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I have been trying to get more information on what people think about websites that include SitePal. The company claims that vistors to sites with SitePal tend to stay longer and they also have improvement in sales because site visitors can hear your message in addition to reading the copy. However I know I get annoyed sometimes when I visit sites that unexpectedly have music or audio attached to them and I usually don`t stay around long enough to read or hear the message.

Also, once the novelty wears off what happens then?

I would love to hear results of any SuN members who have included this function on their business site. I would also like to hear the benefits to NOT including them.

Not a big fan of site pal.

It may have some usefulness and uniqueness... but I think the drawbacks out weight the benefits.

Drawbacks - load time, distracting from the site`s content, and possibly annoying.

~Roland

If I pull up a site and am greeted by a `pal`, I immediately back out.  I find them annoying and distracting when searching for information.  I`m not sure why - as I have no valid reason for this - but my impression is that sites that use them are of a lower caliber.  It`s just the impression I get from the `pal` animation - and strictly my own personal opionion.

Like iouone2, I really want to hear (i.e. post to the board) the benefits from someone using the service. I didn`t start this topic to judge anyone, I really want to know the effect it has had on individual web visitor stats.

As I continue to research the topic, I noticed that a lot of people in real estate use it on their websites. The `Pal` describes the features of the featured property.

The fact that it can be installed without automatically loading is huge, they should promote that feature a little bit more on their website in my opinion. That is something that I think potential subscribers would want to know and `hear`!

I`m Yujin from SitePal. I read the recent debates over SitePal in the forum, and found most of your posts very informative and helpful.

SitePal is not a magic solution that increases your site traffic or sales immediately as soon as you add one to your website. As many other great tools in the world, it should be used properly. If used properly, however, SitePal does reinforce your marketing message and make your call-to-action more effective by engaging visitors.

Here are a few links that i think can be helpful for you, whether you love or hate us. :)

1. Blog post by Anita Campbell, CEO of Smallbiztrends.com
http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2007/04/introducing-new-talk ing-sitepal-character.html
She tried SitePal on her website and received great feeback. The way she puts SitePal charcter on her site demonstrates the best practice of SitePal.

2. 50/50 Test result by Dr. Wilson of Webmarketingtoday.com
http://www.wilsonweb.com/conversion/sitepal1.htm
Dr. Wilson conducted an A/B test of SitePal character and published the result on his website: 33% higher on time spent and 17% higher pageviews.

3. SitePal Clients` real examples
http://www.sitepal.com/showcase.php

4. SitePal Clients` testimonials
http://www.sitepal.com/testimonials

For those who want to give SitePal a try, here are a few tips from 8,000 SitePal clients, who are using SitePal and seeing a great result, on how to make your SitePal work for your site instead of being an annoyance.

1. Decide the key message you want to deliver to your audience on the landing page: Do you want to give your visitors an overview of your business, or promote a special promotion you are running, or highlight the price competitiveness? Whatever your message is, SitePal character  will make sure it heard by your audience instead of being buried in the text. However, it`s you, the owner of the site, who should come up with a good message. At the end of the day, it`s your marketing idea, and SitePal is the spokeperson. Once you have a good message, SitePal will help your audience hear it.

2. Give the site visitors the control over the audio: We recommend our users always implement the playback setting to their characters, allowing site visitors to intitiate and mute the audio. We also have many other best practices related with the audio behavior to ensure the best result.

3. Make sure you include a call to action in the script, perferrably combined with a graphic button near the character : Is your goal to make people visit a certain page, or add a product to the shopping cart, or contact you? No matter what it is, make sure your character says it, even multiple times.

4. Invite your audience to engage in two-way interactions with your character: One of good examples is to let your character answer to FAQs from site visitors. FAQ list can oftentimes be a very lengthy text. Let the character deliver the audio answer for each chosen question as a human sales consultant does. Users will find the character engaging and helpful instead of annoying because they are controlling the interaction.

Thank you for reading my long post (i wish i could use my SitePal character here!) I didn`t mean to write this much, but i guess there were so many things i wanted to speak about. :)

Please feel free to contact me at yujin@oddcast.com if you have any questions or feedback. I`ll be happy to speak with each of you.