My web sites look amateurish. I do not have any sense when it comes to creating an appealing layout.

Question

Does anybody have any basic tips on how to make my websites look more appealing in terms of layouts? Here is an example of one of my websites: http://www.shopdecafchocolate.com

Answer 1

dont use the little icons

like the money bags,

that looks really stupid

like get a clean layout  

Answer 2

I just made my portfolio on www.moonfruit.com and they have an awesome tool for making sites (in flash),it's called SiteMaker. I highly recommend it, you don't need lot of inspiration when you have so many nice images,audio,video tools,cliparts and photos,flash effects, lots of pretty fonts and many more, included in the fee you pay for the hosting. The prices are reasonable and the site editor it's easy to use. You don't have the purchase the domain name from them.

Answer 3

You have another option - instead of building the website from scratch, use one of the existing platforms, such as xoops or drupal or gallery for example. If you want the community site, you can use boonex dolphin. They are all PHP-based, but you do not need to know PHP for off-the-shelf installation. You download the code, install it on your provider and configure. You can always integrate e-commerce in all of them

Here is an example of the xoops website:

http://www.32soft.com

Here is an example of the dolphin website:

http://www.art--for--sale.com

Here is an example of the gallery 2 website:

http://www.felicity-art.com

If you need more help, you can contact me at [e-mail]

Regards

Max

Answer 4

Start using tables to make the layout of your website look better.  Try learning from www.w3schools.com.

Once you learn how to use tables, it will make a world of difference.