I know images next to ads are not allowed but today i saw this blog http://www.askdanandjennifer.com/ with images above the ads. is this ok??
Image next to the ads (above, below, side) is allowed as long as it have no relation with the ads (content) and have some space between the ads and the images.
I wouldn't have thought that would be in compliance with the TOS. Firstly, there is no border separating the image, and the ads, and also it is clear that the banner shows one section of the banner for each ad.
Why are you so sure? I've seen people banned using completely unrelated pictures. Like a picture of golden egg next to adsense ad. It's against the TOS, but i don't see any relation between the egg picture and the ad. Ok, what i'm trying to say here is everyone interprets relation between pic and ad subjectively. Even some think it's unrelated, you're going to meet an oddball staff who thinks otherwise. And knock, knock, you've got a red card from him for placing related pic next to adsense. So to be safe, just don't drop picture especially icon-sized one next to any ad.
On my site I am using a graphic with a bunch of stars next to newsworthy items. So when the picture ban came out, I realized that it was a valid issue with my site. I was randomly using images next to my ads and most of the time they did not match the topic of the site listed. I thought I would create another graphic with stars and the words Sponsored (oh whatever, the 'official wording' is on the TOS - can't remember just now). Who could possibly not realize that my little stars were from my site and not the advertiser's site? Geometric shapes surely wouldn't be considered misleading? The images had borders and there was space between the images and ads. Someone warned me they could be against the TOS. I emailed Google and was told they were totally out of compliance! The wording of the emails I received led me to believe that ANY image near the ads is probably going to be deemed against the TOS.
I *believe* it looks fine, the images ARE NOT small sized specifically targetted towards the ads, and there is a nice white space between them. If in doubt, email google.
Personally, I think that would be deemed against TOS. Maybe they did this a while ago and haven't come to know about Google's new policies on images and ads.
Headers are okay above ads, but these images ("site header") Looks decieving because they're all placed in blocks.. it kind of implies that they belong to the ads below. If the website designer placed the header in a sold block with a colored background.. then it would be better. But I still think it's against TOS.