I have received several comments that my home page was too cluttered. I began to suspect that people were right, so I began toying with the notion of a way to present all the information on the front page without showing it.....but rather hiding it, sort of dynamically, with CSS.

I studied several options and settled on a simple approach that seems to work well. I need to play with it a bit more, but I was wondering what people thought of it.

http://totalphysiqueonline.com/home/

if peeps could check it in IE 6 and 7 that would be great!

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. The comment thing bugs me. I like the mouseover though :D But thanks for your honesty!

The link exchange was necessary because it gave me a link on another site. I agreed to put it there for that purpose. So, I sort of feel obligated.

The iTunes is a is a podcast link that people use to grab my podcasts from itunes, so it will need to stay for the time being. As for the Meta....MAN I love that thing. It is very helful to mWAH. So it stays too. LOL

As for the links..I am lazy just like you...and it gives me access to my fav sites. That way I do not have to type it. LOL, but I agree, it is sort of unnecessary.

Not sure what to do with the tab yet. It was really an experiment to see what visitors thought of it. I am tracking my traffic closely and seeing what my visitors prefer in terms of navigation. So, for the next day or so I will see what happens. It is not a keeper by any means.

I agree with LobsterMan and wildleaf, the menu might be a neat trick but it serves no purpose. It doesn't save space so what is the point?

Give me a brief description; what is your site about? and throw me a few juicy links to get me clicking.

IE6 is still a good % of visitors (over 50% still from one of my sites that gets over 500 unique visits a day). So ALWAYS make sure to check it in IE6.

I am assuming you have IE7 (if you are using a PC) and I would suggest using Multiple IEs http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE . So you can have IE7, and IE6, and IE 5.5, 5.01, 4.01, and even 3.0. I find that 3.0 and 4.01 tend to be buggy, but testing below 5.5 seems a little silly now. I still check it in 5.01 for good measure.

Good luck!

A few more thoughts:

My first thought was that each of us needs to be careful of becoming too "flexible" when it comes to seeking advice. At some point in your life you have to decide that either your vision is the right one and go with it, or it isn't. Whether you succeed or don't succeed in life, it is always best to stand or fall on your own convictions rather than stick your wet finger to the wind and go with every doctrine that comes your way. If you are constantly looking for approval you will never be satisfied with who you are as a person. For that matter, you will never be pleased with anything you ever do, because it is a sure bet that someone will always tell you that either you are not good enough or you did not do x,y or z like they would have done it had they been in charge. Hence, you will always feel inadequate.

Don't misunderstand me. I do think there is some wisdom in seeking counsel from others, just as long as it does not become a means to an end itself.

My other thought was, "OK, so what is my site about?".

Well, that is not easy to answer. I suppose if someone took the time to read the "About" page on my site, they might come away with a good idea of what my site is about. But that is too much to ask of some folks. For others, it just takes too much time. So it is no surprise that some folks might come away from my site scratching their heads and thinking, "Huh?"

I am sure some people would prefer I just serve the site to them on a silver platter so that they do not have to invest any effort at all. I guess I could come by their homes and do a Web-O-Gram and sing my site to them. I have no doubt this would please a lot of folks just fine. However, since that is not going to happen any time soon I have to content myself with the fact that some folks may need to visit my site a couple of times in order to enjoy it. The trick is getting them to come back.

I definately understand the benefits of having a site that is easy to understand. Really, I do. But the best blogs, the ones that I enjoy the most, are rarely easy to understand. Most blogs seem to have one thing in common: blogs are usually very personal and typically they are at once about nothing at all and everything, or so it seems. So, how can something so complex as self-expression be easy to understand?

Unless your site is about something other than you, I just do not think a blog can be easy to understand. Is Kramer easy to understand? Well, yes, and no. Anyone who is a fan of Seinfeld knows exactly what I am talking about. More than anything, blogs seems to be about honestly expressing oneself. True, some blogs reach out and grab you very easily, whereas some do not. Naturally, everybody wants a blog that grabs people. I know I do. Don't you? But for a blog to mean anything, in my view the first thing a blog has to be is honest.

For the record, my site is about me. It is about my passion for fitness, faith and overcominmg challenges. My site is also my personal canvass and playground. It's where I go to paint with words, think and write creatively about a wide range of topics. My site is where I go to teach others how to do some of the things I have done to stay as healthy as I have (Wow, some of this sounds so good I might just put it on my site LOL).

In the end, my site is a work in progress. It will continue until it no longer brings me the joy that I seek. It might turn out to be the biggest waste of time in my life. It may turn out to be an utter flop. It may be one of those things things that nobody gives a damn about but me. On the other hand, it might turn out to be something worthwhile and useful for others. That certainly is what I am shooting for. One thing I do know is this: one day I will reach a point where I no longer wish to play there. I will move on to another playground, another canvass. Hell, that day me just be weeks away. Who knows.

As for the clutter, yeah it is a bit cluttered. But hell, talk to Ainslie. It is his design, I just use it.

I happen to like the 3 column design Ainslie did. I think it is brilliant! It is perfect for my needs. It gives me plenty of room to play with, and since I see no point in having three columns unless you intend on using them, I make a certain amount of use of each one.

Where I agree with everyone is that if you are going to use a column, then it needs to serve a purpose. For the most part everything I am using is to one degree or another for my visitors (though I confess that a couple of things are just for me heheh).

I always try to take ideas and weigh them, considering the merits of each. I am interested it what others think. Just don't be offended if I do not take an idea of yours and run with it right away. I might, but then again I might not. Just don't be hurt of I don't.

Anyway, keep the input coming.

Thanks for reading.