Shop Talk: Tips for Confirming Email Sign-Ups

Q: "When signing up new subscribers, I used to force everyone to click a confirmation link in their emails but found that about 50 percent of users never clicked their confirmation link. What do you think about confirming email sign-ups?" — Brett Brewer, chief technology officer, Heels.com.

A: There are two very distinct schools of thought to this — the first being that all email sign-ups should be verified before they're added to your list, and the second being that it's difficult enough to get someone's email 
address the first time so you should never — as in not in a million years — ask them to verify it.