting, we will all lose in the end.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcasters, relevance, echo-chamber, ego-chamber, Eric Rice, podcast awards, podcast conferences, advertising, corporations, podcast consumption, subscribers, podcast networks

One of the disadvantages I give myself with this blog is I don’t really write every day or “when the iron is hot”, if you will. So, while I am flattered to be blog-tagged, I’m horrible (horrible!) at keeping up with them. I need to get my proverbial act together with this stuff — think less and post more.

With that, I’m going to kill two proverbial birds (sorry, Birdman) with one post and clean up a double blog tag from both Mark Forman and Eric Rice.

Eight Random Things About Me

1 — I think in song lyrics, sometimes to the great confusion and annoyance of people around me. Think of it as the musical equivalent of Martin Tupper. I once participated in a party game where you had to play one song lyric off someone else’s and managed to go nearly a full 45 minutes with it.

2 — I have a rather sizable collection of keychains with city/country names on them from various places around the globe that I have either been to personally or have had friends or family bring back for me.

3 — I consider myself a pessimistic realistic cynical idealist — I have lots of ideas, but then realize I have not the time, the publicity, the talent, or the resources to bring them to reality, or to any form of reality that will stand up to the professional types.

4 — I came out of college as an English major with a specialty in journalism (and photography), which is ironic since i misspell so many words. I loved shooting pictures before the wife and kids — my mother seemed to think I had a natural eye for it. Every now and then I wonder if I shouldn’t get back into it seriously, then I remember Item #3.

5 — I’ve referred to my daughters as my “twinks” in mixed company. It serves as a feel-out for other online game players rather quickly, or gets me more confused looks as in Item #1.

6 — I love baseball and love watching it in nearly any form. I don’t really follow any one team in particular, though. I stopped going to Little League games though because people who watch too much sensationalized news would get creeped-out that I was watching and didn’t have a kid playing in the game. I guess I’m the creepy-looking psychotic kidnapper type.

7 — I have a grass pollen allergy — I have to hire out my lawn care every year. When I was a golfing semi-regularly, I would call ahead to get the groundskeeper’s schedule so I wouldn’t get a tee-time within 24 hours of them mowing the fairways and greens. I haven’t even swung a golf club since before my youngest daughter was born though (six years or so).

8 — I agonize over any purchase more than about $20 (USD), and that includes meals — it takes me forever to order off a menu. Forget large things like cars and houses — my wife handles those purchases and I just write the checks (with predictable results). I bought my Mac only after two months or so of weighing pros and cons of all the models together and worrying I was going to make the wrong choice.

Technorati Tags: Five Things, Eight Random Things, blog tag, meme, Mark Forman, Eric Rice, Martin Tupper, Dream On, keychains, travel, souvenirs, journalism, photography, writing, idealism, twinking, online games, baseball, allergies, golf, indecisiveness

Today, July 1, represents the one year anniversary of the abomination that was my first podcast (over at Suffering From Sanity for those of you new to the cause).

I’ll save the tearful, mushy moment and just take the time to say thank you to all those still listening after a year, and all those who have supported me through the year, including artists and other podcasters. I’ve come to associate with some truly wonderful people over the last year — I just wish I would have had the guts to start podcasting much sooner than I did.

Here’s to the next year and beyond…
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Imagine for a moment you’ve decided to throw a decently-sized, semi-informal, non-holiday-related party.

Instead of keeping your guest list a secret or isolated to just people you know, though, you decide you’re going to throw your doors open and welcome pretty much anyone who choses to come to your party, subject to a few generally well-accepted social norms (e.g. everyone has to at least wear clothes — at least to this party — we can talk about those other kinds of parties later). You go so far as to publish your gathering, your exact address, and turn-by-turn directions to the house in every major publication within your viable financial reach. Your friends freely and graciously offer to tell the people at their parties about your party as well.

You have prepared yourself and your domicile as well as can be expected. Your front lawn is carefully manicured, warm, and inviting, with just the right amount of petaled flair around the garden edges, but not so much that it distracts from the path leading from the street parking to your door. The porch area is well lit and the house numbers would be visible from a space shuttle. Your trash cans have been secured and moved to the back, out of the visible eye.

The first people to show up at your party are your immediate family, of course. After that, your very closest friends stop by — the ones you’ve known for the many years before you decided to throw a party. They have thrown parties of their own in the past and you’ve been one of the first ones invited. These are the people in your life that knew about the party long before you decided to publish it to the world. They may have even helped you clean up the house or nice up the shrubs in preparation for the party. They are happy to see you finally throwing a party of your own and are there to support you as much as they can.

Slowly, a few individuals, and even a few couples, having run across your party announcement or heard about it from another party, casually waltz their way up to your already-opened door and saunter in. Each person as they arrive is offered a comfortable seat of their choosing and the opportunity to slip off their coat and even their shoes if they desire. You don’t know many of the people coming through the door by now, but you try to be as personable as you are capable of. As your guests file through the door, you are sure to hand them a small sheet of paper clearly printed with your address, directions to the house, your e-mail address, and your phone number, just in case your guests would care to visit again for a future engagement.

As folks gather in your house, you begin speaking to everyone as group. You talk passionately about the things that interest you: your life, job, or family. Perhaps the subject is politics, religion, a world tragedy, or the latest cool technology gadgets. Or maybe you feel strongly about a cause, a public service, a charity, or a musician. It really doesn’t matter what the topic is — and in some cases it might even be multiple topics. The point is you’re there, in a wide-open forum, figuratively spilling your guts, emptying your heart, and heaving a piece of your mind out for everyone within earshot: family, friend, perfect stranger, and even the people you would consider foes.

A few guests decide that, through no fault of your own, the subjects you’re talking about just aren’t their bag, so to speak. They slip back on their coat and shoes and are genuine and sincere in wishing you well as they leave for another party. You quickly come to understand you can’t throw the absolute perfect party for everyone no matter how hard you try.

Those that remain gather around you and listen to pretty much everything you have to say. At this point, you’re somewhat comfortably talking to 100 people or more. There is a small problem, though — almost nobody is talking back to you. You offer plenty of points along your conversation to allow anyone in the room to speak and be heard by everyone else in the room. There’s no prerequisite to speak other than to start talking, and yet, of the 100 people in your room, the number of people actually talking back to you can be counted on one hand. In between those select few the silence is deafening to the point you can’t even hear the chirping crickets underneath your back porch. You keep going with the conversations though, albeit tentatively, but now you’re not really sure if your audience is there for you or just for the bite-sized nachos with the little green onion slivers on the buffet tray.

Now you know what it feels like to be a blogger.

One of the first things you’ll realize as a blogger, podcaster, or any other new-media type really, outside of how difficult it really is to continue to churn out content on a consistent basis, is the audience feedback ratio is worse than most savings account bank rates. This problem isn’t confined to just the C-list and D-list bloggers, as even the big, popular blogs suffer from this affliction. Why is this? Why do people not comment?

“I don’t feel I have anything to say”

This is the most common phrase bantered about, and I’ll admit to being guilty of using it myself. What people saying this do not realize though is that while most content producers are happy people consume the content, they would be thrilled silly to see a reply or two to an item. I think this carries to even the largest and busiest of sites. It’s a powerful validation to the author and in most cases will (subconsciously) encourage them to continue creating said content. Even a one or two sentence comment can do wonders to build confidence for the author.

If you’re dealing with an opinion item or political piece, you certainly don’t have to be in complete agreement, partial agreement, or really even any agreement with the author. You can present an opposing view, and in most cases that opposing view will be welcomed if presented in a civil and rational manner. At the same time, you don’t even have to comment on the original item. Commenting on other comments is generally welcomed and encouraged as it allows the entire conversation to flower and branch in different directions.

“Someone else already said what I wanted to say”

I don’t recall ever seeing a rule describing a requirement that every comment posted in reaction to content had to be a completely unique, original thought. Sometimes you’re going to share an opinion with either the original author or another commenter via their alternate viewpoint. There are unique and constructive ways of saying “me too” without coming across sounding like a five-year-old who wants the same orange slices the rest of his soccer troop wants. Trust me, you can do it.

“I’m afraid of being labeled based on a comment”

This is a somewhat legitimate concern. People can make all sorts of assumptions based on just a few comments. You’ll probably be labeled (quietly or otherwise) at least one of these things by at least one other audience member in your lifetime: suck-up, kiss-ass, psycho, yes-man/yes-woman, jealous, weak, stupid, vindictive, greedy, wet blanket, sour-puss, stalker, weirdo, outcast, outsider, wanna-be, argumentative, depressing, link-baiter, shill, or overly opportunistic (did I miss any?).

Ignore these people — seriously, just ignore them. For each person who has a negative thought regarding your feedback, there will be another who will agree with you, even if they don’t have the courage to express it back to you directly. Ignore these self-esteem vampires, because they will feed off you until there’s nothing left.

“What good does commenting do for me?”

A single comment can be a match struck in dry brush — it can quickly spread and be fueled into something much larger than its original intent. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, and it depends on the comment and how you approach the reactions to it.

I’m going to speak from personal experience here. One comment has changed the entire direction of my new media initiatives. A single comment on C.C. Chapman’s blog leads to a very long series of e-mail conversations with Mark Forman about our opinions and feelings regarding new media. From there, I end up discovering people such as Chris Brogan, Eric Rice, and Dave Slusher. Further along in the conversation, I accept an invitation to become a member of Disembodied Voices and become acquainted with great people like Jack Hosley, Rich Palmer, Chris Moody, and the rest of the nuts over at DV.

This is more than just about Mark being a connector, which he is quite good at. This is about recognizing an opportunity that only presented itself as a result of what might even be considered a “throw-away” comment on C.C.’s blog. From just a few dozen words, I have been able to be re-energized in these spheres and at the same time placed myself comfortably within a support group well-suited for my ideas and talents and not above kicking me in the ass when I most deserve it and least expect it. Without that comment, none of this, including this very post, would have ever happened, and by now I may have been making my plans for a graceful exit from both blogging and podcasting.

It doesn’t have to be this site, but find a site or two or three you enjoy passionately and make yourself part of the conversations there, even if you’re already the author of some type of new media content.

One comment can be powerful — and it might just be something that changes your life.

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The theme I run here at A Bite of Sanity is a version of the Hemingway theme I modified for my own nefarious purposes. I’ve packaged the modifications into a publicly releasable form and am happy to announce its general availability here.

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Well, I did it. I finally got off my ass and got my first Mac-produced podcast out the door. I hope I didn’t lose too many listeners in the process.

If you’re interested in listening to the aberration that is my podcast production, you can find the MP3 version here and the enhanced AAC version here. Comments, of course, are welcomed.
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