How do ads work on websites?

TheQuietMan
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Wallet After Summer Sale -

House of the Arcana
It’s a technical question but how do ads pay off the website to keep it alive? Does it just need to load and I look at it or must it be clicked on?
GlitchedWolf
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Elements of Harmony -
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Magnificent Metadata Maniac - #1 Assistant
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!
Speaking Fancy - Badge given to members that help with translations
Happy Derpy! - For Patreon supporters

Moderator
Derpbooru Free Edition!?
@Phoenixflambe  
It depends on the website, on Derpibooru. For 1 paid advertisement it costs the owner of the advertisement $40 USD a month which goes towards keeping Derpibooru up.
Joey
Dawnsong - Derpi Supporter
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Cool Crow - "Caw!" An awesome tagger
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!

PM me your cute OCs
Are you talking about Derpibooru in specific, or sites in general?
 
Derpibooru charges a flat $40/month for advertisements. The first two weeks of advertising are free as well, so half the ads we run don’t even pay us anything.
 
Other sites largely depends on the ad publisher and technology - some are based on clicks, some are based on impressions, some on overly complex formulas, etc. There’s no single direct answer.
Joey
Dawnsong - Derpi Supporter
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Cool Crow - "Caw!" An awesome tagger
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!

PM me your cute OCs
@Phoenixflambe  
Again, it depends on the website. Advertising provides revenue, but in order for a site to remain viable, the revnuew needs to exceed expenses.
 
Derpibooru’s operating expenses are relatively low as we’re a not-for-profit volunteer-ran site. Additionally, we have Patreon supporting the site as well.
 
However, other sites that operate for-profit and have paid staff have significantly higher operating expenses, and thus more of a challenge maintaining the necessary revenue to keep running.
Derpy Whooves
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Artist -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Artistic Detective - For awesome dedication to sleuthing out and maintaining artist tags and links
Economist -
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!

Looking For My Doctor
@Phoenixflambe  
Are you looking for someplace to advertise? Or just asking in general how advertising works on the web, or how people afford to keep sites running?
 
Can you expand your question with more information about what you are trying to find out or what you are curious about?
Derpy Whooves
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Artist -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Artistic Detective - For awesome dedication to sleuthing out and maintaining artist tags and links
Economist -
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!

Looking For My Doctor
@Phoenixflambe  
Really, the only way to do that is to go with something that has lasted long enough that you trust it to survive, or to create your own domain.
 
But, either way, any content you post can be lost.
 
If it’s on your own server, you might have a hard drive failure, or the data center might get flooded or be destroyed in some other natural disaster.
 
Or maybe your ISP or host gets bought and the new company doesn’t like your content.
 
And if you host it on someplace that’s enormous and will be around forever - like LiveJournal or on a Yahoo Group - or even a Facebook group - then some day it will be gone and so will be your content, either because the company itself goes away, or the company changes it’s policies.
 
Everything shuts down. Even your own stuff.
 
So keep backups of your content, and backups of the backups.
 
And live with the situation that you have today - if you want something that’s going to be around for awhile, there’s lots of existing free hosts for almost all kinds of content. Most if not all of them will still be here in a year or two or ten.
 
Just make sure that you keep copies of what you want to save.
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Ponies Online! - April 13-14

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