I wouldn't panic. My forum gets 900 impressions alot with only 1 or 2 clicks, sometimes even zero. Forums can be like that, especially if you have a lot of regulars, they are on your forum every day, they aren't about to click on ads, and if they did do that maybe adsense would get angry soon because the same IP click on ads everyday.
Forum traffic normally is rough. Take a look at www.slickdealz.net, they have a good idea putting the adsense after the initial post. Have you ever tried that?
BEFORE: The ads are "just there" -- look REALLY out of place and ruin the look of the site AFTER: It looks a hell of a lot better when it's not photoshopped. But that's what I mean... Add a div tag. If you want the code I used for the example, PM me. But do you see how the ads are now "somewhere" and part of the site? You can get more creative, but that's a basic example. Goodluck! Sorry for a half-a$$ed version... the sizes and colors were all done in photoshop...
<div style="margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 1px; background: #e4bcbc; border: 1px solid #500202; width: 300px;"> <div align="center"><big style=" padding: 8px 15px; display: block; background: #3e0100; text-align: left; border: 1px solid #0099FF; "><span class="style16">Advertisements</span></big>ADSENSE CODE HERE </div> </div> Code (markup): PM'd, but that's the basic code right there which gives you the look. Edit width and colors and title as you please.
Looks a hell of a lot better now P.S: Give me an update. I always like to know if I help people improve. I had one guys CTR jump to a point where he thanked me for a week. It's a good feeling.
I have often got 2000+ impressions on my forum with no clicks, i think my members have just learned not to look at the ads anymore, i think they blend in ok though, http://e30owners.com/forums/index.php Any opinions ?
The possibly blend in to much. Have you considered NOT blending them? I did that to a forum I used to own and made a little over 20$/day where as blended was $8-10 (this was last year).
Testing is just part of the game. I went with extreme colors at the time... red borders and stuff... it worked I guess. Site used to get about 3K uniques/day. I shut it down since it was a resource hog and not making enough.
I'd say if you want to stick with the white background, add a div tag also that matches the "Welcome to" box, you know? See how what you're doing works now... then in 2 days if your still not satisfied, try the div. For me, divs have worked MIRACLES. I learned about using them to optimized the look and make things fit in about 5-6 months ago.
it went down earlier! grr installing a shoutcast hurts everything I think. Got that installed to increase population! still got some good clicks tonight though, $0.92 with two clicks..