Optimal Blog Colors / Colours

[Educator]

Whether its a home renovation, or a dating or a coupon blog, I know I'm really new at this but from what I can gather one of the foundations of a blog in attracting repeat visitors is the content.

That being said, what are your experiences with colors / colours (for our American & Canadian/British friends ) and their impact on:

1. retaining or loosing returning visitors

2. encouraging visitors (first timers or returning) to the ads and actually clicking on the ads.

This can be the color of the ads, the background or text color of the blog, etc., etc.

Are there recommended colors based on subject matter of a blog, i.e. grey for a tech blog vs reds for a dating blog

Any studies on this? Anyone experiment on this with any results.

Appreciate your thoughts, opinions and so on.

[bbrian017]

The only time I ever seen any experiment with colors was in the food industry. They say specific colors make people hungry etc..

It would be interesting to see a study done for websites.

[Educator]

Hey Brian,

I had forgotten about the food industry.....I had heard that way back when.

I wonder if there are any pyschologists in the forum who can comment on this.

Your comment made me just remember some studies I saw back in college about how certain colors on walls in a room can make someone feel either calm (e..g pale blues in doctor or dentist offices) or agressive (what color was in your locker room when you were on a school sports team? ).

Other thoughts on this?

Bloggeries, why did you choose the colors of this forum? Was it intentional or simply because it looked as cool as it does?

[ghing]

blog colors?? i think that's a good question..

I am not that particular in the colors of my sites as long as the readers can read my post and it doesn't hurt their eyes.. particular blog color.. I wanna know if there's any... now I am curious about it......

[Ferox]

From memory, I think that light green was supposed to make people feel calm and lessen headaches - which is important when looking at a computer screen for a long time.

Red is a very emotional colour, but can be hard to look at for a long time.

As long as it is easy to read and not to dark whatever colours you choose should be fine. If everyone in a niche chose the same colour, then it's the different ones that will stand out and get more attention.

That said, my main blog in light green and I'm developing a orange one, so I will see how they compare despite being on different topics.

[QuirkyJessi]

I can't give input on actual suggested colors, but you might want to check this out. It's a contrast tester to see if your chosen colors are easily readable, which obviously makes a difference as to whether or not a visitor is likely to stay or just skip on by.

[Bloggeries]

Originally Posted by QuirkyJessi

I can't give input on actual suggested colors, but you might want to check this out. It's a contrast tester to see if your chosen colors are easily readable, which obviously makes a difference as to whether or not a visitor is likely to stay or just skip on by.

Nice Find Jessi, I think the optimal blog colors are all to the eye of the beholder but one thing remains true which is if it's hard to read regardless of it's appeal to the reader your content will be lost.

[Educator]

Interest.

I do, however, with all due respect think there is more to it than 'eye of the beholder'.

If it's sufficiently for universities to have psycology courses including color analysis, etc., I have to believe that colors can impact a visitor's impression of a blog (not the only.............not necessarily the primary). I know, I know...sometimes I can be such a Pollyanna

If I get a chance in between my family chores and renovation activities this weekend, I'll try to rembember to see what the almighty Google god can tell me on this and report back.

[PaulR]

Found some useful info

Color Tutorials Articles: Colors for Web Sites, Color Management, Web Design Colors Schemes, Browser Safe aka Websafe Colors, Color Blindness & Deficiencies, Color Meanings & Psychology - Color Resources, WebsiteTips.com

Google Answers: Best Colors for Website Designs

http://www.2createawebsite.com/desig...sychology.html

Good luck

[Educator]

Hey PaulR,

That is great!

Thanks very much.

I'm gonna go look at your site in detail now as my way of thanking you..... here a click, there a click, everywhere a click, click as my way of saying thanks.