Hi Gary,

It sounds like you've certainly put a lot of "sweat" into creating your course... It's only fair that you be compensated for it by those who want it.

I think one reason people are reluctant to give their friend's names and email addresses, is they might be afraid that their friends will be spammed, or something like that. Maybe you need to put an assurance that they won't be spammed, and that they can remove themselves from the course at any time - something like that? (I'm just thinking out loud....)

Another thing is that many people might be hesitant to put their friends' names down before checking with their friends first. They don't just need five friends - they need five friends who are interested in the topic of your course. That could also cause a delay too....

And Phil also made some excellent points as well. :)

Anyhow, there's a few thoughts on this.... I don't have much experience with "refer-a-friend" type promotions, but I think they seem to work better with very generic type of stuff (eg. jokes, greeting cards) that EVERYONE's interested in. It might need to be "adjusted" when applying this approach to specialized info products which only appeal to a niche market.... But I haven't quite thought this through....

- Dien Rice