You can still do ads, there are no rules regarding ads (other than there are things you can not advertise, like in the real world). The main issue really is th

You can still do ads, there are no rules regarding ads (other than there are things you can not advertise, like in the real world). The main issue really is that publishers and ad networks conflate tracking and ads. I'm pretty tired of sites popping up a message saying: "We need to talk about your ad blocker". I don't block ads, I block tracking, remove the tracking and we're good. Context based ads works almost as well as those based on endless amounts of personal information. They are good enough, they worked well for decades. The problem is that they are a lot hard to sell/buy and modern online ad specialist aren't qualified to do it, they can only click around the Google AdWords or Facebook Ads.