I'm wondering if you can take a look at this site and give me some suggestions: I'm going for the minimalist look and I don't really want Adsense to stand out too much. So far my clickthrough rates are generally below 1.5%. What can I do to improve this? Also, is there anyway to change the font for "Ads by Google" from black to gray to match the color that I use? Any thoughts?
What is the url of your site? And the color of the text 'Ads by Google' depends on the ad color scheme.. it is set up so that it is prominent. It cannot be changed.
Here's a blog post that I recently wrote: http://articles.savvify.com/2006/09...pany-tricks-to-squeeze-more-money-out-of-you/ My CTR is quite low. I tried adding the large rectangle layout below the title and of course more people clicked it. But I find it intrusive. Should I be concerned with annoying them? Or am I worried about nothing?
Yes you should be worried about your visitors.. that is if you are looking to be in the business long time. The page has a large stretch where there are no ads.. you could try putting a 160 x 160 below the archives menu and removing the ad beside the 'Interesting articles' piece. Another thing you must remember is to increase traffic because with a low number of impressions it would be very difficult to work on improving CTR.
I suggest moving the link unit to the sidebar below navigation menu and change the position of the ads next to "read more articles". Maybe another 468x60 or 300x250 above the newsletter form or skyscraper below archives