Shoutbox

not the worst idea in the world..but a better shortcut would be needed than CTRL + N in my opinion

You could use a quicktext.
Set the quicktext to /nudge, then use the Alt + <n>* code as your shortcut

* <n> beeing the quicktext number that it's assigned to

I think the concept of hotkeys is good, but having it as ctrl+n wouldn't be a good idea, it would cause a lot of conflict between running programs which use Ctrl+N to create new windows, new files etc.

I'm sure there's already a shortcut in MSN 7.5 to send a nudge, it's Alt-N. Or at least it is in WLM 8, they might've changed it but it was definatly in MSN7.5, I just can't remember if those are the right keys.