[jnovak]

Not sure what Simon will make of being labelled as "the man" on SEO !

I have also been put off using Adsense for that specific reason myself. When I see how it works on other sites, to me it makes them look tacky and cluttered.

Perhaps a better approach might be to use "latest news" or "useful articles" pages, where you could add useful relevant links? That might give you more control and be more informative for your site visitors anyhow... extra work on your part though to keep those up-to-date though.