What's better -- Single- Or Double- Opt-in?

Without a doubt, single optin, in my experience.
There's simply more conversions.

I've tested over and over, on my own small lists in various niches, and I found a lot of the second notices getting sent to spam folders. The optin "request received / confirmation required" would end up in a user's spam folder.

Or, they never took action. Something else I've learned in marketing is that the more steps you have in your process that require the user to perform some sort of action lowers conversions.

In some scenarios this is a good thing. But when it comes to building a simple subscriber list my personal preference is to use a single optin and let them unsubscribe later if they don't like the content they receive. But like I said there may be instances where you do want a hyper qualified list, you'll just need to play with it.

I like to test stuff all the time. One that I've really gained a lot of data from was a test I learned from Perry Belcher, which is putting an optin form in a new post. May not seem new to some, but the way Perry explained it was...

He'd leave the generic sidebar optin form completely off his site and only insert a small, unobtrusive form at the end of a new post that really provided killer value. He wouldn't insert it in silly posts - which he did a lot of. And he wouldn't leave the form in older posts. So in essence the form was only visible in the latest "high quality/value" post. I've run it myself and works like a charm.

I'm concluding a test on my own personal blog right now where there isn't an optin form in sight.
The test is to see without an optin form and blatant call to action, will people subsribe via RSS?
I've seen a slight bump in RSS subscribers in the last 30 days, but not significant enough to say it's a winning strategy.

I'm starting to a new optin test this weekend - No Giveaway for the optin.

Great question!
~RB

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It's my understanding that double opt in is better for protecting one's self against spam allegations.

However, it stands to reason that the less steps someone has to take the better conversion you will have. Now many web hosting companies if they get a spam complaint against you will shut you down first and ask questions second.

That is one of the reasons I chose the web host that I use. They are Internet Marketers and understand what us IM'ers and Network Marketers are doing and will not shut you down based on an unsubstantiated claim or for something that was not your doing.

Also here is an article that I thought I'd share which gives some great insight to the question in this Post

http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2007/0 ... singl.html
Sincerely,

Dave Statler
It's Not Get Rich Quick...It's Get Rich Forever!!!