Well, he's right, though not exactly for the reasons he states. Display ads are in fact worth much less than search ads, for most web sites. Display ads aren't

Well, he's right, though not exactly for the reasons he states. Display ads are in fact worth much less than search ads, for most web sites. Display ads aren't about clicking, they're about exposure/influence (kind of like outdoor or TV ads without an explicit call to action). There the CPMs are much lower, since they by definition less effective at producing sales. (though they are not completely valueless, since eyeballs without immediate conversions may still eventually convert) He's also right that most people's idea of "making money on the internet with ad-supported" has in mind the glory days of $4 CPMs on banner ads. We haven't been there since '01 or so. So everyone's economic model is screwed up. There are only two (and a half) ways to make money with ad-supported content on the internet: -- 1) Conventional CPM display ads-- but you have to have millions of pageviews a month, and extremely low marginal costs, to make this profitable. -- 1.5) Conventional CPM display ads, but on a extremely valuable niche site (e.g. a forum for doctors or lawyers). Here, though, there are probably more profitable ways of monetizing than ads. -- 2) Extremely SERP-friendly content with adsense/affiliate ads: If your content is targeted enough that it appears in a Search Engine Result Page (or if you can arbitrage the traffic through paid search), then you can get visitors who are in search mode (marketers call this "intent"), who will click through to your site, and then click an ad on your site related to their search. Think "mesothelioma" splogs. If none of these work for you, you should consider alternate monetization methods (freemium, subscription, traditional bizdev/affiliate programs, etc).