Color Your Niches..

[Lee]

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.

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

i've read a lot of theories about marketing, psychology and sex - but most of it didn't work well for me in reality.

a site with a black background sells almost everything well for me. sure, the other colors are important but black rocks for me.

light blue is good for twink, although i still do well with black.

i can't sell fuck all on green and my grandpa avs site did great on - you guess it! - black.

i take occasional stabs at a white background, but it doesn't do better than black for me, and i have to work harder with white tours/galleries to make them sell. i DO like white with dark blue, white with red, or white with dark burgundy.

red sold shemales extremely well for me, but i also sold them well on black. the extreme shemale fetish sites i promote do best on black.

my most successful overall background colors: black, dark blue, light blue and sometimes white. my least selling colors include: green, yellow and generally orange.

orange DOES sell okay on asian, btw, but nothing else i tested it with did too well.

[Lee]

Patti,

I agree with you on black backgrounds, thats actually one of the reasons i didnt include black in the list above because most people using color, will opt for a black or, a white bg on their pages hehe.

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

Well I take a different slant, though I basically agree with most of the shrink stuff... trouble is many overdo the primary color which is why sometimes they simply don't work. (just speaking generally btw)

For myself, I have found that a lot depends on the content being displayed. If its a ton of pictures, darker colors tend to offset the pictures better, while if text, then the lighter colors offset the dark text color.

I have tried black, failed horribly at it. Tried red and blue too, same results. But then I have more of a text driven site so I think for me, the lighter shades are what has worked and still do.

However I like all the info Lee, has given me some ideas and now I know I won't be able to sleep tonight, so thanks a bunch..:whip: :joker:

[basschick]

all my sites are heavy on text - and if i need a spot to put a story, story sample or information, nothing makes it stand out quite like a white bordered table on a white background

[dalimili]

Hmmm.... black doesn't work for me ...

but white background with any brigh striking color (orange, blue, violet, pink, green) it does wonders... but the colors have to be really striking, not bland or pastel... but bright

[Xstr8guy]

I personally love monochromatic designs with restrained splashes of contrasting color. This way the photos stand out from the screen as well as the important links (banners, join links, etc). It doesn't really matter what color you use as long as it's relatively subdued and you stay away from browns and greens... at least for me. I like white/silver, black/grey, red and blue palettes.