I recently removed all ads from 45n5.com (minus a few older random affiliate links) and a handful of people have asked me why I made that decision. It’s just another move in my long struggle with an identity crisis here, but if you really wanna know a few reasons here goes:

Goals - The goal of 45n5.com is NOT to make money with 45n5.com. When I made the post Why I Blog making money wasn’t even on the list. If I had to put it on the list it would be towards the bottom.

Obviously, that was in conflict with the amount of space I dedicated to ads or having them at all.

Looks Ads on blogs are ugly. 125×125 banner ads are some of the ugliest ads on the web and even worse when they flash. I wanted my blog to look nicer and the easiest way to do it was remove the ads.

Trust People trust people more who don’t accept ad money or smother their blogs in ads/affiliate links than they trust someone with no ads or minimal ads.

For Sale I don’t like being for sale ;)

Type Of Ads Many (maybe most) of the advertisers in this make money online space are products/services I wouldn’t use myself.

I Make REAL Affiliate Money I don’t need to sell your eyeballs to eat, I sell products doing real affilaite marketing.

Selling You Most of you are my friends. I don’t want to take money from the highest bidder to have you leave my site and I don’t want you to go ;)

Conclusion

There are many other reasons but those are some of the ones that come to mind first.

There are two sides to every point I just made, and removing ads isn’t good for everyone’s situation. Removing them is good for me at this time, always do what is best for your situation ;)

(another reason was I wanted my videos/posts to appear higher above the fold ;)