[carcassi456]

I've noticed that nearly all blogs link the pictures to free host galleries or handmade galleries. Can someone explain the reason why the don't just directly link to their sponsor's site?

If you want the person to sign up at the sponsor page, why not just have the surfer go directly there and decide for themselves if they want to join the site?

To me, linking to a gallery, is like setting another obstacle before the surfer finally gets to the real site that you want them to enter.

It's like you're filtering out surfer multiple times:
a)when they click on the blog pic
b)when they click on the gallery pic
c)when they click on pics at the sponsor page
d)when they reach the join page

Wouldn't it be better to do eliminate Step B and possibly drive a lot more traffic to the sponsor(which is really the destination that you want the surfer to reach)?

Or how about linking the gallery directly to the sponsor's join page(since
Google SE traffic is already pre-qualified in a sense)?

Thanks.