Watch Your Empire Crumble
Crush the Platform Prison
Picture this: You're a creator with 2 million TikTok followers. You've spent years building your audience. Then one day, you wake up to find the platform might be banned.
Just like that, your primary source of income could vanish overnight. While the recent TikTok ban scare lasted less than a day, it exposed a harsh truth about building on rented land.
The Platform Trap
Let's get real about what's happening in the creator economy:
The recent TikTok drama wasn't just about a potential ban – it was a wake-up call.
Creators who'd spent years building their following faced the possibility of losing it all in an instant. Sure, the platform came back online, but the message was clear: your followers aren't really yours if someone else owns the platform.
Look at what's going down on X with their creator revenue-sharing program. People are going wild over making money from posts, sharing screenshots of their earnings like they've cracked the code.
But here's the thing – they're building their house on someone else's property.
Why Ownership Matters
When you're building on social media, you're basically renting space in someone else's mall. Sure, customers (followers) come to see you, but the mall owner makes the rules. They can:
Kick you out whenever they want
Change how many people see your content
Decide how much money you make, if at all
Shut down the whole operation
This isn't just theory – we've seen it happen. Platforms change algorithms, update monetization rules, or straight-up disappear.
Remember Vine? MySpace? The creators who thrived there had to start from scratch when those platforms tanked.
Building Your Own Platform
Here's where the smart money is: treating social media like a lead generator, not your home base. What does this look like in practice?
If you're writing content:
Start a newsletter on Substack or your own domain
Build a WordPress site you control
Create a mailing list that nobody can take away
For video creators:
Drive followers to your website
Build an email list from your social following
Create products you own and control
The key? Every piece of content you post should aim to move people off-platform to something you own. Yeah, you'll probably make less money in the short term. Your open rates won't match your follower count.
But the audience you build this way? They're yours for keeps.
The Long Game
I'll be straight with you – I earn some money from X's monetization program. But that's not the end game. It's just a bonus while I focus on what matters: growing my newsletter subscribers, developing courses, and writing books.
That's where the real value is.
Smart creators learned their lesson from the TikTok scare. Many launched their own websites and newsletters, building something that couldn't be taken away with the flip of a switch.
Take it from someone who's been there: build your house on your own land. Use social media as a tool, not a home.
Your future self will thank you for it.
Quote of the Day:
"Fortune favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur.
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