Very Low CTR after redesign

My CTR was never GREAT, but it used to be pretty steady at 0.5% (site is mainly a forum so it's never going to be huge).

But after redesign it has slipped to around 0.1% and I'm no longer making enough to cover costs, so obviously I need to increase it again. Do you have any suggestions? I'd tried putting the ads back into a similar place they were before the redesign but I couldn't get them exactly in the right place and I am stuck for ideas.

http://www.pesgaming.com (also check the forum!)

 

here are some of my suggestions

1. place a 336x280 block on the front page above the 1st news. make sure you surround the ad block just like a news item.
2. also place 336x280 block after every 3 news item in the front page
3. place a leaderboard 728x90 below the reply button in the forum
4. use the default blue as the link colour

 

Thanks Vince I am going to experiment with the square ad I think.

Any other suggestions/reviews from people?

 

I would definately go with blue for the link color.

 

I have tried changing it - it's been blue for a day now - but today I have so far had 3,207 visits with only 1 click, very depressing.

 

I cna think of a few ideas for your forum, I think you need to deal with different ad units and better blending on all pages imo

 

interesting, i thing you have nice advertising placement maybe you can add adsense codes at after first post (inline baner).

Mustafa

 

Use darker link color, like 0033CC for your leatherboard.
Put a leatherboard link unit below the forum path (PESGaming Forums > PESGaming.com > Forum Announcements)

Just my thought