what do you think about my first site

I can't believe that a complete amateur as me managed to make his own site!

if you wish - take a look: URL (don't laugh - I love cooking

And here's another one I started: URL
Well, needs some more pics, but otherwise I like it. Good is you can scroll through all images after you click on any image in the photo gallery..very nice feature

Maybe I will add one site for my kids..if sites not reaching 10MBs are free - why not..saves me the time to Dreamweave slowly and painfully I'm really not born to work with html

Glad to see your comments

I used Mozilla Firefox initially to browse your site, could not see the main navigation.

Didn't look at your code, but if you used image slicing instead of this CSS(?) method then more people could use your site. This really should be a non-issue, and should be fixed.

Aside from technical issue, the word Cooking maybe looks better bigger with tighter tracking, that font looks oriental. All other graphic elements on the top banner seem too large. Although the sticky note and rollover is very nice idea.

My suggestion on the top banner is, you could rely more on photography instead of image manipulation, since you seem to have a digital camera and quite comfy with it. For example, you could arrange some of the cooking tools / ingredients - like what you have here http://0301.netclime.net/1_5/C/U/U/1079354693840615.jpg
but shot at eye level, not looking down. Do a long line and place the photo to span the entire top banner area, cropped and close up, so it has a more abstract feel to it. You could block off the main title "Cooking" using a flat color background (dark), so it doesn't have to struggle for attention and stands out easily.

Or you could do a close-up of the flames (flaAAaamesss ss sss ... ahem pardon..) and something cooking on stove top? could experiment with your digital camera a little you know have fun with it.

Just remember it doesn't need to be literal, yaddayadda



The shading on both sides of your page doesn't work with this background tile as probably you realise too, your background is too distracting as well ... there are some nice (distracting and non) background images here http://www.k10k.net/ (the pix patterns link) that site takes forever to load btw

The bottom egg yolk background .. no need I think. just put flat color, duller darker, that area should recede (bright colors advance, dark colors recede)

One last thing is your photos has a color cast, florecent lamps and flash? Florecent lights give a greenish cast, move dishes near window for more natural lighting, there was also a lot of blue there too, maybe its your geographic location i donno ... for digital camera reviews (if you want to upgrade) this is a nice site: http://www.dpreview.com/

Sorry for being so long winded and fussy, I can't sleep

I hope I was helpful btw.

Ay, you could also add a slogan like "Wholesome home cooked recipes: <Location> style" or maybe even rename the site to something like Joan's Homecooked recipes or something (if your name is Joan that is .. if it is, consider me freaked out!!!) nah ... I'm just bla-ing, I hope you don't mind

I think the PHO site is cool btw, nice job ... uhm, any tips or remedies for a mild case of insomnia? Thanks in advance

actually... i have no control over the website layout, just the content arrangement / galleries / etc. You know, this is something like a free site making 'tool', I registered there, chose a ready template and then added my content..

I was very excited since this is my first good-looking site (still learning all the html stuff I need . But, thank you for your comments - we might send them to their site support

About insomnia - well, I usually fall asleep quite easily when I start reading a boooring book..or, after having run after my child for the last 3 hours..or after gathering his toys from all over the house Hope that helps ) If not - a glass of hot milk + honey does always good work!

Hi stenl, l think its cool that you share your passion of cooking with others have you submited your page to Google yet?

And thanks for the wholesome insomnia tips , think I'll try hot milk or a warm honey drink

Getting back on track. Your homepage does seem a little empty, you could add in maybe some photos of the latest dishes just to make it more interesting. Just a suggestion

Best Regards!

now i'm hungry

thanks no..haven't submitted yet..I'm now deciding on an easy-to-remember cooking domain and will then point my site towards the sitekreator.com/cooking url..

About the photos - actually I'm now trying out Italian cuisine and the latest dishes I made didn't taste (neither look) that good.. Hopefully, I'll stop waisting the ingredients soon...

BTW I sent part of your comments to support@sitekreator team hope you didn't mind They replied they're pleased to have their sites criticised and will work on improving them

BTW why are you using mozilla for browsing? is it anymore convenient than the old IE? I once downloaded mozilla, but honestly, decided the sites do not look as good..maybe I'm just too conservative..

glad to chat w/ you here

Nice to chat with you too , we're totally not abusing this forum, oh no, this is serious critique-ing ...

>>BTW I sent part of your comments to support@sitekreator team hope you didn't mind

Thats a-ok with me.

Let me introduce you to - Mozilla Firefox, tatatadahhhh ... I use it because its fast and it has tabbed browsing, http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/start/

Mozilla feels more clungkier, Firefox is Mozilla's slimmer, speedier sibling. It's faster than IE also, most of the time ... Unfortunately some sites are made only for IE, so to use Firefox, it can be inconvenient that way, fortunately though most sites work with both.

Most people basically use whichever browser they fancy, so that's why web developers have to put in a little extra effort to make it work across as many browsers as they can. Depending on development strategy and experience, 'a little extra effort' could be a huge understatement , it can be quite nasty especially to newcomers.

Okie enough of my ranting. All the best on your cooking adventures! cheers!

can anybody verify that this is a good service?
http://www.internetjump.com/ (Free URL redirection)