Ok, our previous theme was great for Adsense. Bryan did an awesome job with it and it served us well.
But, I was ready for a change and that is one of the great things about WordPress – you can change your blog theme as often as you want. So, what you see around you now is our new theme based on the super-sweet theme by GPS Gazette. We made a few alterations and additions, but it was pretty much straight out of the box.
I have a few more that I might test and see what kind of reaction we get, but as of now, I think we are going with this one.
We got rid of the Adsense on the home page (it really kind of detracted from the site, I think) and we gave our blog sponsors more prominent positioning. If you notice in the right-hand column, you will see a heading “Blog Sponsors“. Those are links to companies that are renting that space from us each month. I personally check out each of those sites before approving their ad placement. I am pretty picky and have turned down a few that I thought did not fit with our site’s overall feel. So, bottom-line, if you see an ad displayed over there, they have been approved and you can “click with confidence” if you are interested (since they are paying a flat rate per money, they do not have to worry about “click-fraud” 🙂 ).
Let me know what you think. Is it easier to navigate? Is the layout more pleasing? Do you absolutely hate it? Whatever you think, let us know.