For your adsense ad on the right, make the background the same light grey it's behind. For the content area, I think it would be effective if you used a text 250 x 250 ad block and wrapped your text around it.
Add more article on your main page each with short summary. Use an eye catching header with web 2 style. Your current header or navigation bar is not comfortable to see, especially those with blue font and green background is really hard to read.