Newcomer seeks advice

As a relative newcomer to adsense I am hoping to get some feedback about my ad placements at my site.

The url is www superhomeideas.com (can't post live links yet)

Note that the home page has a square ad box, while the "article" pages use a leaderboard, for example

superhomeideas.com/x/article/home-improvement-projects-value.html

I know that many people suggest using images near the ads, if i were to do this in my "article" pages, should I move the leaderboard to above the article title or leave it embedded in the article?

all pages use the textlinks across the top and the leaderboard at the bottom.

Additionally, do you think the site is just too "plain jane"? Would some graphics make the site more visually appearing or professional looking?

The plain look to the site was just my preference because I know that I personally get turned off by sites that have a multitude of graphics with little actual text making it difficult for me to find the actual information that I am looking for when I visit a site.

I have left the left hand navigation area empty because I intend to place affiliate program links there in the very near future.

Thanks in advance for you help

 

everything is o.k don't use graphics as it may slow down your site yea the left panel is empty so fill it your site is plain and simple visitors love plain sie as good to eyes yea the color you have used bring the good ctr just do some decorations and fill up the space with the same colors
and one more make your nav'link just beside google link little bigger

 

Thanks for the feedback.

Anyone else have any opinions?

 

I hate to echo something but this is a great time for it...experiment! Test everything. If you are running adsense on a site, TEST for:
1. Location
2. Color Scheme
3. Type/Layout (link, block, skyscraper)

If you get a lot of traffic, you might be able to change your ads every few days and compare stat's.

Some sites (some topics) lend themselves to certain layouts such as tall graphics or thin adlinks. Play around with different ad locations on the same pages. If you have more than one ad block on a page, use adsense channels to track them as separate entities.

Color scheme gets you into the "blend it vs. stick out" arguement. The best way of saying it, in my opinion, is this: The reader's eyes should land on your ad box naturally. That's why these are common in headers and footers.

Location: Again, use channels to test these. 3 ads max with adsense per page. THIS IS IMPORTANT...If you get more clicks in ads located farther down in a page, such a the 3rd ad box, then drop one higher ad box from your page.

Better Explanation:
You have three ad boxs on your page
A
B
C

The order in whcih ads are presented in terms of click-money is highest at the top. Therefore, your A box might generate $2 per click while box C might generate $0.40 based on your market. If your B and C locations are giving you the best click ratio's, then drop the A box so the higher money ads are in the B box.

Test, test, and test again. Style (type/layout), Color, and Location all make a difference.

A few typical ad locations and styles produce well such as the large ad box near the top of a page. However, whenever you take up above-the-fold space, your site has a higher potential of being viewed as a make-for-adsense site and you might have more people leave or leave and never return. This all gets into the type of site you are building.

 

Yes man! test, test , and test! this is only the way to get closer! read DP posts on related topics, see what others do... do some search... Use adsense channels to measure your clicks, or buy some software... as you see lot's of work involved.. be ready for days, weeks, maybe even months to get result...

pm me and i will give you a link to the sourse where you can find more stuff...

 

Hey what type of traffic are you pulling on that site? Just curious.

(number-wise)