Welcome to day 12 of Start Your Own Blogging Business! You’ve made it through to the final lesson – CYA and other Legal Stuff!!

As always, if you have any questions please leave them in the comments or post your questions in the Facebook group. If you haven’t already joined the Facebook group, please do so you can participate in the community.

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**Disclaimer**

There may be links in this blog post, some of them might be affiliate links for which I earn a small amount if you click on them, a really small amount it turns out. Still, full disclosure and all that…

CYA and Legal Stuff

When I first started blogging there weren’t any rules. The internet was still like the Wild Wild West and we all did whatever it took to get noticed. Some of which the search engines didn’t like because they produced really bad search results (but the blog got a ton of traffic – who cares that it wasn’t relevant). There wasn’t much disclosure going on, mostly because we didn’t know any better. Eventually the government got involved and started fining people if they didn’t follow the rules. In a nutshell the rules are you have to let everyone know that you are tracking them (cookies) and if you are making money or benefiting if someone uses a link or recommendation you post you must disclose the fact.

I’m not a lawyer, I don’t play one on TV, this stuff changes all the time – DO NOT TAKE WHAT I PRINT HERE AS GOSPEL – DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

Affiliate Links

You must let your readers know if the links in your post are affiliate links. You’ll notice I have a disclaimer at the beginning of every post for this course. You’ll need to do something similar on posts that are sponsored or have affiliate links in them. It’s not enough to have your disclosure policy on a page within the website – though you need to do that too. It’s not enough to have something on the sidebar either. You must include a disclosure in any post that has affiliate links or is sponsored.

Cookies

We discussed cookies when setting up plugins, but let’s go over them again. Cookies are little bits of code that identify you to the website. They are helpful so that the site loads faster and it can remember what you left in your shopping cart before you abandoned it. If your website is built using WordPress you are gathering data on your visitors. You must let your visitors know you collect cookies and they must have the option to opt out.

GDPR Complaint

Another thing you need to be aware is GDPR Compliance. What the heck is that?!??!?! GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a legal framework that sets guidelines for collecting and processing of personal info of individuals in the EU.

But I’m not in the EU, why do I need to worry about this?

Because you may get traffic from people who are in the EU, it is to protect them. So unless you block the EU companies from your website (and I don’t recommend doing that) you will need to make sure your blog is GDPR compliant. For a much more detailed explanation of GDPR click to view the Wiki page.

Thankfully, most of the compliance is built into WordPress and your email marketing service (found under account settings). In WordPress go to Settings=> and click on Privacy. Once there you can create a Privacy Policy page using a standard template. Simply follow the prompts and fill in the blanks accordingly.  Again, make sure the page is easily located by including it in the main menu.

Consult an Attorney

These are just some of the things you are required to include on your blog, it is always prudent to consult with an attorney. A Google search might give you information, but it might not be accurate for your state so err on the side of caution and consult with someone who knows the law on these things.

Homework

Add a Privacy Policy page to your blog, make sure your email marketing is GDPR compliant, and let your visitors know you collect cookies.

That’s it!! Congratulations, you are on your way to blogging success!!!

Of course, that is not it, there is always more to learn when it comes to blogging and things change all the time. This is why it is so important to have a blogging community that you can learn from and share information with.

It has been a pleasure working with you these past 12 days!!

If you have any questions about today’s lesson, please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below, on the Facebook page or you can email me directly at jen { at } redheadranting.com (use the @ sign and no parentheses or spaces).