Setting Up Your Blog Legally

Hey y'all! This week my friend Jackie is bringing you a guest post all about setting up your blog legally! This contains some seriously great advice and action steps for bloggers who are getting started and want to make sure all they're keeping it legal! Be sure to read to the bottom and connect with Jackie on social media!

"Ready to get your blog set up legally? Click here!" [tweet that!]

Thanks so much to Kaitlyn for hosting me today. I know how it can be super overwhelming when you are just starting out with your blog, especially when it comes to the legal side of things. That’s where I come in. I’m an attorney and have been blogging for nearly 5 years, so today I’m going to share how to set up your blog legally.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of everything every blog needs, but these are the legal basics you need to include for your blog. First we will go over a few of the legal statements you need on your blog. (Disclaimer: I’m a US-based attorney so this info is directed towards US bloggers, but it may also apply to international bloggers. Check your country’s laws for more information about laws and regulations in your country.)

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Copyrights

First let’s discuss copyrights, since copyrights are what will protect your creative work, including your blog content. In the US, copyrights are the legal system which give creators the right to control copying of their work. This means they have the exclusive right over their work (for actions such copying, reuse, selling, etc.) for a limited period of time. Others can’t use their work without permission.

In the US your work is automatically copyright protected from the moment of creation, without you needing to formally file anything.

Even though you have that automatic protection, it’s still a good idea to remind others of your copyright rights over your content. You can do this by including a short copyright notice on every page of your blog and a longer statement somewhere else on your blog, indicating that you aren’t (or are) okay with others taking and using your work without your permission.

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Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions can be thought of like the “rules” of your blog. In this statement, you can tell your readers where kind of behavior is allowed on your blog, being both actions by you as the blogger and the allowable actions of your readers. This would be things like not allowing offensive comments, your longer copyright statement, a privacy statement (discussed next), what would happen if there is a dispute, etc.

Having a clear and detailed terms and conditions statement can help to protect your blog and also make you look more professional and serious.

"Some quick 'legal tweaks' can make you appear more professional online!" [tweet that!]

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Privacy Policy Statement

Every blog must have a privacy statement, if you collect any personal information. Pretty much every blog or website collects some sort of personal info, like names and addresses or email addresses, through comments or using tracking cookies. If you collect this info, you need a privacy policy statement that tells your readers what info you collect, how you collect it and what you do with that info.

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Sponsored Content

Lots of blogs work with companies or brands to monetize. Whenever you have any sort of sponsored content (where you’re being paid, using affiliate links or received something free in exchange for a review or post), you need to disclose it. It needs to be very clear to your readers whenever you have a monetary interest.

Your disclosure needs to be “clear and conspicuous” and should be as close as possible to the thing you’re promoting. The purpose is to let your readers and potential consumers know about your monetary interest, so that they can make a fully informed decision.

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Disclaimers

Disclaimers are important for letting your readers know that they should take the content of your blog “as is,” meaning that you aren’t providing professional advice and you won’t be liable or responsible if someone takes your blog content as advice and then has issues.

This might seem like common sense, but it’s important to include a statement like this and it can be a part of your terms and conditions. Having this sort of statement isn’t a guarantee that you’ll never have issues arise, but it never hurts to have a clear statement in case a situation does come up at some point.

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Email List

If you have an email list or newsletter set up for your blog, just make sure that you are complying with the email marketing laws. In general, your emails need to have a few things in order to comply with the US laws. The main US law is all about avoiding spam, so the rules in place are mainly related to making sure your emails don’t look like spam.

Some countries require that people affirmatively opt in before you can add them to your email list, but the US law doesn’t have this requirement. Instead, the law wants you to make it clear and simple for people to unsubscribe or opt out. This means you need to have an unsubscribe option in every email and you need to actually unsubscribe them when they ask. This is why it’s a bad idea to “buy” or add subscribers without their permission. You could be adding someone who actually already opted out, so then you would be in violation of the law.

Every email needs to include your physical address (or a PO Box) because this helps to show that you aren’t a spammer. Lastly, all of your emails need to be honest, meaning you don’t have misleading subject or “from” lines. Next,

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I know that there is A LOT to think about, but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Many of the legal issues surrounding setting up your blog can be done once and you won’t need to worry about the legal side again until if/when you change something in how you run your blog/business.

If you are just getting started thinking about the legal side of running your blog, check out my FREE email course – Legalize Your Blog

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Jackie has been blogging for over 4 years and has been a licensed attorney in Pennsylvania for nearly 7 years. Jackie started her blog, Jade and Oak, as a creative outlet when she was working as a litigator. She now helps bloggers and small business owners make sure that they are keeping everything legal, all while working her day job. When she isn’t working, Jackie enjoys spending time with her husband and their two pugs, taking ballet classes and traveling.

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Jackie is providing a special coupon code for TheCrownFox readers to get her Starting Your Blog Legally Checklist for 20% off using the promo code CROWNFOX. Learn more about all of her legal guides and templates in her Legal Marketplace.

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Expand Your Team Part 3: Establish an Efficient Workflow

In this Expanding Your Team series we’ve gotten to the point that you’re ready to bring on a design assistant, but what’s next? Establishing a workflow can be a tricky component of this process – we covered exactly what you could pass off last week, but now let’s talk about how.

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WHAT ARE YOUR MOST REPETITIVE TASKS?

The easiest and most effective ‘getting started’ strategy is passing off the repetitive tasks. This is a good idea in large part because it allows the designer to ‘get used to’ your branding and how you like things done and designed. It’s a great exercise for building up trust and a good working relationship.

Repetitive tasks might include things like blog post graphics, social media graphics, or newsletter graphics. If you already have templates created this might be as simple as passing the templates over to the designer (along with any brand specific fonts you use, stock imagery, etc.). If you don’t already have templates designed that would be a great first project for your designer. The best bet would be to send over what you do have (your brand fonts, colors, etc.) and collect a few samples of other graphics you like – I’d make a secret Pinterest board and share that.

If your designer is establishing a look/feel for this, and not working from templates, keep in mind that ‘round 1’ might take a little ‘back and forth’ to get it perfect. You’ll want to account for that in your initial assignment/due date expectations!

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OUTLINE YOUR EXPECTATIONS

Within these sort of repetitive tasks take time to outline specifically what you are looking for with your designer and how often you need it done.

Some key things to keep in mind are giving enough time between assigning blog posts and when you expect the graphics to be returned to you. I know a lot of us tend to wait until the last minute to write our blog posts, but your designer will need at least a day or two to get you the graphics back (please, please remember that you are not the designer’s only client and that they do need lead time for projects)! This is why repetitive tasks are a good start because it not only helps establish the relationship, but it helps you get in the habit of assigning tasks and turn around times!

An example might be that you need ten quote graphics per week to post on Instagram and that you would like them done by the Wednesday before or that you need the weekly blog graphics done the Friday of the week before. Within these expectations to your designer, you should also note what that means for you as far as getting content to the designer.

So if you need blog post graphics by Friday, you should have content available by Wednesday (or whatever you and your designer decide on for lead time/turn around time).

You’ll also want to make note of anything specific you need file wise – usually just a web quality file sized appropriately for Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram suffice in most businesses (at least the ones I’ve worked with!) but if you have any specific requirements or file types needed, make note of those too.

"If you have any specific requirements for projects, be sure to explain them to your designer first!" [tweet that!]

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SET UP A REOCCURING TASK IN ASANA OR TRELLO

I’ve mentioned before that the goal is get clients set up using Asana, because that is my preferred way or organizing tasks. This is super efficient when it comes to these reoccurring type tasks because you can set things like ‘Instagram Quote Graphics’ to repeat being due every week (and you can set yourself the task of ‘compile content’ a few days prior.)

In time when you move away from simple repetitive tasks Asana will be a great tool for sending over work and communicating any questions or revisions. With these more repetitive tasks you can learn the system and allow both you and the designer to get used to using it together.

"Use smaller, simpler projects to get used to working with a designer." [tweet that!]

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MAKE A PLAN FOR FILE SHARING

This definitely differs from business to business, depending on what you currently use, but informing the designer how to actually return the files to you is a must! I’ve been in situations where I’m unsure of what’s expected so I end up emailing the files, and uploading them to Asana, and sending a Slack message to let someone know where the files live.

What I recommend here is just adding the designer to whatever you are currently using whether it be your Google Drive or Dropbox or if you would prefer them to just upload straight into Asana or an email. Long term I think emailing everything will get sort of clunky and something like Google Drive or Dropbox is the most efficient, but to each their own!

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PERFECT + MOVE ONTO BIGGER PROJECTS

Like I mentioned, I think these sort of redundant and easy-to-replicate projects are great for getting started. I’m sure you hired a designer for bigger and more important projects though! So once you’ve done this for a week or two and have good communication and processes established, you can move into more unique and “one-off’ projects (and make the most use of your new designer)!

Got any questions about working with a designer that I can help you with? Let me know in the comments! If you’re ready to start working with a designer in your business, click here.

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