I finally have my website up & running. It's still kind of a work in progress, but I would love any opinions.
http://simply--sweets.webs.com/index.htm
Thanks!
love the site, easy to navigate, but i would make the font that is the links to the photo's and all a darker color, i had a hard time reading it. Otherwise Well Done!!
I like the pink and the striped background. I also like the font you chose. The only thing I would add is a good size photo of one of your best tiered cakes to the home page. The only picture that shows up is on the advertisement and that ad is rather large and unavoidable on free websites. If you can add a cake photo to your home page then it will or should draw the eye away from that ad!!! I would also work on the wording for the customer to read on your home page. Talk yourself up more. It's too simply stated.
It's looking great so far. 
Wow lkoenig07 not bad! I love the background. I also agree that AD on the front page we need to have a pic of a beautiful cake to take our eye off it! other then that I love it!
I don't care for the HUGE advertisments. This is a free site I take it? So there's no way around that, but if you can move them.. that would be good. If you add more content (even blank spaces) to the page will the add move down? You need a nice picture of one of your cakes on the front page too. The menu font is a big large. I like menu bars to be one line.. I think it's move visually pleasing. Having drop menus is okay, but having 3 lines for your menu is hard on the eyes.
Your About Me page should be taken off. It's not about your business.. it's about you.. and is more suited for your blog. 
I'm also not big on on-line order forms. Especially for things like cakes. Sometimes you don't get every contact form (especially with the free sites) and if you miss one.. and someone is thinking you are doing their cake.. it just has the potential to get you in a bind. I won't touch your pricing.. just know it's low.. really low. I'd nix the testimonials page too.. it'll help get your menu buttons down to at least 2 lines. I find testimonial pages a bit silly.. of course they are going to glowing reviews.. no one ever leaves bad reviews on their site. But that's my own opinion.
I agree you might want to darken your font a bit, and reduce the number of links. If your business takes off I'd pay to lose the ads too! But, otherwise it's nice enough.
My DH is originally from Rochester and his family still lives there. He doesn't miss the winters at all!!!!
Jodie
LOL.. I didn't mean to come across as a teacher at exam time. I do like the site.. just a few things I'd change.. some out of your control so what can you do. I had a free site once too and I was SOOOOOOOOO glad to see it go when it finally did. Good luck with your venture!
When your site loaded up the first thing my eyes went to is that ad and to be bluntly honest it screams at me. It's distracting and my eyes keep going back to it.
My start up cost through my service provider was less than $15 a year. I took the jump and paid for a server and host becuase for me I wanted a professional site right out of the gate and once you start ordering things with this link it's going to be a huge pain in the rear and extra expenses you don't want to allocate to reprint with a new URL once you do pay for one.
I say budget for it and go with a site. Godaddy has given me excellent service and support and I highly recommend them. Call them, tell them what you want and have them price it for you.
I think it is a pretty site and definitely says "cake". I dont know if you ahve already changed the font...but everything looks clear and is easy to read to me.
I suggest taking away some of the links and only having the necessary info as your top tier links.
i think the pricing page has too much information on it. Everything gets lost in the shuffle. Maybe if you said Party cakes start at this price and wedding cakes start at this price. OR - I'd suggest organizing it in a different way instead of the columns.
I think it is a good start and very clean. Your photo gallery is very nice as well.
At the very least I'd suggest buying a domain name which is less than $15 a year depending on where you buy it from. You can have that point directly to the site you have
Google also has free website tools that do not have advertisements. I'm using one temporarily if you would like to see mine. PM me and I will send the link.
I think your site looks great! Although I know what folks mean when they say the ad jumps out at you, it is a free site, and WHEN your business takes off, you can change that! As for now, I think it looks great just the way it is! I LOVE your Availabilty calendar.....how did you create it?
I like the site, and really liked the stripes and scalloped border. But I have to admit that I really didn't like the movie ad. And also, no cakes on the front page is a little confusing.
CarolynGwen--looks like the least expensive site at godaddy is 3.99 a month if you want 3 yrs. Am I missing something, or were just referring to the cost of the domain name?
lkoenig07--your site looks nice overall, but comments made previously are definitely to be considered
I too recommend adding a cake pic on the home page, even if you're adding a logo. The cake pic along with the logo will let people know right away what you're selling.
Did you know your ad changes? When I started navigating your site, the ad changed, and it was for cakes through another business. You might want to consider paying the small fee and go with Yahoo Sitebuilder, Homestead, or Go Daddy. It's not good to have another cake business ad pop up on your site.
I use go daddny and I got my domain name, and a website tonight economy plan, I pay $67 every 2 years. I know we all have different budgets, but it's really worth doing it in my opinion.
WHEN your business takes off, you can change that!
The reason I'm going to be a bit naggy about the ad is because it screams at you, especially with it being a dating one.
I set up a free site to start with and had it listed on things. When I upgraded to a paid site it wasa heafty expence. New business cards, new advertisements, new everything.
I then had to keep that old free site up to forward to the new one.
The cost to reorder everything with the new site was more than the $$$ I put out to pay for the site.
Then I had people saying they were still going to the old one for months. Frustrating to say the least.
That's why I'm hard core of start your business the right way instead of back tracking to fix things like this. When you are in business there is never a simple "go back and change..." when you are dealing with printing and distribution of information.
You can buy a domain name and have it forward people to your free site when they type in your domain name. I did that in the beginning. It cost me $10 to register a domain name with go daddy and the re-direct was not obvious to the person visiting the site.
That's a nice way around having the free site name and having to change it later.
There are other free sites too. I had my free site through free webs, and the ads were at the top of the screen and not in the middle of the content. It might be a good idea to take a look at other options.
Do all providers charge an annual fee for a domain name? I went to godaddy to register mine and found that each one was per year
From what I understand, that's how it works everywhere. You cannot just register a domain name and own for life. It's just a matter of how much you pay for it.
In other news, I remember a year or 2 ago a big company was late and someone snatched their domain name and charged them a ton of money to get it back...
Yeah.. it's a yearly fee, but $10 (on average) a year isn't much. Hosting runs about $30 on the low end and up/year depending on where you go and what you need.
It's about $5/month if you average it out. It's not a huge cost. You pay for it and much more with one cake order.
WHEN your business takes off, you can change that!
The reason I'm going to be a bit naggy about the ad is because it screams at you, especially with it being a dating one.
Funny, When I opened her site the ad was for the Movie Bride Wars. I thought to myself, well if you have to have an ad due to it being a free site, what a fitting ad!
LOL! Guess it rotates the ads.
I would seriously raise your prices, don't see how you are going to make any money at those rediculously low prices. I learned in the dance studio biz that if you are the cheapest in town that the potential client is going to think you don't have good credentials, too high you might not get the enrollment, so shop your competition and be just a little bit under your highest priced competitor, then never apologize for the price you charge, just make sure you are worth it!
Thanks cakesdivine... I just went with those prices because I've only been doing this a year. I don't want to over-charge for my inexperience, but at the same time, I think for how little I've been doing this I'm also pretty good. I guess I was just going with that too b/c I couldn't figure a low enough price to get people to use me over wegmans cakes, etc.
if you are keeping the online ordering page, you should have a bit saying you will get back to them for discussing/ confirming the order *your order is not guarenteed by filling out this form*
your cakes look good, u deserve to be getting paid for your time, not just your ingredients! although converting it into £ makes it different, it doesnt look like you personally would earn much over minimum wage.
its a really good looking website though!
xx
Ok, so I guess I'm a little confused... would I want a domain name or website hosting?
Both, unless you plan on hiring a web designer who will also host.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%