We are not lawyers and we hate legal jargon, but if you want to make money on your blog it is important to cover your ………!
During the creation of our “Legal Stuff“, we created this guide to make it easier for you. This process isn’t fun, but hopefully I can make it a little easier on you.
Disclosure Policy
Your disclosure policy divulges your interests. It tells people that you may or may not accept money for goods and services which you might sell or recommend on your website.
You legally need to add one to your website if you plan on selling or recommending products or items. Your readers should have the opportunity to be informed. In fact, you must include on if you want to comply with current Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines.
Resources:
- The FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking
This Federal Trade Commission Q&A is very helpful in answering your questions. - disclosurepolicy.org
Disclosure.org helps you create a “cookie cutter” disclosure policy. - 5 Ways to comply with the new FTC Guidelines for Bloggers
Be up to date! Learn about the new Federal Trade Commission guidelines.
Look at what your favorite bloggers are doing in the legal pages or disclosure policies. Do not plagiarize their text, but you can see what they include and work it into your policies.
Privacy Policy
A privacy policy is a statement that discloses some or all of the ways you will find, use, disclose, and manage an individual’s data. You must write a privacy policy in order to inform your visitors how their information is used and gathered.
Resources:
- Privacypolicies.com
A privacy policy generator. An informative website about what you need and why. - Sample Privacy Policy Template
Tells you what to include in your Privacy Policy, and how to enforce it. - Generic Privacy Policy template
A fill-in-the-blank template for your privacy policy that you can save or print.
Comment Policy
A comment policy (if you choose to include it at all) is a general code of conduct that you would like your commenters to adhere to.
If you want to create your own simply write a list of unacceptable behavior. ie, no profanity, no spam etc… If you would like more guidance in this arena visit the links below.
Resources:
- How to Write a Blog Comment Policy
Find a sample blog comment policy here - Sample Comment Moderation Policies
Guidelines for how to write your comments policies - How to create a comments policy for your blog
How to create a comments policy for your blog. Tells you what a comments policy is and how to write it.
Copyright Statement
The Copyright Statement is a short written statement attached to your work, it’ll notify the public that your work is copyright protected and if they would like to reproduce or share the copywritten information they must provide a link back to the copyright holder, you.
A copyright statement is optional but it’s better if you cover all your bases, just in case you run into trouble further on down the line. For that reason, once your statement is written, be sure to post it where it cannot be missed.
A copyright statement needs to have the word “Copyright” in it, or © which is the internationally accepted copyright symbol. You must include the year your work was created and the name of the author/creator.
Below I have included some links that will help you write your own copyright statement.
Resources:
- What Is a Copyright Statement?
What is a Copyright Statement? The website tells you what it is and when and where you should use one. - How to Write a Copyright Notice
Shows you how to write a copyright notice, and discusses how to use the copyright symbol. - Prevent Content Theft
Talks about appropriate creative commons license and how to configure your RSS feed so that it displays post summaries as well as how to search Google for your content. - Free Copyright Notice
A free download of a copyright notice which covers: Ownership of copyright, copyright license, data mining, and more…
Example:
© [Full Name] and [Site Name], [Current Year or Year Range]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Your Name] and [Your Site Name] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Legal Page Example
If you need a little inspiration, you can visit our Legal Page.