Known as “COI” in the legitimate bulk email industry, also known as “Confirmed Opt-in”, “Verified Opt-in” or sometimes “Double Opt-in”.

With Closed-Loop Opt-in the Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all responsible Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed, from a working address, and with the address owner’s consent.

In the event of “spam” accusation:

The Bulk Email Sender is fully and legally protected because the reply to the Subscription Confirmation Request received back from the recipient proves that the recipient did in fact opt-in and grant verifiable consent for the mailings.

Source:Spamhaus Website

Numerous myths have circulated regarding confirmed opt-in and its effects. There are many misconceptions out there, and we’d like to help clear those up.

Myth 1: My List Size Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Some addresses entered into your form will not confirm — that much is true. The percentage of addresses that don’t confirm depends on many factors, including the quality of your traffic and how effective your thank-you page, confirmation message and incentive for confirming are.

Percentages aside, there are compelling reasons that having fewer addresses on your list is a good thing.

Sometimes Less is Better

I know. You may be asking, “How can a decreased list size be a good thing?” Well, let’s consider:

  5-20% of all web form submissions are undeliverable right off the bat.

This means that of your total list size you can cut that by 5-20% because these email addresses are simply dead. Remember these are not temporary undeliverable but permanent dead addresses.

Now, add on the bogus and malicious sign ups that undoubtedly will happen. For example, someone comes to your website and decides to put in bob@aol.com. Well, bob@aol.com was once a real email address and because you were not using confirmed opt-in you are now classified as an unintentional spammer.

  A recent study by MarketingSherpa and KnowledgeStorm found that only 68% of users always enter a valid email address.
So, nearly a third of respondents knowingly enter bogus email addresses.

- Source

ISPs do not differentiate between unintentional spammers or actual spammers. The potential for you to be blocked or even worse, blacklisted, remains the same.

Myth 2: My Mailing List Is Different! I Don’t Need Confirmed Opt-In.

Let’s be clear, confirmed opt-in is for all businesses, plain and simple. Anyone collecting subscribers and in turn sending email needs to confirm that those people intended to sign up to your mailing list and want to receive your email.

In this age of email regulations and massive volumes of spam email, deliverability can be an issue. Why increase your chances of not getting delivered by putting yourself at risk.

Myth 3: No One Else Uses Confirmed Opt-In. Why Should I?

This is simply not accurate. Our own campaigns here at AWeber use confirmed opt-in for all email marketing activities. When someone signs up for a Test Drive of AWeber, they must confirm.

After setting up an account, if they want to receive our customer training email course, they must confirm. The same goes for our affiliates and their email training. Even when someone subscribes to our blog, they must confirm.

Ok, but AWeber must practice what they preach, who else?

If you want to sign up for the mailing lists of these organizations you will need to first confirm:

CNN	Microsoft
Oprah, CNet	bellagio.com
IRS.gov	weather.com
ign.com	maxim.com
tgifridays.com	olivegarden.com
pbs.org	visitpa.com
Whitehouse.gov

The list goes on and on!

Myth 4: Subscribers In My Market Don’t Know How To Confirm.

The simple solution is to tell them. The first page after someone fills in an opt-in form, commonly called a “thank you page” should tell the visitor exactly what to do next. Often this is done most effectively with a picture showing visitors what the confirmation email will look like.

An excellent example is our test drive sign up video on the thank you page showing visitors what to do.

Honestly, if they can’t click a link then you probably should be marketing your business offline. If someone can find your website online I guarantee they can click a link.

Myth 5: My Sales Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Have you tested this assumption? The answer is always, “No, but I just assume” or “No, my colleague told me it would hurt sales”.

It’s best not to assume anything, but rather to seek out your own answers by testing and observing your own campaigns. We have found from our own testing that while the raw number of email addresses on our list declined when we switched to confirmed opt-in, sales did not.

This means that the people who did confirm were the ones that truly wanted the information that they had to offer and the ones that didn’t were not left to bloat the mailing list.

Grow Your Business Without Risk

Will your results be exactly the same as AWeber or even anyone else? This can only be determined by proper testing and measuring.

Use confirmed opt-in as an opportunity to make sure that your lists are 100% clean and that you know without a doubt that 100% of the people receiving your mail have specifically requested it themselves.

Spend your time and energy building your business with subscribers who want to hear from you rather than dealing with issues created by people who don’t want to hear from you.

Free Video from Our Confirmed Opt-in SeminarReady to optimize your Confirmed Opt-In process?

Join our Education Team for a recording of a recent live seminar for a demonstration of what you need to know to maximize the number of responsive subscribers on your list.

Watch the Confirmed Opt-in Seminar Video

Website -> Traffic -> Conversion

What this means is that you first need a website. Most people understand this and set up a website. Unfortunately this is as far as 90% of people go and it’s the reason why so few small businesses see growth after launching their site.

The second phase of Internet Marketing is to let people know that the website (and your business exists). In this phase you drive traffic to your site. Without traffic your site has no value.

Only after you are generating a large amount of traffic does your site start bringing in business by converting some of those visitors to customers. Unless you are converting traffic to customers your site is just another business expense rather than a valuable asset which brings in a steady stream of new clients.

Traditionally Conversion Architecture looked at how we can build a better website with the aim of converting more visitors. Things like layout, navigation, color schemes etc. were all taken into account.

Nowadays marketers need to manage a larger extended web that thrives beyond the borders of the traditional web site. Improving conversion means managing multiple layers and coordination the interaction between these layers. Check out Scott Brinker’s article “The 5 Rings of Conversion Optimization” in which he identifies five layers of web presence that are under your direct control.

These Five layers are:

1. Core web: Online applications
2. Inner web: Your traditional, navigable web site
3. Outer web: Landing pages, blogs, microsites
4. Social web: Outposts on social media sites
5. Advertising networks: Paid media on other sites

By optimizing each layer and managing the dynamics between these layers you will increase your conversions and ultimately the effectiveness of your web presence.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Twitter

Micro-blogging is a Social Media tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging.

The clear leader in the micro-blogging field is Twitter with over 1 million users.

There are other notable micro-blogging players include Pownce and Jaiku, which offer various different features, but for the purposes of this post I’ll focus on the Twitter format.

Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter’s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple. Twitter asks one question, “What are you doing?” Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

The result of using Twitter to stay connected with friends, relatives, and coworkers is that you have a sense of what folks are up to but you are not expected to respond to any updates unless you want to. This means you can step in and out of the flow of information as it suits you and it never queues up with increasing demand of your attention.

Additionally, users are very much in control of whose updates they receive, when they receive them, and on what device. For example, Twitter provide settings for scheduling it to automatically turn off at dinnertime and users can switch off Twitter updates at any point.

Simply put, Twitter is what you make of it–receive a lot of information about your friends, or just a tiny bit. It’s up to you.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

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Three Ways of Thinking…

The first thing to clear up is what you’re selling – after all, it’s hard to sell something if you don’t understand what it is, right?

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There are three different “products” you can focus on selling in your business.  (I know, I know, you have ’50 products’ or whatever – just hear me out).

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The first product that you can market in your business is your actual, tangible (or intangible) company product.  This is the realm of more than 80% of MLM distributors – attempting to make sales by talking about how ‘exciting’ their new magic lotion is.  The term ‘magic lotion’ could be replaced with vitamins, pre-paid legal, travel, personal development, or whatever else you’re selling.

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The unfortunate thing about focusing your Network Marketing Sales on your company product is that you probably aren’t having much success doing it.  Why? Because everyone else in your MLM business is doing exactly the same.

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The second product you can be selling in your MLM business is your opportunity.  ‘Sell the Dream’ as they say in Amway.  The hardest thing to do in the whole world (although it does work, for that one guy we both heard about once) is to gather your friends into your home, pull out a white board, and convince them all they’re going to get rich by joining you in your business.

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It would almost be easier to convince an elephant to become a bird…  Seriously – I’m not saying this is impossible, after all there’s plenty of examples of people who have become very successful using this aproach. You know what though?  It was a pain in the ass.

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To learn how to build a business, step by step without pulling out your hair, fill in your name, email, and phone number below:

*IMPORTANT: Your free training will be sent to the email address you provide, so please double-check it for accuracy.

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The FINAL thing you can sell in Network Marketing is…

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(Are you ready?)

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YOU.

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I know, I know – you haven’t made the money yet – and all of your friends know you’re broke.  So what do you do?

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Would it surprise you if I said that you are in fact an extraordinary person, and that there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people who would join you in your business – if they just knew who you really are?

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Would it be such a novel concept, if you could drop the idea forever that you have to promote your upline to be successful, and that you could for once in your life become the leader you’ve always sought to learn from?

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Would it tear apart your world to learn that if you just accepted yourself as a magnificent piece of perfectly formed artwork – and that you can engage in promoting YOURSELF and YOUR BUSINESS and be free from the ridiculous notion that you need your MLM to be successful?

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There is only one skill, one power, one attribute that you need to MASTER your business, MASTER your life, AND make Network Marketing Sales (business or product) LIKE CRAZY – and that is…

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…To Master Your Self.

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If you want to IMMEDIATELY learn the skills to promote YOURSELF online and start sponsoring 20-50 distributors each and every single month…Fill out the form below to receive my FREE training (and you’ll be BLOWN away). Enjoy:

*IMPORTANT: Your free training will be sent to the email address you provide, so please double-check it for accuracy.

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SECURE & CONFIDENTIAL:  We respect your email privacy. We Hate Spam Too!  Any email you receive comes with an ‘unsubscribe’ link.

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I know a guy who can close right around 50% of the people he talks to on the phone.

50 FREAKIN’ PERCENT!

Yes, you read that right.

And the astonishing part is that these prospects are already sold on “HIM” before he even picks up the phone. How cool is that?!

So I’ve got to ask you, how is your business doing?

How is the lead flow coming?

Are you generating laser-targeted leads or are you still buying the dead-beat leads from the vendors your company recommends?

You realize that you have the ability to market in a systematic, step-by-step, proven way that will eliminate you EVER having to convince Mr. or Mrs. Prospect again?

Here’s an invite to a KILLER LIVE prospecting session tomorrow, Wed. Oct. 21st at 9:00 PM EST, where you will see how incredibly simple it is to build YOUR business if you get the marketing funnel set up properly…

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
http://fbwebnr.mlmbuzzmarketing.com/?t=blog

Live Marketing & Training Call for MLMLeadSystemPRO Members and Guests.
Join Us this Wednesday Night and listen live.

9PM Eastern
8PM Central
7PM Mountain
6PM Pacific

Time Converter Link:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Oh, and by the way, you can implement this guy’s EXACT marketing SYSTEM starting tomorrow so that you too can build your network marketing business on complete autopilot.

You never thought prospecting would be this easy, but then again you’ve probably never marketed the way the top income earners market.

See you tomorrow,

http://RayG.mlmleadsystempro.com