Yes — most successful connectors invite people they already know. This article addresses the common worry that “existing relationships” might be off-limits.
The short answer
Friends, family, colleagues, clients, podcast guests, fellow speakers, members of communities you’re in — all of them are valid invitees. As long as they sign up through your link and upgrade to VIP, the commission is yours.
The one exception: you
You can’t nominate yourself. The system blocks it both client-side and server-side. We’ve covered this elsewhere but it’s worth repeating: setting up a second email and “inviting yourself” gets caught and the commission gets cancelled.
Why people you know are actually your best audience
Cold sharing — blasting your link on Twitter to followers who don’t know you well — converts at extremely low rates. Most people don’t trust links from strangers, and most platforms feel like spam-attempts when promoted that way.
Personal recommendations work because the receiver trusts you. They’re more likely to click, more likely to read carefully, more likely to commit to a paid tier when the time comes.
Send a personal note to one specific person, mentioning why you think THE SMILE CHANNEL specifically would help THEM. Generic “I’m on this thing, you should join” messages convert at ~1%. Specific “I noticed you’re working on X, and the platform has Y which would help” messages convert at 10-15%.
Don’t be transactional with relationships
If a friend signs up to support you and never engages with the platform, that’s worse than them not signing up at all. They get a stale account; you might get a small commission; the platform gets a dead profile. Nobody wins long-term.
Recommend the platform to people for whom it actually solves a problem. The commission is a thank-you, not the goal.