The SFI program emphasizes the importance of confirming an affiliate's email address and encourages them to do so. For example, make sure they're aware on the registration page that affiliates with bad email addresses CANNOT HAVE COMMISSIONS PAID TO THEM.
In addition, we don't allow email addresses that don't contain all required parts of a legitimate email address. So, you wouldn't be able to register with, say, joe@mail. The SFI registration form ONLY accepts properly formatted email addresses.
Why don't we require double opt-in email address verification?
Firstly, not requiring a double opt-in process allows new affiliates to start IMMEDIATELY upon signing up with SFI. No delay. This is BIG. We can't emphasize this enough!
Secondly, we once DID require double opt-in for e-mail addresses. In fact, SFI used the double opt-in process for our first 12 years. However, we found that a substantial number of legitimate signups were lost with the double opt-in system because many new Affiliates couldn't find the confirmation email due to their ISP diverting our email to a spam folder or not delivering it all! PLUS...this method has really fallen out of favor on the Internet. Besides, it doesn't really deter anyone who is motivated to generate bogus signups as there's no difficulty in getting a free email address and then confirming it. It's just one extra click.
NOTE: There are still some ISPs that won't deliver our emails, but they WILL deliver YOUR welcome messages–another reason why it's so critical you send out a welcome to your own Personally Referred Affiliates (PRAs).
Bottom line: A double opt-in system has more negatives then positives, and some of the proof of that is SFI's substantial growth in SALES and REVENUE since moving away from the double opt-in process.
