:eek: - are you sure ??
Hi Ladies – hope you don’t mind me chirping in with a comment or two –I’m in a similar position to ** yosemitebabe** (sort of semi competent but with a lot still to learn – I think that’s almost always going to be the way cos there is just so damn much to know !)
IMHO…
I’d be tempted to regain those necessary pixels (I think it’s important that the page sits nicely in the browser at 800) by reducing the size of your navbar / buttons. That might work as it looks like you’re going for a clean, elegant look and the buttons could be seen as a little overbearing (big and plain black). If you are going for that look, the slightly larger space between the text and border (that you would have if you reduced) might also look nice. You have nothing else that would cause problems (if you reduced) in that left hand column. Just an idea
Like the choice of font type and size and the border very much. The way the page divides up with the sub headings font and <HR>'s also works for me.
Although the domain is one single word, I might be tempted to have the header as separate words although I think your choice of style and shadow is perfect.
As said, the blue lines do feel a little incongruous but that might have not a little to do with mastering a graphics programme – ladies, that’s the next step (and you know it !! LOL…). Another benefit of graphics is you can design a little site logo if you want.
Great layout. In terms of content, there’s no intro to guide me in. Need to read a little before discovering (rather than being told from the start) what the sites about. I guess there are two ways of playing that: Either make do with 100 words of ‘who-we-are-and-this-is-what-our-sites-about’ or extend that intro an ‘About Us’ page. I think this is a ‘personality site’ and, if so, might benefit from the surfer being able to connect with the authors.
One of the more difficult things to do (I think) is to write genuinely good 30-50 word hooks. An art in itself but the bottom line is they need to hook and I think (depending on who you’re aiming the site at) yours generally do. Pitching the humour is also a bloody nightmare but I like the way you’ve done it.
The inline links are a little misleading for me. Links to articles are great but you also have e-mail links in there without distinguishing the two.
I’d also run the page through a programme to clean up the code – a lot of unnecessary code can affect the page weight and therefore loading speed. Think I spotted a closing body tag </Body> about ¼ of the way into the body…there may be more.
Don’t want to sound at all negative because it looks, very, very good to me (and it’s only me - who’s too picky by half). I only mentioned the above cos we’re all on a learning curve and sometimes it can be useful to have non-family and friends speak up. For me, the most difficult thing is objectivity and making sure my web sensibilities aren’t being seduced, friends and family are just to nice !
Sorry, that’s a major turn off for me.