Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

The announcement by IncrediMail (MAIL) that it was kicked off of Google's Adsense (GOOG) program underlines an extremely basic, but vital component of running a successful business: don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Observing the IncrediMail problems, it's easy to see why. After the announcement Friday, their stock share price plunged by 40 percent. They are the first public company to have been banned from the Google Adsense program.

A business must have multiple sources of revenue from different businesses or products in order to successfully compete. The reason is if you lose the business of the company like in the case of IncrediMail, or a company goes out of business, you sink with it.

Having several different sources of revenue from different companies or products gives you a solid base you can count on. Even if you have problems with one, the others should help you get through it while you look for other ways to generate revenue.

If you only have one major source of revenue and you lose it, it could take away the time you need to respond and right the ship.

This also applies to your product line. If you rely solely on a major product alone for your revenue, there will come a time when it slows down and makes huge impact on your bottom line. There needs to be a relatively steady line of new products or services coming out of your company for you to succeed.

All of this may seem basic and obvious to many online marketers, yet companies like MIVA (MIVA) and Answers.com (ANSW) are in very similar positions as IncrediMail. They are one step away from potentially losing their key revenue generator.

You may think this is the case in any business. But that's not accurate. While all companies will have key customers they do business with which will drive their sales, they could stand losing them and still survive, and in many cases - thrive. With these companies, if they lose their Google Adsense business, they lose just about everything. We shouldn't put ourselves in that position.