shockspookscream

Hello There,

We are having some issues with our Auto-Responder system, and we
were hoping perhaps to see if there is any other solution that we
have implemented here.

The Problem:

Our single opt-in auto-responder was getting an abnormal flood of
sign-ups; instead of getting 5 to 10 sign-ups per day, we started
getting 60 to 90. The purpose of the bogus sign-ups was to use our
Auto-Responder to deliver emails to folks that had never requested
them, making us appear to be spammers.

Upon closer inspection it was noticed that much of the sign-ups
were coming from anonymous proxy servers.

The solution I implemented:

(a) I converted our single opt-in Auto-Responder into a double
opt-in Auto-Responder that requires the recipient to click on a
confirmation link contained in the first email, otherwise they
will not receive further information.

(b) I also installed a filter that stops proxy traffic from
visiting our website and also blocks the following: hosting
netblocks, bot netblocks, rogue user agents, DNS black list,
hosting provider black list, bogus or bad header information,
rogue bots masquerading as search engine bots, bad info from
reverse DNS lookups, and my own private list of confirmed proxy
addresses.

Our boss feels that we are now getting too few sign-ups and that
perhaps our double opt-in and the filter could be stopping folks
that otherwise would sign up for our emails.

I’ll have to say I agree with him but I don’t know of a better
solution, to keep spammers from having us send out unsolicited
emails.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

paulsanderson

I would say you have taken the correct course of action.

I would also say that you should only use double opt-in email as you know that they are valid user and want to receive your email. This in-turn will create a more engaged user base. Plus the fact that it is a legal requirement in allot of countries these days.

One more thing if you autoresponder a managed solution like Aweber, or is it an in house solution.

Thanks Paul

Use Awber! because it is the best list building and email tool out. /*Rant Over*/

Simon Grabowski

It sounds like you're using your own solution hosted on your own servers. It sounds like you are doing some things right, but the process to ensure a proper list hygiene is actually much more sophisticated. Unless you make email delivery your primary business, you'll not be able to guarantee high levels of deliverability.

Have you considered using a web-based email marketing / autoresponder like GetResponse? Using a service like that lets you focus on your business, rather than on deliverability which is a moving target.

GetResponse: World's Easiest Email Marketing. 99% deliverability measured independently. List Booster instantly imports your list from 16 services. 1000 beautiful iStock photos to beautify your emails. Browse more features or simply try it free today.

littledan

So many people use a single optin option rather than a double optin simply because they think they are loosing subscribers with the latter. This is actually false. It comes down to that old thing about it being better to have a small quality list rather than a much bigger, less effective list. In other words it is the percentage of opens, responses etc that matter, not the number of people you broadcast to. So if someone can't or won't double opt in, they are probably not going to be an active subscriber anyway.

Dan Thorley is a contributor at WhatBizOpp, an online resource which informs people on how to earn extra money.