I'm happy to see positive progress on your part, SearchBliss, but 1% is pretty low, isn't it? It may be a niche thing but my CTR is consistently above 25% and some months peeking over 30%. My stuff is all business and business opportunity related and maybe that is why. I'd be happy to offer you some free tips if you wanted... just PM me. No charge, not looking for anything... just looking to help out another human being.
I see what you mean its ok in the eyes of google, Ive seen better versions of what you have done on bigger sites.. But that ad unit on the right you might try and alter that because it doesn't match correctly..
It's all about testing. No one trick will work for every niche and site. I have 2 sites using identical templates. Different niches. One site consistantly pulls 5+% while the other 1-2% Exact same look, exact same placement. So what is different is the niche and the ads displayed. There are just too many variables to make broad generalizations about what works and what doesn't. You MUST test.
Free advice is always welcome...but I believe it's my niche. It's a webmaster releated site, and how many webmasters do you know who click on ads? Unless they're newbies...almost none. So 1.0% is good for my niche, but I'll still take any advice. I'll PM you as suggested. Thanks.
I know at least some of it has to be niche related and I know nothing about the webmaster niche... according to my ex-wife I know nothing about anything at all. I shot you some thoughts... hope they help you some.
I'm not sure what you mean. The google ads links are underlined, but the links on your site aren't, so you made your site's links underlined as well? Well, that's the basic blend in process.
If I remember right, general consensus is to use underlined links anyways. It's the default setting in almost all major browsers, and it's what people are used to looking for. Ever wondered why all of the links on Googles site are that default blue and underlined ?