Email users are getting more and more sophisticated. Overwhelmed by spam, they are even willing to pay a small monthly fee to protect themselves using services like SpamArrest. Of course SpamArrest is just one example, among tons of other email verification services out there.

But the point is this: There is now an additional barrier between you and your potential subscribers.

Unless you’re willing to go the extra mile and overcome this barrier, you’ll be losing out on lots of potential subscribers. Every time someone subscribes to your Aweber autoresponder://gobala.linktrackr.com/aweber-arp">autoresponder for example, they will most probably get a confirmation email. Unless they click on the confirmation link within that email, they will never be added to your list. That’s basically how double-optin works.

But with SpamArrest for example, your subscribers will never even receive the initial confirmation email. Instead, SpamArrest will determine that your email address is not yet “whitelisted”, and will send you a confirmation message which leads to a page like this:

You need to manually enter the verification code and click on “Verify” so that your subscriber will receive your email. Too much of a hassle?

That’s what I thought initially, but I’ve come to accept email protection as part of email marketing. Although SpamArrest may seem like an email marketer’s enemy, they do serve some beautifully valid purposes:

1. Your subscribers get less SPAM – Which means, they will likely be more responsive to your emails. Other email marketers don’t bother with this additional verification and thus never gain access to the subscriber’s inbox.
2. Forces valid email addresses – Both parties have to use valid email addresses that they check regularly. As the sender, if you use a non-existant or fake email address then you will never receive the SpamArrest verification emails
3. Promotes better email marketing – Your subscribers have a right to ask you to verify YOUR email address too. Services like this actually makes your email marketing better, more responsive and transparent

So is SpamArrest your friend or enemy? I prefer to think of it as my friend. What’s your opinion?