I will confirm you are being overly stupid here. Your readers are of a certain type. The probably have projects and businesses that align with that type. They

I will confirm you are being overly stupid here. Your readers are of a certain type. The probably have projects and businesses that align with that type. They want their projects and businesses to have more attention from people like them. You could even not allow ads that don't represent high quality awesomeness if you're so inclined. Make it an exclusive type of advertising and say, "$5 to offer my readers something awesome" so then you're aligning your readers wishes of finding out about cool stuff and getting a discount on cool stuff with your own financial interests.