I have set up a website, and wondered if you could give me your thoughts on it please?
I realise I need many more pictures of cakes I have made put up.
(ps. I hope this doesnt count as advertising-I have taken my contact details off for now so hopefully it's allowed!)
www.smilelikeasaint.webs.com
Many thanks for all feedback! x

hey hun - firstly REALLY cute photo!! ;0)

I think maybe the listed menu items could be a tad more interesting, not sure if you can change the font. Also might be a good idea to display some pricing......unless you want them to contact you first. And yes, more photos would be good. But I think you're starting off pretty well! Is this the first website you've had?

Love the theme! The page titles (in turquoise) are hard to read against the background. And I agree with Ali, it could use a more interesting font for descriptions. Great job!

Love the retro look. I agree that the turquoise writing on the hot pink background is a little hard to read. Very clever, tongue-in-cheek descriptions.

T fix the hard-to-read text without changing your background, can you add a text box only slightly larger than the text? I know sometimes it is easier said than done.

What a breath of fresh air! Your approach is so different than the hum drum we are used to seeing. I love it.

I would do away with the opening 'click to enter' page. It's one extra hurdle for your potential customers and for your regulars, it just gets annoying. I would recycle that picture for your main page and the picture of you, I would put in the 'About' page.

Definitely change the font to match the era.

The line under 'Smile like a Saint' on the home page, I would change to tie back to the era. There's something about the just-like-mom/grandma-used-to-make that pulls on everyone's heart strings. Also leverage the free-range eggs aspect before the hormones, antibiotics..the way things were simpler back then.

I would advise getting your own url.

I absolutely love the feeling your pictures (of you and the landing page) are trying to invoke.

It's really cute. The aqua text on the polka dot background is hard to read though, like others mentioned.

Also, I've seen those photos of the sailor pinup and retro housewife lots of places before...the housewife is actually Joanne Massey, from a documentary called "Time Warp Wives." It might be better to use a stock photo or a photo that wasn't so widely known.

I ditto what the rest have said..I would do away with the cat Poop/litter cake on the first page of your birthday photos...Those cakes to me are just gross even though they are novelty cakes and don't seem to draw customers to want to order.JMO

Is this site for a business? If so you will want to make it easy for users to find out more information about your products and your business, right now everything is hidden under an easily-missed menu on the left. Put your best work front and center, along with information your customers will need to know, and remove any roadblocks (like the landing page).

And I agree that if you are selling food you probably don't want to prominently feature a picture that looks like a litter box.

Kill the splash page first.

I love the retro look/feel of the polka dots, but everyone is correct, it makes your text hard to read. I would recommend putting your info into a table with a white or neutral colored background and centering that in the middle of the page so that the polka dot pattern can still be around it, but not hindering the ability to read what you have to say.

I would move the menu to a single line in the center of the page (in with the center table), where your customers will be looking, and make sure it has a neutral background too.

For the above two items, my *best* recommendation, assuming you don't know how to code, would be to simply use one of the premade templates that www.webs.com offers and change the background image manually. I could make something for you by hand but if you dont know any coding, it would look like gibberish when you went to edit it. LOL

I agree on removing the poop cake from the birthday section and perhaps adding a page for novelty cakes instead. Feature a more energetic, true birthday design in the birthday section.

Adding a gallery would be wonderful. Also, adding some indication on pricing would likely be helpful.

It sounds weird, to me, to just say "They taste good too." That comes across as an afterthought. First page totally needs to go as well. People don't really do "click to enter" anymore, unless it's some kind of verification screen. The menus are really hard to find. You should use a graphic instead and make them larger.

1.) The "click to enter" page is really too I don't know - "porn-ish??" If I was looking up a cake business and got that, I wouldn't click to enter. I really wouldn't. I have no idea what I'm entering.

2.) The litter box and the hen party cake are NOT great advertisments. I would use something way more appropriate and cute.

3.) The wedding cuppies are super cute, but I also would love to see some wedding cakes.

4.) It's hard to find the links waaaaaayyyy over in tiny writing on the side of the screen.

I do love the retro thing though! There's really a lot you can do with that.

Thank you for everyones advice, will take the vast majority on board and get some changes in place. I don't want to use a webs template though because I think it can end up looking very generic, and wanted to avoid that look.
I'm having a baking session today and will put more pics up, thanks again! x