KCooper

I really like all of them, nice pieces of work, apart from the Fortune Spreads one; it feels to me like its a few levels lower in quality than the others. But, as you say, they are all "practice" pieces, so good work, I wish I was capable of creating logos to the same standard Kyle

Heres a link concerning why CSS is superior to table based layouts; http://www.chromaticsites.com/blog/13-reasons-why-css-is-superior-to-tables-in-website-design/ At the end of the day, using tables to lay out your site is an outdated way of doing it. Web design is a fast moving industry, and you gotta keep at the forefront if you want to get ahead. Sometimes this does fall by the way side slightly (ie, I haven't looked into HTML 5 much yet which is something I need to do) but theres not really any valid excuse for using still tables for site layouts. Its a difficult step to take, I know, but an important one. Once you start getting to grips with divs and CSS you'll wonder how you ever managed with table layouts, seriously Kyle

Its seemed fine to me, mate. Kyle

Ahh, cheers mate, thats perfect. I have seem that mentioned a few times on this site and never looked into it, but it did the job perfectly! +1

Looks pretty nice, I agree with much of what has been said above. One thing though, with regards to SEO, you are using images to display text on the About Us page. I can't see a reason for this and this could just as easily be done using HTML. It might not be a huge deal as there isn't a whole lot of text there at the moment, but its definately something to consider in future; remember google can't "read" the images, only text I like the feel of your site though, mate, good work. Kyle

Hi guys, I have a website I created for a client a while back. I have just spoken to them and they have said they would like me to add a small section to the home page, whereupon they can add a small piece of news or a "thought of the day" or similar fairly small piece of text - maybe 100 characters at the most. The page itself is simply a HTML page, so does anyone have any idea how I could add this section to the page, in a way that would be fairly easily updateable by the client. I'd rather not have them updating it by FTP'ing off the index page, adding in thier new piece of text and FTP'ing it back up - this can only lead to trouble lol. A *possible* solution would be to have a text file that they could FTP off, update with new text and then FTP back up to the server. At least this would only be one small insignificant file for them to tamper with. I don't know how I'd be able to get the designated area on the index page to "interface" with the text file, though. Advice is welcome, thanks in advance. Kyle

First and foremost you need a web host. There are plenty of these about, just google it. 123-reg and Heart internet are some of the bigger ones. Then you are going to need to install an ecommerce cart. There are quite a few of these too, but I can recommend OpenCart. Check out the website, its fairly easy to install on your server if you follow the instructions carefully, and will be ready to use instantly. It is also free, which is pretty good too If you are going to want to personalise the look of the site, this will involve html and css knowledge, and this is where it will start becoming more difficult for you. You may well be happy with the standard OpenCart template, however. If you don't wish to personalise the template, then you will not need any html and css knowledge to get the store running. I'm sure other people will jump in to offer thier preference of ecommerce cart, but you will definately need a web host first so get that sorted as soon as you can. Kyle

The problem is this is still a field where "haggling" is a viable option. If a plumber fixes your pipes and quotes you £100, you don't turn around and say "how about £50?", it just isn't accepted etiquette, whereas with web design, evidently it is. People who go for the cheapest, often foreign-based deals, quite often end up with a shoddy website (not always, but I have seen plenty of this) that will not work for them the way they would like it too. This is thier loss, and if they are really serious about thier business performing well on the web they will soon be back on the market trying to find a more appropriate, and needless to say, expensive, solution. Alas, often you do end up having to work for less money just to get any income at all, this is the nature of the work. Perhaps offer a £200/£300 website package, built on an easily editable (for you) template, with all the basics in place. This would then offer those less monetary inclined clients a price point more in line with thier expectations, and provide you with a way of putting the site together in a realistic (for the money) timeframe. This might not be ideal for you mate, but you gotta be flexible in this trade Your work looks really nice too, maybe try going for a part-time web designer job. At least this would bring in a guarenteed amount of money each month, which you can supplement with your freelance work. Kyle

I'm just gonna touch on whats already been said, really; It looks clean and functional at the moment but theres no substance or style to it. I would try and implement that blue color into the site a bit more, maybe even add it to the logo somewhere, you'd be surprised by how much visual interest a simple change like that would make. You definately need to add some examples of your work to the site, this would add the required visual interest and also show off what you can do all in one! You need to make the "contact" more noticeable. It needs to practically be in the users face, so there is no doubt in thier mind that you are available and how they should go about getting in touch with you. I'm not a big fan of the mac placement, but this is mostly just personal preference. I see it on way too many sites now, and it just looks like an advert for Apple. I'm guessing your going to use it to display pieces of your work? If this is the case, the screen display is far too small to show anything in a visually comfortable way. Its a really good starting point though, mate, just needs some work done to the visial element of the site, and a few tweaks here and there. Also, the slider looks a lot better now. Kyle

Many hosts these days offer a 1-click install of popular database driven tools, such as Wordpress. I know, for example, that 123-reg do. If you are really struggling this much it may be worth checking out if your current hosts provide it, as it really does make it as simple as a few mouse clicks. Kyle

I don't fully agree. I spend a fair amount of time speaking to clients over the phone and in person, aswell as via email. Although it is fair to say sometimes I'll get a period of 2 weeks of work inwhich the only major communication is done via email, so at times its true. To secure further work however, usually involves me being active, getting out there and meeting new people. If I was a total introvert I think I'd spend most of my time sitting here with nothing to do Kyle

Good work, mate. Nice looking site Kyle

Clients have always initially gotten in touch with me via email. Saying that, I think it adds an extra layer of comfort for the client if you provide a telephone number too. Kyle

I mostly work at home now, so I'll generally cook myself relatively healthy meals. When I did work in an office though, I used to get food from either the canteen, Tesco next store or the Dominoes Pizza next door - this was lethal though, they used to offer hefty lunchtime discounts and even deliver! lol Kyle

At the moment, no part of it suggests groceries to me at all. Although, perhaps (as mentioned above) we could see it in the context of the site it would make more sense. Kyle

Worked fine for me, I just had to click "skip this ad" at the top to progress to the product page. Heres a direct link to the product; http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-bx2231-22-widescreen-led-monitor-07908175-pdt.html

I have my own basic template in place; a html file with basic header information and the most likely to be used divs already set up in the body, a basic CSS file and a reset CSS file. I have used the 960 grid system a bit, and I find its pretty useful for rapid prototyping, but I wouldn't personally use it for a full project. I find I spend too much time chopping out parts that I don't require. I like to write the code out myself, so I know there is as little "wasted" code as possible. Kyle

Welcome to the forum! Kyle

Welcome to the forum! Kyle

As said above, assuming it comes with a standard heatsink (I'd imagine it would!) you should be fine.

I'd agree with what Zed has said. If you've tried all the above and the crashes seem random it sounds like a driver fault or a hardware fault. Presumably you've tried booting the computer without the graphics card and that works fine? Just to be absolutely sure it is the graphics card causing the issue. I'm not too hot with my graphics card specs these days, but I don't think that graphics card is a particularly great one, at least for running the latest and greatest games at high spec, otherwise it'd serve you perfectly well (when its working!). However, it seems odd that its giving you a higher score for "graphics" than "gaming graphics", especially when the 1GB is dedicated and not shared... usually the latter of the two is the more intensive. I don't have much experience with Windows 7 though, so maybe it uses a different method for calculating the scores than I am aware of. Kyle

Interesting post. And I definately need to start documenting my code more thoroughly *note to self!*

I really didn't think it looked that bad lol, but the reason I posted here for a review is for other opinions so its duly noted thanks, mate. I've done a few hours additional work to it over the last 2 days and just looking at the design the following day with a fresh set of eyes allowed me to see maybe the font choice wasn't the best I'll post up a new version in the next day or two, hopefully improved Thanks for the input again though people! Kyle

Cool, thanks for the input guys! As I said, only a few hours into it, so theres a lot of work to be done. Already looking at it today with a fresh head I can see a lot of changes to be made. I'll take everything on board!

Still experimenting with the logo, whats there is a stop gap, but I can't agree with you that it looks that awful lol Although I do agree it looks more - amateurish I guess - compared to the usage of the same font elsewhere on the page... must just be the letters making up my name lol