My First Website Design

This is the first website design i have ever made. I made in mainly in GIMP and MS Paint, i think it looks quite good but i could do better and i am going to continue editting it. Please tell me what you think about it and if you have any suggestions that could make it better. Here's a link to the image. http://echo.cx/ but the quality isn't good becuase imageshack resized it for some reason when i uploaded it.

GIMP and MS Paint? To be honest I immediately thought you layout was going to suck. Except, you did pretty good. I suggest you download Adobe Photoshop and try using that. You can do alot better with it and it kind of like the standard for web design.

.,...quite good if this is your first time;)...you should chage the blue to some oher color...ti doesn't fit there...and why didn't you upload the site on the net...?

That's a good image/job.Keep working, and perhaps, if you want to make better images, use photoshop or paint-shop-pro or ulead photo impact.

That is a good start in web design. In fact you did a real good job. I would suggest getting either Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, both very good in the art of designing things.If you need any help, i'll help out.

Viva la MSPaint!heheI use it as well. It sounds funny but for some things I prefer it over flash and photoshop.

I'd actually take Fireworks over all the programs mentioned so far for building website templates. As for your design, it looks like the basics are there but could do with a bit of livening up, maybe with some background images or something. It's looking a bit bland at the moment.

thanks for the comments i decided to make another website in GIMP and Paint again, this one is for a Playstation site and i think it looks better than my first attempt, please tell me what you think about it
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Very nice layout!! Maybe the banner should have more images, but other then that, it looks awesome!

Well the second one is quite nice. It looks alot more professional. The only advice I could give is try and put just one picture instead of 3.

oh, the first comment i made was for the first layout ^__^ yes, I agree, the second layout is MUCH better. It's plain in a way, but not that bad, very nice ^__^

thanks for all the comments i'm going to make matching designs for sony design

its nice since its your first Use photoshop, ms paint its not good.

Well I can't see the second layout but the first is pretty nice. I like the fonts you used except like the others have said I would put a little more work into the banner. Maybe give it a different background color because the text doesn't really fit there for some reason. Maybe add some more images I am not sure.

(1st one . . .2nd one wouldnt load)Not a bad effort for paint and G.I.M.P.Alot of the iamge is a bit fuzzy, but i'm guesssing thats down to image compression etc.overall not a bad start. The layout is prett ystandard, but would do0 the job nicely The previews and reviews sectiosn will be a ncie idea, abova the news. obviously gussing the background wont just be white.Overall it does seema bit flat.Take a look at other gamign websites and see whatstyles they use and gain inspiration from their User Interfaces. Then look aroudn for tutorials for that type of stuff :DOverall keep at it.-- and to all the ppl saying get photoshop, yes its a great program, but don't believe its sudeenly going to mkae your work better. . .a program is only as good as the person using it and their idea GIMp is a really good peice of free graphic software , but if you have the cash vow for photoshop, as it does have a few more features and thigns.