Website advice? (with a healthy dose of crass self-promotion)
Hi everyone,
I've been lurking here for a few weeks and chatting with some of you over at WFG for a few months. Recently, my coauthors and I opened up our webnovel to the public. We've had a reasonable amount of interest over the past few days via WFG, Muses Success, and deviantArt (we post our story art there with links to the website).
A lot of our hits don't go anywhere though. They seem to check out the front page then disappear (thank you google analytics). Sooo, I would like to ask you all a favour. The story is here: www.guardiansofelidi.com . When you visit do you want to read? Know where to click if you do? Find yourself immediately turned off the internet forever and vow to terminate your contract with your ISP immediately?
Any insight into your first impressions would be so helpful!
I agree with Char--a blurb would be great. I have a fairly small (though not tiny) screen and the tabs and art, lovely as they are, take up the entire thing--I don't have much motivation to scroll down if I don't know what I'm getting into. Then, well, I hope this doesn't sound too mean, but I'm not too inclined to start reading a story that misspells "foreword"--it doesn't give me high hopes for correct spelling in the story ahead. (Not that everything needs to be perfect for me to read a story, but I do prefer not to have to work too hard at it.) I didn't see any other spelling errors, though (after reading the foreword) and in fact have bookmarked the site for future reading!
@Char - thanks! I will try to put together a blurb.
@Clare - 
I am so embarrassed. I honestly didn't know that "foreword" was a word, and I am a huge geek about spelling and grammar. Thanks for pointing it out - I will fix it immediately.
Now to think about what I will re-arrange to get an informative blurb in a prominent place...
Lilly,
Don't worry! I made the same mistake until a reader pointed it out! 
It's definitely a common mistake--maybe more common than other homonyms, since "foreword" is a rarely used word. I hope that helps you get more readers!
The first thing that jumps out at me is that the navigation is wonky. It took me a while to figure out that the books were links. I found it annoying to have to tilt my head to read the titles (Foreword, Saga 1: Seth, etc.). Yes, I know we reasonably expect to tilt our heads to look at titles on a bookshelf, but a website is not a bookshelf, even if it is designed to look like one.
You have nothing above the fold that tells me what your site is about. When it first loads in my browser, I see "HOME | Guardians" in the title bar. I see a handful of links and a large illustration of three pretty ladies, but that's really it.
You do get bonus points for having the prominent "About Elidi" link, but the content of that page isn't really helpful. You tell me who conceived it and who helped, but I still don't know anything about this site and what it's about.
Thanks so much for all the input guys. Here are the changes I'm planning:
- make the banner picture work harder. Include an informative tagline along the lines of "a fantasy story about heroes and the people who love them. Updated Fridays" kind of thing (but better worded and catchier).
- move the "this is where you can go for content" text to above the pretty books, rather than below them.
- add a more informative blurb about the story (similar to the ones we have on webfictiongude and muse's success) to the "About Elidi" section.
- shorten the ribbons for the menu links by 20-30 pixels so they don't take up so much real estate.
Personally, I like to know at least a little about what I'm getting into by reading a story. It's why I check the backs of books (or the jacket sleeves). There isn't any sort of teaser or blurb on the site... that might help!
BTW, lovely site, and I like the way y'all have included your artwork.