How To: Finally Get Your Google Wave Invite

A friend came to my house today to check out Google Wave. She wanted a wave account so badly, and within 30 minutes of our visit, she had her own account set up, and we were waving together.

Here’s the scene: You still don’t have a wave account. You’ve begged everyone you know on Twitter. You’ve begged everyone you don’t know on Twitter. You’ve followed the Google Wave invite search on Twitter (click here to check). Still nothing.

Don’t give up!

I have a few creative ideas to help you that you may not have thought of yet.

1. Ebay – My friend bought her wave invite on Ebay for $21 and received it in email instantly. It is true that Ebay is deleting some of these auctions because you are not allowed to sell someone’s “intellectual property,” however, at the time I wrote this article, there was 81 Ebay auctions for wave invites. If you choose to purchase one, make sure you are purchasing an invite, not a nomination since being nominated does not guarantee you an invite. Obviously remember to check the seller and feedback ratings before bidding.

2. Craigslist – I found several wave invites listed for sale on Craigslist also.

3. If your company subscribes to Google apps, there is a rumor that you’ll have priority over others for a wave account. Is it possible there is a wave account available for your company that nobody knows about? Check into that.

4. Anyone that received their wave account directly from Google also received 8 nominations for friends. I know of someone that didn’t know that, and he had his email from Google with his 8 nominations sitting in his email. Is it possible that someone you know received his wave account directly from Google and doesn’t realize they have 8 nominations?

5. There are a ton of blogs where people are asking for advice or favors in exchange for a wave invite. If you can verify that the person is legit, this could be an easy way to get a free invite.

Don’t get scammed! Be very careful about people who ask you to tweet a link (scam) in order to get an invite. If it seems fishy, it probably is. All wave invites are sent out manually from Google. If anyone claims to have a large number of them to give out, beware. As with anything else, just make sure you use common sense.

Worst case scenario, you could always beg for an invite on YouTube:

Photo courtesy of Optimum7.com