I knew that was coming !!!!! nice TOPS ...nice how does 10% sound ? just started promoting a site and thought 10% was on the high side
Well Gemmy, give us some more detail and we might come up with a better answer (that was predictable indeed wasn't it ) Like did you make the ads stand out or blend in. Are the ads your main focus or is it supplementing content. What is the genre/theme mostly? Answering your edit: If something is new and either still bare, unknown, very innovative etc. then the visitor might not be able to quickly relate to the content and choose the ads as a way forward fairly quick, inflating CTR. More important to know is whether it's 10% out of 50 impressions or out of 100K impressions.
traffic starting to build, well placed ads, high visibility, mostly googads and affiliates, just 10% recently....dont want to trigger any alarm bells... not that i can actually do anything about it anyway..... if it was 90%...it would be 90% !! <edit> 100K impressions would be nice
There's ultimately only 3 options for the visitor. Click the browser away (close it), use the back button (or forward) or click a link. (Nowadays a 4th with search tools from the toolbars etc.). This simplified 25% chance of them clicking something on your site, combined with your content and layout will give you an idea of what to expect. If Ads are the only links on the page then 10% (up to the simplified 25%) isn't strange. It's more an achievement from your part than something to worry about IMO. Anything under say 15% has a big chance of being perfectly legit.