5 Reasons to make your next website "Invite Only" - Blog - Adamant Solutions, Adelaide, South Australia - Web design, custom software development and website hosting
Why do popular sites like Joost, Pownce and Streamy require an invite? Gmail was one of the first successful invite-only sites that I can remember. Since then I have noticed a trend in the number of sites requiring invitations. This trend doesn’t seem to be limited to alpha or beta sites. But there are at least 5 good reasons that I can see for this:
Word-of-mouth publicity
Everyone in marketing will tell you that word-of-mouth advertising is the cheapest and quite possibly the most effective way of getting publicity and recognition. A recommendation from a friend, family member or colleague forms an instant relationship with the product, “Well if Peter is using it – it must be good!”. The invitation system is an automated way for websites to encourage word-of-mouth advertising.
Controlling website growth
You are about to release a brand new website. You have done everything you can to test the website on a small scale, but you need a few people using the site to find “real world” problems. Opting to make your website “Invite Only” during the beta phase will allow you to maintain the number of people who can have access to your website. When you’re confident that your site can handle more visitors you simply increase the number of invites available to members.
Restricting the websites user-base
Some websites have decided to stick with the “Invite only” system even when they come out of beta. These are typically niche sites that want to control and restrict their user-base. This is especially the case with Torrent sites who want to deliver content to “trusted” members - assuming, of course, that people will only invite people to the service that they can vouch for.
Creating a sense of specialness
What better way to create a “special” community than by having a private invitation system? I have often been told off by my fiancé for not inviting her to private betas (even know she wouldn’t have any conceivable reason to require a membership). Without an invitation she feels like she does not have access to such a privileged community.
Making instant communities
It is safe to say that most of the “Invite Only” websites are those that build communities or help to aid online communications, although there are exceptions. This is quite possibly due to the idea of having “instant communities” established with an invite system. For example, if I were to invite a colleague to Pownce that person would automatically be added to my “Friends” list when they register. Instantly they have a friend on the system to try out the features.
