Color and Web Design

Many businessmen assume that the text and graphics you put on your website is the most important factor for marketing. However there is another, often overlooked, aspect of a website that is actually what people see first when they visit your site: colors. "Just as you use words to express yourself, colors can be used as an expression as well and are a language all on their own." Colors can either reinforce the marketing message you are making with your text, or they can contradict, confuse, and even offend people.

The color scheme you choose for your website is important. Websites have a variety of color options such as the background, text color, sidebar colors, headlines, and logos. Here are some commonly used colors and the meanings they have in the United States: Red is associated with love, adventure danger, warning, impulse, passion, excitement, and action. Blue is connected with loyalty, tranquility, success, productiveness, power, and proficiency.

Green is linked to growth, health, wealth, nature, healing, peacefulness, life, and harmony. Orange is coupled with flamboyant, comfort, safety, creativity, sports, celebration, and fun. Purple is allied with royalty, luxury, justice, creativity, and mystery. White is related to innocence, cleanliness, purity, and simplicity. Yellow is associated with curiosity, happiness, and playfulness. Pink is connected to romance, youthfulness, femininity, softness, and sweetness. Brown is linked to the earth, warm, friendly, simple, and organic. Gray is coupled with neutrality, sophistication, and stability. Black is related to authority, mystery, seriousness, and luxury. Consider your target demographic and the subconscious message you wish to send them. A doctor's office may wish to imply cleanliness, friendliness, and health and so might choose white, brown, and green as their color scheme. A web development site might choose a variety of white and blue shades to indicate productiveness, proficiency, and simplicity. Some famous examples of colors used in this manner include Oral-B's logo of blue and white to promote successful cleanliness.

Or Home Depot's choice of orange and white which signifies creativity and simplicity. Colors are memorable and subtle in their psychological meanings and thus extremely useful for marketing and web design.

About the Author
For more information about web development and design, please visit www.digitalsynergygroup.com

Beginners, Make Your Own Website For Under $400

Many beginners have no idea what needs to be done to get a website up and running but they know they want one because everyone else has one.

So, if you're a beginner to website design and want to get a website created from scratch I'll go into some detail here to map out exactly what to do step-by-step, as well as the potential prices involved. I will also give you a suggestion of the best place online that is both beginner friendly and completely robust - filled with everything you'll ever need and more to create the best website possible for you and your readers.

The very first thing you need to do before you make a website is to decide what you want your website to be about. Sounds simple doesn't it but you'll be surprised by just how many people skip this first important step. "And how do I do this", you ask. Make a list of things you like. What are you interested in? What are your hobbies? What kind of things do you like to read about? Talk about? Think about? Put them on your list.

It's not necessary that you be an expert in the topic that you create your website about but I would suggest it be something that you're really interested in otherwise you'll lose interest in it quickly and your website will die. For your website to prosper, you'll have to write content and make revisions and changes fairly frequently and if you're not really a fan of the topic you've chosen you'll never follow through. So, look at the list you've made and chose the best topic for you.

It is also a good idea to be completely sure of the type of audience your website will be geared toward since this will have a lot to do with the type of website you'll ultimately build. Is your website just for your family and friends? Is it going to be geared toward a certain readership - such as purebred Akita lovers, people interested in vintage Camaro's, trout fishermen, etc? Or do you want to build a website business to make money online? Cost - $0, but some of your time.

For this article, I will assume that you are building a website geared toward one of the types of audiences as listed above. Now that you've decided what your website is about and who you plan to build the site for, it's time to start building the actual website. What I would encourage you to do first is to find a web host and buy a domain name. You can do these two things separately or you can do them at the same time, it's up to you. What I would suggest beginners do would be to get both at the same place to cut down on a few steps down the road.

"What are domain names and web hosts and why do I need them?" Good question. This is a very important step in the website building process. In answer to your question you can think of it this way: a web host rents you space on their computers to put all your websites files. It's kind of like renting an apartment or house to put all your stuff - you pay them a monthly fee to keep your website files safe and your website up and running all day long.

Even if you didn't know it, you do know what examples of domain names are. Have you ever heard of "ebay" or "apple"? How about "Google" or "Yahoo"? I thought so. Your domain name is a name that is unique to you and your website - kind of like a phone number, but in name form since most people can remember names better than a long list of numbers. This name is what visitors type into their browser windows to find your actual website.

If you don't have a website host or a domain name you can't have a website. It's that simple. You can get a free website but I would not recommend you ever going that route if you want to be taken seriously online. This boils down to an issue of credibility.

So, with that in mind, I suggest you go the paid route. Charges vary from host to host and among domain name registrars. If you shop around you can often find a reputable web host that will offer you a free domain name as a part of their plan. If you decide to buy them separately prices typically run anywhere from $8 to $30+ for domain names per year, while web hosting prices can vary from $6 to $20+ a month for a basic website, depending on which you choose.

Cheaper is not always better. Let me repeat that: cheaper is not always better, so research a few web hosts before deciding on a plan. Compare plans, email the host to ask questions ahead of time and see what kinds of responses you get. Good customer service and technical help is tremendously important and you want to pick a company that you can have a good and long lasting relationship with right from the start.

It's a real pain to have to switch around later if you don't make the right choice the first time out. It costs you time, effort, and can cost you money if you have a business website - so choose very, very carefully.

One company you might want to check out that is absolutely excellent in all respects of web site hosting is SiteBuildIt (SBI). SBI offers an all-in-one package that is fantastic for the website designer - whether you are a beginner or not.

They have it all - colorful website templates, the ability to create newsletters, blog functionality, brainstorming and research tools, domain name, unlimited great customer support, webmail account, point and click site-building, a form builder, a money back guarantee and much much more.

About the Author
People love SBI! It's not just ease of use, powerful tools, simplicity, or traffic-building success. Learn more now.