My site www.naturalhealthlifestyles.com has been up for 2 months now and is growing slowly, but surely. My adsense however is very weak, with a % below 1.5% Can anyone comment on my ad placement and lend a hand? Brutal honesty is welcome!
Id suggest moving to the 300x250 ad block instead of the one you have now. I recently replaced a banner with the 300x250 and I'm getting about 15-20 cents more per click and a hell of a lot more clicks. My personal suggestion would be to use the link ads directly below the header image within the main content. I feel they would stand out too much underneath the image navigation. Also, more ads doesn't necessarily mean more earnings. I reduced my ads from 3 to 2 on each page and saw a huge increase in the cost per click.
Here's quick change you can test out. For your adsense blue link colors, change it to the same red as: Natural Health through Lifestyle Choices and see how the CTR goes After just play around with different size ads.
This has been informative, so I have alot to play around with. My earnings are basically nothing at this point, but there are so many methods to optimizing your adsense, that one will have to work. I certainly feel like my content is good enough!
also, try ptting the horizantal link unit right undder your image header. It will grab a lot more attention there. see how i do it on my blog http://theguitarresource.blogspot.com/ (sorry, can't post links yet. copy and paste) I also liked the suggestion about going with the 300 x 250 ad block. Also, use more ads.... good luck!