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Two things spring to mind after reading this and the other threads that deal with these changes.
1. Who says that the big sponsors really need the independant site and gallery builders in the long term - or even the short term.
2. Marc De in the other thread said that this was just the start of bigger things that were to come. Doesn't anyone want to know what are the other things that are coming?
A number of sponsors are saying that webmaster fraud is one of the critical problems with the industry at the moment. It seems to me that a lot of sponsors are positioning themselves to deal directly with the guys who control the traffic - just look at all the sponsor hosted galleries that are available now. There are even free sites available for link list owners to use.
To me that looks a lot like the first step in a move towards cutting out the middle man - the site and gallery builder - entirely.
Perhaps its even possible that the big sponsors will be looking at buying some of the bigger link lists and TGPs just to ensure that they have full control over the production line.
Having control of the traffic sources would become critical if Visa's next move is to cut out recurring billing because if that were to happen the independents would find life so tough that many would leave and there would go the sponsors' current traffic sources.
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Left intentionally blank ... just like my brain
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