Should You Use Single or Double Opt-in for Your Email Lists?

Should You Use Single or Double Opt-in for Your Email Lists?

I just answered a forum post about how to change the default of double opt-in to single opt-in on Get Response.

Even though I use its rival, Aweber.

The question was about using single opt-in for email lists rather than double opt-in and asked whether it was possible.

A quick search later and the answer was yes.


If you spend any time on forums or Facebook or Quora or any other question & answer style site, youll probably come across questions like that which could be answered by a quick Google search.

Theres even a site that people can use to send a link that answers the question but in a way that effectively says the person asking the question is too lazy to do a search themselves:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=let+me+google+that+for+you


One internet marketer I know has used it on at least one occasion to answer a support ticket it fits with his style so I think thats allowable.

But going back to the original question I answered, it was about whether you should use single or double opt-in for email lists.

Autoresponder companies prefer you to use double opt-in as it supposedly reduces the number of spam complaints.


Cynically, I guess it definitely will do that because not everyone clicks the confirm link so there will be less people on the list which will reduce the maximum number of potential people complaining.


There are some plus points with double opt-in:

You get a more committed subscriber theres an extra hoop for them to jump through

You only get real email addresses on your list although, that said, any that bounce get filtered out anyway

You might get a better email address as the person wont get the content until theyve confirmed


But there are also some negatives:

Not everyone confirms were all pressed for time and finding an email to click a confirmation link rules out some people

Your potential subscriber doesnt get immediately taken to whatever it was you promised them that doesnt start the list building relationship off on the best footing

Theres no guarantee that the email address is better, just that it exists and the subscriber can open the relevant inbox to click the confirm link (spammers have programs that can do that so its not exactly complicated and doesnt guarantee a human will see any of your other messages)


On balance, I prefer single opt-in.

In my view, the less barriers that are put in the way of potential subscribers, the better.

Plus theres a trust issue when you join someones list.

Youre trusting them with your email address which is basically access to your inbox.

Youre trusting them to send you the information they promised, not to spam you and not to share your email with anyone else.


Quite a lot of trust on the part of the new subscriber without you effectively saying you dont much trust them by asking for a double opt-in.

First impressions count and that includes the internet. Maybe even more so that face-to-face because youve never met the person.

Ultimately its your decision on single or double opt-in but personally I think there are more negatives with double opt-in.

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Should You Use Single or Double Opt-in for Your Email Lists?