Whats with most people and placing ads all over the place? I look through the site review board and even the suposedly "guru" site in their sig. They just have ads everywhere, first impression count more then you guys think. Most of these blog and sites are so confusing that I just close the window! I consider myself pretty patience but the avarage person are not. Look at google, why do you think they are as huge as they are today? Here are a few tips. -use neutral color such as light gray, light blue then use complimentary color for important navigational purpose such as red, dark blue, black etc... -don't try and use revolutional method of adding like a menu on both side keep one side for menu and the other side for ads. -don't make everything stick together! this is the mistake alot of guys made. Make it easier on the viewer, guide them to what you want them to read. Keep it simple stupid!
The problem is that many people's only purpose is to make money from ads on their sites. They want people to click on them and therefore make them as annoying and blatant as possible. Also, a lot of people think that advertisements make a site look more professional.
The key is to have advertisements visible, but not distracting. Optimally they should blend with content. I've heard alot of success with matching the size of navigation and placing it below to make it look more official to the site.