Weeee first review. I have tendencies to sound harsh in my reviews, so, forgive me in advance, eh? Here we go:
Initial Opinion
The theme has a lot going on, and it's all going on in a very small space. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be looking at...the text is very...arial. The top post talks about why you're posting there, etc, so it makes me feel as though if i came back there would be few updates, I'm not altogether sure what this site is even about...
Design-wise
It's a nice design in color and blending, but why do you have it shoved into the right side of the page? You could expand it and separate out the elements so everything is more visible. Not only that but the elements are pretty messy. You may want to clean up the framing a bit. As well, after stepping back, there is in fact a LOT going on in that header. It's really distracting. You don't want to daze your viewers and keep them trying to figure out one image. Tone it down a little perhaps. Oh, and, I don't get to say this often, but the text is boring. Why use basic, pixely arial? It's your blog, have fun with an elegant text or a jazzy text, one that's easy to read, but stylistic. It adds to the character of the page, and since yours is personal, people want to know about you. If you do, however, want to keep it into one corner, may i suggest looking at
this site's design. You can get more ideas (if you're into CSS) from
CSS Remix.
Content-Wise
I know it's a blog, but your posts are kind of choppy. They aren't really conveying anything interesting and I get bored after reading the top post. People read blogs to learn other people's stories. Conversely, the people updating the blogs are telling the stories. If your blog is personal, why not expand on your views, interests, feelings, ideas, etc. Mind you, I'm only going off the recent stuff, but that seems to be what you want to do. Other than that there's no real content to review...
Services
Right off the bat, "My History" and "What can I do?" would be a good introduction if put together and put at the top of the page. You might want to talk about hosting/domains under the same header as well, just to shorten the amount of sifting you must do to access that information. People like quick, easy info when it comes to products. You can also combine "need a quote?" right under the prices. Speaking of prices, personal question:
Why does the QUALITY vary GREATLY? People are coming to web-designers FOR quality. If it varies, why not go to one with a history of great design for low prices? You'll want to have a set
quality but let the prices vary depending on the job size. (I do web design as well, but on a much smaller scale. Still, I try to keep my quality consistent)
Overall
What you should work on is simplifying your design. I noticed that your portfolio had nice light, simple designs that worked really well. Why is that not in your site!? Work on the boring text (and oh yes, you can have boring text) and just stylize, stylize, stylize. Have fun in your blog posts! Rant, rave, tell stories, just make it totally about you and people will come to hear about you! Right now it's all about personality development.
hope that wasn't too bad. I really did like your designs oh and you helped me work out my website review template so now I don't have to go off my forum one. :]
