"Oh, my eyes, my eyes! What an eye sore. Quick, click away! Click away!"
Suddenly I wake up in a cold sweat. What happened. Oh, then I realize: it was just a nightmare.
O.k., I'm not crazy, and no I haven't had this dream before. But think about this: what would you do if you came to a site littered with either tons of different colors, loud pinks, purples, greens and reds mixed incoherently, or more animations and graphics than the rods and cones of your inner eye can possibly absorb? If your like me I simply go "click, bye-bye".
Our visual stimulus is ever more so important on the web than almost anywhere else. Most definitely the internet is about information. But, that information is shown graphically. So, if you want to keep people at your site, first appeal to their visual stimulus.
There are a few guidelines that you should adhere to when designing your site, following known research results on colors that elicit certain psychological responses people. The bottom line is that it is hard enough to market on the internet today, why make it harder by bugging your visitors.
(1) Colors and Their Effect: I prefer blue and white. In general blue seems to elicit a sense of trust and white a sense of purity. Gold, on the other hand is the color of wealth and prosperity, something we are all working towards. So, with respect to general internet marketing, these colors tend to work the best. They are easy on the eyes and don't strike up a sense of danger, such as with the color red. Of course, the colors also depend on purpose of your site. If selling baby items, pink, which represents femininity, and baby blue, representing weakness may work quite well. It depends in part on site content. A high tech site selling electronic components may do better with greys, silvers, and black.
(2) Animations and Banners: Animations are nice, but can take time to load and be distracting. Use them to focus the attention of a visitor. Place them at a single page location, at the center or all at the left side for instance. If you use more than one and they are scattered all over the page, where can you expect your eyes to focus. Yep, you heard right - click, bye, bye.
Banners can also give you problems if there are two many and not well organized. Pay attention to the color design to ensure that it matches your site. Remember, no eye sores here. Overall, banner are known not to have the highest clickthrough rates.
(3) Flash Media: Flash media animations are steadily gaining popularity and many sites are tailoring their start-up page to include large flash animations. Beware. In online home businesses, your primary purpose is content. Only fit in flash where it is strictly meant to guide the visual stimulus to a part of your site. I know, I know, it does look cool. But cool doesn't and never will build sales out of potential prospects.
A few further resources that are of particular interest here are
(1) http://www.internet-marketing-research.net,
(2) http://www.internet-marketing-research.net,
(3) http://www.internet-marketing-research.net.
As a good rule of thumb, if it hurts your eyes, it probably hurts others as well. Keep it simple, professional, easy to look at with color used just in the right place to highlight your content. Content is what will build your home based business. Elicit a visual response from your visitors to drive them to your content.
About The Author
Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of http://www.internet-marketing-research.net, a site devoted to providing resources for small budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics, two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on home business resources at http://www.internet-marketing-research.net or by visiting his Home Based Business site.
http://www.internet-marketing-research.net
family-safe home cleaners Morton Grove ..One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation... Read More
1. Lack of overall strategy and clear definition of success:Most... Read More
Have you seen Jesse James on the... Read More
To build a website, there are four methods to choose... Read More
A "404 Error" happens when the web server you are... Read More
Everyday we hear that another company goes out of business.When... Read More
What Will My Site Do?This is the first of eight... Read More
This article is the result of a conversation I had... Read More
The first step to starting any Internet business is conducting... Read More
QUESTION: We promote our web site in all our... Read More
Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as... Read More
With an increasing number of employment portals emerging, it is... Read More
You spend time and money promoting your website; but what... Read More
Thinking about designing your own website? Think again about adding... Read More
STEP 1:Do your homeworkPlan and think about your content. Think... Read More
In this era of ultra-sophisticated internet marketing and web design,... Read More
As a webmaster you already know how important it is... Read More
Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.When choosing... Read More
I have written before about long sales copy on the... Read More
Are you looking for somebody to build you a website,... Read More
To explain my point I need to first confuse the... Read More
How many of the visitors to your web site take... Read More
Most NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) don't understand these important aspects of... Read More
When you design a website how do you start ?Do... Read More
A search for "web design" on Google returns more than... Read More
home cleaning services Wilmette ..We would all like to have the best looking website,... Read More
Q: Should I build and maintain my business Web site... Read More
Any design on a web application involves the effective input... Read More
A well designed web site is great to have, but... Read More
Since I made the switch 6 months ago to a... Read More
If you're not getting a lot of traffic to your... Read More
When you begin the design of your Web site, one... Read More
Almost everything is available on the web? products, services, e-books,... Read More
Many people today are tired of the Microsoft software that... Read More
When a prospect lands on your website will he or... Read More
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic... Read More
You know... Before purchasing your product a person comes to... Read More
We will take a look at why your visitors may... Read More
How many of the visitors to your web site take... Read More
Home PageHome page should clearly indicate what the site is... Read More
First off, I am a designer. Now you're thinking, here's... Read More
Whether you're giving a critical sales presentation to a client,... Read More
I once created a notepad-like editor. It is possible with... Read More
Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're... Read More
So you want to build a website here I will... Read More
There are plenty of web sites out there in which... Read More
You have probably viewed many Flash-based components while surfing the... Read More
Argh, where's the contact button?! Believe it or not, some... Read More
What is a Website Template?Many smart and savvy businesses are... Read More
See, works every time. Seriously now, for some reason people... Read More
Web Design |