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To Double Opt-in or Not...? Which one?

by JoshuaWriter
47 replies
I am putting about 500+ leads a day into one of my new email campaigns and was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on to double opt-in or not.

Currently i am averaging about a 70% verified rate as I AM currently requiring all subscribers to confirm however this is loosing me 30% of the list.

If you increase the numbers and do the math on a list size of 100K, I would be loosing about 30K subscribers and on a list of 200K (which I already own a list of this size), I would be losing out on 60K subscribers.

Please Note: For this list, I AM not FORCING anyone to join, this is a simple "get our video newsletter" option that popups on my site. I do NOT have a forced squeeze page (like the typical IM sales letter) that these leads are going through.

Please let me know what your thoughts are because where I'm sitting, im about to turn off the double opt-in because I am not seeing a HUGE point to having it turned on.
#double #optin #top
  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    I have turned it off and recommend doing so. It's just a feature that was originally put in place to help protect the autoresponder companies... it's not helping you at all so turn it off if you can. It's only going to increase your list size.
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      I have turned it off and recommend doing so. It's just a feature that was originally put in place to help protect the autoresponder companies... it's not helping you at all so turn it off if you can. It's only going to increase your list size.
      I agree with this 100% I stopped using it recently because a huge number of my apparent sign-ups were failing to confirm.

      I'm also in the process of moving away from AWeber to Constant Contact. I'm just tired on my emails to Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail etc., subscribers failing to get through. AWeber is encountering serious problems with this issue.
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      • Profile picture of the author atvking
        Double opt in is the only way to go in any long term business.

        I agree 100% that single opt in will harvest more e-mails but this is not the issue.

        The problem is with spam-filters and abuse by competition. I had a 50.000 single opt in list that was generated 100% on my website over a period of over 3 years. The problem came one day when my list landed on something called a "block list".

        Apparently somebody had entered an e-mail address/es that was being used as a "Spam Trap". One thing lead to another and I eventually got listed at SpamHaus.org as a "spammer".

        Now the problem lies in the fact that organizations like Spamhaus or the Block list providers DO NOT tell you who complains. They WILL inject themselves between you and your clients with their imperfect method but will not disclose who made the complaint.

        Quote "You must have a way of tracking anonymous complaints" (Translation: We will inject ourselves between you and your subscribers and pretend that our system is perfect and make money while ruining your business- we do not care about you!)

        Now the block list providers make it very easy to remove yourself from their "block lists" but they do this so that they have less actual work to process, they do NOT tell you what got you there in the first place so their intentions are not as good as they would have you believe. You WILL land on the same block list unless you can do the impossible "Have a way of tracking anonymous complaints"

        In the end I had to resend confirmation to all my list (doing so got me black listed AGAIN), at this point in time my IP address got a "Bad reputation" and even my domain name got listed in some smaller spam block lists. They apparently black list everything to do with your business.

        I would suggest everybody double opt in, it may protect your list from the "anti spam experts"
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  • Profile picture of the author TheZafraGroup
    I turned it off and I would rather leave it off. The only thing is when people confirm, it means that lead is of higher quality so without a doubt that lead would like to hear from you. You can try turning it off. At least, you get 100% of the list.
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  • Profile picture of the author sparrow
    All depends on your autoresponder

    I have seen it done several ways

    Many on the initial list do single but as they get people to buy they get moved to double optin setup and that list becomes real valuable

    Ed
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    • Profile picture of the author Venturetothetop
      I would love to hear the difference in click rates from single opt in vs double option lists.

      For me personally, I build a list because I want them to read my mails. If they cannot be bothered to even confirm their subscription to my list, maybe they are not the type of people I want on my list.

      I don't just collect people on my lists, I weed them out to those that matter most.

      Another factor for me is that my business is based on my reputation and thus the safety of double-optin (against spam issues) is a major factor.

      If I'm wrong - educate me.
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      • Profile picture of the author Anonymous Affiliate
        Originally Posted by Venturetothetop View Post

        If they cannot be bothered to even confirm their subscription to my list, maybe they are not the type of people I want on my list.
        - What if they sign up at work where most email providers are blocked?
        - What if the confirmation email ends up in the junk folder?
        - What if they dont trust the spammy-looking confirmation link and they'd rather not click on it?
        - What if they're in a rush because they're late for lunch and they forget to confirm later on?

        There are a number of reasons as of why someone might miss your confirmation email, and it's got nothing to do with whether they're a qualified subscriber or not.

        Don't put barriers in front of your prospects to join your mailing list. Remove double-optin.
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        • Profile picture of the author agc
          Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate View Post

          - What if they sign up at work where most email providers are blocked?
          - What if the confirmation email ends up in the junk folder?
          - What if they dont trust the spammy-looking confirmation link and they'd rather not click on it?
          - What if they're in a rush because they're late for lunch and they forget to confirm later on?

          There are a number of reasons as of why someone might miss your confirmation email, and it's got nothing to do with whether they're a qualified subscriber or not.

          Don't put barriers in front of your prospects to join your mailing list. Remove double-optin.
          Then after seven days (and every seven days) send them a follow up email saying you missed their confirmation and that you can't send out your valuable newsletter without it. And provide an unsubscribe link.

          Force them to get in or get out.
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          • Profile picture of the author philhunter
            Definately single optin, if you lose 30,000 leads imagine how much thats going to cost your business.
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      • Profile picture of the author Coby
        Originally Posted by Venturetothetop View Post

        I would love to hear the difference in click rates from single opt in vs double option lists.
        This is a single optin list...



        Now, if you will post your stats for a double optin list we can compare...
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      • Profile picture of the author BusinessGuru
        Originally Posted by Venturetothetop View Post

        I would love to hear the difference in click rates from single opt in vs double option lists.

        For me personally, I build a list because I want them to read my mails. If they cannot be bothered to even confirm their subscription to my list, maybe they are not the type of people I want on my list.

        I don't just collect people on my lists, I weed them out to those that matter most.

        Another factor for me is that my business is based on my reputation and thus the safety of double-optin (against spam issues) is a major factor.

        If I'm wrong - educate me.
        This is so true. I believe that the double opt-in works as a filtering system that eliminates unwanted prospects. I also believe that it is essential to do things right at all times or face the potential consequences in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author Yadira Barbosa
    I turn it off but always start a new broadcast with "You are receiving this message because you subscribe to list on mydomain.com if you don't want to receive more messages please got to the end of this messages and cancel your subscription"

    This is important because some people subscribe and then they don't remember and mark you message as spam, at this way your complaints are in good standing and you only have responsive people on your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by JoshuaWriter View Post

    Please let me know what your thoughts are because where I'm sitting, im about to turn off the double opt-in because I am not seeing a HUGE point to having it turned on.
    I wouldn't hesitate for a moment. I strongly prefer single opt-in, for all sorts of reasons.

    The usual argument advanced in favour of confirmed opt-in (it isn't "double" opt-in: nobody opts in twice, they just confirm their email address) is that it can reduce spam complaints. Frankly, I think it's just an urban myth. The proportion of spam complaints you get depends on what you send and how you send it and the expectations of the recipients, all of which you can control. If someone's going to forget who you are, six months later, and "report spam", having confirmed their email address at the time they originally opted in isn't going to make the slightest difference.

    I find the idea that confirmed opt-in will necessarily "protect your business" just silly. That's my perspective, anyway.

    The idea that if you use confirmed opt-in, the ones who don't manage (for whichever one of a collection of varied, possible reasons) to confirm are somehow, magically "lower quality prospects" and that you're not "therefore" really losing much strikes me as equally silly: it just has no logic behind it at all. But it can be interesting, in a macabre kind of way, to see the "clutching-at-straws" attempts at logic that confirmation enthusiasts will sometimes go to, to try to defend their corner.

    Call me a skepchick, but I suspect that some of them are people who know, really, because of what they're sending out, that whatever they do, they're going to get some complaints, and they just want to try to be better-placed with their autoresponder companies over that, "when" it happens. :p

    Across 8 different niches I have 5 single opt-in and 3 confirmed opt-in lists (each also further segregated). I wish with hindsight that I'd built 7 single opt-in lists and only 1 confirmed opt-in list.
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    • Profile picture of the author Venturetothetop
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      I find the idea that confirmed opt-in will necessarily "protect your business" just silly. That's my perspective, anyway.
      I agree confirmed opt-ins will not protect your business, but undoubtedly it offers more protection the single opt-in. True? Or does it to make as much difference anymore?

      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Across 8 different niches I have 5 single opt-in and 3 confirmed opt-in lists (each also further segregated). I wish with hindsight that I'd built 7 single opt-in lists and only 1 confirmed opt-in list.
      Would you mind expanding on this please? I'm interested to know how much of a difference it really made, and being a person who truly follows up and looks after their lists, your opinion would be very interesting. I'm guessing, just guessing that your answer may be along the lines of lower open rates is heavily outweighed by the increased opt-ins.
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  • Profile picture of the author matthewhell
    Hey it's the Hell Brothers here. Make sure you "do" double opt in. I have a similar problem but actually it's not a problem at all. What I have figured out over the years of internet marketing is that the people that do opt in are very interested. What you have to do to make money with a list is to make sure your list is responsive and willing to be there. Its all about quality and not quantity. So those 70% that confirm there optin will make you more money than the ones that don't.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by matthewhell View Post

      Hey it's the Hell Brothers here. Make sure you "do" double opt in. I have a similar problem but actually it's not a problem at all. What I have figured out over the years of internet marketing is that the people that do opt in are very interested. What you have to do to make money with a list is to make sure your list is responsive and willing to be there. Its all about quality and not quantity. So those 70% that confirm there optin will make you more money than the ones that don't.
      But the point the OP was making is that with the confirmed opt in, you couldn't possibly know if they (those that don't confirm) would have made you money or not, because you won't ever send them an email.

      So on that basis, how can you come to the conclusion that the 30% that don't confirm (which may be for a myriad of reasons) will never buy from you? Sure, they may not make as much as the 70%, that's statistics for you but where is the evidence that 70% confirmed opt in will make you more than with a 100% single opt in?
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      • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
        Rather than listening to some people who are happy to
        pull theories out of their arse, why not look at the FACTS
        from actual research conducted by autoresponder companies?

        For example, this study of 30,000 users by MailChimp:

        Double Opt-in vs. Single Opt-in Stats | MailChimp Email Marketing Blog (no affil.)

        They found that confirmed opt-in lists (for their users at
        least) had HIGHER open rates, HIGHER click-through rates,
        LOWER bounces and FEWER unsubscribes than single opt-in
        lists.

        Admittedly, this study didn't look at the effect on one of the
        most important figures of all: profits.

        Why do you think just about ALL companies who are responsible
        for getting e-mail delivered into the inbox recommend that you
        use confirmed opt-in?

        The fact is that most third-party autoresponders send the single
        opt-in e-mails from servers that have lower deliverability due to
        more bounces and spam complaints from single opt-in subscribers.

        If you use single opt-in you are guaranteed to get some sh!tty
        e-mail addresses right off the bat including deliberately false
        e-mails (e.g. asdf@asdf.com), mis-spellings and even malicious
        entries like spam trap e-mails. This leads to more bounces and
        spam complaints which reduce the deliverability of the single
        opt-in servers.

        If you're clever you can design your confirmed opt-in process so
        that there are less 'speed bumps' along the way and you end up
        getting decent confirmed opt-in conversion rates.

        That said, there are some cases where I do use single opt-in but
        it's the exception rather than the rule.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          why not look at the FACTS from actual research conducted by autoresponder companies?
          Because I think some of them are liars, Shaun.

          I think they sometimes tell their customers what suits the autoresponder company and try to make it look like it suits the customers' businesses. It's actually easy for them to do this.

          Corrupt pharmaceutical companies in dodgy countries can do the same thing: if they know that, statistically, about one clinical trial in twenty gives a misleading result, they can commission forty small clinical trials, knowing that a couple will usually produce the result they want. Then they don't publish the other thirty-eight and simply show doctors the two they like and proudly announce "look at the FACTS". And sometimes they really are "facts"!

          Some of those "facts" need to be interpreted with a pinch or two of salt, hello.

          Even the ones that really are facts (and who knows how many are?) may have been "carefully selected just for you to look at," with another 38 sets of facts which tell a very different story conveniently missing.

          (And in any case, Mailchimp, given the huge panoply of activities excluded by their terms of service, aren't representative at all of many internet marketers' businesses.)

          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          If you're clever you can design your confirmed opt-in process so that there are less 'speed bumps' along the way and you end up getting decent confirmed opt-in conversion rates.
          Yes, I agree completely with this. This is what one has to do, when using confirmed opt-in (which I've used too often, myself).

          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          That said, there are some cases where I do use single opt-in
          Same here. I just wish I'd done that more often, in the past.
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          • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            I think they sometimes tell their customers what suits the autoresponder company and try to make it look like it suits the customers' businesses. It's actually easy for them to do this.
            Of course it's in the best interests of autoresponder
            companies to promote the party line of 'using confirmed
            opt-in is best'.

            For one, it reduces the resources they have to deploy
            to manage the reputation and deliverability of their
            servers.

            The end goal they have is to get more e-mails delivered
            into the inbox. (That's my goal too).

            Most people responsible for actually getting e-mails
            delivered into the inbox favor confirmed opt-in because
            it leads to fewer problems and higher deliverability.
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            (And in any case, Mailchimp, given the huge panoply of activities excluded by their terms of service, aren't representative at all of many internet marketers' businesses.)
            Because of their strict Terms of Service, MailChimp have
            cleaner servers than many other autoresponder companies
            and higher deliverability rates than most.

            That makes their research findings all the more alarming
            for people who choose to operate in niches associated
            with more problems from spam complaints, bounces, etc.

            I use single opt-in judiciously and in a minority of very
            specific situations. I would not recommend that people
            adopt an 'always use single opt-in' policy - neither is an
            'aways use confirmed opt-in' policy good advice either.

            Dedicated to mutual success,

            Shaun
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          • Profile picture of the author Chris Chicas
            Thank you, I'm glad someone finally said it. Some of these companies look out for their best interest even if it's stretching the truth - on many levels.

            I"m sure they have a lot of spam issues to deal with but at the same time this hurts the business of honest folks who are simply trying to reach people whom they have a connection with, or at least an agreed opt in.






            [quote=Alexa Smith;5222356]Because I think some of them are liars, Shaun.

            I think they sometimes tell their customers what suits the autoresponder company and try to make it look like it suits the customers' businesses. It's actually easy for them to do this.
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        • Profile picture of the author WillR
          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          For example, this study of 30,000 users by MailChimp:

          Double Opt-in vs. Single Opt-in Stats | MailChimp Email Marketing Blog (no affil.)

          They found that confirmed opt-in lists (for their users at
          least) had HIGHER open rates, HIGHER click-through rates,
          LOWER bounces and FEWER unsubscribes than single opt-in
          lists.
          It might be worthwhile standing back and thinking why a company like this would release a 'study' they have conducted that leads to higher deliverability with confirmed optins? Don't believe everything you read. Did this study take into account the huge increase in subscribers on a single optin list? Sure, you might have a lower open rate with a single optin but you have a much bigger group of subscribers than you would have had otherwise so you're still better off. You can't just compare the two open rates as they mean nothing.

          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          If you use single opt-in you are guaranteed to get some sh!tty
          e-mail addresses right off the bat including deliberately false
          e-mails (e.g. asdf@asdf.com), mis-spellings and even malicious
          entries like spam trap e-mails. This leads to more bounces and
          spam complaints which reduce the deliverability of the single
          opt-in servers.
          Proper email companies like Aweber pick up on these types of addresses and so anything that is less than 4 characters long and/or resembles a spam email address still has to confirm their email address even on a single optin list.

          Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

          If you're clever you can design your confirmed opt-in process so
          that there are less 'speed bumps' along the way and you end up
          getting decent confirmed opt-in conversion rates.
          I actually think people need to be more concerned about what they write on the optin page. If using a single optin list you need to make it clear on the optin page that the freebie is going to be delivered by email only. That way people know if they enter a bogus email address they are not going to receive anything.
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          • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
            Originally Posted by WillR View Post

            Did this study take into account the huge increase in subscribers on a single optin list? Sure, you might have a lower open rate with a single optin but you have a much bigger group of subscribers than you would have had otherwise so you're still better off. You can't just compare the two open rates as they mean nothing.
            I'd already mentioned that the study didn't report on the
            effect on a more important list metric: profits.

            It's not just about list size - it's about how many of your
            e-mails actually land in the inbox and get seen and acted
            upon by your subscribers.

            Confirmed opt-in e-mails are delivered from servers with
            higher deliverability rates (due to fewer bounces and
            spam complaints) and they get into the inbox more reliably
            because they have better subscriber engagement (from
            higher open rates and higher click-through rates).

            Even if a single opt-in list did lead to more profits today I
            still choose not to use it - except in a minority of cases.

            I'm pretty risk-averse and using confirmed opt-in gives
            greater protection for my most valuable business assets
            - my lists.

            Other people have are less risk averse and that's fine.

            Originally Posted by WillR View Post

            Proper email companies like Aweber pick up on these types of addresses and so anything that is less than 4 characters long and/or resembles a spam email address still has to confirm their email address even on a single optin list.
            Autoresponder companies are not able to detect spam
            trap e-mails nor are they able to spot most mis-spelled
            e-mails.

            At the end of the day, like most things, there's pros and
            cons with both single opt-in and confirmed opt-in routes
            to building your list.

            The key is to know what method helps you achieve your
            objective the best and make your decision on a list by
            list basis.

            Dedicated to mutual success,

            Shaun
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            • Profile picture of the author Irish Intuition
              I say turn it off... however it depends on the list and
              how they were ushered to the opt-in.

              Basic 'freebie' opt-in, off. Major purchase, on
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  • Profile picture of the author Kashi456
    I used to use double opt in and it took me a year to reach 3k subs by doing ad swaps, mini giveaways and such.

    With single opt in, I've built around 10k subscribers in a matter of a couple of months.

    The quality of the list is different, I test it around and open/click rates with my 2k double opt in and 2k single opt in, and results for me are similar.

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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Wilson
    It may be because of the popup. People just forgot about it because they don't need it urgently at the time. I wouldn't worry, but would test if it would work better without popup.
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  • Profile picture of the author Damielle
    First of all let me say that most of my lists are double opt-in. This is mostly because this is what I was taught when I was starting out. However after doing this for over a year I've found that you should not follow what the gurus 'say' but what they 'actually do'.

    My observation is that most of the big names online use single opt-in. A perfect example is the people who have responded to this thread. Most of the more experienced warriors have indicated a preference for single opt-in.

    This can't be ignored and after seeing the numerous unconfirmed subscribers in my Aweber account this is the position I've taken.

    Ultimately it is your choice, but I believe that if you send your subscribers quality content and offers that will benefit them you won't have to worry about spam complaints.
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  • Profile picture of the author littledan
    There is really no right or wrong answer, merely personal preference. I have always had double opt in switched on because I believe it is more likely to improve the quality of the list even if it is somewhat smaller. Who wants non buyers on their list just for the sake of it anyway. Also should you sell your business at any point, a double opt in list will add to the value.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    one thing you must consider is that some AR companies (including aweber) send their confirmation emails from a separate ip and smtp server.

    for aweber, these confirmation emails are being blocked at an alarming rate, which means that it is likely that many of the people that dont confirm did not even see your confirmation emails.

    i have done a good bit of testing that shows the confirmation emails from several AR services are blocked more frequently than "normal AR emails".

    the cost to keep the 30%ish extra leads on your list is very minimal, so it really does not make much sense to drop them from your main list.
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  • Profile picture of the author marcuslim
    I am leaning towards single optin, like someone said, don't put barriers. Sure you will get more lower quality subscribers, but you will still be getting the same number of high quality subscribers so you're in a win-win situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author RySpencer
    I prefer to stick with the double opt-in. There are a lot of people who will punch in fake emails hoping to get the product. This may be the 30% of unconfirmed contacts that you have in your list. Therefore, this 30% would have been useless anyways as they would either be fake emails or someone else email that would report you for spam.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by RySpencer View Post

      I prefer to stick with the double opt-in. There are a lot of people who will punch in fake emails hoping to get the product. This may be the 30% of unconfirmed contacts that you have in your list. Therefore, this 30% would have been useless anyways as they would either be fake emails or someone else email that would report you for spam.
      The problem is most people do single optin WRONG.

      There are ways to drastically eliminate this problem.

      Why not use a secondary page, so when people enter their email on the squeeze page it automatically takes them to the next page that once again has their email address and a message that says something like...

      "Please double check your email address below as this is where I will be sending the free gift. If you do not enter a valid email you will not receive the free gift."

      Then simply have a confirm button which when clicked on actually submits their email address to the autoresponder. Simple things like this can make a big difference to the success of a single optin campaign.

      Just like with a double optin list you would always have a secondary page that tells people to go and check their email address and click on the blue link inside the email. Without this page telling them to do so your confirm rate will be quite low. So why would you not use a similar page on single option lists... it's no different. Tell people what to do and they will do it.
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      • Profile picture of the author James-Robson
        Originally Posted by WillR View Post

        Why not use a secondary page, so when people enter their email on the squeeze page it automatically takes them to the next page that once again has their email address and a message that says something like...

        "Please double check your email address below as this is where I will be sending the free gift. If you do not enter a valid email you will not receive the free gift."
        Quite a powerful tip there! Seems kinda obvious now I see it, but I hadn't considered that before - thanks Will!
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidG
    I think there are factors to consider when putting "confirmed" optin's vs single optins.

    One could be based on what niche you are in.

    For example, if you are in the IM niche then Single optin may suit best since your audience obviously uses a computer on a daily basis.

    Unlike if you were in the Weight Loss Niche where most of your audience probaly does not use the computer everyday.

    regZ
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewNeer
    Maybe its time to consider using iContact.

    They allow you to import as many leads as you want without having a "double opt in", just upload your CSV file, and CHA-CHING! lol
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Chicas
      Originally Posted by MatthewNeer View Post

      Maybe its time to consider using iContact.

      They allow you to import as many leads as you want without having a "double opt in", just upload your CSV file, and CHA-CHING! lol

      I was thinking of moving to iContact but after reading comments on their own blog it seemed that a lot of people were frustrated with how complicated the process of setting up the Auto responders on WordPress was. Is this true?
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MatthewNeer View Post

      Maybe its time to consider using iContact.

      They allow you to import as many leads as you want without having a "double opt in", just upload your CSV file, and CHA-CHING! lol
      As long as you're familiar with iContact's recently changed TOS and fully aware that they no longer support the "IM niche", and are banning people who fall foul of this ...

      http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...ml#post5199561
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  • Profile picture of the author Osman_M
    It would be awesome if someone did a live experiment to compare the both approaches. Perhaps, I'll give it a go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tadresources
    Always double opt in for me.

    I dont want to risk having my aweber account suspended for the sake of a few extra subscribers and if they do mis-spell their email address you have a bad one on your system because they haven't been verified and then you are not getting an accurate click through rate on your email promotions.
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  • Profile picture of the author braincandy7
    I run with Single opt in. Was loosing to many to the double opt in. As stated above it is mainly to protect the auto responder compaines rather than us. Nobody forces people to manually enter their name and email address so there is nothing immoral about single opt in.
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    • Profile picture of the author Venturetothetop
      Originally Posted by braincandy7 View Post

      As stated above it is mainly to protect the auto responder compaines rather than us.
      Untrue - Double Opt-in was primarily to stop SPAM. People would enter other people into a list in order to send them tons of spam, and when asked they would say 'well my system says they opted in' - thus the Double Opt in became popular.

      Double Opt-in DOES give users greater protection from spam and being signed up to lists without their consent.

      The issue in this topic however, is whether single opt-in is worth the extra risk.
      Although I'm not yet fully convinced of the merits of single opt-in for MY business, after reading this thread I am definitely more open minded to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author designerjack
    Double opt-in is great for verification of legit list building.

    I strongly believe in Double Opt-in over a single Opt-in.

    If the person wants in, they'll opt-in. Simple as that!
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    • Profile picture of the author Suthan M
      It actually depends on where you run the campaign.
      For example in my own setup for my non IM niche,

      If I run giveaways, and adswaps, and all the free list building- I obviously choose double optins as chances is higher people tend to insert fake emails in 'em.

      If i am using an exitsplash on a salespage, or have a optin on a squeze page that gets visited through normal means (link from blog, link from other sites etc) - that is on single optin.

      Ironically, all my IM list are on double optin though and dont apply the rules above.
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  • Profile picture of the author dabesa
    Hi guys,
    for single Opt-in would you use a captcha or rather not?

    A captcha could stop automatic registrations with spam trap e-mails (but someone can still use it to register manually) but I don´t know how would impact the registration process (% new users).

    Any comment?

    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author GalFriedman
    If it is a freebie list, I would go for double opt in...since you want to be more careful as to spam complaints...

    I would suggest to add a message after first opt in, saying check your inbox and confirm link, and only then give them the freebie, as the first follow up email.
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  • Profile picture of the author hardikvg
    Should double opt-in aka confirmed opt-in be used to just collect leads? E-mail marketing would not be carried out to these leads. Any suggestions?
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesgan
    I vote for one-time opt-in. cause this make your offer to your subscriber very straight forward. 'They opt-in your newsletter, when they open their email, they get the newsletter.'
    If you use double opt-in, your click through rate will greatly affected
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