Please review my adsense placements on my forum

Well after taking advice from this thread and dramatically increasing my CTR % on my blog, I would now like to ask for advice on my forum.

I have ads in 4 places:

Header of every page
"What's going on section" on main page
Under first post in every thread
Above quick reply in every thread

So any tips? I would like to increase the number of clicks, but mainly increase my CTR. Thanks

 

Not bad.

If you want to increase the use of the Google Custom Search, you should move it to the top, maybe next to the "Click here to vote for us" logo (there is a blank space on the left and on the right of that logo).

I tend to automatically skip the ads in between the forum posts because:
- They are image ads (everyone says that image ads work best, but not with me ) so you immediatly see the ads without even looking at it
- They do not look like a normal post. Here is an example: (see the second "post"): http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Photonumerique/Appareils/unique-nikon-d50-sujet_6648_1.htm
I'm pretty sure this kind of ad is quite effective, especially if you make its position in the page random

You could also inspire yourself from the way the link units are put here, on DP - I think they should be effective. I found myself regularly looking at them without noticing it. You could also do the same thing for the colorful ad on the top-right corner - that color randomly changing is very good to catch the eyes.

But overall your ad placement is good and now you should experiment with slightly different placements over a few weeks to see what performs best.