People learn to ignore online ads as irrelevant to what they are interested in. Soon after ignoring them, they learn to block them. Ad-based online revenue streams are a short-lived business model, due to go the way of the dinosaur fairly shortly.

Another way of looking at it ... Think the mid-1630s, Holland & tulips. Make your pile o'loot from the rubes, and get out as soon as you can. I did.

I never broke any laws, or ripped off little old ladies, either ... rather $BIGCO bought me out because my "portal" (as they were then known) was getting a lot of hits per day. $BIGCO went under soon after, during the dot-bomb crash. Me, I bought a horse ranch in Sonoma & am now "retired" to a life of sun-up to the following sun-up, 7 days a week, labor. I only touch computers & networking when my wife has her eye on a particularly expensive horse, or I need to buy a new tractor (water truck, whatever). I'm happy, which is all I ever wanted in life :-)

...to big to fail?

for little guys like me, traffic is steady and hits a down a bit, but revenue down even more.

for my own purchases, i am lowering my top bids for placement in pay per click, and i recon its an easy way to cut costs. or pausing campaigns..

"OK, so if you're living the perfect life why are you trolling the register like all the rest of the wage slaves?"

Life's hardly perfect. Enjoy your 9-5 existence, horse work is 24/7/365.25 ... Currently, I'm sitting in the barn office, bored out of my skull, waiting on the farrier. Last night, I was spelling the foreman walking a colicing horse. I could spend my time more usefully when I'm bored, but I like to keep up with tech news, so I read ElReg and a few other sites when I have a few minutes of down-time. Sometimes I comment. Sometimes I don't. Why do you ask?

"Do you really expect anyone to believe your story?"

I don't really care. 99% of everything on the net is crap, so I'm probably full of shit, statistically. The fact that I'm not has nothing to do with it. Believe what you like :-)