I agree with @nicholaslawson about the ads. In my opinion, I don’t even stay on sites where ads are first. You might want to move them to the sidebar or to the bottom of the posts/pages.
Also, I would get creative with the sidebar. Change it from the blogroll to retailers who sell the footwear, show different pictures, just be creative and grab people’s attention.
You also might want to think about jazzing up your logo area of the site. If your logo has a footwear-ish look and feel to it then I’m guessing more people will stay around to look throughout the site and content that you post.
About how Google will judge your site, I have no idea. But if the site looks more customized and not so ‘simple text only’ then I’m guessing they would like it better and give you some advantage over others.
