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What is double opt-in?

Double opt-in is a sign-up confirmed twice: the person enters their email address, then clicks a link in a confirmation email before they are added to the list. It proves the address works and that its owner asked to hear from you.

Why lists use it

Confirming keeps typos and other people’s addresses off the list: every address on it works, and belongs to someone who asked to be there.

The cost is a step. Some people never click the confirmation link, so a double opt-in list grows more slowly than a single opt-in one.

How it works with Chapbook

Chapbook collects sign-ups on a book’s public page but sends no email of any kind to readers, confirmation included. Each sign-up lands in your Readers list marked unconfirmed. When you export the list and import it into your email tool, that tool can send its own confirmation, and your welcome sequence starts from there.

The sample on this page is a guide to that welcome sequence. Its chapter on the first email separates the confirmation, which is plumbing, from the first email a subscriber actually reads.

In a real book

Cover of The Welcome Sequence by Dana Okafor: flat paper-cut envelopes stepping upward in teal, cream and yellow above white type, subtitle “Seven emails that turn a subscriber into a reader”.

The Welcome Sequence

Seven emails that turn a subscriber into a reader, by Dana Okafor

Lead magnet, 3,626 words, 17 pages

The outline the planner proposed from its brief, chapter by chapter:

  1. 01 Introduction 282 words
  2. 02 Email 1: The one they actually open 681 words
  3. 03 Emails 2 and 3: Who you are and what to expect 729 words
  4. 04 Emails 4 and 5: Your best two pieces, reframed 669 words
  5. 05 Emails 6 and 7: The ask, and the door left open 743 words
  6. 06 The schedule and the template 478 words
Start from this brief Read the book it became
  1. What is a lead magnet? A lead magnet is something useful given away free in exchange for an email address. What makes one work, the usual formats, and how it differs from an ebook.
  2. What is opt-in? Opt-in means a person actively agrees to receive your email before joining your list. What counts as agreeing, and how Chapbook's sign-up form records it.
  3. What is a welcome sequence? A welcome sequence is a short series of automatic emails a new subscriber gets after signing up. What each email does, and the one Chapbook writes from your book.
  4. What is list hygiene in email marketing? List hygiene means keeping an email list to addresses that work and people who still want your email. What to remove, why Gmail cares, and what stays in your tool.
  1. Lead magnet generator: a typeset guide from one paragraph Turn one paragraph into a typeset lead magnet: an outline you approve, chapters in your voice, a cover, a PDF and an EPUB, and a page that collects readers.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between single and double opt-in?

Single opt-in adds an address to the list as soon as it is entered; double opt-in adds it only after its owner clicks a link in a confirmation email.

Does Chapbook send a double opt-in email?

No. Chapbook never sends email to a reader. Sign-ups on a Chapbook book page arrive in your Readers list marked unconfirmed, and your email tool can send its own confirmation when you import them.

Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.

The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.

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