Single vs Double optin - what's your word?

I have actually had to delete thousands of emails of subscribers who failed to confirm their emails, and now I have solely adopted the single opt-in route. Moreover, I have noticed a more steady increase in subscription numbers.

The argument actually is that double-opt in is there to protect the autoresponder company, while single opt-in though more profitable is prone to a higher risk of spam complaints. However, I am yet to experience this in my own single opt-in model

I have only done double opt in.

I wanted subscribers to raise their hand twice, to say they wanted to hear from me...

"Do you really want to hear from me? Really?"


Lately, I have been thinking more and more about using a simple single opt in.

Single opt in sounds like a quicker way to build your list...

Who do you guys use for the single (or unconfirmed opt-in) process? I thought the big auto responders were all double opt-in?

Thanks

I have always used double opt in because aweber strongly recommended it and I thought it protected me. However, now that I know aweber allows single opt in and after reading all the comments here, I will try it.

I suppose I can always change it back it anything bad happens.

BTW, do any of you have any suggestions of what to do with the people who signed up and did not confirm.

Just forget them or is there something else you would do?

Alright, I bit the bullet. I clicked the "confirm" button off on my Aweber list settings. I have had several people lately miss their confirmation email, for whatever reason. And I'd just like to get them on my list! I will double check my initial email to make sure it spells everything out (especially the choice to opt OUT) very clearly and all the other expectations (I like the way Alexa put that in another thread).

Guess we'll see fairly soon if this causes any problems.

I just switched to single optin last week.

... I was sick and tired of having more "unconfirmed" subscribers than fully-subscribed people on my list.

In only two weeks time, I cannot believe the vast shift in numbers (that is, the amount of people I have on my list now). And, perhaps even better, my complaint rate has not increased at all (it still remains at 0.0%).

Count me in for the "single optin camp."

@TiffLee

Good, I'm encouraged! Hoping for a similar outcome myself.

I'll be interviewing the experts at the MarketingSherpa email summit next week. We're asking people to submit questions for me to ask via our blog. We'll be posting those videos at our site next week. I'll do my best to remember to ask this question too for you all.

Regards,
jim

It is been a while since I used Aweber, but unless they changed it, turning the double opt-in off was easy, but it wasn't obvious. When you are on the set-up page you had to hover over where the opt-in was and you could click on it to turn it off.

The biggest complaint I have heard about double opt-in is that you have someone that is all set to buy or get your information and you give them a chance to cool off while they wait for a confirmation e-mail that might be delayed or get caught up in a spam filter.

I should say it depend on situations.. If you promoting a typical squeeze page like what most IMer does (that offers FREE gifts) then I think it's best to go for single opt-in for many reasons like what Alexa has shared above..

However, on the other hand if you want to deliver a product (which cost $$, not FREE gift) to your buyers via auto-responders like Aweber or GetResponse then I think it's better to have a Double opt-in isn't it? <--- Within the "thank you" page

Correct me if I'm wrong everyone,

Jeremiah

I have always used double opt in apart from a brief two week period where I trialed single opt in. It was a disaster! My bounce rate went through the roof, for the whole trial period. As soon as I went back to double opt in my bounce rate dropped back down to normal. Incidentally I did not have any extra subscribers during that 2 weeks than I would have done with double opt in.

In my experience double opt in is far better, and definitely builds a stronger list. I know this goes against many of the comments but you can only base you views on what you experience through testing.

I've always use double optin but single is certainly worth checking out.

I prefer to do single optin myself. I find to many people miss the confirmation email. I've tried both ways and the amount of complaints did not go up when switching to single optin. Even if you have double optin you will still get complaints as some people for whatever reason don't see or don't want to click the link to unsubscribe.

Yea I've also moved to single! Much, much better! It's amazing how many people opt-in and never confirm the subscription.

The only real downside to a single opt-in, is it can be abused by your competitor or disgruntled customer. They could sign up lots of random people's email addresses to your list, then many of those people would file spam complaints. Chances are that'll never happen, but it should be kept in mind.

Hi,

My 5 cent noob questions about opt in:
gwa is a free wordpress autoresponder is it worth?

Is it not against law to use single opt in instead of double opt in ( subscriber must confirm)?

best wishes
marco005

Single opt-in squeeze page... where they have to check their email to get the download link for the free gift they were opting in for.

Double opt-in is solely for the protection of Aweber.

Single opt-ins all the way. The key is knowing how to market to them by actually providing value.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this thread and the wisdom you've all shared. I HAD NO IDEA you could do single opt-in with Aweber nor that it would be that easy and that effective. I would have double the list size I currently do had known earlier!!!! And god knows how many thousands more in sales.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!

Hey Kal,

I have that debate with myself every so often. Lately, I have been using single on buyers and double for freebie optins, though I don't have much in free optins any more.

I have not had any issues, but there is always inherent risk.

My $.02 any way. :-)

John

Some people swear by single opt-in because they say they get more subscribers, but I would not recommend that at all. I only use double opt-in. Otherwise you will probably get lots of spam complaints, and you don't need that. I would rather have quality over quantity.

I use 100+ squeeze pages. All of them single optin. Sending regular emails with content that applies to the content/offer/message of your squeeze page reduces spam complaints.

definetely double - single will give you high unsubscribe rate and lots of complaints. Plus most established autoresponders such as aweber only support double optin, so in most cases it really is beyond your choice anyway.

Hi,

thanks all for your tips.
I have found for wordpress the opt in form adder plugin and wp- responder email plugin,
and hope these plugins will work.

best wishes
marco005

single optin is absolutely fine to use in the right circumstances

for instances when i build my lists a lot of the time i use a one time offer so you will need to turn your confirmed opt in off

yes you may still get a few people enter bogus emails but they will still see your OTO and still could purchase. also the sales you make on the front end will always out way
the few people that end up entering bogus email addresses

of course when you sell a product most of the time you will need to use a double opt in on the download page because you want your buyers to def confirm

paul

Single all the way babay.

oh, yeah single opt-in too O.o

Uhh..

If you're a cheapskate, you'll go for double opt-in. My reason is because you don't want to exceed a list limit of subscribers and hence you want only the prospects who are hardworking enough to go over to their email provider account and click "verify".

On a more logical approach... I feel that you need to just go with Single Optin.

Who knows how many people you'll lose? (Those that forget, are busy or are just plain lazy to click the "verify")

Double every day of the week mate - single is attractive but you will get a lot of spam complaints and although your list would appear bigger it'll be less responsive and full of spam/freebie seekers with fake email addresses.

Can't fail with the double optin

Interesting.

Always thought double opt in was safer but after this I'm going to test single opt in instead.

I have notice a lot of single opt in lately. Look like there are having no problems

So, if you are in the IM niche (and offering a freebie for the email address), would you go with the single opt in or the double opt in?

Thanks

Depending on the price of your product... you might just be better off leading them to your sales letter page.

I have changed all my lists to single opt in.

double optin has its merits, especially for things like adswaps.
Say what you will, but lots of those subscribers get ungodly amounts of emails everyday just because they wanted "Free" stuff, the last thing you want is for a guy who's signed up to 50 marketers and is getting fed up with the emails only to than make a spam complaint.
having lots of emails is good, but have a better quality of collected emails is better.

Double optin-for me every time! I'd much rather have a list of 500 dedicated, serious subscribers than 5000 email IDs from non-committed people and bots

Single, because anything that requires double lowers your engagement ratio drastically, unless it's the law, I only do single.

ugh... so much guesswork in this thread!

double optin is definitely safer (and therefore, in my opinion, way better).

Here are the two main reasons why:
- people must use a real email address
- if you receive a spam complaint you can defend yourself

Does it cost more? Sure it does (in terms of less subs) but it's *safer*. It's a risk/reward choice, nothing more.

Double optin is not a benefit for the users and I don't see why anyone would use that as an argument (that single optin is obvisouly easier for the subscriber and therefore better than double optin). Double optin is a benefit for the list owner and he/she alone. It has nothing to do with the subscribers being more prone to buy, or being of a better quality etc.

Also, for as long as you don't get accused of spamming, single optin is fine and dandy... but what happens when your service provider blocks your access to the service because they're investigating the spam complaint and you have NOTHING to prove you weren't spamming? I've heard more than one horror story... I don't know if authorities still go heavy on "punishing" suspected spammers like they used to a while ago, but I'm still pretty sure they don't treat them kindly in any case.

Double optin is an iron-clad defence against spam complaints. And against people who use junk email address when subscribing to stuff they're not sure about (like I do and like you should too).

Personally, if I had to have a list, I would rather have a smaller list of real people as well as having a solid defence against trolly competitors and outright morons who forgot they actually subscribed.

If instead you like having lists inflated with junk email addresses (which in turn means a mathematically lower conversion rate) and being exposed to spam complaints, sure, go ahead and use single optin, chances are nothing bad will happen and you'll be just fine. Except when something bad happens: risk/reard choice, nothing more than that ;-)

...My favorite solution to this dilemma? Go RSS

ciao!

I know this is an old posting but it just help me with
an important decision regarding Double or Single opt-in.
thanks

Double opt in is better than single opt in.
subscribers that double opt in to your list are your true subscribers, and there is another benefit of it, that your emails won't get into their spam folders but they will appear straight into their inboxes.

I have test mine and I received 30% more optins with the single.

I started out doing double opt-in... big mistake in my opinion.

Most of the people don't ever confirm and it's extremely annoying.

I use GetResponse and always do single opt-in now.

It's like Alexa said, as long as you tell your audience up front what to expect from you, your spam complaints won't be high.

But you've also got to realize that most people are really stupid and would complain even if they did "double opt-in".

Single optin - No double checking, once you have submitted the email that is single optin.
Double optin - you have to confirm the email by clicking the link.

Triple optin - Classify the double optin list based on the preferences ...

I have never used double opt-in. Why have the person have to go through extra hoops. You may be losing heaps of leads

Here's how I do it (and I don't really see any downsides to this.)

Single opt-in -> some sort of protected download page (to stop people from using throw away email addresses) -> remove people from your list who don't open your emails.

Best of all worlds.

It's not about how many emails you send, it's about how many are read. Someone who takes the time to confirm an email address, wants to hear from you.

Gmail, Outlook, AOL know if the emails that you send are opened by their users. If your email doesn't get opened, where do think the next one ends up?

I'd be interested to hear what the deliverability rates people who are preaching single optin are like compared to double optin.

Most autoresponder fee's are based on your number of subscribers, so you need to ask yourself why wouldn't they be recommending single optin and charging their customers more if it didn't matter?

Cheers,

Mick

Single bro, never had any complaints just make sure you are not sneaky pushing the unsubscribe link all the way down so the recipient cannot see it to click on it because you will get complaints if you do that.

in my opinion, the reason why this is will always be a debate is because of threads like this which give the ability for anyone to reply with general answers to the way they market and what results they are looking for.

the fact is, double opt in can be more effecient than single and single can be more efficient than double. there are many factors that go in to answering a question like this. the main general one is how one markets to their potential list.

some lists are better suited for single opt in and some are better suited for double. a good example that i read is that some people impliment both techniques based what their potential subscriber does. if they buy something, no doubt there is no need for a double opt in and they move directly to your buyers list. if they don't buy anything, then you have to test to find out which is more effective. since everyone's marketing techniques will be different, this is a variable which can influence which optin strategy will be most effective.

i try to stay away from anyone telling me single is best or the same as double and i try to stay away from people saying that double is best or the same as single. maybe for their OWN marketing model this can be true, but when posting and giving advice to others who may be marketing differently, this is just plain ignorance and subjective in my opinion.

another key factor and variable to what is best is experience one will never know what works best for THEM until they test and gain that experience that can only work for THEM.