Going Ad-Free: Why I Removed Ads from My Blog (and What I Gained Instead)

One thing a blogger rarely says No to is recurring revenue, even if it’s just a little bit. But sometimes, the ROI is so little that it’s not worth it.

That has been the case with having ads on my site for a long time now. I just removed them and I wanted to share more about that in case you too have been thinking of making your blog ad-free.

Why I Removed Ads from My Blog

I was using Mediavine, which is a great ad network.

Years ago, LRS was getting 100K monthly page views and I was making over $1K from ads, passively, every month. Good times!

But things shifted.

Algorithms kept changing.

SEO lost its predictability.

And then AI shook up everything.

Many bloggers and big sites lost a lot of traffic, and with that ad revenue almost disappeared. They started looking for alternative ways to get traffic (like double downing on Pinterest or social media), or to monetize (like selling digital products or influencer marketing).

Many creators thought blogging is dead and moved onto other projects, and pursued different revenue streams and business models.

My traffic went down, a lot. It’s now below 20K page views a month.

That means I was barely earning $200 from ads monthly, and it went down to a bit above $100 in the last months.

In fact, here are my last earnings:

That’s when I decided to take the plunge, contacted Mediavine and told them I want to remove all ads from my site.

Here are the main reasons why I wanted this:

• Cleaner design. Ads clutter your site, and distract from your content;
• Better user experience. Readers stick around longer when they aren’t bombarded with pop-ups and banners;
• More trust. Without ads, your blog feels less “salesy” and more genuine;
• I don’t like ads myself. I usually use an ad blocker. But whenever I stumble upon a site with many ads, I quickly leave;
• Faster site speed. Ad scripts often drag down loading times, which hurts SEO and annoys readers;
• SEO shifts. Google cares about page experience. Too many ads can hurt rankings;
• Focus on your offers. Without ad distractions, you can guide readers toward your email list and products;
• Freedom from algorithms. Ad revenue depends on traffic and CPMs, both of which fluctuate constantly;
• What I earn from a few sponsored collaborations is more than I do in a whole year from ad revenue.

Why I Stayed with Mediavine for So Long

While this is a post about blog ads in general, and I would have left any other ad network too, it’s worth mentioning Mediavine and what my situation was exactly.

First of all, I got accepted a long time ago and that’s a privilege. It’s a good network to partner with and you need to meet certain requirements in order to be accepted. Plus, they require more page views since then, and I knew that if I left, I wouldn’t be accepted again if I change my mind.

Next, I hesitated to walk away from guaranteed income, no matter how low it was.

But at the end of the day, it wasn’t bringing in enough, and it was hurting the site more than benefiting it.

Well, actually the only benefit of displaying ads is the revenue. And if that’s not substantial, there’s no point in keeping the ads.

Another reason for not removing them sooner is that I operate with my vision in mind. I want to grow the traffic, and have been working with that in mind for a long time now, but nothing happened. Ad revenue kept being low (and decreasing further).

This year, the profit from one affiliate campaign exceeded the yearly earnings I’d get from Mediavine. The same goes for one or two individual collaborations with brands/sponsors. And for the rest, every few sponsored deals actually earn me more than ads do in a year. 

The figures speak for themselves.

Instead of continuing to disturb the reader experience on my site, I could focus on the blog income streams that actually have potential.

Also read: How I Consistently Earn $3,000/Month with Sponsored Blog Posts

So that’s what I did.

Breaking Up With Blog Ads

In July, I finally took the leap to contact the Mediavine support team. I told them I want to remove ads from my blog and asked what the next steps are.

Turned out, I needed to give them a 30-day notice, after which I’d lose access to my Mediavine dashboard. What I needed to do was simply delete the Mediavine WordPress plugin from my site once the 30 days pass.

That’s what happened and as of September 2025, I stopped displaying ads on my blog, and wasn’t a Mediavine partner anymore.

What’s Next

It was a scary thing to do, as it also meant I let go of what my blog could potentially earn with that ad network in the future when traffic increases. Of course, if it increases enough, I can apply again.

But the whole thing also felt liberating. I didn’t need to wonder whether I should remove ads or not anymore, or wonder if they slow down my site, or feel down when I see how low my ad earnings are.

This allows me to stop focusing on traffic that much, and lets me pay more attention to what’s important.

That includes the revenue-generating activities (such as sponsorships, digital products and affiliate marketing), content (and letting it be the main thing on the site, without too many distractions), forming relationships (through my email list) and working on new projects (like growing a brand on socials).

One thing I’m open to now (which I wasn’t considering before) is private ad partnerships. That’s similar to sponsorships, and can simply mean selling ad space on your blog. This could include third parties (marketplaces) or it can be just between you and the advertiser. 

They might contact you via email, or you may pitch them. 

Whatever the method, you’re in charge of what happens next. You decide how much to charge (or whether to accept their budget), what ads to display and where, and for how long to leave them on your blog.

It could be for a month, and one banner in your sidebar. And you can earn 4 figures, or multiple 4 figures.

Finding those advertisers and marketplaces is not easy though, and I’m just beginning my research in that direction. Let’s see how it goes.

If you have any information about that, feel free to reach out via email at lidiya [at] letsreachsuccess.com and let me know.

If you’re interested in advertising on LRS, also shoot me an email and let’s discuss it.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know whether you have ads on your site or not. And if you do, how do you feel about them? And would you consider removing them and going ad-free?