[dangrossman]

Following individual users around (something W3Counter lets you do) is fundamentally different than a real-time aggregate dashboard of the same users (something both sites have). A dashboard is interesting to a business. Friend-watching is interesting to ordinary people. "Oh, I just got a new visitor from Facebook in Camden. I have a friend in Camden, that's probably Jessica! I wonder what she's looking at? Oh, she just opened the guestbook page and has started writing something!" is fun for someone running their first blog.

[bhayden]

Thanks for the responses, this sounds cheesy but you're an inspiration for the goals that I'm working towards right now (making SaaS products for small businesses). I will start working on it full time in about 4 months (with ~2 years of living expenses saved up). You give me hope that it's not just a pipe dream :)