DaveJ

Just had a really quick look and I think you need to look at the stylesheet 'wpsc-default.css' In Firebug I added 'width: 450px;' to the #checkout_page_container div and it seemed to sort it. Dave

Hi Luke, Try adding a set width to your 'dates', 'photos' and 'youtube' divs (240px?), make the 'youtube' div 'float:left' and add some margin-left to it too. Might need to have a bit of a play but that got the Calendar, Events and Video section practically there...for me anyway! Hope that helps? Dave

My advice, get him to design himself a decent website/portfolio of his own to showcase his work. Put some time into SEO, maybe focus on your local area so as to reduce online competition (though this depends where you live!). Get him to post his own website on here (website feedback section) so as to get other designers thoughts on it. This is the site that potential customers will be looking at first so it has to show off his skills. I'd also recommend designing a flyer and droping it round all the businesses in the local area. I got a surprising amount of work through this. I also gave a bunch of business cards to my friends and family and asked them to hand one to anyone they talk to who might be interested in a website/website re-design. E-shots can work well too, but take the time to make the emails personal and specific to their business. This all will hopefully then lead to more work through word-of-mouth recommendation. Hope this help. Dave

It says "This account has been suspended" when I tried looking at the site!? Dave

I'm thinking of buying my Dad's 1973 MGB GT off him. I helped him restore it a couple of years ago so I know it's mint. In fact that's where the Mini's Weber came from (my mum told him it was too noisy to keep on the MG!). If I did i'd love to convert it to a V8.

Now I'm jealous! I was looking for exactly that car to restore for my fiance, but couldn't find one in my budget that wasn't a complete wreck. Instead i've got a 1981 Mini Mayfair that i'm working on. Just rebuilt and fitted a 1275cc engine, rally cam, stage 3 head and 45DCOE Weber. More for me than my fiance now though

Hi Andy, these forums are a fantastic place to learn new things and get great advice. Stick around!

No worries!

In your layout.css See the two highlighted parts in the attached screenshot

If you change the LI.widget font-size to 14px instead of 1.3em it works. Not sure why, only had time to have a quick look! Dave

Try: Set the rightcontainer div to float: right; Wrap all the divs (left and right container divs) in a 'maincontainer' div - give that a fixed width (1000px?). Dave

IGNORE THAT! Just realised you need the position: fixed!!! Sorry

Try this (only had a quick play so not sure if there will be adverse knock-on effects...) Left container - Remove position: fixed; Right container - Remove margin-left; Dave

If you are looking to learn how to code a website (from scratch) then all you need is Notepad, or whatever the Mac equivalent is, and a HTML/CSS textbook or two. As you already have a design (which I like by the way!) then this is probably your best start. Chop up your design into its component parts and code your site from scratch. Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress etc. are great if you want to create a CMS site, but in order to incorporate your design you'll have to learn how to create your own bespoke template. This will require you learning your way around the software and have some understanding of PHP. Hope this helps. Dave

I tend to find the opposite...I'm meant to be (for instance) helping my girlfriend with the gardening, but instead get distracted by web design! A few things you could try though: 1. Set yourself specific targets within a set timeframe - e.g. By the end of the day have finished x number of chapters in a textbook, or completed a tutorial on the net, or coded a contact form for a site...etc etc. 2. I tend to use a lot of textbooks. Although not always cutting edge, the fundamentals tend to remain the same. The good thing with a textbook is that you could disable your internet connection (removing most of your distractions), open Notepad and write some code. 3. Set yourself a specific time of the day to focus on learning. 4. At the end of the day if it's something you love to do, you should WANT to learn it. Hope this helps? Dave

Okay, last time I'm going to bother you all! I've just finished some more revisions and I think I'm happy with it now. http://www.rhdtestsites.rabbitholedesign.co.uk/rhd/index.html Thanks for all the comments, they were really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to help Dave

Thanks for the comments Mark, I like the idea of using that colour for the active page link. I'll also use it for my headings on the other pages. Cheers, Dave

Okay, I've made some changes based on the feedback (used a 960px width, ditched the black border, added some colour to the homepage and reduced the image sizes). http://www.rhdtestsites.rabbitholedesign.co.uk/rhd/index.html Let me know what you think, better or worse. Here's a screenshot of the old version as a reminder

Wow, now that's some comprehensive feedback! Thanks very much. I knew about the 6 errors but holding off fixing until I've finished playing around with the design. I'll repost the link when I've made some changes. Cheers.

Excellent, thanks for the feedback guys! I'll make some changes to the layout/image sizes tonight and let you know, see if you think it's better. Dave

Hmm, quiet on the forums today...or my website is so pants no-one wants to tell me! I hope it's the former

Hey guys, Firstly, I've made a few comments on posts but not actually introduced myself in the Introductions! My name is Dave and I'm a freelancer by evening/weekend and metallurgist by day (until I take the plunge and go full-time on the web design!). I'm also into doing up classic Mini's if anyone has an interest in that... I started a couple of years ago learning html, css, javascript and am now getting into php, mysql and ruby. As is probably normal, one of the first sites I made was my own...making it also one of my more rubbish ones! So, I decided a couple of weeks ago to put aside some time and give it an overhaul. This is what I have so far: http://www.rhdtestsites.rabbitholedesign.co.uk/rhd/index.html I'd really appreciate your comments, good or bad. I find the coding side a lot easier than design so I will glady take any critisism! I've gone for a grungy look but not sure if I've overdone it a bit? Anyway, let me know your thoughts and thanks for looking! Dave

Hi Joe, I had a similar problem. Online competition is fierce and getting decent search engine rankings is tough as a result. As i'm a freelancer (and do this in addition to a full-time job) I don't have as much time as I would like to put into SEO. So, I designed a flyer and dropped it round all the businesses in the local area. I gave some business cards to my friends and family and asked them to hand one to anyone they talk to who might be interested in a website/website re-design. I also did some e-shots. The e-shots were great, but I think mainly because I took time to make the emails personal and specific to their business. I targeted particular types of business/organisation at a time, for instance, schools, local small business, sports clubs, churches, local bands etc. I got quite a lot of work using these techniques, which then led to more work through word-of-mouth recommendation. It's a slow process but works in time. Also, consider approaching some freelance graphic designers who might be interested in collaborating on projects. Hope this helps! Dave

I'm in the process of learning PHP and MySQL at the moment (using books mainly). Two projects that I would like to try would be: Creating a simple CMS system to simply allow the editing of page text by users (nothing too fancy just yet!) Creating a simple CRM system for my own use to keep track of customer contact details etc. Any tutorials based around these would be great. Or even just advice on components of these? Also, how to plan a database driven application would be useful. As in, planning the tables/fields required as I understand this is an important thing to plan out before starting any coding. Just a few thoughts! Hope it helps! Dave

Ahh, negative margin-top, good thinking! Glad you've sorted it, it looks good!