Cobble together a bunch of small sites into a "network" and you have traffic heft plus bargaining power. I have mused over the idea and actually have some principles down on paper (actually on a web page) but I've never pursued it and never considered using it via AdSense.

Being an independent publisher, I know how I feel about my autonomy, and, as has been discussed on other forums, getting diverse publishers to agree on a set of standards may be akin to herding cats.

However, some form of cooperative effort between a croup of small publishers in a niche, segment or industry could produce a "network effect" which could be effective in dealing with advertisers directly.

I know that goes a little off topic, but I can see sites banding together to attract larger brands and more advertisers, but I believe G might not be so receptive to such a concept.

Just my 2 cents.