Need you to review my placement on my blog please

Hi there, I have been reading the forums and acquiring a wealth of information that has helped me and is still helping me in many different aspects so thank you.

Can you please review my Adsense placement and suggest possible ways to improve it?

http://soccerblaze.com

Also please view the full entry for more ads.

Thanks in advance

 

Well, here is Google's Heatmap for Blogs



I like the domain name.
Overall I think the placement is good but it depends on what your going for. A great looking site or good ad placement. There is a balance. Using bigger block sized ads under the 1st and 2nd post would preform better than the 468x60 ad. And using a large leaderboard just under the header and above the first post would preform well too. But then you loose some of the look and feel of the site and probably wouldnt' be worth loosing traffic for a little better CTR.

 

Looking at it again... if I were you I'd loose the calendar on the right and move up the right hand sidebar. It's useless and causes the adsense ads to be lower than they need to be.

 

I'd throw a 728 wide banner across the top just under the header and make the link color blue. I always say link color should always be blue no matter your sites color scheme. Then maybe another unit on the bottom right side.

I'd do it like digg.com

 

Wow that was quick thanks guys and thanks Nathan for the compliment on the site name.

I also think that it is hard to achieve both, great looking site and good ad placement. I don't really like the idea of having the large leaderboard although I know it is perhaps the best solution but I think it will ruin the looks.

I like the idea of moving the calendar down but do you guys think I should replace it with say a small square or shall I move the skyscraper up?

Also the ads between posts don't seem to perform well on my site so do you think I should make them clearer? maybe with a background or border or something?

Did you guys look at the full story? any suggestions there?

brentl the problem is that I am still not sure if I want the ads to blend too well with the website; i.e. non-blue links or shall I make them standout with blue links but definitely something to consider thanks

I know I am asking too many questions

 

i think you can try 728*90 top header banner. i hope this will be perfect for you

 

I have done some changes, shifted the calendar down and put ads instead. Also changed the Ads that appear between posts.

As far as the leaderboard, I tried it but it didn't come out good; i.e. looked out of place so I don't think I will go with that option.

Any more comments guys?

 

Hey, I think everything about this site is awesome! I especially love the banner and the menu...gr8 work

 

Wow thanks mate, I really appreciate it and this is what keeps me going. Thanks once again

 

Yep nice work...leave it as is for a while and see how it does. Test,test,test until you find the combination that satisfies you.

 

thanks brentl, I am already noticing some result which is great.

What do you think of the skyscraper? is it useful the way I have it or shall I use it in a different position in a different format?

 

It's a good name I think. Easy to remember.

Go for a good and easy to use design over CTR. Focus on building traffic and giving readers what they want. The money will come with traffic...

 

This heat map is for forums only not for blogs.

The placement of ads is nice. I hope it will draw more CTR. Good luck.

 

Oh yeah thanks I just realized that. I however did look at the one for blogs, still not sure about the skyscraper though. Thanks for your comments buddy I'll just wait and see how it goes now

 

Seems like I missed your reply sorry and very well said too. That's what I am aiming at since money is not the main reason why I created the website in the first place, instead it is a bonus

Secondly, I removed the calendar from its original position and put ads there and I have seen a great improvement so thanks for your suggestion.