Website - www.savageplanet.net

I checked with Tom and he said I am ok to do this.

I have come into some spare time recently and decided to use it to build my very own website. So far it is early days, I have a forum in place. I update a blog as often as possible, and I have installed a gallery for photo and video sharing. There are "useful links" and I have a google search on there which can be used like a regular google search (of course) meaning that the site is perfect for being used as a homepage. Links include hotmail, amazon, play.com and such what, if you use the amazon link to make any purchases some of your money goes back into funding the site too which is good for me ;o).

I would really appreciate it if you guys would check it out, maybe bookmark me (or homepage if you think it would save you time having all your links in one place) and check up from time to time, I will be working on it quite a bit as I am off for a while now. If you have any ideas or recommendations which would help me improve things and make the site more interesting then feel free to advise away, either here or on savageplanet.

If you go there, look around and decide you are not interested, could you do me one last favor and click the 4 adverts on the left at least? Again it helps fund the site, and I can use that to then install better apps onto the site, improve the content and hopefully win you back over in the future.

The address again is www.savageplanet.net all criticisms/advice welcome. I have never done this before and it has taken me about 4 days to do this far, (I did start saturday last week if you want to be exact, but I've been preoccupied for half the week.) So I wont be offended if you think it looks shit etc.

Thanks :) I am still working on the general theme in my head. I know some parts that the site will have, eg I am working on the idea of a game with a friend, the site will have pages focused around that to try and get the ball rolling there. Other than that I hope to add some topical pages but I just need the time to sit and gather all the information I want to use.

I think first you should come up with the idea, then buy the domain, then build the website, then advertise it! :)

I think your main screen background should only be a temporary one because it's so 'busy'. You'll have trouble overlaying text boxes on it as they'll be difficult to read, and any image you add will clash with the background. I don't know of any sites that use a background image that large or vivid.

For a header, why not crop an interesting section of an image you like and then just overlay text with the name of the site on the top of it. The current header looks amateurish, and it doesn't really draw your eye from the background when I think perhaps it should be one of the main focuses of the front page. I only suggest this because I know you don't know much about graphic design enough to make your own banner.

Your site is also making use of too much 'space' I feel. What I mean is that the main content is spread from the left hand edge of my monitor all the way to the right. The background image overlaps on the right hand side as a result. Most sites don't try to use all of the space but use columns instead. Like the listal homepage, there is a good three inches of empty space either side of the main content in the middle, which looks neater and wont be a problem for people with large monitors.

Also, just as a starter, your front page has a lot of space to use, so it doesn't make sense to me to have all your content piled into drop down lists. Why not give them buttons or tabs for the time being? Out of interest, there is a firefox add-on called speed-dial, which I think might be something like you're trying to build your site to look like. Might be completely wrong there, but it could give you an idea of how other people are representing favourites pages.

I hope none of this sounds rude or condescending. I wouldn't know how to implement half of the suggestions I've made!

Great stuff so far, can't disagree with any of the points raised, I was hoping for this kind of input as I definitely agree I got the site and everything before the idea which is completely backwards! I just thought to myself aha I could learn to make a site! Which is what I am doing, but have missed a vital part of the process out which is what to do it about and now I am hitting a block because I can't create unless I have a topic.

I will check out all the mentioned programs, if it doesn't help right now it is bound to in the future. The background is definitely temporary as it completely limits what I can add to the front page (which is why I have the list box at the moment as text looked as bad as that banner does!!) I didn't know what program to use for the banner so thanks for the GIMP 2 one as I used a html banner maker to get the one I have now.

Now I have a few days ahead where I should be able to concentrate on it properly I will hopefully have some sort of epiphany soon. My wife, family and friends have taken up the last few evenings which could have been spent on more meaningless tasks!