Skype: Free Live Chat for Your Website – Show Online/Offline Status Button

skype site status buttonI was checking out some live chat services and it came to my mind that Skype might be a great alternative. It’s free and it’s widely adopted. Depending on the merchandise your website sells, Skype would be a great live web chat solution, such as in the niches of technology, digital productions, online applications, etc.

However, Skype may not be a good live chat solution for retailer sites selling common consumer goods, unless they offer some sort of web chat window when the visitor clicks the button.

Add Skype Live Status Button to Your Website

To enable your visitors to initiate live chat sessions with you, you need to add the Skype online/offline status badge (clickable) on your website. Follow these steps:

  1. Register an Skype account if you haven’t got one yet.
  2. Go here to get a Skype button by entering your Skype name and selecting a button style. The code is dynamically generated. Just copy and paste it on your website where you want the status tab to appear.
  3. Download the Skype desktop program and install it.
  4. Log in with your registered account in the desktop program, go to: Tools –> Options –> Privacy, and check “Allow my online status to be shown on the web.”

Click paths may vary in step 4 depending on the version of your Skype, but it’s definitely there, in the Options. Lots of people ask why the button they added to their websites doesn’t show Online when they are actually online. That’s why. You have to explicitly allow your status to be shown on the web from within your desktop program.

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