Blogging

Blogging Rules and Regulations You Need To Know

Disclosure: The FTC Disclosure Provision is a law that requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to promote a product or service. So please know that if I'm not making money through affiliate links/sponsored content on the post you're currently reading, it's an oversight on my part and will be corrected soon. Read the full disclosure about all the legal stuff here.

Navigating the legal aspects of blogging can feel like a minefield. Whilst I'm not a legal expert I have picked up a few things from so many years blogging and so figured that knowledge might be useful to other bloggers too.

Before we jump into the post though...

Disclaimer! (you'll find out more about these in a moment) The information provided on www.JoLinsdell.com does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information.

Now we've cleared that up...

Disclaimers

FTC

The FTC enforces federal consumer protection laws that prevent fraud, deception and unfair business practices. - FTC

To put it simply, failing to disclose sponsored content can result in FTC violations, which can damage your reputation, credibility, and trust with your audience and the brand, as well as lead to legal consequences, such as fines or lawsuits. It's just not worth it not to. 

So, what do you need to disclose?

You should have a disclosure for; 

• freebies
• gifts
• anything where you have a financial interest e.g. affiliate links 
• endorsements if paid or given a free product
• reviews if paid or given a free product

Liability Disclaimer

A liability disclaimer, or no-responsibility disclaimer as it's also know, is a statement that indicates you are not responsible for damages that result from the use of your product or service.

The liability disclaimer you write doesn’t need to be elaborate or complex. Instead, make sure that it identifies what products and services your business offers and articulates that you are not responsible for any adverse outcomes that customers might experience. - Termly

Limit liability for content on your site, including comments, links to other sites, sponsorship, etc...

You might also like: Things That Should Be In Every Blog Post

Privacy Policy

GDPR

Lyrical Host have a great article all about GDPR for bloggers that goes into quite a lot of detail. 

You can also find the Complete Guide to GDPR Compliance on the GDPR website. 

If you're looking at building your email list then Mariam Tsaturyan has a good article with steps that bloggers and online entrepreneurs can take to comply with GDPR when building the email list

Smart Blogger also did a good article all about GDPR where they broke down the Six GDPR Core Principles and Four Common Blogging Activities That Could Put You in the GDPR Firing Line

CCPA

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them and the CCPA regulations provide guidance on how to implement the law. This landmark law secures new privacy rights for California consumers. - https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa

CCPA is legally required so make sure you include it on your blog. 

Useful resources for information about CCPA

Iron Clad has a good article about what CCPA is and how to comply.

Rocket Lawyer's article CCPA compliance tips for bloggers and other online entrepreneurs.

Blogging For New Bloggers covers common misconceptions about CCPA compliance for bloggers. 

Terms and Conditions

When talking about terms and conditions it's basically stating what you allow/don't allow on your blog. 

Your terms and conditions will include everything from; 

• copyright clauses
• disclaimers
• terms of sale (if you sell products/services)
• intellectual property rights 
• agreements about user content (we all know that the comments section can sometimes take unexpected turns) 
• information about monetization e.g sponsorship, affiliates, etc... 
• No warranty - Not responsible for any damages that may occur from using it.

TermsFeed has an article that takes you through the step by step of setting up a terms and conditions page for Blogger.

Use of material 

Just because something is available online it doesn't mean it's free for you to use however you please. 

Photo's, Images and Video's

Make sure you have a media release agreement to avoid copyright infringement. 

Text

Make sure you ask permission if using more than a few phrases.

Regardless of the length of the text used you should always give credit to your sources either by linking to their post on the quote or by including a list of references at the end of your blog post to cite your sources.

You might also like: Book Blogging 101: Everything You Need To Know About Metadata

Can you think of any other rules and regulations bloggers need to follow? Let us know in the comments section. 

You might also like: Blogging Terms New Bloggers Should Know