Using the Aweber.com feature that allows you to capture their name and email address and display them on the Thank You page, I show them in BIG FREAKIN’ LETTERS the email address they put in–along with their John Hancock.

Since doing so I have seen a number of people who had typos go back and immediately re-enter their info.

But now that I think about it I ought to also give them a link to re-submit if they notice a typo.

[By the way...if you want to hear about Justin's foot fetish, you'll need to check out my blog tomorrow. I'll have pictures and everything.]

Hi Justin,

There was actually a good MarketingSherpa article on this topic a couple of months ago — " Overwhelmed by Opt-in Typos? 4 Ways to Fix Misspelled Email Addresses"
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30564

There were a couple of good suggestions that would apply.

1. Use an alert box. The alert would pop-up once the user submits their info with the message "You have entered in the email address [email address]. If this is correct, select OK to continue. Otherwise, select Cancel to change your email address".

We’re using this for one of our clients right now as well as for a couple of our sites.

2. Use a script to capture misspellings. This would require a bit of programming on the server side to include common ones like hotmial.com, gmial.com, etc.

Just in my online ordering, I see a lot of things like "myname@yahoo,com" or "myname@yahoodotcom". I am assuming that these people are trying to complete the order without running the risk of being added automatically to an email list. Needless to say, they also do not receive things like order confirmations, shipping notifications, or questions regarding problem orders. *SIGH*

What I would really like to see, though, are suggestions for getting valid email addresses offline. For example, we attend a lot of craft shows. We have an email signup list, and verbally tell people about the list. We do not offer any freebies for signing up - we don’t want people putting down fake email addresses just to get a freebie. But, so many times we still get fake email addresses, or addresses that are difficult to read.

We have a declaration at the top of each signup page that this is for an email list, we do not sell, lease, or otherwise distribute the list, we expect to send out two emails each month with specific content, etc. But, if there is a way to get more valid email addresses on these lists, we would love to know about them.

You should take a look at the travelzoo opt-in process…its requires e-mail to be entered twice but their implementation actually address many of the points you mention as ‘pitfalls’. Plus, as a company that e-mails 12 million people weekly I’m willing to bet they know what their doing. What do you think? Would be interested in another opinion on how they do things.

Justin - In general, a good idea, but we sell honey - sticky, and heavy to ship. Our email list is already being used for free recipes and coupons, and the customers know this when they sign up, so we find it curious that people still give us bad email addresses. Unless maybe they feel like it is impolite to not write something down after we point out the email signup list. I don’t know…..

If memory serves, approximately 1/4 - 1/3 of the valid email addresses we receive offline actually confirm (we use double opt-in), and our list has steadily grown from a few hundred addresses to 1500 addresses, with a surge in sales after each email we send out. The email list is definitely worthwhile maintaining. It would just be nice to streamline the process.

I just upgraded to the the analytics package and it’s such an increased value I can’t believe it. I saw the upgrade notice a week or two ago and ignored it. But yesterday I wanted badly to see who had clicked which email and decided to check the analytics out. It’s massively increasd value, anything with something to sell needs to upgrade, that’s all there is to it. Thanks for adding this to aweber.

A few comments:

However, this isn’t always because people mis-type their address — it also includes intentionally bogus data (people trying to get to your thank-you page without entering their address) and maliciously entered data (i.e., bots).

++++ Add a CAPTUA option, make it a choice , that will kill of 95% of all bots - dead.

Not everyone will be willing to take the time needed to enter their email address twice.

++++ Well true not everyone but not sure that’s a good reason not to, how long can it actually take to type an email address?

Of the people who do fill out their address twice, many will simply copy-and-paste whatever they entered in the first email box into the second one.
So while the entries will match, they may both be wrong. m.

+++++ Which is Exactly why you make the 2nd field not allow cut and paste, otherwise it’s utterly pointless, but if you make the 2nd field disallow cut and paste, this then cuts down on inaccurate entries by 99% overnight - problem killed - dead. Add some simple checking to ensure both emails match and voila.

Job done.

Lori ~ You could always do a fish bowl giveaway, using your laptop for people to sign into an excel sheet or your capture, opt-in squeeze page and just gently remind folks that if their email address isn’t correct it will nullify thier participation in the contest. You could get really creative with something like this…….I send out a small jar of homemade jam to one client every two months, so the cost is worth the names! Make sure to give them a business card so if they don’t get the confirmation email they can go directly to your site and sign up again.

Is there a way in aweber to compare values on the form before submitting them? IE if I put a email address / confirm email address text box on the form, can aweber test those values or do I have to write a string comparison for it?

If you use a custom form, you can also validate via javascript BEFORE it gets sent to aweber. There are many javascript code libraries for checking for a validly -formatted- email.

Of course: nobody@nowhere.com IS a valid email even though it probably is a fake.

In the long run, there is only one way to test for a valid email and that is to send it. Hence, the importance that you do not give away your "bonus" till they have opted-in.

Thanks for the list. I got a couple of ideas out of it.

Good tips. I am learning to use all Aweber features and this is one of the most important basics.