Water soluble fluorescent or colored dyes and methods for their use

A compound having the following structure (III):

• wherein:
• M1 and M2 are, at each occurrence, independently a moiety comprising two or more double bonds and at least one degree of conjugation, and at least one occurrence of M1 is a moiety comprising three or more aryl or heteroaryl rings, or combinations thereof;
• L1, L3, L4 L6, L7 and L8 are, at each occurrence, independently optional alkylene or heteroalkylene linkers;
• R1 is, at each occurrence, independently H, alkyl or alkoxy;
• R2 is an electron pair, H, alkyl, alkylether, hydroxylalkyl, aminoalkyl, hydroxylalkylether, sulfhydrylalkyl, sulfyhdrylalkylether, cyanoalkyl, phospho, thiophospho, alkylphospho, alkylthiophospho, alkyletherphospho, alkyletherthiophospho, phosphoalkyl, phosphoalkylether, thiophosphoalkyl or thiophosphoalkylether, or R2 is a linker comprising a covalent bond to a biomolecule or microparticle;
• R3 is H, OH, SH, —NH2, alkyl, alkylether, hydroxylalkyl, aminoalkyl, hydroxylalkylether, sulfhydrylalkyl, sulfyhdrylalkylether, cyanoalkyl, —Oaralkyl, phosphate, thiophosphate, alkylphospho, alkylthiophospho, —Oalkylphospho, —Oalkylthiophospho, alkyletherphospho, alkyletherthiophospho, —Oalkyletherphospho, —Oalkyletherthiophospho phosphoalkyl, phosphoalkylether, thiophosphoalkyl, thiophosphoalkylether, —Ophosphoalkyl, O-phosphoalkylether, —Othiophosphoalkyl or —Othiophosphoalkylether;
• R4 is, at each occurrence, independently O−, S−, OZ, SZ or N(R6)2, where Z is a cation and each R6 is independently H or alkyl;
• R5 is, at each occurrence, independently oxo, thioxo or absent;
• n is an integer from 2 to 20;
• and
• q and w are each independently 0 or 1 for each integral value of n, wherein q is 1 for at least two integral values of n, or wherein q and w are each independently one for at least one integral value of n.