The Color of e-Business
By Ernest Seger

We all know the tremendous advantages to operating a store
front on the Web. But often we overlook the built-in
disadvantage that every Internet store front shares…

The flat surface of a computer monitor has to substitute
for the brick, mortar and 3 dimensional colors of a real
world business.

Which brings up a problem -

You built your site around a particular shade of blue that
looks great on your PC. But your visitor is viewing your
site on his Mac, which translates that shade of blue into
something that looks very different!

But not to worry. The following free sites can help you
whip out great looking web-safe color combinations in a
flash.

http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/ is a free color lab that
allows you to see how colors work together. It's very
visual and simple. Click on the color wheel and different
color choices are presented to the right of the wheel. Keep
choosing colors until you find something that looks good to
you.

http://www.reallybig.com/visibone/lab/ is the same color
lab but with a *random* button. Click "random" until you
find an interesting combination of colors. Then begin to
remove the colors you don't like by clicking on the tiny
"X"s.

http://www.paletteman.com/ allows you to experiment using
up to four color combinations It gives you HEX or RGB
values and will even email the
combinations to you.

Now let's talk first about the IMPACT of colors - and how
the colors you choose for your web site could impact your
bottom line.

The basis for this information is
http://www.pantone.com/index.asp?pn=home

[] Blue
Studies have revealed that blue is the country's most
Popular color.

Ford, "Big Blue" (IBM) and Benz, are all blue. When
Exxon and Mobile merged, their color became blue.

[] Green
Speaks of ecology and nature. Says Eiseman,
"Consumers describe it as fresh, clean and revitalizing."

Yellow-Green is negative for adults (slime), but is liked
by the youth market.

[] Red
Red is viewed as the most exciting color - and creates
a high arousal threshold.

Compare Chrysler (red) with Ford (blue). Which company do
you view as the most cutting-edge and exciting?

[] Purple
"The 18 to 29 year olds are especially partial to purple
because they consider it sexy," says Eiseman. "And
the influentials see it as powerful and sophisticated."

[] Black
"Black remains the most mysterious, powerful, and
sophisticated shade, especially with wealthy,
achievement-oriented women." But not by middle-aged men
and women, however, who still associate black with
mourning.

[] Pink and red
The two colors that are seen as the warmest as well as
the most cheerful, with pink being the most popular
of the two.

[] Bright orange
The least favorite color

For more on this subject, go to
http://www.pantone.com/index.asp?pn=home

Bottom line:

Better use of color will mean a better Web site that
appeals to your visitor, and can even make your site
appear better than it is.

Match the color scheme of your site with your
target audience and you'll make more money.

It's as simple as that (and as hard!).

About the Author

Ernest Seger is CEO of Internet Business Marketing. His site
focuses on advanced Internet marketing techniques and
free software. Get thousands of visitors to your web site
each and every week: http://www.netnetmoney.net

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