I had a guestbook/guestmap site for almost 10 years. Ads never made me more than $200/month, whereas donations (you donate whatever you want to remove ads from

I had a guestbook/guestmap site for almost 10 years. Ads never made me more than $200/month, whereas donations (you donate whatever you want to remove ads from your guestmap) really picked up some times of the year (I got a $150 donation on thanksgiving, among almost $2k in random donations on the same month - best month in the entire lifetime of the site). Ad revenue tapered off during the years, stabilizing at under $5/month in 2013, donations averaged $200/month until the end (average $12)