In part I agree with Richard - build the audience, make mistakes and learn what they want and how they want it presenting, and then look to invest further with tighter integrations and automated workflow. As long as you are not producing a negative experience with the manual approach, then no harm done. It just sounds like extra work for you.
Where I do not necessarily agree is looking immediately for ad revenues. Richard is absolutely right that if you have a niche audience then there could be value, but ad revenues are very low, and unless you are looking at 100k+ niche visitors, it might not be worth your time, or worth impacting the customer experience.
FYI - I am not a specific ecom expert, but have built many a project, and am based up the road in Stapleton.