How it works?



There will be a form on the publisher site. Visitor submits his details. Now the auto-responder software that works behind the form, will send an email to the email address asking to confirm the interest.

Prospect clicks on the link in the email expressing his/her interest in receiving information from the publisher!

Basically the above is the method of 'Confirmed Opt-ins' or 'Verified opt-in'.

Why you need Confirmed Opt-in?

* To avoid junk email or one time email address users. If the prospect confirms means, they are actually using that email account and most probably he/she is going to use it future. So your email will be going to a real person.

* To cover yourself from spam complaints. Say 'Tim Doe' enters email of 'John Doe'. Without confirmed opt-in, publisher don't know this ... So he will be sending email to 'John Doe'. 'John Doe' will be annoyed by these emails and wrote a spam complaint on the publisher.

What percentage of Confirmed opt-ins is reasonable?

I'd say 50% and more is a reasonable margin. More than 80% is an excellent figure!

If 100 prospects subscribed, only 50 people confirmed their interest in receiving your email ... not bad. But it is ALWAYS BETTER to improve this 50% to more than that. Right?

How to improve this Confirmed opt-ins?

* Your email series or ezine should provide good information to the subscriber. Sure he'd love to receive that info from you. People love to receive information that is useful to them. Like tips, free software or free tools links, discounts etc.

* Clear instructions on your web sites regarding your private policy, terms of use and anti-spam seal etc. Not only just displaying, you should follow them too.

* Recommendations or testimonials from your present subscribers. Display them on your subscription pages. This increases your credibility.

* Post your previous ezine publications as an archive on your site. So visitors can see the previous ezine content.

* Keep instructions on your subscription page that to check their junk folder for your initial email. If they don't check it there, they will miss the email to confirm their subscription.

* Ask your subscribers to add your domain to their safe list, so they will receive the confirmation email to their inbox.

* Use SPF record to improve your email deliverability from your web site. SPF records are usually set by your host. If the SPF record is properly set, most email client allow your email pass through the email filters.

* Make sure confirmation emails, links to click in the email are working properly.

* Set up a short tutorial and a screenshot on how to confirm by clicking the link or other means, on your subscription page.