I just want to make sure that I can do this. Isn't the rule that AdSense can be the only contextual ads on the page, but any other ads can be there (not pop-ups though)?
You can display your basic affiliate program ads, whether they are text or images. What you can't do is ... for example..., display google adsense ads and yahoo ads... Don't be confused. I understand. I emailed google adsense a thousand times and asked about everything! What Google means by "competing ads" is like yahoo, overture and other ppc ads and/or networks. It's ads like and similiar to google adsense is what they mean. Basically, competing adsense ads would be any other program that, like adsense, automatically displays PPC ads on your site in the same or similiar way google does. Does this help? If not, let me know - I'll try and clarify better