Widgets are quickly becoming in vogue, as more and more marketers are struggling with the concept of how difficult it is to drive people to micro-sites. You not only need to build the castle in the forest, as one of my friends likes to say, but also build the pathway to the castle. In other words, you have to spend tons of media dollars just to drive traffic to a site, and then it is often for a one time visit.

Why not instead, create customizable content that people are willing to embed in their own blogs, iGoogle and the like? That way you can have an ongoing, dynamic feed of information that reaches your dedicated audience.

Here is a nice one from Daft Punk that includes video clips, tour info and other fun sections for their fans:

Invites to the hottest Web 2.0 sites in private beta are as good as gold to tech geeks like myself. Obtaining a highly coveted beta invite can create temporary prestige of being “hooked in” followed by a flurry of friends asking for invites. I remember when Google was giving out the elusive invites to Gmail in 2004 how happy I was to receive one (Gmail still states that I have 100 remaining invites even though the system is now open to all). A few weeks ago, TechCrunch highlighted InviteShare, an online marketplace that links people with extra invites to private sites (such as Joost, Flock, Oink or Pownce) with those who want to join these invite-only sites. Last week, TechCrunch bought InviteShare for $25,000 on auction.

While InviteShare is relatively buggy, and has some serious usability flaws, the free invite exchange already has nearly 20,000 users, and has issued more than 21,000 beta invites from 44 sites since it went live two weeks ago. While it is a fantastic egalitarian approach to granting eager users access to new betas, InviteShare also sheds some light on the desirability and popularity of sites currently in private beta (or invite-only mode) simply by showing the supply versus demand of invites, which may very well be one of the reasons why TechCrunch purchased the site in the first place.

Below is a list of all private betas listed on InviteShare as of this morning. This table also notes how many users are waiting for invites as well as how many invites have been sent for each site:

This chart points to a couple of notable observations:

InviteShare stats could be used as a rough metric to determine where a site is in its beta cycle. Some sites abound in excess invitations. Joost, for example, currently gives members unlimited invites, so InviteShare has no waiting list for people wanting to join Joost. And with over 1 million beta subscribers on Joost, it appears that it is ready to go live soon. It would be useful to correlate the number of invites a private beta offers to its users with the number of people waiting in queue for invites on InviteShare, as one way to gauge where a site is in its beta release cycle.

InviteShare also can be used as a barometer of how popular a site is. Some sites in beta may have maxed out on the desirability to join. Pownce, for example, has been issuing invites 6 at a time, so any given user only has 6-18 invites depending on when they first joined. Like Joost, Pownce has no waiting list on InviteShare for those seeking invites, but unlike Joost, Pownce has only been around since June, and doesn’t give its members unlimited invites. Does that bode poorly for the future Pownce? It is hard to say, but it is true that some sites launch private betas partly as a marketing tactic–to invoke buzz and exclusivity. Again, being able to correlate the number of invites against the initial beta release date and InviteShare stats could be telling. Other sites with no waiting list include Babelgum, Dopplr, Grandcentral, and Moola.

Some sites are in private beta because they are not stable enough to support an open influx of subscribers. Slowly, these sites expand their network to include more and more users as they become more stable, but all along the way they are carefully restricting the number of invites any given user has. The sites that appear to be earlier in their beta cycle on InviteShare have smaller amounts of invites sent, and a healthy waiting list of people who want to join. These include I’minlikewithyou, BrightKite and IwantSandy.

Some sites want to remain small, and they (and their user base) are actually not interested in rapid growth. A Small World, a social network targeted to the jet-set elite and society types, has been around for 6 years, and still maintains a heightened sense of exclusivity. While it is listed on InviteShare, no users of A Small World have yet shared their invites, even though there is a queue of nearly 500 people waiting for invites. File sharing sites like Oink and Supertorrents also have lengthy waiting lists. With both Oink and A Small World, this makes sense, as the person who is doing the inviting is supposed to be responsible for the behavior of their invited contact within the network. In these cases, a site like InviteShare may not work as well, as many people may not feel trusting enough to invite strangers to their network if they are ultimately going to be responsible for that stranger’s behavior.

Just as telling as what sites are included on InviteShare, are the sites that aren’t on the list. Sites like Freebase and MyLiveSearch haven’t made the cut yet, nor does there seem to be any easy way to add new sites to the existing list, leading me to believe that the list of featured sites is hand-picked. Which is probably just fine, since it prevents cunning Web 2.0 companies from overwhelming or gaming the system with an undesirable sea of useless “invite-only” sites. It will be interesting to follow what sites do get included to future updates of InviteShare, as the ones to make the list will already have a caché of being desirable simply by being listed on the exclusive exchange in the first place. I could see lots of folks using InviteShare as a great way to gauge early success of private beta sites. And this marketplace is completely under the thumbs of TechCrunch.

Trapped in the CLAUSet

Fellow GSP friend Zach Slow along with Jelly Donut released a very funny Christmas related 3-part video series last week that mimics the style of R. Kelly’s “hip-hopera,” Trapped in the Closet. It is actually weird to think of Santa Claus having a sex life, but worth watching. The rest of the series is here.

Seth Godin recently discussed Ponzi and Pyramid schemes and how they are used in an online setting. While Ponzi schemes are certainly rife both in the online and offline worlds, they are distinct from Pyramid schemes which are more in the line of MLM (a la Tupperware parties). He points out the self-proclaimed “Advertising 2.0″ company MMMZR which embraces an MLM approach of marketing as part of their revenue model, leaving many people feeling that it is a distasteful approach to online advertising.

One interesting point Seth makes is in regards to pyramid schemes, specifically when it may not have to do with the exchange of money, or if money is exchanged, it is almost a side benefit. He notes that sites like Digg have an element of a pyramid scheme built into the very core of the site’s design. Meaning that some Digg uses can abuse the system in a way to promote themselves, their clients, or issues. And while word of mouth can be used in a manipulative way, could there be an invisible hand that self-regulates these social tools due to our desire to embrace authenticity, while eschewing motives that seem like scams?

No better day to start my new blog than on 06.06.06, much to the chagrin of all those hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics out there. welcome.