Double Opt-In vs. Single Opt-In - Which Are You Using In Your List Building?

Single optin.

Almost no way to jusitfy not using it.

For the single click of a button in your campaign settings, you'll get more subscribers, and more money.

You can't argue it, but watch people below me try to.

My favorite is: "If people are too lazy to confirm to the list, there is no way they'll have the motivation to buy something".

BULLS***.

It means YOU aren't good enough to convince them to buy something.

If you want more money, subscribers, choose single opt in.

If you want a smaller list, less money, choose double opt in.

That's really the way to look at it.

Clients are added to list automatically. So single opt-in. But every email goes with unsubscribe link. This list receives product upgrades, discount offers, announcements.

Other list of mine is double opt-in. Every email goes with unsubscribe link. Right now I am not actually sending any promotional emails to this list. So not much to tell you about the results.

.

Double optin -- all lists.

I personally use single optin. It is more risky with spam complaints, but I haven't gotten burned yet.

I was surprised how many people weren't confirming with the double-optin. I guess I hated losing them.

Matt

TrafficWave.net made the move to double opt-in years ago and we've never looked back.

My confirmation rate is well over 97%. The folks that don't confirm are typically the result of someone else entering their email without permission or them entering their email address incorrectly.

The end result, for me, is that I have built up several lists of targeted proactive subscribers.

Thanks everyone for your comments. This is very interesting for me. I really thought that most most people these days were using double opt-in.

Just to give you a little background, in case you haven't seen my other thread, I have a new list that I'm building, however I've encountered a problem I've never had before.

I use AWeber, and so am required to have double opt-in. However, with this new list, I've got plenty of people who are signing up, but about 95% are NOT confirming, and so I can't email them. I've never had this problem before, and it's quite frustrating.

I tweaked my process some in hopes of enticing them to complete the confirmation step, but it doesn't seem to have helped. They're willing to initially provide their information, but are not following through to confirm their opt-in.

Any others with comments and related experience, I'd love for you to share.

Thanks.

Without knowing what you are offering and how, it's going to be a guessing game.

A 95% failure rate definitely means something is BAD wrong.

Are you willing/able to provide the URL you are using to make your offer and some background on how you are getting visitors to the page?

Also ... a copy of your confirmation message might be helpful in diagnosing the issue for you.

Hi Brian,

Another Warrior PMed me, looked over my info and gave me some advice which I thought made sense. I don't want to seem cryptic, but I'm not willing to reveal the information here, as the site is in one of my marketing niches. However, I will say that I added an image of the free report being offered on the sign-up page, so people would have an idea of what they are getting. Also, at the advice of the Warrior critiquing my info, I completely changed the "thank you" page message. Stay tuned. We'll see what happens.

By the way, this is PPC traffic. Very tightly targeted for my site.

I use verfied opt-in to ensure that the person who receives
my e-mail is the person who requested it.

I think it's also pragmatic to build a verfied opt-in list because
in time - it may be a requirement.

AWeber and many other autoresponder service providers
recommend the use of verified opt-in.

In my AWeber account I can use single opt-in but use it
very, very rarely.

I choose to build verified opt-in lists that will last for the
long term.

Dedicated to your success,

Shaun

P.S. There's nothing to stop you doing both.

Builid a single opt-in list and then encourage them to
sign-up for your verified opt-in list.

I use double Opt In

Just after entering there information I have a page that says:

=====================

STOP (big bold red headline)

You are just one step away from receiving x.

Go your Inbox right away and look for the message with the subject "<subject line here>" and click the confirm link to receive your information.

=================

Try something along those lines, it works really well

My opt in rate is about 95% on most of my lists.

I always use double opt-in. Firstly, I want to be sure that I have the user's consent. I received eMails from some lists that I'm not subscribed to and it was very annoying. Anyone can enter someone else's address, but only the real owner of the address can confirm it.

Also, I filter the bad eMail addresses. Most of them are like: www.john@yahoo.com or john@www.yahoo.com, instead of john@yahoo.com .If that person doesn't confirm, maybe (s)he doesn't receive the first mail, so mailing to him is useless, in my opinion.

Sergiu FUNIERU

Double opt in is better, it's better to have a targeted list compare to a non targeted list

Double opt-in for the moment.

But have not been able to achieve confirmation rate like 95% or so, have been getting somewhere near 70%..

Single opt-in would save a lot of headache but I use Getresponse and it doesn't allow single opt-in. But then again with single opt-in people would more likely use fake email addresses.

Adam

That's lame. I would take it up with support.

Go into "manage campaign" for each one, then the
"subscribers" tab, then uncheck

Set Confirmed Opt-in For:
this one -> Email subscriptions
and this one -> Web subscriptions
But you can't change this one -> Import subscriptions

Then save.

If you want only motivated subscribers double-opt is probably
a good idea. Often though I offer no free software or other
high-perceived value goodies with an opt-in - I just provide
more information and follow-up about the value of the products
I wish to sell. The prospect says "I want to learn more" and
opts-in. I have no wish to make it any harder for him to
get my marketing stuff.

I subscribe, for example, to several copywriting newsletters.
Does double-opt make sense there? I think it does. After
all you want only capable writers reading this stuff. Most
copywriting lists are intended for reading by very serious
people so building a list of people who won't double-opt or
maybe even don't know English is not productive.

I'm sure there are many people who can't be bothered to load up their web based email account again just to confirm an email. Web-based email is so cumbersome - who can blame them?

But they could easily be persuaded to buy if you're offering something they want. After all, they did request information about it.

In other words, excluding them from your list because of non-confirmation certainly doesn't mean that they can't or won't become valuable customers.

And that's if they even understand what confirmation is all about.

My wife, for example, happily enters her name and email address on sites to get information sent to her. She couldn't explain why she should have to confirm that subscription action if her life depended on it.

Cheers,

Neil

Man I hate these threads lol. Both have there own benefits. for example:

confirmed has Less spam complaints and is more responsive.

Single for some niches they won't understand how or why the need to confirm resulting in single being the better option.

After 2 years I'm using double opt-in but have not yet decided on the best approach.

Louis

That's the most ignorant statement I've ever heard Myob.

You have no use for 6,000,000 subscribers?

You don't think that maybe even 10% of them would have been buyers?

Because in almost every niche and offer I've ever worked with, I can tell you more than 70% are buyers.

All I read in your post was "I don't like free money".

This thread is exercise in ignorance and lost profits. I'm almost embarrassed for some of you.

Can I throw a monkey wrench in?

Why can't you just go single opt-in from your provider but double opt-in from your company.

Why one or the other.

Here's a personal story...

I had a large list with Company A. I moved over to Company B. If I want to prove to Company B that I indeed have a double-opt in list...what can I do? (If you think just telling them that...think again.)

BUT...

What if I setup my list as single opt-in from email sender's end...but make my first message of the autoresponder my "confirm your subscription" email...

Here's what happens now...

I now have a record (of my own) that on this day, at this time, from this IP, customer X confirmed their subscription to my list.

I can print it and prove to any company in the future that my leads are double-opt in.

AND...this is the biggie...

IF the customer doesn't confirm that first message...I can simply have them segmented into a new autoresponder list that will send out a new confirmation message in a few days...with an unsubscribe link if they so choose to opt out.

It's the best of both worlds.

The protection of the double opt-in without the issues of the provider supplied confirmation message.

simple...and it works!

Cheers,
Jack

P.S. Did I mention that you can make a confirmation email that doesn't sound like it came from a stupid machine...and offer them something of value for opting in.

Ever thought about the let down that a "auto-bot sent confirmation message" has on your long term relationship with the customer?

Why not have your very first message start off on a very personal note!

Oh...and one more reason why this works.

You can actually track your open to confirm ratio.

Since you can track it, you can improve it.

Once you have it tested, their is no reason why you cannot come up with a subject, body, link, etc... that will result in the highest % of opt-ins.

Again...stay in control. This is YOUR business.

I have a list of 2,000 single optin subscribers earning me upwards of $8,000 monthly with poor effort.

I have another list of roughly 44,000 in the IM niche that is earning me about $40,000 monthly with just affiliate promotions. Simple, affiliate promotions.

For you to tell me that you have 600,000 subscribers and are making 12,000 ish monthly on the front end alone, tells me that you are either 1) Lying, or 2) have an odd market, either an odd product, or maybe thats just your net profit after marketing expenses. I don't know.

But for you to tell me, that with the click of ONE FREAKIN BUTTON, and 5,400,000 EXTRA "FREE" opt-ins, you couldn't make enough profit to deal with the "bandwidth and time" issues?

Please.

Even with an extreme, personalized rig, it takes no real bandwidth and almost no damn time to send to more.

Sounds like you either need to get an employee, or a new setup.

There is something I don't understand here.