Sometimes having an audio greeting on your website is a great idea – it gives people a chance to actually hear your voice and mesh your personality together with the idea they’ve already created in their head via info found on your website.

Depending on your website the audio can also be used to simply demonstrate how to pronounce a word or phrase.  As long as it’s short, you’re good to go.

So, here are a few simple steps to get yourself all set up:

  1. Write yourself a script – even if it’s a simple greeting, write it down and say it out loud a few times so that you can be sure that it flows and sounds ok.
  2. Record your audio – using whatever program you have available on your computer, record your greeting and edit out any long pauses at each end.  In the end you want to have an .mp3 file.
  3. Download a simple audio script that is easy to use
  4. Install the necessary audio files on your web server; in this case you want to create a file called “audio”, place it within your public_html folder, and add the files audio-player.js and player.swf.
  5. Upload your mp3 audio recording to the same folder.
  6. Add this code to your webpage (make sure to change the filename near the end to match yours): <div id=”audio”>
    <script language=”JavaScript”
    src=”audio/audio-player.js”></script><object
    type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
    data=”audio/player.swf”
    id=”audioplayer1″ height=”24″ width=”290″>
    <param name=”movie”
    value=”audio/player.swf” /><param name=”FlashVars”value=”playerID=1&bg=0xf8f8f8&leftbg=0xeeeeee&lefticon=0x015ec8&rightbg=0x015ec8&rightbghover=0x999999&righticon=0xeeeeee&righticonhover=0xffffff&text=0x000000&slider=0x666666&track=0x015ec8&border=0x666666&loader=0xd7ffda&loop=no&autostart=no&soundFile=audio/<your_filename.mp3″ />
    <param name=”quality” value=”high” /><param
    name=”menu” value=”false” />
    <param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /></object>
    <br />
    <br />
    </div>
  7. If you so desire you can fiddle with the colours of the background, the play button, the progress bar, etc.

Voila!  It’s as easy as that.  Enjoy!