ClickZ: The Confirmation Quandary

It is a great question: whether double opt-in is necessary in today's email marketing climate. Some industry folks speculate that requiring people to confirm that they indeed meant to sign up for an email newsletter by replying to a message sent from the firm restating their subscription may cost marketers a drop-off rate as high as 50 percent. What do you all think? My own opinion is it is good practice if you're renting your lists out, a la Postmaster Direct, but if it is a private list, double-opt-in is a needless pain.

Ben Isaacson, former head of the Association for Interactive Marketing and currently the principal of the consulting firm The Isaacson Group, explores the question and offers advice for lowering the drop-off rate for double-opt-in.