To Blend or Not to Blend?

I have had adsense up on my site for just under a month now and am wondering if perhaps not blending the ads with the site would increase CTR. Currently the ads are displayed on the sidebar and on each posts individual page. Have a look and let me know your opinion.

http://www.overheardinvancouver.ca

 

The benefits to having ads "blend" as I understand it is that it helps prevent ad-blindness... When a visitor is less ad-blind, they are more likely to read an ad, and therefore more likely to click.

Although it can never hurt to experiment, I would stay with the idea.

You can also change placement, which can have a DRASTIC effect on CTR.

 

move the skyscraper level with the top post and see what happens. Because you do not yet have a lot of comments many readers won't get that low on the page I'd think.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I have moved the skyscraper up higher on the page.

Another question though. Do you think I should display Adsense ads between the posts on the main page? Or do you think this would make the page look too full of ads?

 

In my own experience on my sites, blending ads with the background/contents can significantly increase user clicks on ads... also depends on the kind of ads and on how relevant they are with your site.