Business rule #1 – Don't build your business where someone else controls the sales.
Business Rule #1 – Have control of your revenue. Building a business exclusively relying on another company or exclusive API, can cost you a lot of money and good will. Because when the partner or link has issues it can shut you down too!
Tweet Addr is the one of the latest to have this issue. The product is a robust Twitter add-on tool, built using the twitter API. This focus allowed them to sell a service and promote only on that platform. Great while it lasted! 
We all need a niche! We all need to specialize! Well, Tweet Addr had a niche – twitter users looking to grow their followers. Tweet Addr specialized in follow/unfollowing tweeps based on user-defined parameters such as:
- twitter lists
- Followers of another user
- Your followers, etc
And it did this with tons of filters, to ensure that you followed those that made sense for you.
Other products do the same thing – Manage Flitter for one – but they are still operational. So why Tweet Addr?
Why did Tweet Addr get punished?
I am not privy to the details of the punishment, but you can read about their efforts here. Or follow their twitter feed. I hope they do get this sorted out soon. I have been using Tweet Addr for years and love the product!
The important point is: If you want to be in a specific niche market focused on one partner then ensure:
- That your reliance on the partner is less than the effort you dedicate to keeping up with their rules or changes.
- Or don’t allow another company to control your market for long. Branch out as soon as you can. You may have to build your company with this vulnerability in mind. But fix all known vulnerabilities as soon as you can.
For the average business owner that can be as simple as not relying on social media to generate and communicate with your leads. Make sure that you are taking those leads to somewhere that you control, such as an email list.
Facebook and Twitter don’t need your approval to shut down an account.
Google makes SEO type changes on a regular basis. This makes it important for you to control your leads. It is great to get leads from social media. But take the leads back to your email lists and make sure that you are keeping them nurtured within that list. Keep your relationships close to your business. And be sure to have more than one product that you can sell.
If you need any help determining how to move your business model to a less vulnerable one, then connect with us here. Plan a way out of those vulnerabilities.
For Tweet Addr I hope they get this resolved soon. It is a great product and they are very responsive about the issues. Maybe by the next time I post this will be a distant memory.
Comment below and let us know if you have had similar experiences. Have you had a favorite product drop out of the market due to penalties?