To Double Opt-In In Or Single Opt-In

if you want high conversion on the emails you send out to your list, use double optin.

Quality of prospect on your list is more important than quantity.

I'd rather have 300 people who want to be on my list than 1000 who dont.

Yeh tunity, that's my way of thinking just heard a lot of people recently saying that single was the way to go but didn't think they would have been as responsive, Thanks for your input.

Anyone else have any views on this?

Either way, people will find a way to avoid being on your list. Some will enter email addresses that they use just for spam. So they will enter the email, check it to confirm (double opt-in) and never see your emails again.

I keep a gmail account just for this purpose.

If someone seriously wants your information (or is new, and uses only one email address) they will give you a good one.

The real purpose of double opt-in is so that people don't end up on email lists that they did not subscribe to (this way companies like aweber/getresponse don't get complaints for sending spam to non-subscribers.)

So if you want to protect yourself from spam complaints, double opt-in is the way to go. If you don't care, then single opt-in is fine.

But either way, it will not increase your opt-ins because your subscribers won't know that they have to confirm until they actually opt in anyways (unless you tell them ahead of time.)

To see whether people are actually opening your emails, you must track opens and clicks ...

Double opt-in. 110% of the time, no question.

Not to mention the sticky situations you can get in with the CAN-SPAM act and not using double-opt in... it also helps maintenance of your list by reducing bounce backs since everyone is a confirmed address (which also gives a better open/click rate and thus is a better marketing point to sell spots on your mailing list).

Depends On the Strategy.
Are You Into CPA or Affiliate Marketing.
For CPA double opt in isnt necessary
for AF I Highly Recommend Double Opt-IN

If you use custom thank you pages for double opt in you can prompt for them to confirm

If you use a custom welcome page (final thank you page), you could deliver an OTO or gift or something that will make them even happier they joined.

Don't think double opt in is that bad considering the quality and the opportunity it presents, from people that care enough to want to be on your list.