[mootothemax]

Sure, I'm game (admittedly because right now I value any-and-all feedback ;)).

The core idea isn't very original - live chat for websites - but the tool itself is slowly picking up momentum, albeit whilst under heavy development from me: http://track-chat.com

[hackersuit]

The question is not about originality, but about competition.

--The market is dense and success comes down to having a better customer acquisition strategy. Your ability to acquire customers -- meaning, generate cost-effective traffic, convert customers, retain them -- is what will make or break this as a business.

--I don't see a clear value proposition for your service over the many, many competitors. Maybe this is because of the sheer quantity of text (very hard ont he eyes), but after browsing the site nothing tells me why I should select your service rather than go Google "chat services."

--SMBs are your target market. But, the people who run these businesses do not have the time to sit and chat with customers. They are bound to look at this and feel they have no time to do it and give up.

My advice:

--Tighten up the website. Less text, more images, clearer value proposition. Why is TrackChat the best option?

--Show me numbers. If I'm a website owner, I'm craving to read about how another business made more money or improved conversion rates doing this.

--Pursue potential partnerships with a service business that can support you. If you can connect businesses to people who can operate these chats, your value to customers multiplies exponentially.

--After the above, develop and execute an acquisition plan ASAP. SEM is going to be your best option. Remember, your customers don't need technical sophistication; it's going to be hard for you not to indulge your engineering instincts but you have to realize your customers just need an application that is easy to set-up, works consistently, and does what it says it will.

This has potential if you can tighten up the site experience and are willing to make the investment in bringing in customers. They will show you quickly what you still need to build. If "word of mouth" is swirling somewhere in your thoughts, that's a huge red flag.

[mootothemax]

Fantastic, thanks, that's some really good advice you've given me, and I really appreciate it.

One minor quibble: "Less text, more images" is not compatible with "SEM is going to be your best option." Without a good amount of text, there's very little for the SEs to work with.

However, the copy does need to be tightened up, more images would be ace, and it should be possible to highlight value propositions without requiring the reader to scan through pages and pages of text, so it's still given me a push in the right direction.

If "word of mouth" is swirling somewhere in your thoughts, that's a huge red flag.

Could not agree with you more on this. "Word of mouth" is not a viable strategy :)

Lots to work on, thanks!

[hackersuit]

SEM != SEO. Paid search (AdWords, etc.) is going to be your best option. Terms like "website chat software."

(Also, SEO primarily does only look at text on pages, but metadata, third-party links, etc.)

Glad this was helpful, best of luck!