Many have been or are scrambing to find good techniques to maximize your CTR now that Google has officially said that images next to ads are a no no. I'd say the main technique that I am going to work on is to blog about super targeted niche topics...even more targeted than I have in the past. But this alone won't do it. I'm frustrated with adsense as I think many people on the web are totally blind to them and avoid them like the plague. Why else would it be necessary to have the image/ad technique in the first place? But, Google signs the checks and makes the rules so it is time to find good alternatives that stay within their TOS. I would love it if we could start a brainstorming session to come up with a replacement technique! Maybe Joel Comm is working on something this very moment...
Rather than go for gimmicks, move into niches where people aren't ad blind and test different layouts to find the one that works best for you.
isn't it only if you line up the images so that they look like they are part of the ads (ie. the exmaples they showed?). what if you had like a column of images (that were not sized to line up with the ads)?
The answer is "it depends". As usual, Google doesn't say what is actually OK, they say what isn't OK. The safest thing to do is to come up with a new layout involving images and then ask Google if it's acceptable.
I think it doesn't matter... basically they don't want people clicking on ads when they think they are clicking on something else. Which is kind of dumb as they love to promote how you should blend your ads to look like part of the site.
sell now before clicks drop off i have seen no "major" changes in CTR once I pulled images... I have seen the CPC bottom out for non-us traffic (down to 1-2 cents per click) think i will put adengage to non-us visitors instead of google at least they give 4-5 cents
i posted this on another thread... but what if the images were clickable? then would that mean you were still trying to deceive? i know that images next to ad (which weren't clickable) would make the visitor think clicking on the adsense would take them there instead.
I think it depends on how much money a person is making for Google. If you are pulling in $2,000 a day, then Google probably won't send you the "see ya" email. You will get a warning email most likley...