Single Opt-in Lists

Here is how I look at it:

I could have a list of 50,000 junk email addresses with little income or
I could have a list of 5,000 eager, interested buyers.

I'll take the 5,000 anyday. In this instance, size really doesn't matter.

You know.. I think that double opt in is a way to make sure people won't mark your emails as spam that much, that's what could be dangerous when it comes to using a single opt in, and also the crazy and strange fact that you could be spammed in the sense that a spammer could subscribe to your list a huge amounts of emails, and by using a single opt in, you would be potentially sending unsolicited mail to these people who will mark it as spam.

Nevertheless, if you make things right, and actually offer good value to customers, I do believe using a single opt in is a much easier way to grow your list much faster

I think double opt-in seems to sift out most of the free loaders. But remember to always test what works best for your niche.
Jay

I agree with magicink.. single optin is the only way to go. All youre doing with double optin is making them angry by having to confirm. This also makes them think twice about joining your list. why give them that choice?

I'd rather the larger list with some buyers, others interested, and even some worthless ones are still of value if you're running ad swaps to build your list.

Hope this helps!

The only thing that matters is where you are mailing them from. If you run single opt in you're naturally going to get a certain amount of bogus emails, most will bounce and some will result in spam complaints. Also blacklist companies register thousands of forms a day this way and if you mail them you run into that issue as well.

You're IP reputation is the main thing, when you don't have a solid IP reputation, your inboxing will plummet along with your income. If you are using an ESP like icontact, mailchimp, etc you can get your account banned.

On some of my bigger lists that were single opt in, we had an issue where either a competitor, someone that hated us, or just random morons were registering hundreds of real peoples emails without their consent everyday which skyrocketed complaints.

I know what the numbers look like on both sides but that's something you spend a lot of time and a lot of money to learn. You need to do what works for you, I can tell you that most of the comments here are incorrect, double opt in has nothing to do with angering people or low vs high quality subscribers, if people want to be on your list, they'll click the double opt in link, so its your job to make it worth it.

The real risks lie in your ability to hit the inbox and keep your business going long term. Where you don't want to be is in a position where you're making money and you wake up one day to hit a brick wall having to scramble to send again.