[jacquesm]

The real conclusion to me is that you should not base your business on some other big business that gets a major say in whether or not you live or die.

Try to gain traction independent of google, ebay, facebook or whatever it out there that you could base your business on. Treat them like the icing on your cake, nice to have but not the crucial element in your bottom line which if you lose it will kill your business overnight.

Of course, if it works it is easy money, but once you grow a bit, maybe have a couple of employees it suddenly starts to look like a highwire act.

Unless of course you've got an in with some big name VC that also happens to invest in google to protect you from being cut off.

Better keep your independence as much as you can.

[robryan]

The problem isn't so much with an individual merchant if your running an affiliate site, there is enough out there usually in more areas to allow mixing and matching depending on the deals being offered.

There is not so much option though when it comes to Google, the getting cut from Google is going to have a major effect for the vast majority of affiliate marketers, unless you have something like a massive user/email list or have something big on Facebook.