It seems that a lot of emerging web apps today are invite-only during alpha/beta. This is smart because it allows you to limit the number of users as you deal with design, coding bugs and scalability issues. However, I’ve noticed that these sites bring a lot of attention to themselves because only a select few are able to gain access to the site. Think about it, you’re get free marketing from these select few who are offering invite codes to their friends. These friends want to know what’s going on, sign up and then brag to their friends about what exclusive service they got into (I would know, I’ve done it :-P)

Like an exclusive Hollywood night club, those who are “on the list” feel like they are part of the “in-crowd” while those who arn’t on the list want in. Sites like pownce and dopplr have benefited greatly from this because they now stand out from hundreds of 2.0 startups that many people could care less about at the moment. Since you need to be invited to joined, all of a sudden people want to see what it’s all about.

Remember when Gmail first came out? The fact that it gave users 1GB of storage was pretty remarkable at the time. However, the craze for Gmail started because it was invite only. I remember people were SELLING invites on eBay for a pretty decent amount of cash. Is an online email provider worth bidding on eBay for? Apparently it was because it was an exclusive service.