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Site Name: Taking Chances
Owner: Darla
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 30th October 2008
Site Name
I love the name. It’s always been something I can remember. I am not a fan of Celine Dion (which is where you got your site name from – one of her songs) but I always remember your site when I hear about her.
I don’t like the hyphen – but that’s just me, never a big fan of those 
Layout
I really like this layout. It’s so simple, fast loading – it’s great. The font you’ve used for ‘Taking Chances’ on the header image isn’t my favourite. It’s just a little too harsh for the pretty leaves. ‘Live your life’ is in a nice font.
I really like the background on the header image. Your CSS is excellent, but I would recommend making the serif text in your sidebar a bit bigger (the ones you’ve used for your affiliates and under ‘currently’.
Looking at your coding, you have just a few errors. In your Doctype (HTML 4.01 transitional) you need to place alt tags on every image – even if it’s blank – you still need an alt tag. You are also using the backslash “/” after a few of your <br> which is only done in XHTML.
Obviously validation isn’t classified important nowadays, but you have only a few errors so why not fix them? (See your errors here.)
I would also suggest putting a really light background instead of having all the white. A colour like #FFE3CF would look great as a background on everything – your content, sidebar, as a whole background. 
I like the variation you have in your CSS, how the links differ in the sidebar, and the headers in your content and sidebar differ. Your navigation is clear and bold, which is great.
Your site looks great in most browsers according to browsershots.org. In a few older versions of Internet Explorer, you need a little more padding between the content and the sidebar (here).
I also like how your sidebar starts at the top of the screen, rather than typically under the header image. That’s something different which I like.
I don’t think you should be crediting Google for the images. Google is just a search engine. You should be crediting the actual owner of the photos.
Overall, an excellent layout. I am glad you’ve moved away from the celebrity layouts and that in your reviews you are stressing the illegality of using them!
Content
Content
This would be better named as ‘visitor’ because ‘content’ would refer to anything included in your site.
I like how you’ve included some rules straight up, and also on each other page. Your rules aren’t annoying and in-the-face, they’re clear and concise.
On your resources page, you’ve got rules, but then have restated ‘resources’ as a subheading. This should be removed as it’s already as the heading at the top of the page. Also, your blockquotes have a grey background which doesn’t match so well with your CSS. A pale orange background would work, or transparent.
You only have one set of brushes, but it looks great. The emoticons are cute! I don’t really like the oval ones as much as the square ones because they’re a little dark.
I don’t really like your 404 Error Signs. They’re too bright and look good only on black backgrounds. Also, a note at the top of your page like ‘click the thumbnail for a bigger view’ would be better.
Your free layouts are great, but I don’t like how you’re offering your older layouts. It’s very nice that you will put the site name on it for whoever wants to order them.
I love your photography! However the thumbnails take a while to load and perhaps if you saved the images as a very high quality .jpg, the file size would actually decrease a little.
Your hosting page should go in your site section. Your rules are fair and this page is pretty straightforward.
I think you don’t need these subpages for each section. I have just noticed how annoying it is to press ‘back’ so many times. It’s best to have everything as links under their own subheading on the visitor page, so that if someone sees something they like, they will see it straight away, and not have to be taken to another page of links.
Avanced should be Advanced in the header of your first AND second tutorial. Also, the ‘after’ photograph is not aligned in the same place as the ‘before’ one.
Looking through the rest of your tutorials, there really aren’t any problems! I’m not sure if you really need the HTML tutorials, they’re really quite simple and are just copy and paste codes. For the Textarea backgrounds, an example like a screenshot would be good.
On your site of the month rules page, sorry in advanced should be ‘sorry in advance‘.
Please do put up another survey contest! I don’t know what it’s about because there are no details. But make another one, because visitors would be wanting to enter the contest when they drop by
Your reviews link should open in a new window, and with an asterisk to indicate this – as the layout changes and it’s an entire subdomain itself.
I’m not sure why you are offering advanced pictures when you won’t allow them to be used on websites. ‘Backgrounds’ should be ‘Icon backgrounds’. And why are these only allowed to be used on Iconator?
I love how you’re standing up to cancer with these wonderful icons!
‘Desktops’ should be ‘Wallpapers’. And I’m not sure what your quotes are for and how they could be used, but they’re pretty good.
Having fun while making a layout! I’m glad you addressed the issue with celebrity images too. is early September should be ‘in early September’. I really liked the message in this article and your music one. I will listen to anything, but sometimes mainstream really drills holes in my head. I listen to mainstream when it’s not mainstream anymore.. Haha
‘Ask Lizzie’ should open in a new window as it’s a separate site.
Site
On your credits page, you need an extra line break before ‘other’.
Most things in this section had no problems, but both your review links led to 404s. In future I suggest you actually copy the review onto your site because the reviewer may move files around and such.
Your affiliate rules are different. I wish I couold do something like that – I hate people who don’t even drop by. In fact I had someone say in response to ‘Why do you want to affiliate?’: so I can get more hits through your site. URGH. So kudos to you on that one
On your link exchange page, Your sitie should be ‘Your site‘.
Owner
This sentence:
What is written here are things that are personal and I don’t have to tell them to you.
would be better as:
What is written here are things that are personal. I chose to display them here, but I don’t have to.
On your About Me page, but you can all my D should be but you can call me D.
On your pets page, tortise should be tortoise.
Everything in this section was pretty good!
Advice
This leads to a subdomain so I won’t be reviewing this section. I think it’s a great idea though. You should have this section open in a new window and indicate with an asterisk.
Reviews
Ditto for this. I love the idea and I love your reviews. You reviewed my subdomain before! Woo
Originality
A very original layout, not like the typical ones out there! Of course there’s still a few celebrity graphics and a fair bit of generic content, but you’ve got your own articles, which is great.
I love your advice idea. It’s something I’ve not seen before.
Organisation/Errors
Everything was organised, though I would cut down on the subpages. And just fix those few spelling errors
No broken links were found.
Overall comment
Darla, you’ve got a great site. All your layouts are great and they always look so polished! This one is great, but I highly suggest the background.
You have a lot of content. I like your graphics but a few of them couldn’t really have been used, like the quotes. Your brushes are great and though you’re not a big fan, you should make some more.
I really liked your articles; you should write more. I also think your reviews are great, and I believe writing is your strong point, so show it off!
I don’t really have other comments or suggestions. You’ve got great stuff now and if you continue working on it and expanding it, your visitors will definitely come back!
