1. Too many words. Try to eliminate about 50% of what you have but still send the same message
2. The Words In Your Heading And Optin Page Should All Be Caps Just Like This Sentence.
3. Take out the name, you will get about 15%-22% more optins if all they have to fill out is their email (I know this from testing) Keep in mind your autoresponder series will not have their name in it but most of the time it is a bunk name anyway.
4. Make these changes and then split test the color scheme and different CTA's (call to actions)
thanks for the input, that's some good advice and I will definitely put it to use.
that being said, it did not answer my question about whether to redirect directly from my opt-in form or to require email confirmation first...