New design and ad placement check

Hey DP folks,

I've been hanging around here for a while now and finally registered!

Recently I've made a new design and changed some stuff around especially in the ads section, so I need some advice what could be done better etc. I can tell you that the top leader-board performs well, also on the forums. and the large rectangle does its job well too since it is blended in the site.
The link-ad hasn't been clicked yet, same for the small rectangle ad in the sidebar, so maybe you guys got some ideas for those?

Hope this was enough info for you to get this thread going, also if something is against Google's TOS let me know thanks.

www.celoxdesign.net (Can't post a clickable url yet).

Celox

 

Anybody please review my site, thanks.

Celox

 

I like the blending, almost does not looks like Ads!

 

Thanks, Any more comments? maybe something what I can improve would be great.

Celox

 

I would place the 336x280 within the text. Let the text wrap around the ad. Keep the ad left justified. I think I would also move the 768x90 into the top of the body component. I suspect it would get more clicks if it didn't have such a clear distinction. I think the last thing I'd do is darken the main background so the distinctions between blocks wasn't so pronounced. Eye tracking studies show that hard lines stops eyes from wandering over ads. I do like that you've chosen to make you regular links less pronounced than the ad links. Giving the ad links more visual weight should get them more clicks. IN fact it is almost hard to see the other links. I might try that as an experiment.

 

I'm definitely gonna try some of your advice, the only thing I can't do is move the 768x90 ad to the top of the body, this is because the page is visible in a 800x600 resolution too and it would screw up the page layout, that's why I went this way with the 768x90 ad.

Will definitely start working on your other suggestions which just make sense, thanks.

If people have any more suggestions please post.

Celox

 

It is always cool to hear the results of the edit. I also understand the width issue. My understanding though is that the square ads do better. You might even try placing two squares stacked in the body. Just a thought.

 

Yeah I thought of doing that because the small square ad on the side doesn't perform well, you may be suprised on how the leaderboard does btw, it has the most clicks today.

Celox

 

Yeah I guess you never know... each page/design is different.

 

That's so true, gonna experiment with the coloring and the second rectangle ad, gong to bed now almost 6 am here

 

I like it keep up the good work .