A Request for Advice: Google Adsense Placement & The Forum Issue

I have spent several days going through some messages on here in hopes of not simply asking the same questions everyone else has already asked. Perhaps mine will take a bit of a different approach.

I launched a site that is now eight days old that is my effort to get my feet wet in Internet publishing. Since I have experience in writing on consumer issues, I will be working towards launching a site covering those issues on an honest forthright basis (I am not interested in running a black hat kind of operation) probably in a month or so.

My interest in launching www.bettermost.net is part of a personal goal project (and to learn the ropes), and it's theme goes beyond simply a film fan site, so it wants to have a reason to exist after the hype dies down.

I am currently using Google Adsense to sort of learn the ropes. I have unobtrusively placed one skyscraper on the right side of page which has been doing a reasonable job of serving up relevant ads on the home page. My site traffic has been entirely based on word of mouth and spreading some links in message forums that cover my subject. The site has a content management system up front, and forum software where the bulk of discussions are taking place among 30 registered users and probably 60 visitors. Traffic is light, but it's just eight days old.

To date, Google Adsense clicks bear out the theory that forum clicks are far harder to obtain than static content clicks. In fact, I've yet to have anyone click on an ad in the forums. But then again, I'm getting between 0-3 ad clicks per day even on the front page of the site.

I am looking for some guidance from experienced Adsense folks on effective ad placement that does not "junk up" the user's experience. I don't want to turn my site into an ad nightmare and drive carefully cultivated visitors away, but I suspect my users are getting a combination of ad blindness from the current ad placement, as well as unrelated ads appearing on many forum pages.

My focus right now is more on content building and promotion, with a commitment to write at least one original piece every day, even if short, as well as especially committing to users who post in my forums, in hopes of keeping them coming back.

I'd appreciate any advice or thoughts on making this first foray at least encouraging. Many thanks.

 

For the first time starting last night, I see consistent PSAs on the front page of my site, but ads inside. The odd thing is that the specific content didn't change when the ads suddenly disappeared, and the ads are still there on the forum pages.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

http://www.bettermost.net