Based on the opinions of several members, I have made changes to my website.

Please let me know what you think.

Rookiestars.com

Thanks,
Ken

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Free Online Sports Card Price Guide l Rookiestars Blog

As I stated before - my goal is simply to monetize.

My html code was clean before adding the adds. Now when I verify at W3 I get errors.

CSS was verified as error free.

Your opinions are appreciated.

Thanks very much,
Ken

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Free Online Sports Card Price Guide l Rookiestars Blog

Well Griffey Jr. is back with the Mariners and I think your website is a lot better. I actually collect baseball cards and have since I was a very small boy. Of course the value of rookie cards is a nice niche. Of course you're a long way off from being the definitive source for information on the topic, I'd still reach for Beckett on this one, and to find a particular rookie card is a little difficult and you might not even list that person, ie. to find the 84 Topps Mattingly rookie was hard....(not hard per se, just took too long).
To 'monetize' the site I think you're going to have to do the following:

1. Sell baseball cards, either directly or as a 'broker', ie. let people post ads for baseball rookie cards that they actually own.
2. Increase the amount of pricing information exponentially

Other than that, it really looks to me like a quick draw to get people to click on adsense....

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I commented on the original posting. The changes you made definitely help the authority of the site. One thing I should mention -- probably a matter of how a page appears on different PCs -- the list of pages appears at the right but well below the rest of the page on the PC I am using right now. I did not know they were there until I accidentally scrolled further. I am assuming they appear directly to the right on your PC so that they are seen as one views the welcoming message. Hope this helps.

Thanks to all who have offered advice. I realize many of you earn your living doing this so I truly appreciate your suggestions. I tried to utilize all the ideas submitted.

Current traffic data is as follows:

• 5.60 pages/visit
• 18.43% bounce rate
• 3:35 avg. time on site
• 84.57% new visitors

• Traffic sources overview:
  • Referring Sites 68.01%
  • Search Engines 22.75%
  • Direct Traffic 9.24%

Thanks again,
Ken

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Free Online Sports Card Price Guide l Rookiestars Blog

small red text on a black background is REALLY hard to read. If you chose black in an effort to allow your pictures to stand out, you might change your text's background color (and text color) to something a little easier on the eyes.

I'd also suggest creating a navigation bar that allows visitors an opportunity to cruise your pages a little more efficiently. Be sure to include you SEARCH form as part of your header or tool bar for every page. Here's a site I'm working on as an example of what I mean: Welcome to CJH Property Services Inc .com -- A Home Remodeling Company

or Diehl & Associates, Inc. -- Specializing in HUD/FHA Mortgage Training Seminars Since 1983

in terms of how your might look within other browsers , my favorite online tools is Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots

you can test your home page on about 50-80 different browsers/operating system combinations. check it out. if you need free help with designing your site, feel free to email me directly: darrian_walker@yahoo.com

P.S. visitors to your site won't care that your site is w3c compliant. you can remove the w3c logo -- it detracts from the real purpose of the site.

I took a look at your borrowed css code: probably should revamp it a little. Is there a backend database?

Couple of thing that will help your css/site:

1. write your code as if FIRE FOX were the only browser available, then create a separate css file for IE.

2. remember: lighter/brighter colors are typically more pleasing to the eye.