Single and Double Opt-In Email Newsletter Subscription
MailList Controller supports both Single and Double
Opt-In.
Single Opt-In (Internal)
With a single opt-in process, an address is automatically added to the relevant
mailing list as soon as it's submitted, e.g. through a sign-up form at a website.
After adding the new member the program can send an
optional "welcome message". How it works:
- The user fills out a subscribe form on your webpage.
- The script send a "Subscribe" request to
the list email address and shows the "thank
you" page.
- MailList Controller receives the message during the
next "Synchonization" and adds the user.
The user only has to fill out the form and click on
"Submit" . The single opt-in process is easy and
direct - there are no further steps required by the user.
Double Opt-In (Internal)
Double opt-in means the submitted address is not immediatley added to the
mailing list. Instead an email is first sent to the email address, requesting
confirmation. The recipient can confirm the request by replying to the confirmation
message.
The email address is only added to the mailing list, if the recipient responds to the
confirmation email. After adding the new member the program sends an
autoresponder - welcome message. The confirmation process is failsafe and very simple. All the new member has to do
is to click "Reply" and "Send". How it works:
- The user fills out a subscribe form on your webpage.
- The script send a "Subscribe" request to
the list email address and shows the "thank
you" page.
- MailList Controller receives the message during the
next "Synchonization", adds the user to the
list with status "Pending" and sends a
message to the user requesting confirmation of the
newsletter subscription.
- The user receives the message, click on
"Reply" and sends the message back to the
list email address.
- MailList Controller receives the message during the
next "Synchonization" and changes the status
of the member from "Pending" to
"Subscriber".
The main advantage of the double opt-in process is,
that only confirmed addresses will be added ot the
list.
The disadvantages of the double opt-in process are that it
can take some time before the user will get the
confirmation message - and that if the confirmation
message was blocked by a spam-filter, then the user will
not receive the message, which makes it impossible for the
user to complete the subscribe process.
Custom Double Opt-In (External) with Single Opt-In
(Internal)
The program receives the initial "Subscribe"
message - sent e.g. from a webform - during the "List
Synchronization". This means it can take a while
(depending on your settings) before the message
"requesting confirmation" will be sent to the
new subscriber.
There is an alternative by using an External Double
Opt-In Solution with an Internal Single Opt-In
Process.
This can be done e.g. by using a custom php script which
handles the double opt-in process and sends a regular
single opt-in subscribe message to the program after the
(external) double opt-in process was completed. Sample:
- The user fills out a webform on your webpage.
- The script sends a message "requesting
confirmation" to the new subscriber
immediatly.
The message contains a link to a second script.
- If the user clicks on the link, then the second
script will send an email in the required format to
the list email address and shows some kind of
"thank you" page.
- MailList Controller receives the message during the
next "Synchonization" and adds the user
using single opt-in. (the address was already
confirmed by the script before, so an additional
confirmation is not required - its important, that the
list is configured to single opt-in!).
There are also other alternatives possible, e.g. using
a php-script which saves the values to a SQL database
instead of including the member data in the
"requesting confirmation" message. Please
note:
The Custom Double Opt-In (External) process is only
recommended for advanced users with good php skills. |
