I was wanting to put a welcome audio message on my ecommerce site. I feel it gives a more personal touch and gives some trustworthiness to the visitor. My question is what is the best way to add a wave file to a site? i have read its best not to embed the file. is a simply a href link the best way to go? how exactly would you all go about putting it on there? i obviously dont want it where it will automatically play, only if the user wants to listen.

I feel it gives a more personal touch and gives some trustworthiness to the visitor.

Nope.

It's intrusive and anoying! If ever I have the misfortune to land on a site that starts off with a "Hi! I'm Sheriff John Bunnell ..." messages the only thing that happens is the close button gets clicked.

Same with the creepy "Would you like some help?" SitePal messages.

Sheriff John Bunnell = LEGEND!

Best web-designer advice is to not do this. You're probably annoyed from self-playing sounds yourself as well. This one never made it to web-mainstream too. If you want to include a sound, be sure to go for a startable flash-player that plays the sound on-demand for instance.

well i know automatic sound is annoying, i was planning on not doing the autostart thing, they would need to click on it to hear it...was thinking now i'd go with a flash player and they would have to click on play in order to hear it, no autostart or autoplaying...still bad idea??

I would also have to agree with what has been said. I find that when I enter a website, I want it to be quick to load... Adding an audio file would make it have to buffer and potentially load slower. Make text on the website with that welcoming message.

i just put it as a a href link for now, i dont think that should affect loading time nor will it autostart

Why don't you try it Kaseyb, personally I have to agree with what the others said, especially on the welcoming page. However, I do have audio on one of my fireworks webpages right now, a second one will go up July 1st. The visitors would have to shut their sound off so they wouldn't hear the fireworks sounds, so far I haven't had any complaints.

All you can do is try it, plus they would have to click a button like you mentioned to hear the audio message if they so desire.

I can't stand when something pups up at me and starts speaking when I didn't ask. This is a bad marketing strategy. Most people will be disturbed by this and close the thing in the first couple of seconds (if they could find the button).

You can post the video to promote your product but let the users decide on their own if they want to see it or not. Otherwise you'll look like a spammer.

i understand not to autostart it on a page, i would never do that...does anyone here know of a good mini flash player to put on a page? thanks

I agree with those who say that it is unnecessary. it is annoyng for me too. second reason - people would not open your website at their workplaces, because they do not want to get caught by their bosses
Try to persolalize your page without sounds, smoke, fire or other similar activity

I don't think the web is ready for automatic sounds. Some people might have headphones on, some people may have a sleeping baby in the room, some people may be at work, some just don't want silence, and a million other things.

If your goal is to make your site feel personal and safe I'd recommend making a youtube video. I'm not sure what type of e-commerce site you are running but tutorials or product demonstrations work well.

Usually people don't like audio message on a e-commerce site. I hate this very much. When I visit a site, I just hope visit a site in quiet.

Dont do it!
It so annoying having the same clip running evrtime the site is updated!

its not a good idea..it annoys and tends the people to leave the site