The Learned Man - is yet another top ranked influential blogs from India.

Not surprisingly, being a technology blog, the learned man has implemented all the monetisation techniques in a decent manner on the blog.

Totally, there are 3ad + 1link units.

There are 2 Skyscrapers used on either right and left panels of the blog.
One of them(right panel) is very well optimised and tuned with the overall look of the blog, while the other skyscraper juts out, not at all relating with the blog theme. I guess this is a deliberate attempt by the author to see which one of them bring in more clicks probably. One of them is above fold while the second below fold.

Above fold skyscraper
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Background colour - Yes, Matches with body colour.
Font size - Yes, Matches with body colour.
Title colour - No, Does not match with blog title colour.
Link colour - Yes, Matches with blog links colour.
Text colour - Yes, Matches with blog text colour.
Background/boxed - No border.
Placement - Above fold, good visibility
Number of ads - 3 + 1 link unit

Below fold skyscraper
——————————-
Background colour - No, Does not match with body colour.
Font size - Yes, Matches with blog colour.
Title colour - No, Does not match with blog title colour.
Link colour - No, Does not match with blog links colour.
Text colour - Yes, Matches with blog text colour.
Background/boxed - Boxed out.
Placement - Below fold, good visibility

AdLink unit
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Placement - Above fold, left hand panel
Background image - No
Category Match - Yes

Corrections Recommended
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In my perspective, the left hand panel skyscraper is a waste, apart from the guess that it’s an experiment.

Instead of this unit, the author should’ve used a rectangle in between posts. That would make it two rectangles and a skyscraper. As rectangles are the most prefered units to leader boards and skyscrapers.

The adlink unit placement deserves an applause as it’s tweaked the best way to match the look of the blog.Also it’s placed above fold mimicing the category menu making it more accessible.

A special mention to the font used in the menu links on this blog. All the text links used in the right and left hand panels are tiny in size and does not match quite well with the rest of the links on the blog. The font size in the ads are the standard 12point ones and it matches with the links on the blog(except the ones on the panels.) If my guess is right, this has been done to incorporate more text portion into the links, making it more sensible. But it also harms the overall recognition factor for the ads.

Overall, this blog scores a 8/10.

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