One thing that is very important to understand when selling ads on your own is how those ads are actually sold. Depending on your site, the niche, and how much

One thing that is very important to understand when selling ads on your own is how those ads are actually sold. Depending on your site, the niche, and how much time and effort you put into the ad sales process, results can vary greatly. At the end of the day, the only thing that REALLY matters is if ads are sold or not sold. Software alone, in my opinion, won't get the job done. With roughly 2 and a half years of data from running BSA, less than 20% of ad sales come from a publishers website directly - sure, some sites are higher and some are lower, but 20% is the average (and we're in a tech savvy space). One of Arn's sites, for example, came into BSA with a handful of ad sales. And, once we worked with him and his team on pricing and marketed the site to our existing advertiser base in the iphone niche, his sales soared. I don't know the exact numbers, and I doubt Arn would appreciate me sharing these here - but it's safe to say that his ad sales at least tripled once he joined BSA. In this case, it wasn't the software, it was our ability to sell ads for his site. The point I'm trying to make: there are a billion ad networks out there. Do some research on them before using them, try some out, and find the ones that sell for YOUR site the best. And, if you can sell ads on your own, do it - hard code them into the site, have people pay you via PayPal, and use a network to supplement those sales. Full disclosure: I run BuySellAds.com