if you are up to the task of creating a site, i wonder why you would even consider creating an ugly one? it is better to focus on creating a beautiful, professional looking site to encourage people to subscribe and for traffic to come in. and of course, do not forget to update your site with quality content, which is, and always will be, the backbone of your website.
I would not necessarily say ugly or pretty -- but basically you want something SIMPLE! People are very busy on the internet -- and if they come to your website full of different fonts and tons of flashy graphics, they will be there for a few seconds then leave. What you want to do is capture you'r visitors attention is the first 3 seconds they come to your site -- usually with a big headline in red letters stating the benefits of them being there or offering them something for free. Once you have their attention -- quickly state what you have then have a strong call to action as to what you want them to do. So to repeat -- keep it as simple as possible but have a strong headline and call to action to capture your visitors attention, and then tell them where to go.
I should do a test.. Make a simple weightloss ebook squeeze page, One with a good looking template then i should make my own with shitty html and css(with the same text), then rotate them and compare results... have anyone else done a test like this before?