> In 2004, I started a small website on the side that had no business value at all. It was just a small community of video game fans (specifically Animal Crossing), and pretty quickly, the costs outgrew what I was willing to afford on my own.

> So I opened up donations. Unfortunately that didn’t get me very far

A site that has to rely on ads to survive doesn't have a viable business model, or in your case interesting enough/in demand enough content.

It's as simple as that.

Ads are largely a false economy anyway.