Its just too plain and big. You need to spend more time on them, your rushing it. The font is too large, looks like something a child would do. Its really simple, but at the same time it has no elegance or class that the simple style should have. You are missing the detail work, subtle things that give it that polish. Colours are hidious. I could have mocked that up better in MS Word.
Fireworks is faster and offer more options for webdesign . Photoshop is the god of bitmaps and has a huge array of tools , nevertheless it takes time to master .
Looks very nice, keep working on it and you will get there. My suggestion would be to look into the fonts.
Thanks Currenz is right. Go check out some sites you like or visit some famous/authority/popular sites. Learn some color schemes and learn what's hot now. You could search up the "F" reading pattern for sites or something. It's studies shown that people read in a F shaped area. I don't like the text very much, something as simple as that could make it a whole lot better.
Try mixing different fonts and use vibrant color schemes. Try picking up colors from your favorite sites till you get an idea. Develop a contrast. PS: Use gradients but don't overdo it.
Try using a different font. Maybe a nice sans serif? Also, reduce the size of check marks as they are too big and distracting from other parts of your design. Colour scheme is another thing. The header looks a bit off so you might try with a different colour. Oh, and play with aligning and centering things. For example, Links under 'Categories' and 'Archives' should be aligned accordingly. It's a little trick you'll pick up along the way. Keep up the good work
Playinstyle, iv just received the images youve photoshopped for me and they are brill! very profesional and will be used on my website. Many thanks Jamie
Try to think about design without photoshop effects. It's much better for training than focus on layer styling.
You got much to learn, but.. as a beginner, you're on perfect way ! Make more layouts and make them more often, more you train more you learn, in photoshop there is nothing better than practice. Also pretty nice layouts, keep it up!
One thing I would recommend is to use different types of fonts. Throw in some serif use for headers and then sans-serifs for content, it adds some visual interest. Overall the layout is really good, also try to develop better color schemes, color really has an effect on how a design is perceived. colourlovers.com has some great color palettes to look at to help you with inspiration and stuff.
Great start, practise your gradients and those templates will look way better And be careful with drop shadow, it easily makes site blurry.