Tag: blogger

How I use Anchor.fm and YouTube to turn my blog posts into TTS

NEW: You can listen to this blog post here

When I started my blog three weeks ago, one of the services that were presented to me was to turn my blog posts into podcasts with a service called anchor.fm, and I initially didn’t want to do it because I never liked my voice on video. One night, I looked into it further, and out of curiosity, I signed up for the service. After signing up and creating a podcast (which is the same name as this blog lol), I connected my site to the platform and I saw all of the posts (I had 13 posts at the time when I signed up) that I can turn into podcast episodes, and they also add posts when they get published so now I upload a text-to-speech version within the hour after a post goes live. Today is my 25th episode, so I thought I can give a tutorial of sorts on how I use anchor.fm and YouTube to bring TTS to my blog posts

Services I used

  • Anchor.fm, to turn a blog post into a podcast episode
  • Microsoft Video Editor, to make a simple video using the audio
  • YouTube account, to upload the video with all the necessary
  • The blog post in question, to post the YouTube embed

For this one, I’m going to use the 1st WordPress Adventures post I made last Sunday for reference

WARNING: This is a long tutorial, so strap in, y’all

1 — well, the post has to go live. I schedule my posts to go out daily at noon eastern, so the things I’m about to show you took place up to 30 to 45 minutes after posting.

2 — I log in to my anchor.fm app and automatically they find a new post to turn into an episode (you can sign up for anchor.fm and then follow instructions to connect your site to the platform).
3 — I click on “create episode” and the service will start generating the script.
4 — there is an option to either use automatic TTS voice translation or to record your own voice. Like I said, I hate how my voice sounds, so I clicked on automatically convert to audio.
5 — I run into two options… Remy and Cassidy. Remy is the female TTS voice and Cassidy is the male counterpart. I always pick Remy because I am female, after all.
6 — Then click save and continue.
7 — again, you’re presented with two options… record audio (with your own voice) with Anchor and record video on Riverside. I ignore it and click on save episode
8 — You can edit the title and description before publishing. I usually leave them alone except change HTTP to HTTPS because who uses HTTP these days
9 — This is what it will look like. This podcast is 3 minutes 33 seconds. I will be using that in the video portion of this tutorial
10 — I scrolled down to the player and click on the three dots to select “download audio file”
10 — I was taken to another page where I again click the three dots and click download to start the process. Now, I will use the audio for the next 6 steps in this tutorial
11 — I opened my native video-making service Microsoft Video Editor, which came with Windows 10. These steps will be about MVE, but you can also do this on your own native or downloaded video-making service
12 — I clicked on “new video project” and named it TMIPITW 016. I name all of them TMIPITW followed by a three-digit number. WordPress Adventures #1 was number 16 in the series
13 — I added the title card. Then I changed the background color from blue to black. In step 9, I revealed that the podcast is 3 minutes and 33 seconds. I set the duration to 214 seconds (which is one second more than the time allotted to fit the audio). (60*3)+34=214
14 — I went to custom audio and then added the audio file.
15 — Then I added the text — that is, the title of the blog and then I add “Blog link in description” because I will be uploading it to YouTube in a bit. Then I made sure to fill the status bar so that the title will appear throughout the video.
16 — After that, it’s time to finish the video. There are three options for video quality… 1080p, 720p, and 540p. 1080p was recommended to me, but I use 720p because less space on my portable hard drive. Then, we let it render
17 — Then it’s time to upload. I went to Youtube and clicked on the plus camera option and picked Upload Video
18 — I selected the video I just made and then the process starts
19 — For my first blog, I added the description manually. Now, with subsequent videos, all I did was to import the video details from the previous videos. As you can see, I imported everything except the title and I change the link in the description
20 — I always add a video, a subscribe button, and the playlist to the ending credits
21 — Let it check for copyright, which was a quick process. Sometimes it’ll be done as I put details on the videos
22 — I set the visibility to public and clicked publish. I also grabbed the link, which will be used to embed the video to the blog
23 — I opened the blog post on my editor and clicked the plus sign between blocks. Then I selected YouTube and added the link to embed it
24 — This is the finished product.

And then we profit. I’m kidding, but this is my super long tutorial on how I added a TTS version to my blog posts.

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The Smugness of Social Media

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
NEW: You can listen to this blog post here

If there is one thing I learned about being on social media, it’s that people are smug. They will show their smugness out in the open. They will also hide it behind cutesy words. This was especially prevalent when the Biden Administration announced plans to forgive student loans for 20 million Americans last week

Of course, I was happy for those who still have them even though I never had student loans. Some, like me, who have never had student loans or have paid them off, think this is a bad idea because “if I could do it, so can they. It was the attitude I was seeing as I was scrolling through Twitter on the day of the announcement.

With high education costs in this country, I see not having student loans or paying them off as a privilege. I recognize that, and I’m using it to tell those struggling to pay them off that I’m happy for you.

Of course, the other part of the announcement is the cap on interest rates at 5%. The unlimited interest rates plus the predatory lending are why many people owe more than they borrowed.

As I mentioned earlier, people who gained an upper hand in any situation love to feel smug about the less fortunate. They feel that because they could do this and that with ease, everyone else should do the same. And it’s not just those who no longer paying student loans before the announcement came, but also I see this with MLM huns, billionaires, multimillionaires, bankers, politicians, and CEOs, and some of them didn’t actually work hard to get to the top.

Speaking of politicians… I’ll leave this here:

A thread from the official White House Twitter account where they dunk politicians who had their PPP loans forgiven for bitching and moaning about students having their student loans forgiven

All I’m saying is this… even if you’re like me and are not affected by the announcement, at least have empathy for those who are. Empathy goes a long way and you and others will be better off for it.

Wait, why are you inconsistent again?

NEW: You can listen to this blog post here

Yes, I named my blog “The Most Inconsistent Person in the World”, yet, I was able to send out a post daily (so far, knock on wood). Also, my days (and even hours) are not the same. I change interests all the time. I write down things but do not actually do them. I get distracted by social media. I sometimes forget to do important things around the house, and if I do remember, I sometimes skip a step or two.

This was something that I have been fighting myself with since middle/high school. No amount of planning, coordinating, scheduling, or organizing was helping my situation. Yes, I have apps that I type out my schedule to stay on task, but so far, that has been a hit-and-miss.

If you’ve been here before, you know that my post topics are all over the place. I have changed themes several times until I found the perfect one (aka the one you’re seeing right now). I spent the first two weeks researching the internet on how to be successful in blogging. I can say their advice is all over the place (if you missed it, here’s the post).

But what about now? Am I still inconsistent with the schedule? In a way, yes, or else I would not tell you right off the bat that I’m a complete human mess. I am trying to build a structure for this blog. I posted about Eurovision and anti-MLM and started a new series on my time blogging on WordPress. I also have some ideas for my future blog posts, so keep an eye out for that.

Blogging is an outlet. I love writing, (as much as I love math). I can type my thoughts out. I can get my stuff out there for anyone who wants to read it. I have also learned how to turn my posts into podcasts. I will post about that in due course. They are all uploaded to my channel and are on a playlist, so you can check them out there. You can also subscribe there if you want.

The month’s almost over, so we’ll see where this post (and blog in general) will take me. And again, I want to thank those who came by and read even one post. I’m doing this to build an audience, and I’m grateful for every single one of you.

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