Utterly Miserable CTR

advice from all you pros would be nice...

[remove]

like the topic said, i have a really miserable CTR. like nobody clicks on my google ads. because i understsand it would be violating the adsense TOS, i can't say specifically _what_ my CTR is, so let's just say it might be less than half of one percent. like i said; miserable.

and that's no good.

i started my website not too long ago, and i've had adsense for almost 2 weeks. i've been lurking around here for just as long.

anyways, i've started getting some (what i consider to be) "real" traffic now; 1300+ unique hits in the last 2 days, but my CTR is miserable.

i understand it's against the TOS here to mention the website i run. it's a content based site, and i use one link thin list at the very top, and a Leaderboard (728 x 90) at the very bottom of every page. i also have a Banner (468 x 60) at the end of content pages, before the blogstyle comments section.

my colors are very nicely blended to fit in with the rest of my site.

i'd love to hear some suggestions from all you amazing pros on how to improve my CTR. according to my channel info, the ads that are the winners for me are the Banner (468 x 60) at the bottom of each article, before the comments. but again, very poor CTR for that. should i consider trying out different ad formats? less blending in colors?

ideas? help? please?

someoneeeeeee...

[21_blue]

Percentages wrote:
>Where is the line in the sand?

In my view, blending involves combining or mixing ads with links to other pages so that the two parts are indistinguishable. Blending is a way of overcoming ad blindness to get users to notice the ads and then make a reasoned choice whether and where to click, based on which link (as titled/described) is of interest to them.

Confusing involves causing the user make a mistake or be unable to make a clearly reasoned choice about where to go next. Confusing involves duping the surfer into clicking on a link expecting something different.

To illustrate the difference, here are what I think are two 'clear' examples of each, and one in the grey area between the two:

Example of blending (using same colours/fonts etc.):

Further information about blue widgets:
Link
Link
Link
Link

Ads by gooooogle
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad

Example of confusing:

Further information about blue widgets:
Ad Ad Ad Ad
Ads by Google
Link Link Link Link

In the grey area:

Further information about blue widgets:
Link Link Link Link
Ad Ad Ad Ad
Ads by Google

[europeforvisitors]

The only possible "losers" in this equation are the Advertisers, and possibly the surfers, but it only costs the latter time! If it doesn't work for the former they will back out.

Which may be one reason why we see so many "Help! My EPC is dropping!" threads.