First real sig

this is my first real sig that I made. I know it sux but o well tell me what you think anyway.

I think it's fine but the background maybe to simple and the text in my opinion should be lower, but that's how I'd like it. Also I think that the characters should be more on top (you can see the red color that flows from the text on top of them, like on the white pants and the blue shirt), maybe that's how you wanted it to be though.
Keep it up! ^.^ I just begun doing sigs myself yesterday, did two of them already.

Thats good for a first sig, but the effect on the text makes it hard to read. And like sakuma said, the bg is very simple.

does then metal type words make it beter or worse

As I see it the metal type makes it worse.
I recomend you to take all the typing thing out (including the fire and all the red effect) then change the background for something more interesting and then find a matching font for it