This is, of course, not new - it's been going on for at least a decade. One of the networks of sites like this even funded a lawsuit against one of the big revenge porn site networks that was carefully written to be entirely porn-specific and avoid any arguments that touched the shared parts of their business model - presumably because revenge porn was so evil it was bringing unwanted attention and they wanted it gone before someone took action that might affect them.
I remember noticing this same thing back then with those sites as well: "Most sidebar ads are programmatic. That means they are served up by an ad network with no involvement by the people who run a site, and they change every time you visit. That wasn’t the case here. The RepZe ads were permanent fixtures, written into the websites’ coding." It was really obvious that the adverts for removal services on that network of sites weren't standard programmatically-selected ads, that they must have some kind of business arrangement. On that network, they also seemed to be the only genuine ads - meaning that the removal fees were presumably their sole source of income.
I remember noticing this same thing back then with those sites as well: "Most sidebar ads are programmatic. That means they are served up by an ad network with no involvement by the people who run a site, and they change every time you visit. That wasn’t the case here. The RepZe ads were permanent fixtures, written into the websites’ coding." It was really obvious that the adverts for removal services on that network of sites weren't standard programmatically-selected ads, that they must have some kind of business arrangement. On that network, they also seemed to be the only genuine ads - meaning that the removal fees were presumably their sole source of income.