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, you’ll probably come across questions like that which could be answered by a quick Google search.

There’s 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 that’s 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 – there’s 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 won’t get the content until they’ve confirmed

But there are also some negatives:

• Not everyone confirms – we’re all pressed for time and finding an email to click a confirmation link rules out some people
• Your potential subscriber doesn’t get immediately taken to whatever it was you promised them – that doesn’t start the list building relationship off on the best footing
• There’s 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 it’s not exactly complicated and doesn’t 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 there’s a trust issue when you join someone’s list.

You’re trusting them with your email address which is basically access to your inbox.

You’re 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 don’t 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 you’ve never met the person.

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