Critical Legal Pages for Your Blog to Stay Protected

One thing beginner bloggers seem to avoid are the legal pages for blogs. I know that no one likes talking about the legal stuff but the truth is, your blog is a business. This means you need to protect it and yourself.

There’s a lot of misconception that you don’t need legal pages if you’re not making money blogging yet. However, this is so far from the truth.

You don’t want to wait until something bad has happened before creating these pages, which is why they should already be in place since day one of blogging.

So let’s get you the information you need to better understand why you need legal pages for your blog, which ones you need and how to get them.

Disclaimer: Please note this post may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a commission if clicked at no extra cost to you. Though the opinions remain my own

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Reasons Why You Need Legal Pages for Your Blog

You’re probably wondering, “why do I need these legal pages for my blog?” Well, the answer is simple. 

Even if you are a beginner blogger who’s just starting out, you don’t want to put yourself at risk simply because “you didn’t know” or because they seem expensive.

Remember how I said your blog is a business? Yeah, and businesses require upfront investments or could actually end up costing more in the long run.

And if you’ve been blogging for a while but still don’t have your legal pages on your blog, you’re even more at risk. 

So let me tell you why it’s important to legally protect your blog (and yourself).

Avoid getting sued

Well for starters, you don’t want to wake up one day and realize you’ve been sued, right? That would be the worst feeling ever! And someone can sue you even if it was a simple mistake that may or may not have been prevented on your end. 

And if this were to happen, a lawsuit would cost you wayyyy more than the cost of getting legal templates on your site. It would be even worse if you lose the case. So let’s just avoid this all together.

Comply with the law

You also need to make sure you’re complying with the law.  

Did you know that when readers visit your site, Google and other platforms are actually gathering data on them like what country they live in, their demographics and more? 

And if you’re asking them to sign up for your email list, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) steps in and actually requires you link over to your Privacy Policy.

So if you don’t have your legal pages on your blog, but your site is published and gathering reader information, you’re definitely putting yourself at risk.

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Protect your intellectual property rights

By the way, how mad would you be if you found your images or blog posts on someone else’s site and claimed it as their own? I don’t know about you but I would be PISSED. 

And guess what? I’ve seen it happen several times with bloggers. They’ll usually post it in a Facebook group asking for next steps. Thankfully, many of them had the appropriate legal templates in place and were able to take action.

Having legal templates help you legally claim yourself as the owner of everything on your blog. This means no one is allowed to copy your material, pictures or work of any kind without your permission. And if they do, you have a solid case to take legal action against them.

So protect all the hard work and writing masterpieces you have created to share with the world.

To make money with your blog

Like I mentioned, many companies require your blog to have certain legal pages before they can work with you. This means sponsored posts, ads, affiliate marketing or literally any way of making money with your blog.

Not having legal pages on your blog could get you kicked out of affiliate programs or you simply may not be accepted into them.

However, an even bigger issue is that not all of them audit to see if you actually have them and simply assume that you do since you have agreed or accepted their terms. This could not only get you into legal trouble if they find out you don’t have them, but it could definitely create payment issues (as in, you may not get paid for your work).

Related Post: Ways You Can Make Money Blogging

These are all the exact reasons why I chose to not even publish my blog until I purchased my customizable legal templates and added them to my site. 

So now that you know why it’s super super important to legally protect your blog, now it’s time to learn which ones you actually need.

Legal Pages All Blogs Need at a Minimum

Alright, so now you know the important reasons why you must legally protect your blog. 

But with all the legal templates out there, it can be hard to know which are the ones you actually need. But don’t worry, I got you covered as we’ll discuss the ones you need and why you need them below.

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy is a legal document that discloses to your page visitor how you’ll be using their personal information. And even if you’re thinking, “but I don’t gather their information,” think again.

You yourself may not be gathering their information, but Google and other search engines are doing it in the back end. They do this for all published sites. For that reason, it’s a mandatory requirement by the law for every website to have a privacy policy.

Next time you visit a page, pay attention to the “click here to accept cookies” button that appears upon clicking into the site. When this appears, it lets readers know this information and hyperlinks over to your Privacy Policy in case they have any questions or concerns.

Disclaimer

A legal disclaimer is another important legal page every blogger must have. This legal page informs your readers of a few different things which I have listed below.

For starters, it lets them know about your affiliate relationships. This means you make your readers aware of the commissions you may make if they click on your links. And like I mentioned earlier, most affiliate and sponsored companies or brands require this page prior to doing any kind of business with you.

It also reminds them that all the information you share on your website is for informational and educational purposes. This pretty much means that you’re sharing your thoughts and opinions on a specific topic to provide guidance to the reader and should not be taken as professional advice.

In the case of a real problem requiring a solution, they should seek professional help. So basically, this legal template informs the reader not to hold you accountable if something you say doesn’t go as planned for them.

Related Post: Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

Terms and Conditions

The Terms and Conditions legal page is also critical as it protects what you’ve been working so hard on… your blog.

Here, it explains your property and copyrights to deter others from wanting to use your content without your permission. It also contains lots of the generic information that helps protect you in the case of a legal dispute.

And if you plan on offering any products or services for sale on your website, it’ll list out your return and exchange policies for these as well.

As you see, each one of these legal pages serves its own unique purpose, which is why they’re the minimum legal pages you need for your blog. 

And if you’ve already launched your blog without these, don’t worry as it’s not too late to get them on your site, but the sooner – the better!

Related Post: Blog Investments I Did to Earn Over $1,000 in My First Four Months Blogging

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✖ Say No To Free Legal Templates ✖

Now I know what you’re thinking LOL, but you really don’t want to go this route. And unfortunately, it’s a very common mistake many beginner bloggers make.

But trust me. I’ve dealt with contracts on a daily basis at my day job, so I know how literally just one word can change the entire legal document and gear into a totally different direction.

So yes, there are free legal templates out there for you to use. But have you ever wondered why they’re free? 

More than likely, it’s because if it were to come down to a real legal situation, you or your blog business would not actually be protected and that’s a BIG problem.

WordPress version isn’t enough

When you first start your blog, WordPress automatically comes with a generic legal page. However, this generic information doesn’t really cover you in case of a legal situation, so you definitely want to update it to one that will.

Related Post: How To Start a Blog with Siteground To Make Money

Free legal page generators aren’t complete

The same goes for legal page generators. Except, these sites purposely leave out critical information as they want you to upgrade within their site. 

Plus, they’re not comprehensive at all and there’s no telling if the person writing the legal page is even certified to do so or if they have a good reputation.

Do not copy from another site

We’re talking about legal stuff here right? So it’s common sense that you should not and cannot simply copy someone else’s legal pages and put them on your own.

Not only are you breaking the law by infringing on someone else’s copyright and being dishonest, but you’ll be at great risk of getting sued by the lawyer who drafted those legal documents for that blogger. And do you really want to go up against a lawyer in court? I don’t think so.

Plus, there are certain clauses that pertain to specific countries and unless you are familiar with laws in multiple countries, you won’t know what applies to you and what doesn’t. 

But I know you’re an honest blogger so we don’t really have to worry about this one being an issue LOL.

So you get the picture right? If you’re serious about blogging and want to protect your blog business, stay away from free legal pages. They put you at a huge risk that I wouldn’t want any of us to take.

But don’t worry, there are affordable legal template options available for you. Options that won’t cost you thousands of dollars so let’s take a look at that solution below.

So after a few months of researching and stressing over the legal stuff, I finally came across Amira and her easy, customizable legal templates. And upon further research, I came to realize that her legal templates were the most commonly used among successful bloggers. I felt like I had finally hit the jackpot!

Amira is a full-time business lawyer and a legal blogging coach. She has more than 10 years of legal experience and is now sharing her expertise with us bloggers to ensure we stay protected. 

But better yet, she realized that many bloggers were at legal risk for not having the legal resources available at an affordable cost. So she made it happen.

Affordable and customizable legal template bundle

Because there are three primary legal pages for bloggers, she created this amazing Starter Legal Bundle which includes all three at an extremely low price.

It includes the Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and the Terms & Conditions legal pages along with 9 legal bonuses. 

Getting these templates drafted by another lawyer would cost you several thousands, but this bundle is nowhere near that price. In fact, your monthly car insurance probably costs more than these templates.

But besides costing so low, the real best part about them is how easy they are to customize yourself. Upon purchasing mine, I received them right away and had them completely customized for my blog within 30 minutes! 

The editing instructions are so clear and easy to navigate through so you won’t have to worry about a thing. At least there’s one thing about blogging that’s not hard LOL. 

And if you plan or eventually end up with more than one blog like me, you can reuse these same templates for your other sites as well. 

It’s definitely a no-brainer blog investment that’s much needed and worth making.

Other Legal Templates You May Need

In addition to the Starter Legal Bundle, you may reach a point where you’ll need other legal templates as well. Amira has you covered with those as well.

Below is a list of other common legal templates that you may need in the future:

LLC Operating Agreement: This would be required once you officially turn your blog into an LLC and register it with the state

Sponsored Posts Agreement: If you plan on monetizing your blog via sponsored posts, you can have the brand sign this to ensure proper payment (I actually wish I had this in the beginning as I ended up getting paid 6 months late on my first sponsored post).

Confidentiality Agreement (NDA): One day you’ll reach a point where you won’t be able to handle everything yourself, and you’ll need to outsource some blogging tasks. This agreement will ensure your hire keeps your business secrets and information private.

Affiliate Agreement: Once you start creating your own products, you may want to start an affiliate program so that other bloggers can help you promote it. This will ensure they follow your guidelines and rules to legally promote your product.

Freelance / Independent Contractor Agreement: If you plan on making money in other ways such as becoming a Virtual Assistance, Social Media Manager, Freelance Writer etc., this is the template you would use and give your client to highlight your agreed services and payment information.

Now, there are several other legal templates you may come across needing but these above are the ones I see more often.

If you see yourself needing several of these templates from the get-go, it may actually be worth investing in her VIP Legal Bundle which includes them all plus more.

But otherwise, definitely check out and grab her Starter Legal Bundle to start with at least so you can legally protect your blog business and yourself.

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And remember, there is always something to be happy for… Cheers to blogging! What are you cheering to today?

Lucy