Known as “COI” in the legitimate bulk email industry, also known as “Confirmed Opt-in”, “Verified Opt-in” or sometimes “Double Opt-in”.

With Closed-Loop Opt-in the Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all responsible Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed, from a working address, and with the address owner’s consent.

In the event of “spam” accusation:

The Bulk Email Sender is fully and legally protected because the reply to the Subscription Confirmation Request received back from the recipient proves that the recipient did in fact opt-in and grant verifiable consent for the mailings.

Source:Spamhaus Website

Numerous myths have circulated regarding confirmed opt-in and its effects. There are many misconceptions out there, and we’d like to help clear those up.

Myth 1: My List Size Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Some addresses entered into your form will not confirm — that much is true. The percentage of addresses that don’t confirm depends on many factors, including the quality of your traffic and how effective your thank-you page, confirmation message and incentive for confirming are.

Percentages aside, there are compelling reasons that having fewer addresses on your list is a good thing.

Sometimes Less is Better

I know. You may be asking, “How can a decreased list size be a good thing?” Well, let’s consider:

This means that of your total list size you can cut that by 5-20% because these email addresses are simply dead. Remember these are not temporary undeliverable but permanent dead addresses.

Now, add on the bogus and malicious sign ups that undoubtedly will happen. For example, someone comes to your website and decides to put in bob@aol.com. Well, bob@aol.com was once a real email address and because you were not using confirmed opt-in you are now classified as an unintentional spammer.

ISPs do not differentiate between unintentional spammers or actual spammers. The potential for you to be blocked or even worse, blacklisted, remains the same.

Myth 2: My Mailing List Is Different! I Don’t Need Confirmed Opt-In.

Let’s be clear, confirmed opt-in is for all businesses, plain and simple. Anyone collecting subscribers and in turn sending email needs to confirm that those people intended to sign up to your mailing list and want to receive your email.

In this age of email regulations and massive volumes of spam email, deliverability can be an issue. Why increase your chances of not getting delivered by putting yourself at risk.

Myth 3: No One Else Uses Confirmed Opt-In. Why Should I?

This is simply not accurate. Our own campaigns here at AWeber use confirmed opt-in for all email marketing activities. When someone signs up for a Test Drive of AWeber, they must confirm.

After setting up an account, if they want to receive our customer training email course, they must confirm. The same goes for our affiliates and their email training. Even when someone subscribes to our blog, they must confirm.

Ok, but AWeber must practice what they preach, who else?

Myth 4: Subscribers In My Market Don’t Know How To Confirm.

The simple solution is to tell them. The first page after someone fills in an opt-in form, commonly called a “thank you page” should tell the visitor exactly what to do next. Often this is done most effectively with a picture showing visitors what the confirmation email will look like.

An excellent example is our test drive sign up video on the thank you page showing visitors what to do.

Honestly, if they can’t click a link then you probably should be marketing your business offline. If someone can find your website online I guarantee they can click a link.

Myth 5: My Sales Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Have you tested this assumption? The answer is always, “No, but I just assume” or “No, my colleague told me it would hurt sales”.

It’s best not to assume anything, but rather to seek out your own answers by testing and observing your own campaigns. We have found from our own testing that while the raw number of email addresses on our list declined when we switched to confirmed opt-in, sales did not.

This means that the people who did confirm were the ones that truly wanted the information that they had to offer and the ones that didn’t were not left to bloat the mailing list.

Grow Your Business Without Risk

Will your results be exactly the same as AWeber or even anyone else? This can only be determined by proper testing and measuring.

Use confirmed opt-in as an opportunity to make sure that your lists are 100% clean and that you know without a doubt that 100% of the people receiving your mail have specifically requested it themselves.

Spend your time and energy building your business with subscribers who want to hear from you rather than dealing with issues created by people who don’t want to hear from you.

Need a reliable email marketing solution? I use AWeber

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

Need a reliable email marketing solution? I use AWeber

The other day, I was leisurely browsing the Internet, and I discovered approximately 379,000 pages of expert advice on list building. This statistic clearly indicates that in the present day entrepreneurs across the world have recognized the importance of an opt-in mailing list. However, in addition to knowing the imperativeness of list building, it is essential to get acquainted with the dos and don’ts of the process. Here are 9 things that you should remember while building your opt-in mailing list.

1. Give people a chance to read your invaluable message and then opt-in. There are so many things that you can do to make your message visible. For instance, you can transform your information-laden message into an article and thereafter post it on various article directories. Do include a link to the subscription page. You can even create a website or blog and insert the subscription form on every page.

2. Why would anyone read your email and not hit the delete key? People are hungry for information that has the power to alleviate all the problems in their lives. Hence, strive hard to ensure that your email message is loaded with relevant information. One thing that you can do to make sure that your message is read is to put yourself in the reader’s shoes while writing. This strategy would help you to write a compelling message rather than an ordinary sales pitch.

3. Your email message should have the capacity to do two things, first to convince the readers to fill out the subscription form and second, persuade them to forward the message to their peer group. If you are able to achieve both these milestones, your mailing list will build-up in no time. To make things easy, always include clear-cut forward and subscription instructions and appropriate links in every email message.

4. Make the signing up process incredibly easy. Remember to send the acknowledgment message. If your mailing list has swelled up exorbitantly, then it would be advisable to use an autoresponder rather than trying to send personalized acknowledgment messages.

5. Try to retrieve demographic information. You can either add related questions in the subscription form itself or you can attach a short survey with the form. Demographic information will give you a fair idea of customer location, interests and behavior. On the basis of this information, you can adjust your promotional materials and offers. This tactic will certainly increase the response rate and thereby profits.

6. Always leave your readers wanting for more. This will keep their interest alive as well as make it easy for you to sell your products and services. Hence, don’t stuff all the information in one message. Divide things, and deal with the most important thing first. Leave the rest for future communications.

7. Never flood your subscriber’s mail box. Prepare a plan that would help you to stay in touch with your subscribers plus give them time to digest the piece of information you have provided.

8. Your mailing list is an asset, therefore be very possessive about it, and don’t ever think of selling it. At times, it is hard to sustain, but bear in mind that your opt-in list is the most cost-effective way to get in touch with your prospective customers immediately. Hence, nurture it sincerely.

9. Last, but not the least, always keep your eyes and ears open. Readily take in new ideas, processes and techniques. Although tried and tested methods are good, but they are not fail-proof. Therefore, it’s usually beneficial to try out new things.

List building is definitely an intricate process that demands dedication, patience and hard work. Nevertheless, your opt-in mailing list gives you a group of highly targeted customers, and helps you to analyze customer behavior, which is crucial for business expansion and profit enhancement. So, get going and while building your mailing list do keep in mind the above 9 rules.

About the Author: Receive your FREE eBook now on how to build your very own profit pulling mailing list overnight. For more tips on list building check out my blog.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brightmeadow/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

The fact that many large lists are ineffective is no surprise here. Have you ever placed an ezine ad or even a solo ad with a list of over thirty thousand with little to no results? I have. It’s amazing to buy a two hundred dollar ad package on a list of over 38,000 ezine subscribers and not make a single sale. I know what you’re thinking, either the product sucks or the sales copy does. The same day I purchased ezine ads on two smaller lists using the exact same sales page with much better results.

It’s important to keep your list clean. It is hard for some ezine publishers to delete old and outdated contacts because they give far too much weight to list size. It is impressive to see big numbers on a site describing an ezine’s subscriber list. Impressive, that is, until you see the actual advertising results. Ask about open and click through rates. What about bounce rates – are bounced emails part of the count? Some sites can’t let go of the numbers.

Another sad fact is some ezine publishers out there that will flat out lie about their subscriber base. The whole ‘fake it until you make it‘ concept. The problem with both of these scenarios is you will not get repeat customers. No one is going to keep throwing money at a lost cause – no matter how many lame testimonials your sales page has.

Bottom line

I recommend you subscribe to ezines that interest you and appeal to your target market. Pay close attention to the content. Content is king and if it seems sub-standard or full of ads simply unsubscribe and move on. When you find yourself looking forward to opening the next issue of a newsletter then it is time to inquire about advertising. Send an email asking about the subscriber count, open and click through rates if it is not already included on the site. Don’t be afraid to ask for references of actual customers if the investment is going to be a large one. Be sure to track the results using either your own or a third party tracking method. I recommend YourAdTracker.com but I may be a little biased since I own it

Personal solo ad recommendation that has worked for me: Solo-Ads.com

E-Dialog’s Relevance Trajectory methodology is much more than just a new definition of relevant e-mail. It outlines six factors to consider that will identify and improve the overall relevance of your e-mail campaigns.

Go here for more information on e-Dialog’s white paper ‘The Relevance Trajectory: Creating a Standard For Relevance in E-mail‘.  Don’t forget to register for your free copy.

I said a high quality list – not a huge list of useless names and emails you buy from those ‘leads for pennies‘ sites. Stay far far away from those people. They’ll get you into trouble quicker than you can say, “Federal Trade Commission“!

A few ideas:

There are tons of ways to build a large and responsive list. Of course at the top of the list are Ezines/Newsletters and then membership sites such as safelists, forums and niche sites. Affiliate programs are great and don’t forget Joint Ventures. Give away things, offer a free card send service, ask for referrals, send to a friend forms, free website content, articles – well, you get the point. The options are endless and I recommend you use, track and perfect as many as possible.

Tips and examples:

Set-up multiple squeeze pages (lead capture pages).

Use multiple sites if you have the resources.

“16 Easy As Pie Ways To Grow Your List”

1. Start an Ezine: Ask visitors to subscribe to your ezine. Consider giving them a freebie when they subscribe as an incentive.

2. Give an ebook: Have your site visitors sign-up to download a free ebook. Write your own or give-a-way someone else’s if you have their permission.

3. Free membership: Give subscribers a free membership or an upgrade to your membership site. A membership within your niche can be very appealing. A forum is very easy to set up and you can have a special section for ‘Members Only’ as the upgrade. Keep in mind that you’ll probably build a list even without the special section.

4. Contests or sweepstakes: Hold a free contest or sweepstakes. Ask them to register to enter. Don’t cheat – give something of value and follow through. The last thing you want is to hurt your reputation or even worse get the authorities on your butt!

5. Free consulting: This one certainly isn’t for everyone but it can be very rewarding for those that have the time and desire. Offer your members free consulting via phone or e-mail. You could setup a call-in time on certain days of the week. Another cool idea would be to record the calls, with their permission of course, and give away or sell the calls as an e-course. This is pure gold here – remember where you read it

6. Online polls: Hold interactive polls on your site.  Require visitors to register first  or e-mail you their vote. Another option would be to allow visitors to vote but ask them to register to be emailed the final results.

7. Web site awards: Start a site award program in the same niche as yours. You will require their contact and web site information.

8. Survey: Allow site visitors to fill out an interactive survey on your site. On the survey setup the ‘name’ and ‘email’ sections as required information. Giveaway a free gift as an incentive to complete and submit the survey.

9. Free service: Do you have a unique service within your niche to offer? It should be of some value yet not take up a lot of your valuable time either. Require visitors to register with their contact information to sign-up for the free service.

10. Guest book: We’ve all seen these guest books for years. I bet you’ve signed them too! Ask visitors to sign your guest book. Offer them a free link or a free gift in return.

11. Affiliate program: Starting an affiliate program is not that difficult. When launched and promoted properly they can build a huge list of responsive customers and promoters in a matter of days. Simply look in your inbox for examples.

12. Free classified: Free classified sites are great for building large lists. Many marketers have even taken advantage of forums to run their free classifieds.

13. Auto-responder: Offer a free course or a series of reports sent via autoresponder.

14. Free software: Offer your visitors free software to download. You can add the download link to your welcome letter of even setup a locked area of your site and give the password in your automatic welcome letter. If it’s your own software you can require they register to gain access to an unlock code.

15. Mini Joint Venture: One great way to add to your list is by offering other newsletter publishers a quick and easy joint venture. You probably are already subscribed to several great newsletters in your niche so just contact the ones similar in size. Offer them a free solo ad, article or ezine ad in exchange for the same on theirs. In your free ad, offer their readers an incentive to try your publication. You never want to simple exchange names. You want your new subscribers to opt-in to YOUR EZINE.

16: Customers: I was guilty of letting this one pass me by for years and it’s a huge mistake. Whenever you sell something you should ask them if they would like to be informed of new product offers and future specials or something to that effect. Then setup a separate list for your customers only. Think about it, you have someone that already trusts you enough to buy from you and if you treated them fair and gave them a nice deal then you’d be crazy to let that relationship end there.

Just a couple final notes worth mentioning:

1: Always treat your list of subscribers and/or members with respect and never share their information. Let them know that their contact information is safe with you.

2: No matter what which tactics or methods you use to build your list always states clearly what they are signing up for. If you are giving away a free download, membership, upgrade, etc. in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter be sure to tell them that BEFORE they complete the form. Something like, “By accepting this special offer you are subscribing to our newsletter”.

You see it everywhere. Don’t use this or that email address and here’s how to ‘white list’ our emails and on and on. How many hoops do you want your subscribers to jump through to join your list?

3: Always use a reliable third-party list management company. I use and highly recommend AWeber for all of my list management and Autoresponder needs. Unless you are a professional list manager with the appropriate software, servers and resources, you will do yourself a huge disservice trying to handle the task of mailing your list on your own. Many will never be delivered, most of them will not be opened and eventually you’ll have more spam related issues that you can handle. You’ll also look unprofessional when someone opts-in but never gets the verification email because the spam traps filtered your email before it even gets to anyone’s inbox. Then you’ll find that every email from your site starts getting ‘banned‘ through many different email services. You see it everywhere. Don’t use this or that email address and here’s how to ‘white list’ our emails and on and on. How many hoops do you want your subscribers to jump through to join your list? Trust me, spend the twenty bucks or so. It’s well worth the investment and you’ll get your money back many times over in sales to a responsive and well maintained list.

The fact is, unless you have the time and ability to become an expert in the field of email deliverability and list management it is best to leave it to those that do it for a living. Once I realized I needed a professional list management service I made yet another big blunder. I went on the cheap. I started building a list with a third rate small time service that isn’t even online anymore. They say that third times the charm and in this case they are right. I finally got my act together and signed up for an AWeber account.

Learn From My Mistakes

I had to start over three times and I lost a lot of ground during this learning process. You can save yourself the trouble if you are new to list building and email marketing by starting with AWeber in the first place.

I now use AWeber exclusively with all of my lists and I haven’t looked back since. AWeber is simply the best list management service and autoresponder available. I’m not even going to bother listing the benefits and features AWeber provides their customers, there are simply too many. You can visit their site and get an idea of what they have to offer. Once you get started with AWeber you will see exactly what you have been missing and, more importantly, what you need to build a quality list.

My review is based on personal experience and, yes, I am an affiliate. If you would like to bypass my affiliate link and go directly to their site that is fine. I still recommend them and encourage you to give AWeber a try. Here is my affiliate link and here is their direct link.

This practical real-world research guide from MarketingSherpa consists of 328 pages with research from over seventeen hundred case studies Plenty of charts, tables and images promise to help increase your email results responsibly and efficiently.

The Email Marketing Benchmark Guide is a little pricy at $397 but if the data helps improve your budgeting, list growth, deliverability, testing, and ROI then it may be worth your consideration.

Other features in the 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide include eyetracking heatmaps, special reports and Case Study notes.