Hey! I'm the owner of photoshop cs3 tutorials and I have a quite low CTR so I decided to make an experiment in the ad placement. please take a look at: http://www.tutorialshot.com (homepage- sidebar- bottom) is this ad placememt legal with the images and all? thanks, Dvir.
I am not sure about legal, but it would be rather ineffective I think...I think you'd be better off blending the ads into either the background (losing the border) or blending it in to images around it, such as putting a random shape of color around it that matches the color of the ads, or placing it inside a picture, such as a scroll, a post it note looking thing or that sort of deal. Having images around it, if the ad still stands out like a turd in a punch bowl (so to speak) won't help get any more click, I would assume...but ya never know.
No, I think you'll get in trouble for having those pictures next to the ads on the bottom left sponsored bar. Reason being, they're all contained into one box with one header. Everything else looks ok though