your content isn’t that important

Quoted Brad Enslen (ramblinggit.com)

If your newsletter signup overlay is obscuring your content before I have even have a chance to read it, that is not exactly an endorsement of what you have to offer me, either on the web or in your newsletter.

I totally agree. Is my subscribing to your newsletter (or blog) so important to you that you need to aggressively annoy me like that (especially when you already have my attention)?

Nothing more effectively drives me away from a site than sleazy overlays and slide-ins that block content and require action on my part to continue.