If I am promoting a product that I know some of my friends would like will I get in trouble for getting them to sign up by sending them my affiliate link via MSN or eMail? and if I send it to them by MSN what link do I use? the search creative?
Just invite them to your landing page and have them sign up nothing will happen to your account. DOnt send the emails to them just send them to your site.
90+% of companies wont care about a few sales that comes from your friends. If it's questionable, just ask your AM. Most guidelines (IE no email traffic, no search traffic, etc) are geared more towards larger & consistant quantities of sales.
It totally depends. I'd just create a landing page and send them to it... Remember, they see where each click is coming from so if it's against the TOS they'll know if it's email based, etc. Some programs allow email campaigns however!