Hi, I run a French celeb gossip site and am currently averaging around 3000 uniques per day. As we all know, this niche is known to yield high traffic but low revenue. My CTR is hovering around 0.2%... I admit, my wordpress design is less then average in the industry (it was a free pre-made design) I've asked around and the lowest quote I could find for a professional custom wordpress design was in the 450$ My question is, will an eye-candy friendly design affect CTR? I know I can't go any lower then 0.2% anyways..
design certainly play an important factor in your ctr. there is nothing wrong in using a free template. there are penty of free templates with good design. when yuo pick a template, use something plain with not too much elements in the template. if your template is too busy and have lot of elements, that will take your viewer's attention away form the content and the ad. another important thing is, you might be able to use the existing template but need to blend your ad with your cuttent template layout and color. whats is your url?