It would be easy to write a bot that signs up automatically through proxies. Even a security image wouldn't stop it— crack the easy ones, seamlessly outsource the hard ones to Mechanical Turk through their API.
The biggest thing is to remember that they can't read your mind, so speak up. There's a big difference between, "I'm working 80 hours a week so I can make lots of money" and "I'm working 80 hours a week so I can help with my sick relatives nursing home bill" or "I'm working 80 hours a week because I'm self concious about my teeth and want to get them fixed." - they can tolerate it more when they understand. If you don't give them enough detail, their imagination will fill in the blanks with things like "they don't care about me" and "they don't want to make time for me." that's when the relationship falls apart.
Make sure that the business aligns with your goals and needs. A little research can go a long way.
Does it provide value that people are actively seeking, or will you need to put in long hours to convince people of its value?
How do others monetize the business and did it work? Why or why not? What will you do differently? Why?
Why was it bought and closed? Have you talked to anyone involved in that decision? Have you attempted to talk to someone who has knowledge of the situation? There are most definitely factors that you are not considering because you weren't involved. Like they say, you only know what you know.
Those are just some example questions to ask yourself. Figure out what questions make sense for you and your business/idea.
Some startups are more demanding than others. There may be a difference depending if you're a founder, early employee, or regular employee. 40 may be too much for some and too little for others.
One of the startups I founded required 10 hours a week from day one. Made my first million. That's when I realized that the number of hours you put in to something doesn't necessarily reflect what you will get back from it.
Another startup I founded required 60 hours a week in the beginning, and 5 hours a week down the road.
These days? RescueTime says I'm at 61 hours this week so far. Obviously not sustainable, but it's what needs to be done to reach my goals. I know where I want my startup to be, and what it will take to get there. It's important to be honest with yourself.
I keep my significant other in the loop so that she understands what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and why I'm putting in long hours. She knows that right now I'm working hard, but there will come a time when I won't have to put in long hours. Communication is key.
There's something to say for efficiency too: make better use of the time you do have. My personal efficiency hovers around 92% — While I'm at the computer, I'm unproductive only 8% of the time. If you're working 40 hours a week and you improve your efficiency by 25%, now you can do 40 hours of work in 30.
You probably shouldn't have had them on pages with little content in the first place. You did break one of their policies, but if it's not effective anyways, you haven't really lost anything.
Launch in one area at a time. There's no sense in launching everywhere in the beginning if it's going to make your site seem abandoned. Like you said, people won't trust it.
If you don't already know and trust a local designer, you might be better off with 99Designs. Local designers can be more expensive and flaky— a designer in Boston had an unfortunate death in the family which caused my design work to be delayed by a month. You can avoid a lot of those types of issues with 99Designs, but you may be (not always) sacrificing some quality.