Another line bites the dust—OOPS!

Over the holidays, I lost another voicemail line, and I won’t be getting another one, at least, not yet. It’s too much hassle for me to make sure it’s rung every 30 days, and there are no other free options that I’m aware of (Google Voice numbers aren’t available in New Zealand). The only other option I’ve been able to find so far is a Skype Number, which costs US$30, but I don’t know if that’s a year or a shorter term (apparently, the only way to find out how much it costs is to sign up for one).

So, for now, at least, I have a few options for you. First, you can leave an audio message at the right side of this site, using that SpeakPipe widget. Or, you can leave me an AudioBoo message. You can also leave me a voicemail on Skype (username, surprisingly enough, is amerinz; however, I don’t know if you have to be on my contacts list first). Finally, you can record an audio message and email it to me. For some of those options, you can use a smartphone app to send me a message, but the SpeakPipe option isn’t available on Apple products (because it’s Flash-based). Actually, you could also ring the voicemail line for 2Political Podcast (206-350-3982), because those messages come to me.

I think I’d like to move away from a voicemail phone number, anyway, because it’s very limiting, even when it’s free: Most of my listeners are in the USA, so having a number there makes sense—but that can make it expensive for people in other countries to leave messages. With the spread of smartphones, I think other options are the way to go. At the very least, I’m going to be promoting options that don’t require phoning the USA.

This is all a work in progress—when is it ever anything else?—but for now, these are the options. I’ll post more here, and mention it in the podcast, as things progress.

And, of course, you can always leave a written comment here on the site, or you can send me a Tweet, etc.

Thanks! New episodes will be out soon!