Here is a few quick and simple tricks that you can use to monetize your ad-sense better on your websites:

• Adsense ads with a white background always seems to work best.  You always want the ads to fit in within your site colors/design as much as possible, so if you are able; try to use a white background and a faint border.
• Since people read left to right, it only makes sense to place your ads in the first place they see – on the right.  Having your ads display in the left and right sidebars will optimize the viewing time of your ads.  The user will begin reading your blog post with the ads on the left, and then end with viewing the ads on the right.
• Keep track of the CTR’s throughout your site(s), and be sure to remove any ads that have a low CTR (Click Through Ratio).  By keeping a 5%-7% CTR, this will prevent Smart-Pricing.
• Don’t ever use image ads when you are advertising with Adsense.  Image ads tend to bring in a much lower payout.
• Just under your logo/header area, place a 728 x 15 link ad.  Since this is the very first ad placement your visitors will see, it will usually bring in the greatest CTR.