Best practices suggest that I should use double opt-in when somebody subscribes to my newsletter.

For people who don't know what double opt-in is: when somebody subscribes to a newsletter, they aren't automatically subscribed. Instead, an email is sent to them, asking them to verify they really wanted to subscribe.

My question is: why make it that difficult for people to subscribe to your newsletter. I'm afraid that if I switch to double opt-in, I might start losing subscribers who don't get my confirmation email.

Double opt-in is recommended for two reasons:

1. As a marketer, you are sure that the newsletter subscriber is a real person and not a robot.
2. For some websites, not securing the sign up process with double opt-in could lead to bots spamming the community.

It's really up to you to use double opt-in or not. For some clients we recommend it, for some we don't.

On this website, we don't use double opt-in to register an account, as we have a league of other strategies that keep the bots out and spam out.

Double opt in prevents someone from subscribing someone else to a newsletter, too. It happens. This way, you are making sure that the person who receives the newsletter really wants it.

I think it's pretty common, in my experience. I also wonder if someone who wouldn't make the effort to do the double opt-in would be likely to read the publication? - I realize that's not the only concern...

with double opt-in you are making certain the user really wants your newsletter.. this in turn ensures a better 'quality' of subscriber.. ie. people who are really interested..

I'm not an expert, but I would say that your risk of losing subscribers because of double opt in requirements are minimal. I think that you'll gain much more (in subscriber security) than you will lose.