Hi! I just launched my newest project, justgingerbread.com! [link] Please take a look and let me know what you think about the layout and such. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but keep in mind that I am still working on it a lot.

 

So this is something my mom and I have been working on for a while now. She loves both making gingerbread houses and blogging so last year I promised her that for Christmas time this year I would help her set up a gingerbread-related blog. Well, it grew to more than a simple blog, as you can see. The purpose of the site is to teach people how to bake and build gingerbread houses. In the future we may decide to sell pre-baked gingerbread house kits, too.

 

Well, please take a look and let me know what you think! Thank you!!

 

 

Edit: Oh, I forgot to add, the peppermints at the top were originally going to be links (with text over the candy image) but I was holding off on that because I know image links are bad. Any ideas?

Overall not bad, some things to take into consideration:

 

> Remove Adverts, it gives the website a unprofessional image.

> The sweets underneath the adverts aren't relevant to anything, can also be mistaken as a navigation menu.

> Add some more padding to your content.

> I don't really like the image for the line, looks similar to a clip-art image.

Visually the website is quite nice and suits the theme well. Technically the markup is extremely poor.

 

I'm not very good in regard to reviews but that's my opinion.

Thanks for the input!

 

I don't really want to get rid of the ads since that is our only way of making money off the site so far. I'll consider your other suggestions.

well done on your starter work, I'm sure you'll get better as you gain more experience.

I absolutely love your header! well thought out!

I understand you want to keep the ads, but I would suggest moving them towards the bottom, as they carve up your site.

 

I like the sweets, but agree with whoever said they look like links. (have you thought of placing a small sweet behind the links?)

 

I feel the site needs a bit of padding all over, just to space it all out a bit.

My only other quibble is the tiny table at the bottom of your code. Tables are only needed for tabular content. Css is far easier and the correct way to do it.

 

EDIT: have just tried your site for validation, and there are 6 errors...... some resulting from the table.

 

Well done! great looking site.

Agree with Helen, but something else to add. In addition to the padding, I would suggest bringing the headers in line with the rest of the text, so the left hand edge justifies to a straight line. this will make it easier to read, and will look nicer.

 

This would be very easy to convert into CSS (no tables) layout, and would be well worth the effort, in terms of semantics as well as SEO.

 

Also, I suggest moving the photo on the about us page to the right of the content area, and bringing the header over to the left. I think this will look much better.

 

As for the site content, I think you've done a great job. The feel of the site is great, and the illustrations work really well.

 

Also, I would move the advertising to the bottom if it absolutely has to stay, but I think your site will have much more credibility without it.

Gotta give some love for that header - just spent 20 seconds+ just looking at it, I'd say thats quite an achievement in its own right.

 

great work!

Thanks everyone!!

 

Ok, so I'll get rid of the tables and add some more padding here and there. I'm also going to make the peppermints into links as soon as I get the time. As for the ads, I guess I'll experiment with them in some different places and see which works best.