In this article, I’m going to give you my take on the age old debate for list builders.
Should I use single opt-in or double opt-in?
The challenge is getting the subscriber to agree to receive email communcations by verifying ownership of the email address they submit by clicking on the verification link.
Many people use a secondary email account, or even an account that they never monitor to subscribe to lists, therefore they never even log in to that account to verify the message.
Another challenge is that it often takes a while for the verification message to be sent. It isn’t always sent and received by the potential subscriber immediately, which means that the subscriber goes cold on your offer and never clicks the verification link. In my testing, this is especially the case with AOL.
On the other hand, a double opt in subscriber is a higher quality of subscriber since they have essentially put their hand up to receive email communications from you and then confirmed that requirement by committing some time to waiting for the verification message and clicking on the confirmation link.
Joint Ventures
Of course, I’ll make the assumption here that you value your list so much that you wouldn’t consider doing an AdSwap with any marketer that will not provide your people with serious value. With that considered, joint ventures is something that any marketer should want to get involved with but there are a couple of considerations to take into account first.
As a beginner, you’ll be concerned with trading an AdSwap with someone of a similar sized list.
As an expert, your focus will change to trading clicks and you’re relationship with your list will be judged by your clickthrough rate which is essentially the metric used to measure a marketer’s relationship and influence with their list.
If you use single opt in, then you will be naturally reducing your clickthrough rate since there will be many unqualified subscribers on your list who have provided unmonitored or even totally false email addresses.
I’ve seen email addresses such as bullshit@bullshit.com on my list when I used single opt in, so I would essentially give away my offer there and stand little to no chance of building a relationship with that subscriber.
Of course, if the content is valuable enough to them, then they will likely hunt you out for more. The question is if someone with that mentality and level of skepticism is ever likely to subscribe to your list, accept any offers you present, or will they simply shop based on price rather than value.
The classic case in the Internet Marketing niche being people purchasing products through their own affiliate links simply for a discounted purchase which is against the terms and conditions in most affiliate programmes and commission theft is certainly a frowned upon practice in the IM world.
For me, the question should be rephrased as:
Do I want a big list or a responsive list?
There’s no denying it… if you use single opt in, you will build a much bigger list, however your open and clickthrough rates will suffer massively.
I used to use single opt in to help me to build my list but now I use double opt in and a registration process whereby the prospect must register their Profit Share membership by supplying a few more additional details to get access to the product. I do not market to the prospect with the additional details. It is simply a way to safeguard against the quality of member consuming my product.
I am quite happy for less people to consume the product if they are people that I can serve better since they’re willing to commit a few simple details by registering themselves on the membership database. The depth of the relationship with these prospects is most definitely worth turning away some superficial and even non-existent relationships you’ll get when you use single opt in.
I know the way I started, what I learned and what I’m using going forward.
What are your experiences?
To Your Online Success,
The Profit Share
The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)
