Double Opt-In

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Sometimes, it is a good idea to ask people who opt-in to confirm their request. Imagine a situation when a spammer sends an opt-in request using your email address without your permission and adds your address to the mailing list owned by, say, ACME Ltd. Now what are you going to think of ACME if their send you their newsletter thinking you have deliberately subscribed to their list?

To protect your mailing list and yourself from situations like this, you can use the double opt-in feature of the program. Here is how you can enable it.

Bring up the “Opt-In” tab of the mailing list. Mark the check box labeled “Enable double opt-in (send confirmation message)”. Then click the “message” link to compose a confirmation message. Read this chapter if you want to learn about editing messages: Composing Mail Messages.

This is how things work when the option is enabled.

1.	Someone (let’s call her Sandy) sends an opt-in request to your mailing list.

2.	Sandy's email address is added to the list but her entry is marked as inactive (see Active/Inactive Subscribers).

3.	FollowUpExpert replies with a confirmation message.

4.	Sandy replies to the confirmation message by clicking the “Reply” button of her email program.

5.	Her reply is received by FollowUpExpert; this makes her entry active. Her address will now be included in all future mailings.

Note that if Sandy never replies to the confirmation message, she will never receive any messages you send to the mailing list which is probably something she will very much appreciate.