(First the disclosure: I have no affiliation with Audblog or Listenlab, but I do know the guy behind it all, and I think he's a cool guy and this is a great service to the blogging community. It's worth supporting.

The first post is for free -- software people and drug dealers get you hooked that way, you know. If you like it, and sign up, you'll pay $9 for 3 months. This will get you twelve (12) two-minute posts per month, which to me seems like a pretty good deal, since Audblog will be storing your audio files on their servers and have to pay for the bandwidth somehow. Once you have the account, you simply call the number provided (I don't know what calling rates apply and suspect that it will depend on your calling area), follow the simple voice prompts, and then "post" your audio by pressing "1." The system works basically like a standard voice mail system, only you're leaving your message to an audio file which will then link back to your weblog.

You then check your E-mail, and the link to your post should be in your in-box. I have a home-brew system based on Radio Userland and ColdFusion, so I think the procedure may be slightly different, and even more simple for Blogger, BlogSpot, and Moveable Type users.

Once you have the link, paste it into one of your weblog posts, and that's it. You're wired for sound.

I wanted to make the Audblog post pop-up into a little window that opens above my blog so that you can continue reading as you listen to my, uh, flow. Below, I provide the simple Javascript- and HTML-code I used to achieve this. I offer these tips (without warranty) if you want to use them in your weblog:

Place this Javascript code anywhere in your blog template, though the HEAD section would be the best place, so you'll only have to do it once:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
 <!--
 function audioBox(url) {
     viewerWin=window.open(
       url,
       "audiobox",
       "width=200,height=50"
       );
     viewerWin.focus();
     return url;
   }
 -->
</script>

Then make a link to the Audblog post like this (you should put all of this one one line; it will work, but I've added line breaks for clarity):

<a href="#"
 onclick="audioBox('PUT_LINK_TO_AUDBLOG_POST_HERE');
 return false";>PUT_YOUR_LINK_TITLE_HERE</a>

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