I've seen a lot of talk of having ads blend into the content, and it seems to produce the best results for most people. I've also heard though that in some case, ads with contrasting colours that really stand out seem to work... I wonder if it's ideal for most sites to have a bit of both? Perhaps one ad line that stands out, and others blended into the content? On this forum, the ads at the top right really stand out, and it does catch my attention... I don't think I would have seen them if they weren't a different colour...
my theory on this is, if your site is generally for tech savy (ad blind) users then your better of trying to blend it in as much as possible so that they might unintentionally read the ad title that might catch there attention. on the other hand if your visitors are not so tech savy and are not ad blind *yet then i would use high contrast colours to catch there immediate attention, that way there likely to click on the ad just because its relevant.
So in other words if you get some visitors of both types, it might best to have some ads of both types, right?
I prefer to blend now always, regardless of the types of visitors, it compliments each site then, more pleasant to look at, but not over blending.
You can really do both at once. For example, if your headlines are in a strong color (maybe purple) then you could have the ads in white text on a purple background. It would look color-coordinated with the rest of the site, but still stand out.
depend on your design. most people will recommend you for blend. but if you can design good, you will got click when you have high contrast.
Blending is obviously a better option but at first try out both blending as well as standing out .. check what converts for you and then keep it as such then