I really like sites that have a good balance between html, flash and also music or sound. A Site like http://www.wikaniko-shop.co.uk is a good example of this and works really well. I dislike sites that have too much flash, have over the top menu selection widgets or continuous music you can't stop! John, UK

I finally got my sites back up and running. I started out with several different designs but the ones that I chose are the ones that everyone liked the best out of the 4 different designs (8 total) that I did for each site. They're a little different than most sites that I've seen but they're funtional and they fit our personalities. The gallery software isn't exactly what I'd like to have but it's all I could afford and it's easy to use and functional for now. I used the color schemer to pull colors out of my header objects and then used those colors throughout the sites.

http://www.thefieryrose.com
http://www.thefieryrose.com/somewherein … index.html

Comments are welcome, (please be gentle!)

Thanks,
CrzGrandma

Brenda,

When you add code using the HTML tool, you should not include the body tags. When you inserted your paypal buttons, you enclosed that code with a beginning and ending body tag.

The somewhere in the heart site is more to my liking, but that is just my personal preference. It looks like you have put a lot of effort into your sites.

amazon is still one of my top ecommerce sites. they go things right early on the game. i've bought more things from them than any other site - and that seems common. lots they could improve, but it's working!

I really like http://morguefile.com morgefile for finding photos, all free and most very nice.

Hi everybody!

I'm trying to get more into the forums, after helping many of you in tech support for the past 3 years, so I figured this would be a good place to jump back in.

Since I lean more towards the technical aspect of things, I consider some of the best designs to be informative sites.

http://www.alistapart.com/ - A List Apart has tons of great articles from industry leaders. The navigation is very clear about where you're at, and it makes things really easy to find. They've changed the color scheme a little bit over the years, but not so much that it jars you if you haven't visited in a while. And the artwork that accompanies each article lends a sense of humor.

W3Schools has been mentioned by a few other people, so the only thing I'll say is that it's a great resource if you need to look up something quickly.

http://960.gs/ - I recently used the 12-column grid on a site I built with Visual Site Designer, and it sped up the design by hours. The examples they show using the grid system also helped inspire me after hitting a slump.

http://www.csszengarden.com/ - And of course, one of the first steps that brought me to the modern era of web design. If you haven't seen the site yet, I strongly recommend visiting to see the power of CSS (for those non-coders). I guess it was about 4 years ago that J showed the site to a class I was taking, and from there I was hooked. I read through the code, found the book at B&N, read it from cover to cover, and still look to it for inspiration.

I am a big fan of Youtube for videos, Amazon for cheap stuff, Yahoo Finance and PHP website (PHP.net). The best part in Youtube are the viral videos, some are too good while others are totally stupid. But they all make you laugh. I also refer people to a website called stellaawards.com where people can read the funniest lawsuits ever filed and some of them were actually won with outrageously big payouts. Have fun !

Being a Rennie and into a lot of the high end online multiplayer games I love the The Guild series:

http://watchtheguild.com

If you've ever played games like World of Warcraft, EQ and so on, you'll enjoy this series

Hey, thanks for the link, I didn't know that this series existed but have locked a few now and quite enjoy them. I have just left WoW for AION. Loving the wings...

haha I too left all my other games for Aion, but ended up canceling my account as I just have been way too busy to play any games at all. Should I go back to a game though, Aion will be it as it really was fun while I played, got up to level 21 which was pretty cool.