I am fairly new at creating and marketing websites and desperately need some advice on how to build a better website.

Any tips, advice or criticism would be greatly appreciated and reciprocated.

Thanks!

http://royalreviews.com

Hello,
Great site for cruise reviews.

Your google ads - maybe you would like to keep them in one spot either on the left or right side instead of at the top. People want to get to their info and not be distracted. Your ads will still be on the page just not so "in your face" ...unless that is what you are going for. :)

For your menu -
What about you try something like this:

Home | Reviews | News | Contests | Links

On your reveiws page - you can either have the reviews (Adventure Of The Seas, Brilliance Of The Seas ...)like on your index page or try a drop down box to keep the page clean. And also have a spot for them to submit the reviews also.

What about showing pictures of the boats when you get to the review about that specific ship. It might make it easier for people to assoicate reviews to the ship then.

Otherwise it looks like it is coming along great!

.Danielle.

dspeciale, thanks for the tips. I'm looking into making a lot more changes in the future to make it cleaner but am just getting started.

Any suggestions on software to build the site in? Which ones are easy to use/learn?

Hi royalreviews!

I use mostly Adobe Golive CS
and sometimes use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX.
There are lots of documentation, user forums, and books to help you with these programs.
If you are a student you can get this software at a discount. http://www.academicsuperstore.com

I have not used these applications but they are less $$
CoffeeCup HTML Editor $49
Site Spinner v2 $49

If you are looking for a free program
try doing a google search for:
free wysiwyg editor
free html editor


.Danielle.

Not a bad looking site. Could use a cleaner look though...