You know how Lost was a big hit for ABC, and so the next year every network had a few shows with huge casts, a lot of backstory, and a plot that was impossible to follow. That's what happens when someone comes up with a good idea. Or at least one that works.

And so a few weeks ago InviteShare launched a service that made it easier for anyone who wanted to get into exclusive invite-only beta tests to do so. Now a new service, Site Invites has launched to do exactly the same thing.

The concept is pretty simple. Want an invitation to test Joost, Scrybe, or any of 24 other services? Just leave your contact info. Hopefully someone will come along and take pity on you. If you've got a few invitations to share, you can be the pitier. In fact, the more people you send invitations to, the higher you move up the list for any invitations you're seeking.

The site is advertising supported. But something tells us they group behind this is hoping to make a little extra cash by selling the business. (TechCrunch paid $25,000 for InviteShare). There's just one problem. Anybody could create a similar service if they feel like it. The startup costs are pretty minimal. In fact, TechCrunch was getting ready to develop its own service when the company decided to buy InviteShare instead. The only reason InviteShare was worth $25,000 was because TechCrunch had already written a positive review of the site driving up its profile.

Of course, if you're looking for a really good way to pick up invites to the sexiest services around, just keep reading Download Squad.

Just days after its launch, InviteShare has been sold for $25,000 to TechCrunch. InviteShare is a service that lets users trade invitations to online services that are still in private beta, like Pownce or Joost. Overall, InviteShare offers up invitations to 42 different sites at the moment, with the capacity to add new sites.

And odds are they will, now that TechCrunch is involved. The technology blog frequently writes about invitation-only online communities and services, many of which we could see added to the InviteShare pool.

Does this all sort of defeat the purpose of private beta tests where a limited number of individuals gets to test out a new product? Maybe. But the folks most likely to use InviteShare are the same folks most likely to be good beta testers; geeky and enthusiastic about new services.

TechCrunch's Mike Arrington says the site had been planning to create an invitation swapping service of its own when InviteShare launched. After writing a positive review of the site, Arrington admits that he may have driven up the value of the site his company eventually purchased.

InviteShare is a new site which allows you to swap your private beta invites with others. In return, the more invites you give, the higher priority you get on invitations. If you have no invites to give, you still will be in queue to receive an invite.

It's the whole 'what you give, you keep' philosophy. Your email address will be public so that you can receive invites and send them to others. If this bothers you, at least InviteShare uses an image based email list to prevent spam.

Pownce was the invite in hottest pursuit, followed closely by Joost. The way it works is you add yourself to whatever private beta you're interested in receiving an invitation. Members who have invitations will click on your email image and press a 'sent invitation' or 'message' button. See screenshots below:





The site itself was somewhat confusing to navigate as it has no tabs. Your browser back button will help you out and hopefully InviteShare will add some much needed orienting features.

InviteShare has 42 private betas listed, some of which are:

Pownce, Joost, 8apps.com, Spock, moola, Grand Central, Gleam'd, iminlikewithyou.com, and more.

Btw, InviteShare was just bought for $25,000 by an anonymous donor. Sheesh. It was created and sold in just 4 days!



Update: We have learned the anonymous buyer is TechCrunch which just announced the news 7/19/07.