HI there
I just had a look and here’s some constructive criticism / advice:
The homepage is waaaaay too heavy. I’m on broadband and had to wait a while…i thought there was something wrong!
The main culprit is the web address image which appears to be on ‘fire’…it is 121k in size. Unless this is an absolute necessity to the site (which is probably not) i say get rid of it. If anything your web address should be at the top where users have a greater chance of remembering it.
Next thing is that there are a lot of banners. If each one is 10k on average then you have an extra 100k on your homepage. Besides, it’s not good to have too many becuase a lot of users have Norton Antivirus which blocks them, so you’d be better off having a little write up about each one. Besides too many flashy graphics distract and confuse the user
Remember people on the internet behave differently to real life. By this I mean that we are extremely impatient. if a user doesn’t see anything in the first few seconds likelihood is they will click the close button and never return.
Cures:
1. Try optimising your graphics, there are some good cheap packages out there which will do the job for you. Paint Shop pro i think does a good job, might even be free these days. You could also get your hands on more professional software like Fireworks which will reduce the size of the graphics dramatically.
2. Replace excess imagery with text. This will also help you on search engines.
3. When designing always do so for the layman and put yourself in their shoes.
Take my advice, I’ve been designing websites for a living for many years. It will pay off in the short and long term.
Good luck and if you want any more info or help don’t hesitate to contact me 