[richardhenry]

You can also make enough money from ads if you have a targeted, niche audience.

Don't underestimate that, if you're willing to put the effort in and do ad sales.

[mattew]

Also, don't underestimate the effort it takes to do ad sales.

[jasonshen]

Targeted niche sites can do pretty well with direct ads even without a lot of traffic. 50k+ pgviews is a great start.

Quick pitch - I work at isocket, a company that makes it easier to manage your direct sales. We take care of billing/invoices, scheduling campaigns and stats. You can focus on the human part - selling - which we can help advise you on.