Meeting with people face to face is the best way to scam them into giving you some work. But what happens when you’ve bamboozled every client in your metro area and you’re looking to expand? You can’t just get in the car and drive all over the country (you planet hater) for meetings. No, no, no. Luckily, with our friend the Interwebs, you don’t have to.

Dimdim is a web conferencing service that you can use to talk to clients right from your very own living room. With a free Dimdim account, you can hold a live online meeting for up to 20 people. When you give them your money, you get even more stuff.

Here’s a great way for a writer to use Dimdim:

1. After your initial contact (via cold call, direct mail, online dating site, or whatever), ask for a live meeting via the web.
2. Set up a web conference on Dimdim. Upload the portfolio pieces you’d like to highlight, and maybe a couple bullet points about yourself. You can do this with a PowerPoint presentation, or just upload everything individually.
3. Invite your potential client to the meeting via the e-mail function on Dimdim. This will give them the information they need to log in.
4. When it’s meeting time, give your presentation. They’ll be able to hear your voice and watch you talk (if you have a web cam). They can even ask you questions via Dimdim’s chat function. Better yet, disable the voice/video funtion and just talk to them on the phone while you flip through your pieces.

Basically, you’re doing the exact same thing you’d do in a face to face meeting, but you’ve cut down your drive time, and you didn’t have to dress up.

If you think Dimdim is a stupid name, you could always take a look at TinyChat. Same basic functionality, but less dumb name.