Color Your Niches

Okay we all know that colors sell well on galleries and site but, do you know what types of color work best for specific niches in the gay market place?

Here is a quick breakdown of a system i have been using for the last couple of years and, more often than not, this guide is actually pretty spot on when it comes to using specific color shades on specific niche sites.

Red - Best used on fetish orientated or extreme sites.

By its very nature red is a dominating color and, with that in mind, should be used sparingly on sites it is also know to invoke 'instant' decisions when used properly, if you plan on making a site utilizing red as the main color, rather than go for a 'blood red' hue go with some more subdued tones, such as #800000.

When i think of reds, i tend to think about keywords such as; dramatic, hot, danger, explicit and words of that nature, all words that, as webmasters, we would use to sell fetish or extreme sites.

Orange - Best used on Asian or Latin / Latino sites and sometimes works well on waring pages too.

Orange, is one of those funny colors psychologically, it can portray deceit when used in darker shades however, paler hues, have a reassuring effect on a persons psychy. The best method of using orange on our sites that *I* have found is to use it as a contrast to Yellow or Red.

When thinking of orange, the keywords that i tend to associate with this color are along the lines of; warmth, oriental or caution. Again, these are all words that work well in writing copy for ethnic geared sites.

Yellow - Great when used in places where you want the surfer to make an action, clicking a button, highlighting a text link etc its also a great color to use as an attention grabber on twink or teen sites.

Yellow is one of those colors where, if you use it in excess it can REALLY take away from your marketing, especially when used on background with masse of 'white space' making pages look more 'bulky' than they actually are.

So far as keywords go, when i think of yellow i tend to think along the lines of; brightness, sunny, warmth and cost effective. Again, to some extent, these are all keywords that in one way or another, we would associate with teen orienatated sites or, on animated graphics to grab a surfers attention.

Green - Works extremely well on mature sites and, in lighter hues on teen or twink sites.

Green is actually one of the better colors to use on paysites IMHO, especially in a members area, it tends to give viewers a feeling of renewal or new life and growth, also, its a nice color for portraying a 'natural' feeling to a site.

Keyword wise, i tend to think of; money, generosity, nature and such words, this is especially good to adult webmasters because, these are all things we would associate with affiliate programs so, naturally this is a great color to use on those .

Blues - Best used on twink sites, underwear sites and, teen orientated sites.

Blue, by its very nature, is a soothing color, a 'safe' color if you like. Typically when blue is used in marketing, it makes the surfer feel safe and secure however, at the same time, if you go overboard, it can make a site feel cold and heartless, not something we particularly want surfers feeling.

Now i dont know about you folks but, when i think of blues, i think of using words like; fresh, clean and pure in my marketing, again, all keywords that we would associate with the twink / teen niches.

Golds - IMHO are best suited to sites such as premium AEN's, mature sites (when used sparingly) and on ebony sites (bling, bling!).

Gold is a really good color to use design wise because it conjures up feelings of qualitly, again this is part of the allure when using gold on mature sites, sex gets much better with age!

Keyword wise, as with the feelings it portrays; quality, premium, premier and maturity are the types of words i tend to think of, again, when used on AEN sites these are great words to use.

Pink - When used on lesbian, teen and for women sites works well.

Pink shades tend to draw feelings of cheapness and / or youthfullness, hence why it is a great color to use on teen sites, it also makes me think of cheesy when used on sites incorrectly so be sure to balance your use of pink with some complementing colors.

As for keywords, i have pretty much mentioned the keywords that i think of when using pinks; teen, youthfull and feminine.

White - Use on portals and teen sites as highlights.

White is actually one of my favorite colors to use, it works great on sites where you want to let the content do the selling, as it doesnt distract from the rest of the site. There is a reason why most search engines use a white background.

Whenever i think of white, i think of freshness, clean and, virginal, all great keywords to utilize on teen sites as well as on portals where you want your linked sites to have the main impact.

When using any sort of color on your sites, especially in massive blocks, try to stick away from the SOLID colors and opt to use subtle hues of your main color, a bright blue on a yellow background does make your marketing stand out however, depending on how much blue is on the page it can also hurt the eyes.

Hopefully the list of colors and associated niches above will be of some use to you the next time you design your sites and, dont forget, color, can have as much of an effect on how well our sites convert as our marketing can with that in mind, choose your colors carefully.

Article written by Lee.

http://www.webmasterconsultants.com