I know there are some viable models that depend on ad revenue. It sounds like you've found some of them. That's very commendable.

In my experience, I wasn't very good at balancing my desire to serve the user's needs while also increasing ad revenue. The two goals seemed to be at odds. Either litter the page with ads and annoy the users, or make no money. Not to say it's not possible, just that I didn't like worrying about it or working on it.

I found that the subscription route was much easier. It aligned me perfectly with the users. All I had to do was please them and they would continue paying. No need to test optimal placement, worry about ad fatigue, ad blockers, etc, etc.

Not to say there aren't problems. Finding the right freemium feature balance, dealing with churn, and the horrible beast that is credit card processing are all pain points. But by and large, I have found it much easier to run a business based on subscriptions than ads.

That's cool, there's definitely pros and cons with both.

I've tried both, and even the time I spend with the charge backs and "I changed my mind and want a refund" aren't worth my time dealing with. It's just boring hassle.

I definitely agree, there's a balance between making easy ad money, and satisfying users. That's the hard bit - making the advertising useful enough, unobtrusive enough, but effective.

A lot of it perhaps depends on what sort of person you are. Making money from advertising is basically a numbers game, which you can just optimize iteratively. Selling subscriptions involves feelings, random users, and all those fuzzy things that I personally find a lot harder. I'm not a salesman and never have been. I don't like trying to charge people for something I'd never pay for.

OTOH, I would, and have paid for advertising, I have used websites that carry advertising obviously, so I'm just a lot more comfortable with that whole ecosystem. I can put myself in the position of all parties.