Mike, what are you using for subject lines? Most of the time, people like Aweber want you to have something concerning verification.

I just typed a new subject line that says "Mike, Here's your free video". Hopefully it gets approved but they're pretty crazy when it comes to subject lines.

Ricky- I can't imagine that wouldn't get approved.

I'm using a program right now that goes through our database so I don't have to get subject line approval but I do need to make sure it passes the spam folder test. I'm pretty good at that and the subject lines. I did lots for Pfizer pharm OTC products and got lots of practice there.

However, I wasn't handling the list and the rest of the stuff. I was only doing content and subject line. They did not give me numbers but they did tell me when they worked well and when they did not.

The ones I'm working on now work in plain text and html. Looks good on a PDA, too. Yahooooo! Thanks to bigJason.

I still have some things to do but now have a clear vision of what they are.

What is considered a good open rate/response rate?

As far as approval, I take it you haven't dealt with Aweber, they're a crazy little beast. They're good, but strict.

As far as good open/response rates, I don't send HTML messages so I don't go by open rate. I go by CTR only. I simply cloak my links in my plain text e-mails. It's basically 100% accurate. My best CTR to date was with the subject line:

"Here's a picture of me at 200lbs!"

Out of 24,000 people, almost 6,000 clicked on the actual link in the e-mail. I just got done doing testing with Delivery Monitor - Email Deliverability Tracking.

If you really want to become depressed, try that service. I found very good reason to believe shorter messages get to inbox's better.

Out of 7 tests, the shortest message made it to 93% of inbox's. I sent one a little longer, 91%. A little longer, 86%, etc. The longest message got almost 40% bulk mail.

Now that's a pretty simple explanation and might not mean anything but I found it odd.

Michel, this is an awesome idea, but...

I thought the whole point of double opt-in was to protect you from getting shut down for spamming. So if somebody complains, you have proof that they confirmed their subscription.

Your example sounds a lot like you are "tricking" somebody into a confirmation. Can't you get into just as much trouble for that?

I understand that you are a man of integrity and wouldn't set out to trick anybody though - so how do you word the email?

Is it just a matter of including a sentence like: "By clicking the above link you are also confirming your request to subscribe to receive more useful emails from me"?

And one last thing - do you have any stats on how much this tactic has increased confirmations?

Matthew

Matthew,

I think your perception of the purpose of double opt-in might be a little off.

You're thinking of double opt-in as a way to give people a chance to procrastinate or refuse AFTER they've opted in.

It's not.

That's not what double opt-in is meant to do in the first place.

Double opt-in is not a "are you sure you want this?" process.

It's meant to make sure the person opting in is the real owner of the email address, and they weren't added by a third party without their consent.

But, if you want to be sure you cover your anatomy, the language you suggested is just as fine. (I think saying so is important and should be near the opt-in copy anyway, before they opt-in, not the email.)

(And yes, this tactic does increase confirmations considerably.)

I thought my neighbor was slap retarded last week.

She kept telling me that there was no confirmation
link in the confirmation email to click on.

Finally I went over to her house & had a look.

Sure enough the confirmation link was invisible.

I had to highlight the link to reveal it.

Anyone else run into this?

That is so weird. I've not seen anything like that. Can you look at the code? It might have a [hiddenlink] in the code which is not placed right and cloaking the confirmation. Just a thought.

The best way I've found to get people to confirm the opt-in is to make sure they are highly motivated to find the email (mostly from having an irresistible offer) combined with they need to know to expect the email.

What it really comes down to is how bad they want it and doing it in a timely fashion (of course this takes into account that it is delivered immediately).

The biggest problem with single optin is that you could be breaking
the law in some countries if you're sending emails to people whose
email addresses have been entered by another person (either maliciously
or just to gain entry to your site).

One thing that does make a huge difference is on the thank you
page reaffirming that they have to optin with their real email address
to get their gifts, reaffirming all the neat stuff they'll get by email
when they do sign up and most important of all having another optin
form right there on the thank you page with wording like:

"Did you enter a yahoo email address or an email address where
your emails with your gift links might not get delivered. You can
enter your name and primary email address in the form below."

I first started testing this a couple of years ago and was astonished
to find that over 25% of my double optin subscribers were coming
from the form on the thank you page!

That's a whole pile of extra subscribers.

To see how this works and the exact wording I use you can go
through the optin process at
Copywriting course online

It's double optin so you can see the process without having to
be on my list.

You can even use the exact wording on your site. All I ask is that
you do actually double optin and join my list if you're going to do this.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. As Michel Fortin said earlier you want your confirmation email to redirect directly to the gift you offer for opting in.

This is simple to do with Aweber.

Also give some serious thought to the wording of that confirmation email.

The subject line wants to be compelling:
firstname, instant access to your xxx gift

You want to mention in that confirmation email that they'll be getting more gifts by email (you might mention a couple).

And you want to mention that by clicking on the link in the email they'll be immediately directed to their gift (as Michael said earlier).

OK, I put a lot of these suggestions to work. And guess what? I got over 20% open rate for a client and we're thrilled to pieces. Lots of website activity and on average we're getting an additional 200-500 unique visitors per day since it went out April 7. I did not use anyone's specific opt in wording but changed the opt in, enlarged it and offered something.

So I just wanted to say thanks for the tips. You guys rock! So I'm going to have to deal out some rep power here whatever that means.