How can I increase the clicks on my gaming forum?

I recently attempted to do some adsense optimization on one of my sites:

GamingVidz.com

(See the site for more details)

The way it looks like now:

On the index, I have a 120 x 600 (text and image) vertical ad on the right (which is averaging a terrible ctr).

I also have a 468 x 60 ad (text and image) in the top center. After a guest registers, the welcome message goes away and the same ad appears minus the message.

There is also a 120 x 90 link unit on the left of the page beneath the site navigation.

In the forum I have a 728 x 15 text ad beneath my header. Beneath the navbar I have a 728 x 90 leaderboard ad (text and image).

In threads, there is a 728 x 90 leaderboard ad after every first post on every page of a thread (text and image) but it's only displayed for guests. This is done to encourage registration (by saying "Sponsored Links: Login or Register to remove these advertisements) and possibly generate extra clicks.

Also in the thread, there is a 728 x 90 leaderboard ad (text and image) underneath the last post on the page as well.

On all of these ads, (with the exception of the 728 x 90 leaderboard beneath the navbar), I changed the colors to match the background color of the forum so that the only color that is different is the title of the ad. I am using Blue, Green, Red and Black titles.

This is much different than what I used to have (where I used color combinations that kind of matched the color scheme of the forums, but not really i.e. some dark blue backgrounds and white titles).

These are recent changes (only one month to be specific). But I have yet to see any huge improvement in CTR. In fact my daily average income has dropped (although I looked back at my awstats for the site and found that the time in which I had the higher amount of daily average income I was receiving twice the visits per day.)

So, I guess my questions are as follows:

What do you think of the way I have ads set up on this forum?

What changes would you recommend: Change from text to image only in some spots? Try Yahoo ads (I applied nearly a month ago, but no response yet)?

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer.

 

i think you must add adsense codes to the first post of the thread

 

What do you mean? I already have adsense ads after every first post in a thread.

 

just increase members .

 

it's hard to make people click on ads in the forum. u can try using ad units somewhere close to the menu, or at least mask it as a menu, it works perfect for me, people think it's a navigation of the forum and click. good luck!

 

you can try green colors your adsense links. This ads look so related your forums and backgrounds.

 

I like this idea....colors almost always seem to produce good effects on an Adsense forum...

 

Isn't that against Google's TOS?

Ok... so what about the colors now? I'm already using Green as one of the four colors link options.

 

it's not against the tos as long as u dont say "MENU" and ads right below it or in some other misleading way. u can look what i do in my forum - www.loreleiweb.com/forum <--below the ads units there are link units, and new visitors often assume it's navigation and click. regular visitors know these are ads but even from newcomers alone u can make a small pile.

colours? i'd recommend same as the forums colours scheme... it wont annoy the regular users and will again make the illusion of navigation menu

 

Are there any other ideas? Right now gamingvidz.com is only making like $3 a day... and I just assume that is pitiful considering how large a forum it is.

 

How about making the ads go across the top instead of a menu, and put the menu on the side instead. It works for me at eBay In Your Pajamas

 

So you believe if I put the Ad so that it would be right beneath the header and had it span the width of the site it'd be better?