What do you think of my first website. Help Needed!

[Ben1280]

Hello, I've created my first website and would like some unbiased opinion. It's all very well asking family and friends but their comments are nearly always loaded. To put it simply, we are not getting many hits and the site has been around since November. Prior to this a different web design built by professionals had existed since early 2005, again with no success. Any suggestions on how the site needs to be improved or outright criticism's are welcomed. Feel free to view source if you want to pick holes in my coding.
http://www.christopherjarvis.co.uk

[solidgold]

Well the website itself is quite, how should i say, dull.
Grey is not an attractive colour for an entire website - very 90's
As this is a portfolio website it should be more interesting, try looking at things such as www.mrjago.com or even www.jam-factory.com for some inspitation,
looking at the paintings your client is clearly a man with an eye for detail and so will appreciate that developing this website into a page worthy of his artwork is going to be a challenge but persistance is always vital, it is impressive that for a beginner you have managed to set up a paypal system, usually beginners can barely even search google !
I recommend that you get rid of the no rightclick item as owing to it being javascript this is very easy to get around and the code of it is so old that it doesnt even cover firefox or opera.
You've used tables to style the site, which isnt advisable in this day and age, <div>s are the way of the future.
The way to get hits is to first read this
then follow its instructions to the letter :P theres a lot of useful tips in there.
I wish you the best of luck with your website,
Solidgold

[Ben1280]

I hear what you say about div tags. I was doing OK with them up until the main prints and paintings page where I just could not get the layout right. So I took the easy option! What we are trying to aim for is a site that shows the artwork to its maximum potential, We can't have something that drowns the artwork out, diverts the users attention from what we want them to buy. I think in my efforts not to use really loud colours or loads of dynamic content it probably has left the site looking dull. It's a question of balance I think, not too much, not too little.

[solidgold]

hmm ok so you're going for the simplistic look?
possibly changing the background colour to white and adding a few drop-shadows to the pictures would go along way into bringing this site up-to-date, remember to make the shadows look realistic and not just be at a 45 degree angle

[Ben1280]

hmm ok so you're going for the simplistic look?
possibly changing the background colour to white and adding a few drop-shadows to the pictures would go along way into bringing this site up-to-date, remember to make the shadows look realistic and not just be at a 45 degree angle

Yes I think so. No nonsense and straight to the point is what we are after.
by the way, thanks for your comments they are appreciated. I've already been surfing around for inspiration, www.touchofginger.com looks great in terms of layout.

[solidgold]

ah i see now, well if you need more inspiration theres always
www.webcreme.com
www.dailyslurp.com
which i use often