If so... it looks like the official word is that you need to use either a border on your ad - or put a visible line between the ad and the images. Michael Cheney needs to update his ebook as he never mentioned that. So...if you've read advice somewhere to use this technique, use the border or line. I just got a warning from Google (because I wasn't using the border)...added the border and now I'm legit. Here's a good article on this subject http://www.jensense.com/archives/2005/08/images_above_ad.html I know this may be old news to many of you..but perhaps I can help save someone out there from getting the dreaded warning email.
Hell, don't use images at all and you never have to worry about "staying up to date" on what G decides today or tomorrow or a week from now. If you need to put images next to your ads, especially the deceptive ones like half-naked girls in bikinis, etc, then you have lousy content, and I'd work on that instead of working overtime to trick your visitors to click. But hey, that's just me. /shrug
I had ONE page with ONE adblock that had some images above it.. I took JackBurton's advice and removed them.. CTR was nothing special on that page anyway..
I have a horozontal ad, with images that does really well. But you are right, It's not totally about using an image, it's about blending the ad within the site and using placement, borders, images, or other items to draw the eye. Even a colored bar on the outsite edge of an ad can help.
Images really work best when you have one particular stringent topic on your site. i.e. a site regarding automotives could suitably have images of cars. You won't have to worry about Horse ads showing up otherwise. On that note, I'd recommend you avoiding using images on forums.
It's really a good idea. But it'll hard to make users keep an eye if your images and ads are not the same mean. It's just made everything become funny. With some Game sites, they use your idea. In this case, your idea is very strong to make everybody think again.