What does everyone think of the new home page?

Now, web design has never been one of my fortes. Sure, back when the web was young (in the 90s), I made some pretty cool pages for those days. But I'm a programmer. I've always been more interested in function over form. Call me a utilitarian. So making my web site "look nice" has always been a challenge to me.

I've been spending a lot of time trying to make the web site database-driven. Almost every page you land on now is fed from a database (see that ID=1234 in the URL querystring up top in your browser?) but the home page needed some love.

So, there ya go. It doesn't look like much, but it was designed to make my life easier. One of my huge pains in the behind is updating the home page every time I do something - a new release or a blog post or a new TechHelp video. So now whenever I make something new - BOOM! - it will just show up there on the home page automagically. The whole page is database driven now. Well, except for that list of courses on the left. That's pretty static, but I feel like it should be there for newcomers. "Does this guy teach Excel?" for example.

The center column is fed by the same Blog Engine I designed to host classes, the TechHelp videos, and pretty much everything else. Add something new, and it shows up on the home page. Latest News over on the right shows ALL of my posts (including ones that don't have videos or pictures associated with them) and of course YOUR comments and posts will show up in the Forums section.

I would really like to know what you guys think. I know it's not much, but I'm always open to suggestions. I really value feedback from "the other side." I don't really USE my web site. You guys do. What do you want to see?

UPDATE Friday Jan 29, 2021:

Make a few more tweaks this morning. Moved the JOIN button to the middle of the What's New feed. I didn't like the way it looked there. I took Rick Smallwood's recommendation and made the "Order" link more prominent and put a "Buy Now" button under the New Releases. He said I should give people an easier path to the main order page. He's right. Thanks, Rick.

I don't know what to do about the "stuck in the 90s" look that a few people have mentioned. On the one hand, I like that look. I like 90s web sites. Efficient and functional. I don't like all these modern sites with tons of empty space, giant fonts, and meaningless pictures. Makes it hard to find things sometimes. Depends on what your goals are. If you want to be artsy fartsy, sure, go that design route. I want simple, functional, and efficient.

What do you think? You guys use the site. You tell me.