Gifting Club - The Most Elite Gifting Program

So you?ve bought the domain, you?ve got some great sales copy, ensure your meta and alt tags are doing they?re job, have a few graphics thrown in for good measure and are all set to publish your design to the web. Right?

Wrong. But though you?re on the right track, you might have overlooked what research is now calling one of the most crucial elements in site design: color. Having the right color scheme might be one of the ways to make or break your site. Since you only have about the first ten seconds of a user?s attention span, you need to ensure that what they first see catches their eye.

The fact that users are visiting your site means you?ve got the core elements of design on target, but now you have to keep them there. True, you?ll need great a great sales pitch and copy but don?t underestimate the importance of a color?s pyschology.

Colors mean different things to different people and can symbolise different things in different cultures. For instance, if you?re marketing your website for Asian users, a green hat with a white carnation as a corporate logo might seem creative but it might also get you backlashed and I?ll explain why. A green hat in China means a man?s wife is cheating on him and the white carnation symbolises death in Japan. Using the two in conjunction is a definite no-no.

Similarly, each color has a different meaning behind it which is subjective and relative to each user?s past experience.

Take the color red for instance, it could mean different things to different people based on their histories and associations with the color. It could mean a source of extreme pleasure for one and symbolise anger for another.

On the upside, websites created with different shades of blue or a blue-white combination are generally quite popular. Why? Blue typically represents a sense of calm, trust and security besides being easy on the eye.

However, using bright blue or bright of any color is a bad idea since the human eye will need to adjust to each color and it will put unneeded strain on their eyes.

Pink normally represents softness and gentility, which is why it is often used in baby care products while orange which symbolises potency and power is normally used in vitamins and health products, energy drinks etc.

Consider?s Newton?s first law ? every action must have an equal and opposite reaction. For each color that you choose, there will be a dfferent reaction to it by every user approaching that site. The question now becomes: how do you know which color won?t affront?

Try basing your color choices on what your site content and product sells, considering the audience & culture and gender preferences. Men and women prefer different variations of color ? men often prefer brighter colors and are generally okay with grays and blacks, while women prefer softer tones likes pastel shades. Cultures vary regarding color usage ? for instance a yellow and black site could be a wonderful combination for Americans, but might serve as a reminder to Nazi Germany for an Israeli, hence enforcing that those two colors should never be used in conjunction when designing a website for a Jewish corporation.

Let?s say you just love the blue/purple combination and have a nature-based website. Users do not often associate purple or blue with nature. Green and yellow might be more useful, with yellow used sparingly and green used predominantly due to its generally calming nature.

Multicolored websites have the least visitation span with the span reducing with the introduction of each new color. In general, not more than five different colors should be used on a single page.

Concluding, each website is defined not only by the content but by its color ? an indirect approach to marketing and propagating a message. While we use body language, websites use colors to demonstrate the subtleties and finer text.

Colors should not be used to support information, but rather to represent the site?s message and remain consistent throughout the website.

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How To Choose A Website Designer

 by: Steve Lillo

Now that you have decided that it is time to create a website for your business there are many questions you must answer. One of the most important questions is “Who should create my website?”

I like to use the analogy of playing music; in as little as a few hours, some people can strum a few chords on the guitar and play a song. But to really play the instrument and make your instrument sing requires experience and understanding. Likewise, although there are tools which are readily available to assist in the process, effective website design requires experience and understanding of many diverse areas including: marketing, Internet graphics options and limitations, effectively creating a site from the perspective of search engines, the differences and limitations of different browsers and computer platforms as well as knowledge of the software and coding required to move beyond simple static html pages.

It is also vitally important that your designer understand you and your business and know how to most effectively communicate you and your uniqueness to your Internet audience. To answer our question, well look at some important pieces of information that youll need to find out before you choose your website designer.

What do you want in a website? What are your needs and intentions for having a website? Does the prospective designer listen to and understand your needs and intentions? Have you checked other similar businesses to see what they are doing on the Internet? Can a prospective designer offer any suggestions for improving upon what others have already accomplished? The more clarity you have about your intended results for having a website, the more accurately you can communicate your needs to your designer and the more likely it is that you will achieve these results.

Is the designer experienced in website design? How long has the designer been creating websites? What is their background? How long have they been using the Internet? Three years is a long time in Internet terms. More than four or five years is a seasoned veteran. Ideally, your site designer has a variety of experience.

What are the designer’s strengths and weaknesses? The range of skills required for creating any type of website is more diverse than you can imagine. If a designer tells you they have done or can do any project, Id suggest you take that statement with a grain of salt.

Is the designer easy to work with and talk to? Is she/he able to communicate technical information so that you can understand it? The process of creating a website can often be an overwhelming process for some people. Consider hiring a designer with whom you have a good rapport and find communicating with easy.

Look at some of their previous clients sites. Do they all look the same? Do they load quickly? Are they easy to navigate through? Do you like their previous work? Do they accurately reflect their clients business? Does the designer custom create each site or would they have you select from a list of prepackaged sites?

What is your budget and what is the typical cost for the designers projects? As a generalization, the larger the company, the more they charge for their services (and often the more elaborate the sites they create.) Companies which create sites from a prepackaged template often cost less but dont provide you with custom solutions which may more closely meet your needs. Site designers who are getting started will often create your site for a lower fee, essentially using your project to develop their skills.

Your decision should be based on many of these important questions. Also use any other questions you find useful when hiring any other service business for a project. Comparing website designers is sometimes like comparing bananas to bicycles instead of apples to apples. Dont be afraid to ask questions. You might consider writing pros and cons for each designer on a sheet of paper to develop a more objective point of view.

The selection of your website designer is an important step in the creation of a successful website. With time and patience, you too can join the thousands of businesses with successful websites.

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