[nikkisnow]

I have to agree with the first point of the article regarding 'Invite Only' - this has been one of the biggest headaches in all of the projects I've been involved in. It seems there is little to gain in preventing people to sign up with your app. It doesn't seem to increase interest for users and, in all reality, denying access when the visitor is ready to sign up is just not smart. Numbers count; 10,000 potential users doesn't seem to be as strong a number as 1,000 actual users.

[rhizome]

It started with the original GMail invites and became somewhat of a mythical buzz-producing technique that really only worked for a limited number of sites. Turntable.fm is the last one that I remember learning about in a way that seemed to generate more interest.

[cschmidt]

I've been wondering that myself. I just wrote my website so that once I turn it on, people can just sign up and start using it. It just seems weird that virtually no startup does it this way.

[xmmx]

Completely agree. On websites that are "invite only" either don't bother entering my email to get on the list, or I enter my email, get the invite five weeks later when I've lost interest (sometimes don't even know what the site is about), and delete it.