Since my last few designs I've decided to simplify my life a little and by trying to make a good simple color scheme first. I came up with these (I'm posting them mostly to show how I progressed):

Blue Test #3 -
I think the jump to the darker color kills it. The reason I'm posting it is my favorite part is the menu. This one is an analogous scheme.

Blue Test #4 -
Every color here has the same hue, with the exception of the links which are whatever your default is for your browser. I was told this one was too un-masculine for me.

Blue Test #5 -
Every color has the same hue as before but they are more saturated and have less value than before.

Blue Test #6 -
I liked the last one so I decided to add the complementary color to it. I really like the menu for this one but the orange titles look sort of odd to me. Does anyone else feel this way too?

Am I making progress here or I am suffering from more of the same problem?

http://www.colinjeanne.net/test/testblue4.html

I actually think this is the best of them, except for the white background. To me it just seams out of place... maybe to much border, or maybe no tie in to the menu... which leads me also to say that the menu items seem to just float on the background with no container. While not necissarily bad, it's not something I prefer on the pages that I design..

Colin, I think you'll be interested in this link. I know it's saved me much headache.

I agree with Rob about the 5th one.

And welcome to the group! Rob, you, and me. All three big on web stuff... :)

Rob, yes, I got a name change. I've wanted one for a while and when Magmai changed to his real name I decided that now is the time. [smile]

Thanks for the opinions everyone. I dont think I'm going to make any more variations on this same design and since people seemed to like it, I think I'm going to use #4 for my site. I'll eventually set up a system so that registered users can change to a different style as well.

And thank you very much, Charles, for that link!

One word of advice to the #4 one, I'd use some light shade of grey to not blare at you (instead of the white). Right now, the white seems to be too distracting.