This is exactly the reason I started playing Rejection Therapy. It challenged me to get out of the house and have a meaningful (exciting even) interaction with another human being.
Just take a card (or make up your own challenge) and that will be your mission for the day. Trust me, it's fun and it's a way to meet new people.
Oh yeah, and consider taking an anti- depressant, even if it's for the short term.
This actually happened to me, and the domain name was registered within the hour I searched it up. I definitely believe this happens, which is why I will immediately purchase a domain name I like. I won't take any chances.
I think popup forms are annoying and spammy. I'll never use them on a website of mine.
Using them might result in more email signups, but I think the response to your email blasts will be worse off and result in a lot of immediate "unsubscribes".
Popups are a trend I hope goes the way of blinking text.
I consider you a success, now that I've seen some of the projects you've worked on. I did look for that information in the about section, but should've looked under "current projects".
Not to be a jerk swombat, but who are you? What are your credentials?
I want to read advice from people with real world success. You may very well be successful already, so state it. I'll buy into what you're saying a lot more.
P.S. This is not a personal attack. If it comes off that way, it's my fault and failing.
Rejection Therapy. Seriously. You meet more people, get more stuff and lose the ego. I find I'm a lot friendlier and social because of it: http://www.rejectiontherapy.com
Some of these aren't bad. I'd check out Zero to Superhero http://www.zerotosuperhero.com for some pretty cool bodyhacks (yes, it's $10 but for 247 pages I found some value there).