I'm looking for something, but i don't know what it's called

[pbennett]

I'm pretty much a geek.

I'm looking for something to use on my blog. I think I've seen it before, but I don't remember the name.

I would like to have an animated person pop up on my blog when someone browses and say something like "Hi, we're new...take a look around...did you notice?..." etc.

Does anybody know what this is called??

[dingleigofai]

I think what you are looking for is called sitepal

[pbennett]

yep, that's it! Thanks. I saw it a long time ago, but couldn't remember...

[Zeus66]

Ugh! How annoying! Nothing makes me hit that Back button faster than unexpected background music or one of those annoying talking head pop-ups. And I know I'm not alone in this. I would urge you to re-consider.

John

[James Howard]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Ugh! How annoying! Nothing makes me hit that Back button faster than unexpected background music or one of those annoying talking head pop-ups. And I know I'm not alone in this. I would urge you to re-consider.

John

I would have to agree with you.

Can't stand the things, all they do is make me close the page. I have taken to keeping my sound off because of things like this.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Before you take the advice of those who say don't do it, think about who
your niche market is and see if they respond to it.

There is an easy way to do it.

See if there are other popular sites in your niche (you'll have to do some
research) that use this concept.

Marketers hate a lot of things...but that doesn't make them ineffective.

Something to think about.

[pbennett]

I'm just testing. If it doesn't work, I'll take it down. Right now i have a poll up asking what the user is looking for. I think it will help a lot. I'm having a problem that I should have expected if I had thought about it...

Some of the users are looking to BUY chocolates, which is causing a bigger bounce rate than I want, I think. To make matters worse, Ghirardelli turned me down at cj.com. So, I have banners for chocolates, but they're not getting click through.

I'm not only a tech writer, I'm an analyst, so that's what this is all about. I think (I hope) once the site is set and the online course is promoted, things will change.

[greff]

That sitepal chick is kinda HOT. ;P

[A Bary]

Sitepal is a very good tool to use, but it works much better for a squeeze page than a sales letter, it really enhances the sign up rates, especially in the niches away from marketing, I have one site that visitors stay for long in the pages to play with the cartoon cheek, people are kids no matter how grown up they are, and a lovely cartoon makes them happy, I highly recommend it

[pbennett]

I have one site that visitors stay for long in the pages to play with the cartoon cheek, people are kids no matter how grown up they are, and a lovely cartoon makes them happy, I highly recommend it

that's what I was thinkin'...Anything I can do to get them to hang around the site for a while and see everything. My bounce rate is still 66% and that is BAD.

[Barry Walls]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Ugh! How annoying! Nothing makes me hit that Back button faster than unexpected background music or one of those annoying talking head pop-ups. And I know I'm not alone in this. I would urge you to re-consider.

John

I agree. It's totally annoying...but Ive never tested it....so who knows?

[Dave777]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Before you take the advice of those who say don't do it, think about who
your niche market is and see if they respond to it.

There is an easy way to do it.

See if there are other popular sites in your niche (you'll have to do some
research) that use this concept.

Marketers hate a lot of things...but that doesn't make them ineffective.

Something to think about.

And if you Google and research Site Pal's customizable options and other related services you'll find some interesting success stories definitely worth Thinking out of the box on...
Increase Website Conversions, Sales and Learning with SitePal Avatar

Dave

[Nat Jackson]

Try it and see what happens, although some people find it annoying, it's whether it works in your niche that counts, like Steve said above

[A Bary]

By the way, I used it after the recommendation of Ryan Deiss, he made a documented test and proved this thing increases optin rates by 30%

[Daylynne]

Hi Pbennett..

I used SitePal about 5 years ago, and I loved it. The avatar doesn't talk until you
run your mouse over it... and their eyes follow your pointer. Putting them up and
the choices of avatars is very easy and good, and you actually custom them for your own site.
Drawback may be the price, they were pretty pricey then, but I'm sure may have come down by now.

Have fun with it

Daylynne

[Bossman34]

Yea, using something like SitePal is tricky. It can work wonders with the right type of website, niche, and copywriting (audio, of course).

There are some merchants that seem to have great success with it (Truth About Abs comes to mind...they test like crazy), but I don't know if I'd use it for a pre-sell landing page. But again, it depends on the niche...

If you want to give it a shot, test it against your own personal video to see what converts better. If you don't have a webcam (like myself), use pictures of yourself in a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation to personalize it a bit. People like to see that there is an actual person behind a website.

[pbennett]

People like to see that there is an actual person behind a website.

yeah, I know. i'm trying to get to that point. I'm such a danged perfectionist. You start talking about putting me in front of a camera and I start talking about getting my hair done to the tune of $150...