<b>Ch. 12: The Day I Removed Half My Ads</b>

<b>Ch. 12: The Day I Removed Half My Ads</b>

The espresso site had display ads everywhere by month 5 — $14 RPM, ~$80/mo from ads. Standard playbook. Then I noticed the affiliate numbers were anemic versus the reef site at the same traffic.

I ran a test: stripped display ads entirely from my 12 highest-intent 'which grinder should I buy' posts, leaving ads only on informational pages. Kept ads on 'what is pre-infusion' type posts where nobody buys anything.

Result over 6 weeks: those 12 posts lost $19/mo in display income. Affiliate revenue from the SAME posts rose $84/mo. The ads had been distracting buyers at the exact moment of decision — a $0.40 ad click was cannibalizing a $40 commission.

The rule that emerged: ads on informational pages (monetize attention you can't convert), affiliate-clean on commercial pages (protect the conversion).

Net site revenue went from $240 to $310/mo with that one structural change — no new content.

Lesson banked: display and affiliate aren't additive on commercial pages — they compete for the same click. Map intent per page and pick ONE monetization per page. Ads on buying pages are you outbidding yourself for pennies.