Most "websites" monetize in the exact same way, minus the McDonalds-specific thing mentioned here.
There is no alternative business model. The volume and frequency of ads will increase as well, due to Google slashing premiums over the years. The days when the PlentyOfFish guy could bring in millions in AdSense revenue in a single month are long gone.
High-traffic websites will still make more with ads than they will with paid subscriptions. If your website has 1 million users/month and no moat, you'd be doing very well to convert even 0.1% (1,000) of them into paying subscribers. Even that would put you at what, $10k / month? Would that stop you, the site owner, from double-dipping and running ads on paid subscriber accounts? "All the other companies are doing it!"
If it were me, yes, yes it would, because those subs are paying to not see ads.
If we're talking about a wiki, then there's no point in paying for the subscription if you still get access to all the content AND the ads. Plus for that kind of website that's pretty much entirely static text and images $10k a month should be more than enough to cover the cost of hosting.
There is no alternative business model. The volume and frequency of ads will increase as well, due to Google slashing premiums over the years. The days when the PlentyOfFish guy could bring in millions in AdSense revenue in a single month are long gone.
High-traffic websites will still make more with ads than they will with paid subscriptions. If your website has 1 million users/month and no moat, you'd be doing very well to convert even 0.1% (1,000) of them into paying subscribers. Even that would put you at what, $10k / month? Would that stop you, the site owner, from double-dipping and running ads on paid subscriber accounts? "All the other companies are doing it!"