Influential Colors that Bring Traffic into Your Blogs

Image : colourlovers.com

Have you ever heard about influential colors that effect a blog performances?

There are several posts I have collect and study to understand more on this issues.

But information that I have is at the theory stage not at the practical stage which I am looking for. Thus I really like to make the reports and posts it here to give inspirations and enlightenment for others in develop and monetize blogs.

In theory, our decision on influential colors we use for our blog has significant role on blogs performance, furthermore on the sales for business sites (this has made this issue more important). Some bloggers still choose blog colors based on what they like or especially based on intuition. This way of conduct should be change, especially if we want to start an online business blog.

Pallasweb has an insight that visitors demographics could make difference in how colors are percieved. Young people are drawn more to saturated colors than adults, who may find them garish or offensive. Strong color contrasts can also drive older visitors away. While young people may respond positively to new color trends, these fashionable colors can be overused and go out of style as quickly as they appear. Text and background color also affect readability, which can be an issue for older visitors and those with visual impairments.

Most of online marketer agree that first impression on blog visitors is not less important than the contents themselves.

The big brand system delivers that ‘the first opinion people form when they hit your site is based on visuals. They take in the colors, white space and images you use before they start reading your words’

Now, I would like to see what colors that used by the Top 15 Blogs that released by ebizmba.com. Here are the lists that posted in January 5, 2012:

1.    TheHuffingtonPost, 67 – eBizMBA Rank; 54,000,000 – estimated unique monthly visitors; 53 – Compete Rank; 26 – Quancast Rank; and 122 – Alexa Rank.

2.    TMZ, 228 – eBizMBA Rank; 19,000,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 220 – Compete Rank; 57 – Quancast Rank; and 407 – Alexa Rank.

3.    BusinessInsider, 455 – eBizMBA Rank; 12,100,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 601 – Compete Rank; 217 – Quancast Rank; and 546 – Alexa Rank.

4.    Engadget, 479 – eBizMBA Rank; 11,500,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 808 – Compete Rank; 250 – Quancast Rank; and 378 – Alexa Rank.

5.    PerezHilton, 570 – eBizMBA Rank; 10,200,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 882 – Compete Rank; 251 – Quancast Rank; and 577 – Alexa Rank.

6.    Gizmodo, 575 – eBizMBA Rank; 10,100,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,103 – Compete Rank; 150 – Quancast Rank; and 472 – Alexa Rank.

7.    Mashable, 579 – eBizMBA Rank; 10,000,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 803 – Compete Rank; 612 – Quancast Rank; and 323 – Alexa Rank.

8.    TechCrunch, 615 – eBizMBA Rank; 7,500,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 607 – Compete Rank; 860 – Quancast Rank; and 377 – Alexa Rank.

9.    Gawker, 776 – eBizMBA Rank; 6,000,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,005 – Compete Rank; 458 – Quancast Rank; and 866 – Alexa Rank.

10.    Lifehacker, 860– eBizMBA Rank; 5,500,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,298 – Compete Rank; 463 – Quancast Rank; and 819 – Alexa Rank.

11.    The Daily Beast, 928 – eBizMBA Rank; 5,000,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 851 – Compete Rank; 299 – Quancast Rank; and 1,633 – Alexa Rank.

12.    Smashing Magazine, 967 – eBizMBA Rank; 4,600,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,142 – Compete Rank; 990 – Quancast Rank; and 768 – Alexa Rank.

13.    FailBlog, 1,001 – eBizMBA Rank; 4,400,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,417 – Compete Rank; 549 – Quancast Rank; and 1,038 – Alexa Rank.

14.    Kotaku, 1,217 – eBizMBA Rank; 4,100,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,875 – Compete Rank; 584 – Quancast Rank; and 1,192 – Alexa Rank.

15.    BoingBoing, 1,387 – eBizMBA Rank; 3,500,000 – estimated Unique Monthly Visitors; 1,466 – Compete Rank; 911 – Quancast Rank; and 1,784 – Alexa Rank. From the lists above now lets take a look on the ‘color statistics’ based on some categories,  namely Header, Post Title,  Page Text Colors, Outer Background Colors, Main Background Colors, and, Links.

From the table I have noticed on 3 main colors that applied in the contents categories of those Top Blogs.

The colors are:

Header White with total 70,500,000 pageviews; Blue with total 22,100,000 pageviews; Black with total 19,600,000 pageviews.

Post Title Black with total 132,500,000 pageviews; Grey with total 19,000,000 pageviews; Blue with total 10,000,000 pageviews.

Page Text Black with total 135,900,000 pageviews; Grey with total 31,600,000 pageviews.

Outer Background White with total 103,300,000 pageviews; Grey with total 54,000,000 pageviews; Pink with total 10,200,000 pageviews.

Main Background White with total 157,300,000 pageviews; Pink with total 10,200,000 pageviews.

Links Blue (bright) with total 75, 600,000 pageviews; Blue with total 45,700,000 pageviews; Red with total 11,000,000 pageviews.

So .. what’s the point with that numbers … ? What I understand is those top blogs has performed very-well thus they get superb traffic rank.

These mean traffic to their blogs are very high which resembled in the page views they have. Visitors who come to their blogs are unique visitors. These also means those visitors always come back to see what is the new contents from that blogs.

Thus they will get used to with the color provided. Moreover, I have notice that in some of the top blogs lists above, color combination has been made to create contrast of some particular menu.

For example : ‘Mashable’ main color is blue, white, and grey. But they add ‘Green’ on the ‘Follow’ button which mean they want to emphasize readers to do that. Smashing Magazine main color is Blue, Grey, and White. But they add ‘Orange’ on ‘Subscribe to RSS Feed’.

Furthermore, John Williams views that choosing the right dominant color for your brand is crucial. These influential colors should appear on all your promotional materials, including your logo and product packaging.

As much as possible, the color you choose should set you apart, work with your industry and image, and tie to your brand promise. It should also take into account color psychology, which is fairly complex. Colors can mean different things depending on the culture, situation and industry. Those blog with million of page views per month have indirectly influence the visitors ‘habits of likeness’ on colors of the blogs.

Thus in the end visitors will have tendency on blog colors they like to see. Thus if we know what visitors favorite colors … that would be an additional advantage for our blog development.

Read other posts :
How to Get Easy Traffic
Top 40 Commentluv Enabled Blogs for Blog Commenting
8 Traffic Generation Strategies that Will Give You a Lot of Benefits
How to Create New Posts that Bring More Traffic
How to Boost Traffic Blog through Blog Commenting

I am sure contents is still the most influential factors, but colors have its unique role in impacting visitors, do you have another opinion about this? I would like to hear it,  please share in the comments.

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