Let's break it down MaxHost:
vBulletin Leased Liscenses. I know of 5 that Artashes maintains - sho that's the discount of $79/board/year but times by 5 that's $395/year.

Hosting. Easily $20/month, but because Art is running 5 vB boards, I'd put him at possibly owning a dedicated server. Let's pretend he gets a discount from MicFo - I don't know if he does or not, but for the sake of argument. He gets a discount from them. Looks like their basic dedicated server retails for $199, but I don't think the 512MB of RAM and 1.3 would cover his needs. so let's put him on the second step up with a 2.0 and a 1GB of RAM.

Said server retails for $249/month. Discount him down to $200/month because MicFo likes him cause his name is cool - I dunno - he gets a discount, let's just pretend he does. That's still $2,400/year for the server.

So now we're at $2,795/year to provide a service to you and we haven't even started in on the .com domains - the administration of each site, have you seen the rewards for being an active HD member? Or the prizes lined up for the comin' contest? Tournanov Media more than likely costs Art $5,000 EASILY each year - and you're a member at this lovely forum for free. I highly doubt Art is trying to make an "extra buck".

Just submitted taxes - and for our small web hosting business I spent enough to buy my 2004 Nissan Titan fully loaded and customized how I want - don't start assuming people just want an "Extra Buck" because they're offering a bit higher quality of PPC than one might find elsewhere. If you don't like his prices - then don't advertise with HD. Personally we're locked into some other advertising right now in other places else you would see ExonNet on those text links and top banner ads currently.

$5 is a fair price for PPC on a forum dedicated to web hosting where people will be looking for opinions on web hosting and seeking new and reliable web hosts. I would rather pay the $5 for a PPC than a $1 for a PPC campaign and cause the person providing the advertising space to lose out, and not be able to maintain the advertising space for those interested.

/rant