I'm not too sure what would be the better way to go on color combinations, is there anyone that can shed some light on this? I have noticed alot of blue links, black text on white or really light backgrounds. I don't want to stray from visual appeal for the sake of advertising as i am trying to develop a legitimately content-rich source fo information, but could really use some help with this. Opinions please!?
Well, this is just me passing on what I've read, but I guess blue is supposed to work a lot better because that's the default link color and people have gotten used to their links being blue like they get used to stop signs being red. As for link size I've read it's the Large Rectangle (336 x 280) because it looks the most like content. My own personal feeling on this issue is if you do your best to make it not look like an ad any size that fits your page properly will do. As for color combos just as long as they are a good blend with the rest of your site. Also I'm not a fan of the border around adsense ads as it draws attention to the fact it's an ad, so I usually go for background color on that. Also, in ad units where you have the url at the bottom like so: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah urlgoeshere make the url the same color as the text.
It varies greatly depending on the style of your site. Usually have the bg color of the ad the same as th bg color of the page. Have the border that color also and have the links the same color as your navigation or other links on your page. The url color should be the same as the text color. Other people like to do other things to them to make them stand out but I prefer blending them. Good luck ~John Blue underlined links always work good too since they are the default and are what people are used to associating with links.
Yeah, it's all about personal preference. I'd suggest doing what I'm doing, learn as much as you can and use that knowledge to do what feels right for you.