In the past I’ve already spoken about Dimdim.com and Sitepal.com and since those reviews things have drastically changed for the better.

Dimdim.com Adds More Cool Features

Dimdim.com came out with a new version of their system that allows you to hold a webinar for free. If you want to have up to 50 people (you can do up to 20 for free) its only 25 bucks a month (compared to the $60+ I was spending at webex.com ) Here are the cool things I like about dimdim.com

A way to put a widget on the site for people to register for the webinar.You can also collect information about attendants (optional). This was the feature I needed, and I love it.

You can record your webinar and make it available to hear/see afterwards.

They still only allow three people to have microphones, but they do have the ability to use a telephone line as well.

I just know I’m enjoying the savings.

Sitepal Adds the Ability to Turn Yourself into a Cartoon

Sitepal.com recently added a feature where you can upload a picture of yourself, record and upload your voice, and their system turns you into a cartoon that looks real. The feature is called “photo face” and it allows you to upload an image of yourself and then you cut out your face and it will animate it. It’s pretty cool. I would suggest a picture of you where you are staring straight forward for best results. In the picture on the left, I went and traced around my head to make sure only my head was copied into sitepal.

When I played with the preview, I can see where my picture was not the best for this example, but it still worked. When my photo faced version of me would watch the cursor, I looked a little high.

I know what you’re thinking, “Why not just use a video?” Well you can update what you say by phone. You can also have the character as a lead generator where it collects email addresses, and it can also be programmed to answer frequently asked questions (much like those pop out virtual assistants everyone has now that show up when you close the browser). These feature make it a very powerful tool, and shows you are on the edge of technology. If you don’t want to animate yourself, you can also pick from any of there many characters. You can go over and play with the demo at their site. it’s fun.

This weeks tool is SitePal (See below) a cool addition to your website (they work 24 hours, and add an element of “fun” to your site while giving it a more human… kind of … feel to it). If its good enough for Mcafee, its good enough for you.  On their site they have examples where this tools boosted sales up to 40%.

You can add your own voice.
Completely customize the look of the model
Free 15 Day Trial. Turn yourself into a cartoon for the fun of it.
Use your own voice via telephone or microphone
You can have them auto start when a visitor enters your site.
Type out the copy and let the model say it with text to voice
Have the model answer questions from visitors.

Type some text and have the model say it for you. Notice how her eyes follow your cursor.

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