If it was something that the community agreed on, I'm not fully against putting ads on Steemit. The money could help the site and its users. If the company decided to utilize them, the money could go a long way to promote the site and pay devs for more features. They could also let users, if they decide to, put ads on their posts so they could make bonus money for their posts. But that word, bonus, is the main point I want to talk about in this article. Steemit doesn't need ads. The users, some who are making good money, are doing so without ads. The site is growing without them and steemit can take them or leave them as they wish. This leads to a lot of freedom.
I was reading today about the new Call Of Duty and how streamers cannot make money streaming it. It is too violent and this in conflict with new rules on Youtube involving ads. Like Call of Duty or not, it is a big game and it is unfortunate that their are men and women who cannot make money from their gameplay on this site. I don't blame Youtube or the companies placing their ads. Youtube offers free video and it needs to pay for it somehow and these companies have the right not to associate their product with something they do not want to associate with (though I think people are smart enough not to connect the two). The problem is, with the volume of videos on Youtube, you need blanket rules to cover your bases and this leads to a lot of frustrated streamers who just want to play C.O.D. for their fans. This isn't a problem with steemit. Since steemit doesn't need ads, users have more freedom to make money from their content. They shouldn't post garbage, but that is true regardless of sponsorship or not. And if we decided to let users put ads on their page, it can their choice, and users who don't can still make money from their work.
We also do not need to worry about views as much as other sites do. When you are making money from ads you really need a high volume of users. You can make money from clicks but again, you need a lot of traffic to convert enough of them to see real money. With steemit, since it always rewards users with a set amount of steem, there will always be people getting paid. Now the site does benefit from high traffic, like every other one, the more people use the site, the higher the chance the value of the coin will rise. But even with lower numbers the site still pays people. A dead day on a site that only pays with ads mean a day without payment but on steemit, you can still earn for your work.
Would you put ads on your page if you had the option? I am on the fence, they would have to not be obtrusive.
*my upvotes/rep disclaimer: https://steemit.com/steemit/@whatageek/my-steemit-account-where-i-stand-on-bots-self-votes-and-multiple-account