I’ve been noticing the use of the color red lately. As a single splash of boldness on a web design, designed to draw the eye toward a desired action or important testimonial.

And since reading the excellent Save the Pixel, by web designer Ben Hunt, and studying website attraction principles with the very clever Sean D’Souza, I’m starting to actually pay attention to what I like in the way of design, and why I like it.

Here are a couple of examples of the use of red on the web:

This from 37 Signals home page. The TIME logo effectively attracts attention to the powerful credibility-boosting quote, "One of the Net’s rising stars." If Time magazine said that about me, it would be on my home page too. But don’t worry too much about me – my mother loves me.

And this insurance company landing page (below) provides an excellent use of red in a "chutes and ladders" technique. The page connects the first splash at the top of the page with the "Submit" button at the bottom of the form. (I used this example in a presentation I gave yesterday in Germany. I was one of the only people in the room who couldn’t actually read the page (except for the words "telefon" and "e-mail").

Surprisingly, I found that I saw design more clearly in the absence of textual understanding.) Notice how the red oval with the price – the thing people want to know first when they’re buying insurance – mirrors the end point of the Most Desired Action: the completion of the form.

I can’t find the landing page off of AdWords at the moment (search "krankenversicherung" at google.de if you like), but the company’s home page is http://dkv.com.

So I decided to add a little red to my site. And since I want to practice what I preach – getting the opt-in – I chose the "Send me Chapter 1" button that asks for the opt-in. But I didn’t feel like bothering my designer, so I googled "Web 2.0 button generator" and found a site, As Button Generator, that allowed me to design a bold red button in about a minute:

I’ll see if that increases opt-ins. And I have other plans to build my list, based on some clarity I gained in conversation with Sean D’Souza a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s my question: What document can I offer that would be a more appealing opt-in "bribe" than Chapter 1 of AdWords For Dummies? Anyone who cares enough to answer in the comments section below will be entered in a raffle to win a jar of chocolate mustard from the Bad-Munstereifel Castle Restaurant.

A reader wonders:

I recently bought ‘Adwords for Dummies‘ and I really enjoy it. Now my problem is trying to figure out a product to sell. Any hints on how to find products to sell?

My response: First, thanks for your kind words about the book. You should feel free to write a nice amazon review for it :) Now, let me gently criticize the thought process that produced the question:

That’s backwards thinking.

The world is so full of products and services, unless you live naked in the woods (or at the beach, which I don’t recommend), you’re tripping over things to sell all day long. Right here, in my home office (OK, my wife’s home office, but she’s sleeping and I like her artwork better than mine, and I have to step over the dog to get to my office), I see binders, jewelry, postcards, battery chargers, matches, keys, picture frames, organic rice milk, window blinds, etc. etc. etc. Somebody is making money selling every one of those things – else they wouldn’t exist.

Instead of looking for products to sell, look for markets to serve. Focus on needs and desires and pains and longings. People will buy things that they think will improve their lives.

Every purchase I’ve ever made has been an act of hope in a better future. Every purchase, from the bananas at Trader Joes to the Prius at the Toyota dealership to the 2 by 12 planks at Home Depot that I turned into raised garden beds. Toothpaste. Shaving cream. Bass guitar lessons for my son.

Every purchase is motivated by a desire to increase pleasure and decrease pain. When you focus on a particular market – a group of people who share some meaningful characteristics – and get to know what they deeply want to have and what they want to get rid of and what they want to avoid, then you’ll know what to sell to them.

And you won’t have to wonder.

Now, if you want to use AdWords, certain realities come into play, which you can get from the book. Like, who’s looking for it, and how much can you make from selling it compared to the cost of an AdWords click. Some products are not well suited for AdWords.

But don’t start with products. Don’t even start with media. Start with people, and figure out how to serve them.

Khalil Gibran wrote, "Work is love made manifest." If your business is an expression of love of a group of people, and a sincere desire to improve their lives, then you are on the easy path to success.