SitePal Or Not to Site Pal????!!!!!

[Mathew]

I have been thinking about adding SitePal on my site. What do you guys think???????

Mat

 

[sparklyscotty]

This topic has been tossed about a bit before on these forums and everyone has had a different experience.
Personally I find them a bit intrusive and gimmicky, but then as a vistor, I am very goal oriented, have a lot of 'surfing' experience and so know where I want to be able to find info, and it takes a lot to impress me. You have to think about your average visitor, and what you think they will benefit from a Sitepal.
-Angel-

 

[sparklyscotty]

By the way, that wasnt mean to sound quite so pretentious, I was just illustrating how differnet visitors interpret various elements of a site.
Am I making it worse? Help! Someone stop me.
Going now...
-ANgel-

 

[Rob Holmes]

Mat,

Whats good for some may not be good for others, and the way the sitepal is setup will make a big difference.

You've hit on a bit of a test bed here, I've tried Sitepal and removed it after a flurry of negative comments. That *may* have been the way I set it up.

Others www.callthebutler.co.uk (I think) and Callum from Creative Keyrings are trialing it on their sites so you may want to PM them and ask if they have seen an increase in sales.

From memory to do a moving abroad site? Maybe theres something you could do with it, accents etc..

**Important*** Make sure you first have the volume of visitors to test the sitepal with, otherwise (IMHO) theres no point in even looking at it as a sales tool because it'll be selling to nobody! You need to be able to test it properly and that means analysing conversion ratios on (I suggest) 1000 targetted visitors at a time - probably firstly without Sitepal (because you can already have started the test) and then with Sitepal.

Rob

 

[creative-keyrings]

sitepal is a great idea, it would espiscally suite your website. We have a lot of web buffs and critics on the forums who are very much into computers etc and easily can make a judgement. Lots of people who just browse the internet would find this tool helpful.

Go for it, theres a 30 day money back gurantee if your not happy!

 

[Rob Holmes]

sitepal is a great idea

Callum has it increased sales for you?

Rob

 

[creative-keyrings]

Cannot give you that information yet as the new site design isnt up, but i feel it will increase sales and its a great idea, time will tell if it increases sales ........

 

[epiphany]

1 month ago I would have said avoid it as there was very little proof of a positive effect on sales. Now I am not so negative and I definitely think it is worth trying out. I am sure Barry from www.callthebutler.co.uk will be on soon to tell you what people have said about his sitepal.

I think whether it works or not is quite a complicated issue that is bigger than just "does sitepal work." I think it depends on the type of site, the way your integrate it into your site, the voice and script you use and the type of person uses your website. There are probably a hundred other little things that will contribute to the success or failure of sitepal on any particular site.

 

[Rob Holmes]

I am sure Barry from www.callthebutler.co.uk will be on soon to tell you what people have said about his sitepal.

LOL And Tony Castle of Sitepal

Rob

 

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

I think that you need to try SitePal to see if it is right for your site.

With a 30 day Money Back Guarantee you can see results in this time or get your money back.

Also the Site Result Feature is good as it allows you to see how many folks visited your pages with SitePal & how long they listen to the speech, etc.

I can honestly say to anyone who wants to try the product, it will get people talking about your website and if that leads to sales then it is worth the money!

Best

Tony

 

[Whistle Ink]

I think it works really well on callthebutler but thats because hes offering something truly unique and original and may not work on something too normal like a regular shop etc unless it was selling african masks or something!

Even though I love the idea of sitepal, I can see it becoming as annoying as those flash intros.

 

[Rob Holmes]

@ Tony - Tony it's only worth testing if they have traffic going to their site surely?

I would say that IMHO it's exceptionally good value for what it is and we are keeping a close eye on how it develops in the future. We received a courteous refund very quickly after our testing.

Rob

 

[barry.hynd]

Hello people,

I have to agree that Sitepal isnt for every site but I happen to think it's suitable for mine. Theres loads of ways to tweak it so it is very flexible. I think it could also work well on your site.

Like everything though it is very subjective so peoples opinions on it will differ. To be honest I didn't get a huge amount of feedback so the jury is still out. Although nearly everyone liked the voice, isnt that right epiphany???

 

[epiphany]

Well shucks, I think that was mainly mad Canadian women that thought I was Sean Connery :lol:

 

[Rob Holmes]

For what it's worth Barry I think the sitepal character and voice you have fits your site perfectly.

Rob

 

[Doctor-Webby]

Very big apple, Very American for my liking

 

[Mathew]

Rob (matrix) is correct. As my site is new there is not a massive amount of traffic so I would not be able to judge the difference it has made. So I will wait until I have completed 1 month of my Google PPC campaign. I will then introduce Sitepal in the second month and we will see.

Regarding the look and sound of the character has anyone got any ideas for this regarding what my site offers? Can you have the option ON THE SCREEN to mute the character?

 

[Rob Holmes]

Regarding the look and sound of the character has anyone got any ideas for this regarding what my site offers? Can you have the option ON THE SCREEN to mute the character?

Do you help people move anywhere? Do you have a most popular destination? Maybe pick a character and get a voice from that destination and give them a taste of somethong local to where they are going?

Yes I believe you can have an on screen mute but it then adds a square box around the whole sitepal section of the screen.

Rob

 

[Mathew]

Can you add a character to an email campain????

 

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

Can you add a character to an email campain????

Yes!

also after your character stop talking it can pull up your website

Best

Tony

 

[Mathew]

Can you start of with a silver package and if you wish upgrade to the gold? Can you also down grade? Will I get bill in $ or £ as you give a price of "from £5.95" but that will depend on what the bank charge me for my$

 

[broadband-engine]

Hi

I have placed a sitepal on my homepage of www.quote-engine.com and to be honest I am unsure whether I like it or not. It is difficult to get an almost natural flow of speech using the text to speech functionality and this is putting me off a little. I will trial this a little longer before removing it completely. Another option is to lose the sitepal altogether and get a professional voice-over to introduce the site and its features. I'd like to hear comments about whether you think this works on my site...

Cheers

 

[blackcatz]

Phil, I think it looks good, fits in with the style of your design BUT the voice is very annoying, lots of jumps in the sound, will drive people barmy!

You should record a message using your own voice and then try and tweak the characters mouth movements accordingly.

 

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

Hi

I'd like to hear comments about whether you think this works on my site...

Cheers

if you require a professional sounding voice-over please contact Philip Banks at

www.philipbanks.co.uk

[email protected]

Philip has voiced many sitepal characters and is well known for being the best voice to use, I highly recommend him to you.

Also the text2speech can be better than that used on your site. I will forward your site to the support team to view

Best

Tony

 

[www.sitepal.co.uk]

Can you start of with a silver package and if you wish upgrade to the gold? Can you also down grade? Will I get bill in $ or £ as you give a price of "from £5.95" but that will depend on what the bank charge me for my$

Yes you can upgrade and down grade


any money paid will be refunded in full within 30 days of money back guarantee

best

Tony

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

I found that text to speech works ok if you play with the spelling and spaces, comma's

For example, to get a nicer sound I use the following

Welcome to, V S hosting dot co dot uk.