"Pursuing an online degree" site

[akbigdog]

I have a blog that I've just developed to document my progress toward getting a degree online through the Art Institute Online. I would be interested to hear feedback on the design.

Pursuing an online degree < Back to School (http://school.akbourne.com)

[uqwebdesign]

The site looks ok at the moment, but does look like a million other blog sites out there.

Ignoring that fact though, I'd say you could have a better header graphic that reflects the "school" image better.

You could also have a more bright and interesting colour scheme, to make the right hand menu stand out - the turquoise used as the footer would be much better in my opinion. I'd also recommend you could use more of a transition for your links when hovered over (on the menu).

If you used the turquoise as a background colour you could then have the links in white with the orange as their hover colour for example.

Finally, the font on your menu should be the same as the rest of the page, and the font used on the "back to school" text could be a little smoother around the edges, try anti-aliasing it

Otherwise the layout is clean and simple and I like it, it just doesn't jump out at me or have any character at present