How do you guys feel about people that place image blocks next to their ads to lure visitors into clicking them? To me, that's no different then having an arrow pointing to the ads or having a sign that says "hey! click me!" ya know? I tried it out on one of my sites for a week and clicks were higher but I wanted to work on ad placement methods that will not be banned by AdSense/YPN in the future.

You can see the ads I'm talking about mostly on MySpace resource sites, tutorial websites, and arcade sites. On arcade sites, they usually replace the description of a game and have the game thumbnail next to it. On tutorial sites, they replace the description of a tutorial and have a cool effect thumbnail next to it making people think the ad is a tutorial on that particular effect. You guys get the point.

Your thoughts?

If the program your using has no problem with it I have no problem with it. Its good business strategy if it leads to an increase in earnings.

There's nothing wrong with it, just make sure you don't decieve your users by telling them to click. Also, it's best to keep a visible boarder between the ads and the images.

Check out the Forumtrends Blog. These images are now being used in adsense ads. I you havent noticed them showing up on your site you probably will at some point.

Its a good business stratergy, but once you get used to seeing them they are easy to spot.

At first they were a real pain in *** but now I just know which ones not to click (since they are always in the same place), I'm not as botherd about it.

Originally Posted by Opserty

Its a good business stratergy, but once you get used to seeing them they are easy to spot.

At first they were a real pain in *** but now I just know which ones not to click (since they are always in the same place), I'm not as botherd about it.

That's why you switch em around

Yahoo and Google both have stated that they don't mind as long as the images are relevant. I personally don't see the harm in it. I buy PPC traffic and I earn revenue with Google AdSense and YPN and from both sides of the fence I think it is OK. The ads are supposed the be delivered as relevant and if that is the case it is win win. If somebody is on a related site and they accidentially click an ad not knowing its an ad at least they are still a targeted visitor within the same niche. It is no different than linking to other sites within your own site and somebody accidentally clicks on it taking them off the site. Both sites are related, so what difference does it make? The surfer is clearly looking for this type of content.

I use it myself and I dont think it matters that much. It helps increase revenue and if someone does "accidently" click on it they can just go back and remain surfing the website. Without money a website can't continue so finding ways to increase revenue such as the image blocks beside the ads can help increase it and in turn help the website grow larger and better

Good stuff guys, keep 'em coming

With my new site I'm building, I plan to place same type of images next to the ads but the images will be clickable to take them to a tool on the site. That'll help me sleep better.

Originally Posted by Thien

Good stuff guys, keep 'em coming

With my new site I'm building, I plan to place same type of images next to the ads but the images will be clickable to take them to a tool on the site. That'll help me sleep better.

If you are worried about it run it by a Google or YPN rep before you do it.