I would choose Dreamweaver over a regular HTML template. In Dreamweaver, I would just create a table 20/80 split. In the 20% put the links to pages and ads and in the 80, put the content. Fix up the onsite SEO, put fills in the columns and rows of the tables and then you should have a decent CTR.
If you don't know much about setting up onsite SEO in HTML then, I would consider using WordPress.