I recently went live with my shareware site and would appreciate any design and useablity comments. http://www.canistotasoftware.com

Thanks in advance!

I like it. I like that reddish color scheme.

A few thoughts:

1) The house pic and/or name of the site pic could be a link to the home page.

2) The font for "Home, New Additions, Top 20... " could be different. Fancier?
Seems a tad plain and there's nothing to distinguish them (visually) from the chunks of text that aren't links.

3) The Top Shareware list would be much more impressive with counts. As it is, the surfer doesn't know if that's top for the week, the month, all time, or just the people who paid you to be in that last

4) The Newsletter signup thingy would be improved if there was a link to view the current issue in another web browser window.

5) Can you do the "More Information" link click to a new web browser? might be better than totally taking the surfer off your site.

6) Some people will be offended by the continual distinction you make between "Software and Shareware" ... as if shareware isn't software. I'm not, but I know some who resent the inference.
General Motors, Toyota, Honda, etc are all still "auto makers" who make "autos" even though nowadays some of their vehicles are leased and some are purchased outright.

If there were 2 different sets of category structures, instead of lumping the 2 together, (which isn't want you want) it would make more sense why you are making the distinction globally like that. Of course the terms and policies of each individual item must be clear. That's important to know. You've got that covered in the submission form. :-)

7) When I submitted, I didn't know what the size maximums were for "short" and "long" description.

8) It wasn't obvious if you were going to post my email address with my item or not.

9) It wasn't obvious what the comments field was for. Would that be with my item? or is that for a special comment to you ?

10) Since your name doesn't have an obvious pronunciation, consider a link to an audio file so the surfer can hear it pronounced. The reinforcement of the name with an aural anchor will increase brand awareness, in your case.
If it means something, include that info too in the audio.

nice design,

one question why was the site named canistotasoftware

what does it mean.

Thank you both for the comments, I will surely work on some of the items discussed. DanPhx, I was making the distinction between software and shareware so much as "shareware" has available trial versions while the "software" does not and many of my visitors want "freebees" so that is where the difference comes into play but I probably overdid it in the alt text as I was trying different things for SEO. As far as the short and long descriptions in the submission area, I wrongly assumed (I know shouldn't do that) that authors would be familiar with that PAD format which the submission file is based on so I will definately add maximum characters to that form. I will also add that the comments are for the software reviewers (me) but you are right that it isn't clear as is the fact that the email addresses are not published on the site (Spam issues) but are for future reference if a visitor has support questions on the software or if I need to contact the author for some reason. Web, the name comes from the city I am based out of which is Canistota, SD.

You're welcome. Thanks for the info. And the site :-)

Keep up the good work!

Dan