Improving ads positions

[Nico]

Hi,

What do you think of the positions of the ads on this site: www.famousdeaddb.com
Specially in the www.famousdeaddb.com/list.php and the internal pages, like http://www.famousdeaddb.com/Einstein/

Any way to improve them?
Would it make any difference if i move the top banner (728x90) in list.php up a little? Maybe above the alphabetical list...

Thanks!

[Chris]

Have you read my article?

http://www.websitepublisher.net/article/contextual-optimization/

On the list page I would left justify the letter menu at the top, and then put the leaderboard directly below it.

[Nico]

In fact, i started reading your article when it came out, but it looks like i forgot to finished it. I just re-read it, thanks.

I moved the leaderboard below the alpha list, like you suggested, and it looks a lot better. But may i ask why the left justify? Should i left justify all the titles & alpha lists on all pages?

Also, according to what i read in your article i should remove the banners (468x60) of the internal pages and replace them with leaderboards. My newbie question is: is there any difference on the type of ads that banner and leaderboard have? Meaning, one can pay more than other? (not talking about CTR)

[Chris]

No, there is no difference between types of ads in banners and leaderboards, just that leaderboards can show up to 4 at a time.

Left justify so that the alpha list and the leaderboard take up roughly the same rectangular space, this will help blend. As important as blending the colors is blending the "shapes" of your site to match the ads.

[Nico]

I forgot to thankyou Chris (thankyou!)...i did what you suggested and things are looking a lot better now.

I wasn't very convinced on left justifying everything, but i did it, and the design looks a lot better. I got a little increase of the CTR also.
Im thinking that maybe if i move the leaderboards to above the letter menu i'll increase the CTR a little more....but it's good the way it is now, so maybe i'll leave it like this.

Nico

[Chris]

Higher isn't always better. One thing I say in that article is "don't trump your logo"

Users are trained to start reading a site at a certain point, usually the location of a logo or a menu. So ideally you'll want your ad right below the logo or the menu, not right above it. Remember people read left to right, top to bottom. So always put the ads to the right or to the bottom of action points or important content.

[Skeewe]

By my experience , when it comes to ads placement and design: experimenting is KING