How much junk email do you get each day? Aggravating, isn't it? Unsolicited emails that sell everything from new diet wonders to foolproof investment opportunities overseas clog the virtual mailboxes of many persons like yourself who have web businesses. You may even find yourself on a mailing list for certain types of information that you never requested. Why? Chances are, you were placed on this list because you visited a site and/or tried a free service. You may have even entered an online drawing or contest to win that free trip to Jamaica. Though many such services are legitimate, many are used strictly to build email lists for mass mailings or spamming.

    In order to get your name removed from these lists, you have to "unsubscribe" (even though you never subscribed in the first place). This type of email service is known as "opt-out." It places the need for action on you to unsubscribe. Since these lists sometimes sell your name and address to other lists, you may end up having to unsubscribe a number of times before the nightmare is over. The owners of the list are betting that you, like many people, will not take the time or make the effort of unsubscribing.

    What purpose do these lists serve and why do these site owners want to add your name to a mailing list you did not request? Usually because they sell classified advertising space in their emails. If they can claim to have a mailing list of 25,000, they can attract more business owners willing to pay for space. Or, perhaps, they are willing to risk annoying 98 percent of the people who receive their emails for the two percent who will read (and then maybe buy) the products they are selling.

    "Opt-in" is another type of email list service. The difference between opt-out and opt-in is choice: Opt-in services are lists that you actually subscribe to. You never receive an email from these lists unless you requested it. Response rates from this type of email distribution tend to be quite high - anywhere from six percent to 12 percent.

    The controversy about opt-in and opt-out services for direct email is a big one for electronic marketers. No one knows what the short term effect will be for the Internet community, but we can be confident that if the trend follows those other forms of traditional direct marketing (telemarketing, mail, print, etc.), opt-in and opt-out is here to stay.