The idea behind this theme is to make it flexible to use different standard ads format in the blog. Most themes are design from an aesthetic start point and ad units are added as an after thought.
Since I had wanted to run ads (yes, those omnipresent, pesky little ads) from the onset, I want my template to blend them in.
Here’s a quick run down of the thoughts behind the layout.
The site bar stretches across the top like freshmeat. On the left I link to my other sites, on the right are space for text ads.
Header
The head has space for logo and the 468×60 Banner unit. The larger 728×90 Leaderboard can go under the logo.
A horizontal menu and the google 728×15 text links can also go there.
Main Body
Where the main content will be. The 336×280 Large Rectangle can only fit here.
Side Bar
Side menu bar that can take a full 320 with or split 2 x 160 column. The 320 column can take 300×250, 250×250, 234×60. The 160 column can take 120 or 160 vertical units as well as small buttons like 125×125, 88×31.
Lone Column
The Lone Col is an idea borrowed from ZDNet blog. On 800×600 screen it will be to the right of the screen. By standing alone, main content does not look broken across screen. On 1024 and larger it look perfect.
(Drawing done using OpenOffice Draw.)
Hello,
It might be a good idea to center your content (Main Body), instead of putting it on the left. The reason is that most people tend to focus on the middle and the right side of a page. I’ve actually read a study about that once!
The first thing I see on this blog is an add, and then beneath it a list of links to categories, and on the right more ads. Only when looking to the left, where other sites put their menus and links, do I see the actual content. And content is what the blog is about, right?
My solution would be to put the sidebar on the left. But I’m certainly not an expert, so I’ll leave it up to you!
PS. I just discovered the WP-Notable plugin, you might find it useful in your quest to increase traffic!