As you have setup the email newsletter and started promoting it to your blog visitors, you will notice that good percentage of your blog email newsletter subscribers will never confirm their subscription. The email might have got lost in the spam inbox, some readers might be too lazy to open it, some visitors just don’t understand the process of subscribing and verifying the email address.
The percentage of unverified email subscribers can be very high, all depending on your blog target audience, so you could end up losing many would-be blog email subscribers. A simple tip to decrease the number of unverified newsletter subscribers is to explain the process clearly on your blog site. Inform the visitor that he/she must not only add his email address, he/she also must confirm the subscription by clicking on the link on the automated email that is sent.
Another tip to recover unverified email subscribers is to email those unverified subscribers and remind them about the problem, and explain them the process. So if you have an unverified subscriber, after some 3 days after the initial subscription, you can send him/her an email to inform the potential subscriber that he did not finish the process. This should decrease the numbero f unverified email subscribers even further.
An example of the email that I send to my unverified email subscribers is as follows. Feel free to edit it for your site and use it.
Hi,
You have tried to subscribe to HowToMakeMyBlog.com email newsletter. Unfortunately you forgot to confirm the subscription by clicking on a link that was sent on a followup email titled “Activate your Email Subscription to: HowToMakeMyBlog.com“.
If you still have this email (make sure to check the spam inbox) you just need to open it and click on the link. If you lost the email you will need to head up to the HowToMakeMyBlog.com and redo the subscription process. I hope this helps.
Best Regards,
HowToMakeMyBlog.com
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Why is is verification needed? They asked to subscribe, and they can unsubscribe at any time. Is it truly necessary or does it just complicate the process?
@Seamus Anthony, Good question!
Surely it does complicate the process for both the reader and the blogger. I guess it is the matter of security and privacy, this way nobody can just spam add email addresses, each email must be verified before it can be added to the list.
Feedburner, Aweber and others, do not even have the option to remove the verify process.
Thanks for your submission to the Twenty-Ninth edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its live: http://thatsblog.com/?p=174
-ThatsBlog.com
You recommended me a Wordpress plugin the other day, so I feel that I should return the favor and recommend you 1 as well
There is actually a Wordpress plugin that notifies all your subscribers who have not verified their email automatically.
Rather strangely it is called “Notify Unconfirmed Subscribers Plugin”
I only found out about it today and haven’t had the time to test it, but if it works as promised then its a must!
@Roman, thanks a lot! Very nice find… I just tested it out and it worked fine for me. Very interesting plugin that makes the process much easier!