i find it hard to take advice from a site which puts a newsletter signup pop-up over the article before i've read it.

This is a conversion blog, and I test what works. Results speak for themselves. Using popups increases email subscriptions 10x. It'd be silly to stop using it because some people don't like it. Personal preference is not a business case.

Maybe it's not a business case. But respecting your customers is at least a possible business strategy.

degrading the experience for your existing customers in order to gain new customers is the very definition of disrespect.

how much value do you actually get from those customers who are willing to sign up for your email newsletter before they even read any content on your site?

It's impossible to close this popup on my macbook, because the close button is so tiny it gets covered by the scroll bar.

Super annoying.

From a business perspective converting every potential customer to a happy paying customer that you can profit from is the best. Extracting the highest dollar that each customer is happy to pay will make you the most money but is very hard to do.

Flat pricing can keep some customers that would have paid more from having to do so, which is one reason I like it so much as a consumer.

I am amazed with the success of http://www.humblebundle.com/ in non traditional pricing. more economics should be built around what people are happy to pay.