Please check out my sidebar - Any ideas for making it better?

Can you guys think of any way to make this sidebar more visually appealing?

Also, any comments on the rest of the layout are more than welcome...

Thanks!

If you click the thumbnail below, it will open the full design...


VIEW DESIGN

 

replace the purple squares with real snapshots and it will do the job
I think..

 

i agree the purple blocks dont work that well, im new to web design so ill be visiting when its up and running

good luck!

 

Thanks for the reviews, guys - those purple blocks are actually just place holder for 125x125 ads

 

I really like the layout. It's very simple and clean!

 

I agree. I like the simple layout.

Anyway, I guess you need to change the color scheme of the side bar otherwise it's just fine.

 

meby ur purple block can change with picture that describes ur site..

but overal nice look for ur design..

 

Do you mean those 4 squared on the sidebar? Those are placeholders for ads...

The box on top, in the header, that now has a link to the newsletter, that's going to rotate between a few ads (jquery)...

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

The theme is really nice !! Good Job.. You can may be design the ad placeholder with some matching color !!

Overall its good !!

 

thanks for the review!

those ad placeholders aren't really going to be seen by anyone, though... they'll be replaced by real ads once the site goes live

 

Looks Perfect! nice design. and I think ads placeholders colors are should be match with site colors. Dark green and Black gradiant. overall A+++

 

I think everything looks good. Just use some mixed colors in the background, looks more attractive..

 

Thanks - and just curious, what do you mean by "mixed colors in the background"?

Also, do you guys know of any way to make the "On This Page" part of the sidebar look better? Should I put a border around that text or something? It looks like it's just kind of stuck there