Advertising has been one of the favorite (attempted) revenue sources for many startups, dating back to the Web 1.0. The general idea is, build something interesting that people will use, throw some ads (brokered through a third party), and just wait for the cash to come in.
This doesn’t work for me. Maybe that’s a bad opinion for me to have, as it is the popular choice, and **sometimes** successful. Or maybe it’s a good one, as it forces me to look at ideas for how they can generate non-advertising revenue (if revenue is something I want out of it).
It depends on business spending. If company coffers dwindle, advertising is the first thing to go. So does your revenue stream.
Contextual advertising is still far away from showing ads that are truly relevant to the content/demographics of the user.
Subconsciously, a user recognizes patterns of where ads are usually placed on websites, and what they look at, so they can navigate a website without once glancing at an ad.
And most of all, I almost never click on ads, so why should I expect others to?
For my startup (omg I just called it my startup), advertising is the last revenue source I am looking towards. There are so many other income streams available that allow for better control of the outcome, and can produce far greater returns. If I were to allow for advertising, I would have it much more focused, and sell it myself, focusing more on partnerships and affiliate marketing rather than just YOUR AD HERE!
