Here we go again!

Scrolling Text alert. Scrolling text is one of the most hated things on a site next to probably pop-ups and pop-ups have a purpose. Scrolling text does not. The layout of the site is better. Some of the other things like: bold text, guestbook are still there. Other things like removing the target=blank, scrolling text and underlined headings have been added that detract or take people away from your site. Now as far as the links, you should open them in a window rather than have them completely leave your site and forget to come back. You really have a couple options there. One is to develop some of your own content, so that when someone clicks on the link, it takes him to a page on your site. The other is to have the links open in the same window so that you don't have all these windows popping up. The answer is probably a combination of both. Right now you are depending upon others for all of your content. Why not also consider making some of the pictures clickable? Some other ideas would be to have a public forum where people can share ideas. You could also put up some testimonials from people that have come up with reasons for them getting migraines (besides posting here) and how they found relief.

Quote: This time I give up if it doesn't look better and just hang up the old web site hat.

Don't be a weenie on this. Just keep tweaking and learning things and you will get there. It does look better but why settle for just better, go for the best.

the migraine reading list and its contents are all on my site. the other links are to outside agencies. I get confused, some people say they hate it when you put a 'target_blank' to a link, which opens a window that does not allow for back browsing, so they have to click out and return to your site for the other links, is that what you mean? Or should the links open to smaller windows? I have the guestbook because it was requested by some. I would love to have a personal forum or chat or some sort of thingy so people could discuss this problem with each other but my talents do not run that deep, ha ha. trying to figure a way to do that. okay, scrolling is out, I guess it is a bit annoying. what is the best link highlighter to use, if any? no underlining? no visted colors? just plain, what do the pro's do? I've seen the mouseover colors on the pro pages. the pics are really for dramatic effect. but, so far, are we talking improvement here? he he? I'm becoming obsessed!
thanks for the tips
jhona

Don't give up, this is getting much better

This is what I would do to polish up the site :

1. Make the main "MIGRANE EMPATHY" heading into a graphic with a nice font (it looks too blocky & dull as it is)

2. Make the font Ariel or Veranda, it looks better & is easier to read than Times

3. Loose the underlining, people will think these are links

4. Replace the guestbook with a forum (I know this seems daunting but I have been told that vBulletin is easy to incorporate but it does cost)

5. Take odd the "This site is best viewed......." There shouldn't really be anything here to cause any problems

Keep going

Don't give up the webmaster hat!
Your colour scheme has improved dramatically!

One suggestion: try to optimize some of your images:
agony.gif can be saved as a jpg, without any noticable loss
of quality and reduced from 46KB currently to 13KB as a jpg
(see http://members.tripod.de/Top_Gun/agony.jpg as an example.
I have no intention of stealing the gif, I just compressed it and saved it as a jpg for purposes of this posting. Let me know via email and I will remove the copy on tripod)

When clicking on your link to On-Line Migraine Journals. I get this:
"Error: You are not allowed to steal this script. So, stop it!"
Sorry, Don't know what's caused this,I don't even know how to stop doing whatever it was that I was doing wrong.

Please continue the good work, and don't give up.
regards,
holzi

jhona, about the links and opening a new window. If you wanted a window to be a certain size, then you would have to use a bit of javascipt to do so. It is pretty easy thing to do though. The main problem with your links the first time that you posted here was that each link opened a new window. If you are going to have a link go to someone else's site then they should open in a window but when another link is clicked on, it should be in the same window. You can use the target="display" to achieve this. You still need to have some of your own content pages.

V-bulletin as long as your host supports PHP & MYSQL can be setup in about 5 minutes time. It takes a lot more time to configure the colors, etc. The cost is $85 for a one year leased copy or $150 for an owned copy. My suggestion though if you wanted to spend money, is to spend $5-6 a month and get a full fledged host for your site. You will get more features and lose the pop-up ads or put up some of your own to recover some money. There is plenty of free forum software out there for you to use.

Its improving for sure,

I'd loose the bold, make the text normal, bold is for highlighting, maybe swap the underline for bold.

if you must keep the guestbook, put the links on one line, in the center, but get rid of the "best viewed with .."

having the best viewed with at the bottom is a waste of time anyways, people would of viewed the site before reading that, plus I dont know of anyone that has changed browser so to view a web site, I know of some that have closed the site because they didnt have the browser the site was best viewed with.

holzi mentioned optimizing your graphics, I use this site http://www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html its free and does a pretty good job

ever thought of using rounded corners in the main table (top and bottom parts - cells)

Also the listing of elements, should all start with capitals

hang in there, your doing great.

everyday is a learning day, the day you stiop learning is the day your no longer here ...

The first thing that came out to me were the huge letters: MIGRAINE EMPATHY - which is good, since its what your site is about. However the text looks ugly.. you might want to try replacing it with a nice graphic with maybe a picture of a man rubbing his head or something

The layout of the site is nice, easy to follow, but you might want to add some type of seperators on your front page down the white part.. even something as simple as to help make reading easier.

That's it for now.. try taking those into consideration, and I'd like to end by saying I've never had a headache in my life! I've always wondered what it would be like to have one.