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Yes, in a world that is obsessed with makeover madness, even your website needs to follow specific color guidelines when picking out "what it will wear". The colors you use when designing your website tell an awful lot about your business, though you may not know it.

I had this problem myself. I loved my website, it was so cool looking. I had a red, black and white color scheme, and it matched all of the material I sent to meeting planners. They were my colors and I fought changing them.

That is, until I paid $640.00 an hour for Corey Rudl, arguably the most successful small business marketer on the Internet, to critique me. That may sound like an absurd amount of money to pay for a consultation, but Corey is the best, and he definitely came through. Corey told me point blank, my website says "I am trying to sell you something".

That is not the look I was going for. I wanted my customers to be at ease on my site.

Corey taught me that colors that make people feel comfortable are those that they are used to seeing. So, I toned down my harsh (but still cool) colors and replaced them with gray and blue. I did this because some people are still new to the computer and the Internet. They are tentative with new sites and many haven't a clue what they are doing.

However, many of those same people are very comfortable navigating Microsoft programs, which are gray and blue.

My hopes were that the similar colors of my site would put newcomers at ease, giving them the same sense of simplicity and control they have when using Microsoft programs.