Hey, I run http://www.dreamnid.com and I'm looking for some volenteers helping with the site. If you can write reviews, can spare some time everyday to posts news, or anything that you think will help, e-mail me @ dreamnid@dreamnid.com. I am trying to gear my site towards gamers, so case modding, hardware articles, etc. are welcomed. HTML is not necessary, but would help. Thanks a lot! Giovanni Go
Well I wont write articles or anything *however* I will give you some help with your layout. Its quite messy, for starters the ad banners are ridiculous - well it may get you money (well actually no not really) - it REALLY puts people off - it looks ugly - 2 of them - thats what makes it look ugly - TWO ad banenrs in a row its ridiculous - make it one at the top + bottom or just at the top, and centred. The key to website building is consistency. Colours, fonts, headings, logos, borders, tables etc haev to relatively the same all over the site, on the front page you are using the default Times New Roman font - Try changing them all to Tahoma or Verdana. Keep the headings to a consistency (not neccessarily the same font but same style perhaps or colour) oh and the big blue table with "featured new articles" isnt centre... argh its almost 4PM I gotta catch a bus, If you think im a cheeky **** thats fine, but I do know my stuff - I could help ya more butt I gottttaaa gooooo, yeah any more help don't hestitate to msg me... bye..
Most of what Mojo posted is correct and I agree that consistancy is key to your website design. Select 2-3 basic colours that you want to work with and then use that theme all around in terms of the design. Insert FONT tags in your HTML code and make sure that all the text looks the same on all pages. The design does need a little work but I'm sure it will get better with time. My own site went through several revisions before I released it. The design is in a state of constant change because I'm too much of a perfectionist. Good luck getting it off the ground.
Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I appreciate the critisim, but for one thing, I'm not good at design/graphics and another is I'm trying to get content rather than design right now. I think anyone here will agree that content is more important. I think the main font is Verdana, through CSS, but I'll double check again. I'm trying to figure something for the ads. Most likely, I will get rid of the two "banner-rings". I'm trying to be consistant; I guess I'll relook everything when I have the time. I gotta go... if anybody would like to help or would give me more critisim, I'll be glad to hear them, sorta, :-D.
Your using CSS, which is exactly what I would have suggested to bring in the changes mentioned. Use an external style sheet to set up your own pre-formatted tags. This way, if you set up say three tags (eg the body, a heading and general content) you'll have consistent style throughout the site. Each new page will just have to link in the external sheet. If your not familiar with this level of CSS, I'd be happy to show you.
I am already usuing an external CSS that is globally defining the body tag. I think what you're talking about is possibly I have headings different or the CSS style is not being implemented correctly. I'm try fixing the problems you mentioned now and take a look at my CSS; probably I missed something.
Sorry I do not agree at all, both are very important obviously. good content with crap design - gives impression of amateur, good design crap content - People wont puke when they view your site (not yours in particular of course), good design - good content - A decent site which will attract visitors - Its up to you... And for CSS - If you don't know your code you can find a CSS tool somewhere sticking: style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 8pt" in the BODY tag will make all text like so.
It really depends on how popular the site gets. At BlargOC our banners bring about £3000 a year in, just enough to pay for our servers.
Hey, Last night, I fixed the CSS style file. I didn't redefine the body tag, which obviously meant the properties never took place. Now that I'm going over the code, I admit it's not done well, but I'm trying to fix it right now. I agree with the design, but if you spent soo much time on design and keep on doing it, you're not get anywhere. Content is much harder to get, in my opinion. Therefore, it's better when I have the content already, so when I finally get a great design, I'll already have the content to go along with it. Thanks for the CSS code anyways, I already looked up the code, but I may ask for more help with CSS ( I highly doubt) if I can't figure something out.
Howsey - I'm not saying it doesn't bring in cash - but when you are hit with 3 on a page - then your unlikely to stay there long... Dreamnid - Any help - ask away. BTW - Dreamnid - the site looks a LOT better - Just make the ad centred, and perhaps do something with the Created in 0.1811408996582 second(s) Perhaps make it white - round it up - dunno - your choice. Great work !
Thanks... Here's a question. For the left menu (containing the headlines), the links should not be underlined intially, but it should underline when the cursor is over the link. For me (IE 6), it is not doing this for every link... Any ideas? The "Created in .01221 seconds" wasn't meant to be seen, so I left it black... I have to think of a way to align it better before I can turn it white.
The links to the left all seem fine (althought the ibuyer one is orange) just make sure the code is consistent through all the links... As for the page processing number at the bottom - If you dont know how to remove it (!) - you can always colour it the same as the background...
LoL, I know how to remove it. I was the one who put that there is the first place. But your idea of making it the same color as the background is a good idea. Glad to hear about the links.
