ken_b - 12:41 am on Mar 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

This is what I can't understand. One leaderboard is already loading up the site?

Probably not, but ad location might be the issue.

If that leader board were above or next to the logo the page would look a lot different. It would make the whole page look more cohesive.
Logo
Nav Bar
Image
Text Content
Then move that 250x250 down so the top lines up with the bottom of the image and fill the newly vacant space with more text content, even more cohesive.

The idea is to tie the content together more tightly so as to make it the focus of the page.
.