This just in: Now it looks like we’re going to have to learn some new rules of the game due to changes in credit card order processing. Apparently, MasterCard and Visa have changed things without any warning.

This very likely will affect most of us in varying ways. For some, it will be completely debilitating, and for others, just a bump in the road. In either case, it will be a learning experience and will ruin some and strengthen others.

What is this change?

Remember “try before you buy?” Or “free plus shipping?” Or, “$1 now, then $37 (47, 67, etc.) per month?” It’s known as “continuity.”

Well, it seems those selling tactics have just been shut down. Suddenly, and without warning, you may not be able to do those anymore. Not with those credit card companies, anyway.

It’s probably a reaction to unscrupulous marketing, but it has the potential to ruin honest and straight forward marketers, too.

Boy, if you’re not being slapped around by Google, or fined by the FTC, now you can get in line with your fanny bared for a MasterCard/Visa spanking.

Where will this end? It’s getting harder and harder to make a living in any world, offline AND online.

So what can we do to survive, or preferably, thrive?

According to some of the experts out there, it looks like your LIST will still be your best asset to date. Focus on list-building and forging relationships with people and you should be OK. The high-flying, happy-go-lucky days of the wild frontier online are over.