Ah I always wondered about this cause they highlight in Google but not always all the words you've searched I've found. Anyway, adding 1 or 2 ranks is always good.

I don't know about that. I reckon I would change the title on major pages like the Home, and Forum Portal by fleshing the text out with more keywords. You can just put in hyphens too and add another sentence like
- ProxyNow.com - Free, anonymous, web surfing for you! - At home, school or work!

On the home page or something like that could have a good impact 

I'm still trying to find a descriptive title for my site. Basically it's a general interest blog where I post stuff that I like and that hopefully other people will too. I selected the domain name SomeDayNow.Com because I thought it was catchy but it doesn't really describe much about the site. I've noticed that pro-bloggers like Darren Rowse and John Chow have whole sentences in their site titles.

Yes that is true, i also found that padding out your titles is a good way to improve searches, like someone mentioned above, using common words in your title or brand is often the best way to go about making a site that will be noticed, everyday things that people associate with and common things work really well.

I also heard that people also use Address masks to also increase your page rank, for example

Yoursite.com could be masked with "Free-Online-games" and you'd get the keywords in for both yoursite.com as well as "Free-Online-Games".

I wonder if using a marquee in your site title would benefit a site as you could really go to town then with your site description in your title. i've seen a few address bars that actually scroll up with different titles.

  I actually made sure that my site was low on the radar screen. I didn't want too much traffic because its content was really meant for a specific discussion list I'm a part of. However, I'll be starting a new website with my sister (she'll own it), that we have to do right so it gets lots of hits and makes lots of money. Currently, I'm thinking of buying 2 domain names that lead to the same site only because the name I want is taken. I don't understand why nanowrimo had to choose such a name. Nanoworld is taken because of nano technologies.  I wouldn't want to use nanowrimoworld. That just seems to be morally wrong. 

It's too bad that mega tags are ignored, and hidden text meant for the Blind (not sight impaired, as I mean those who completely can not see) means that your site will be concidered scam.

As far as what brings in the traffic... having a social site. I do not mean a forum that for a specific sub group of people. I mean a site that offers blogs, photo hosting, live chats, and popular games all tied in with music (with legal royalty fees paid) that allows all users to save to whatever playlist they want, what ever song they want to - as long as its on the server. Unfortunately, I can't program such a sight. And, it would take capital up front.
Failing that, start lots of blogs on all the various blogging sites, and post away as different people. And, keep your email address a secret from all so that they don't find out its the same person.   

I'll rattle off now...

Of course the page title effects a way a page is ranked: it's the title of the page! Without it, search engines wouldn't be able to effectively categorize your site or web page.

For example, if you're going to have an article about proper pet grooming, the page title should definitely contain the keyword "pet grooming" somewhere in there for keyword and content relevance.