Re: Co-Registration Opt-Ins

From: Rob Charles <rob_at_list-universe.com>
Date: Wed 31 Jul 2002 12:06:09 -0500

Hi All,

I agree with what Allen says, and I also think you need to consider a few
other things before you purchase subscribers by way of
co-registration. There is a lot of garbage that is being sold by many
different companies, and sometimes it is hard to ascertain whether or not
the company you choose is delivering quality data, or garbage until after
it is too late.

Here are a couple of things you should ask before making your choice, which
can help with the above dilemma.

Hopefully everyone on this list is only interested in single opt-in or
confirmed opt-in data. That is the first place to start. Once you
establish that, make the sure the company will provide you with an IP
address, time and date stamp, and the site of origin in case of a spam
complaint. This is very important. We offer co-registration campaigns,
and if we cannot provide that information, we will refund the client their
money, and continue to deliver them the campaign for free.

If you are going to run with a single opt-in campaign, try and run the
campaign with an auto-responder that is automatically sent out to each new
subscriber. This type of campaign is not as good as a confirmed or double
opt-in campaign, but it can be close. You, the client can customize the
auto-responder any way that you see fit. Most of our clients use it to
qualify the subscribers or drive traffic back to their sites, and it gives
the new subscriber a second opportunity to get off the list in case they
were signed up in error somehow. The auto-responder really increases the
value of the subscriber.

Another thing you want to be aware of is to know the market place in
general. If you are being offered something that sounds too good to be
true, it is. For example, if you are working with a company that is
offering you double opt-ins for $.15, you can almost assuredly figure you
will not receive double opt-in records. Consider that the company
supplying you the records will lose as much as 80% of the inventory when
running double opt-in campaigns if they are truly running a double opt-in
campaign. Meaning that as many as 80% of the subscribers that opt-in will
not confirm their opt-in. By knowing this, you can figure that all
companies are in business to make money, and if they are charging $.25 for
a single opt-in, they will have to charge 8 times that much for a double
opt-in to make the same money they would on a single opt-in. This is why
not many double opt-in campaigns are sold. Most people do not want to pay
8 times as much for the extra quality, even though it is worth it in the
end. We run double opt-in campaigns, but very few of our clients go with
them for that reason.

I think half of the problem with the on line marketing space is that people
are not educated when they decide to make a purchase, and they end up
buying on price and get taken to the cleaners. Glad to see people like
Allen are trying to educate based on their experiences. Hopefully this
information can be of use if any of you are thinking about purchasing
co-reg. There is still no better way than to build your list right off of
your site organically, but co-registration can be a great way to build your
list if you know what you are looking for and go about in the right way.

If anyone is interested in having a further conversation about
co-registration, don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Rob Charles
List-Universe
920-490-8553, ext. 216






Received on Wed Jul 31 2002 - 12:06:09 CDT