Offlate I have been observing the "entry by invitation only" bug that has hit a lot of web service sites. It seems to be cool to do it on the web now! I had this experience just a few seconds back at profitlinker. I think someone has to call the bluff. I find it very unfriendly as I know all I have to do is to register and get a confirmatory mail in a few seconds! Why then have it at all?
It was a fad at one time when google mail required me to get an invitation to access the service and sure there was a lot of buzz around it. But, now I think this is getting a bit boring and I find it adding no value at all.
If am interested and find the product/service interesting, I am sure I will anyway register myself for that service. Or send me an invitational emailer and/or make it really look like a privileged invitational offer that I will really miss. For example, allow me to access certain services in that site that I will not otherwise be able to access.
One needs to get customer friendly or let them come-up with something more interesting!