Last Update February 2022 by Crystallace

Hey Girl!

Are you confused about the legal side of blogging? Or maybe you didn’t even think about it at all? I get it, it’s boring. But it’s probably the very next thing you should be thinking about once you decide that you’re going to launch a blog.

Blogger to Blogger, it really saddens me when I see these amazing influencers, bloggers, businesses, and brands online but without the proper legal plages on their sites. Like they don’t have any legal pages on there whatsoever and it’s so scary.

You really put yourself, your brand, your blog, or your business at risk, when you fail to comply with the law by not having the proper legal pages for your blog.

Every blog must have three important legal pages in order to be compliant.

Legalese can be so confusing and there is a ton of misinformation out there on the internet. So in this blog post I am going to cover: what you need to know about legal pages for your blog, why you need them, what they are, and where to find them.

Btw, if this is your first time here, Welcome to my blog! I’m Crystallace, a blogger and a lawyer. In addition to being a lawyer during the day, I blog about life here. Please look around and say hi! I’m social.

And you can follow me on socials. Let’s keep in touch! I’m on Pinterest, IG, Facebook, and YouTube.

But back to this blog post about legal pages for you blog. Be sure to Pin 📌 this post so that you have it as a reference for later.

Here are 6 reasons Why You Need These 3 Legal Pages for Your Blog From a Lawyer

1. To Disclaim Yourself from Personal Liability

You’ll want to have a lawyer written legal disclaimer on your website, in the event that someone relies on any information that you write or post on you website. You need to make it clear to your visitors and to your audience, that all information on your website is for “educational and informational” purposes only.

For example, let’s say that you are giving your readers tips on how to make money through side hustles, homeschooling, or dieting; you don’t want to get sued because someone took your advice and lost money, their kid failed a test, or they didn’t lose any weight. 

This is why a lawyer written legal disclaimer is important to have on your site. Without it, you can find yourself getting sued and being held personally liable for what you put out there on the internet.

It is one of the critical legal pages for your blog that you must have.

2. To Be in Compliance With the Law

When have you ever known Uncle Sam to be ok with not being involved in a business? Never, right? Blogging and influencing is no different. There are regulations and compliance laws that pertain to this industry that you’re choosing to be a part of regardless of whether you look at it as a hobby or a business.

New bloggers have the tendency to procrastinate on getting their legal pages set up for their blog but let me be clear, this is the quickest way to get your blog shut down. If you don’t do what is required by the law, you are susceptible to repercussions, fines and lawsuits.

A question I often get asked is…

Do I need a Privacy Policy for a blog?

The answer is Yes.

A well written Privacy Policy on your blog is not optional. Both State and Federal laws require you to have one on your website. Due to more frequent data and privacy breaches, government officials are starting to have zero tolerance for companies not taking the privacy of others seriously.

I wrote a blog post solely dedicated to the Privacy Policy here. Because it’s really that important. It is another one of those critical legal pages for your blog that you need to have. Please check it out or Pin it 📌 for later.

3. To Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights

All the content that you write or create for your website, you own it. It’s instantly copyrighted the moment you publish it. But what happens when someone comes along and tries to steal your hard work? I talk about that more in this blog post. Where I walk you through the steps of an assessment and what legal action looks like. You can check it out here or Pin it 📌 for later.

This is another reason why it is important to have lawyer written legal pages for your blog from day one. It allows you the opportunity to outline your intellectual property rights and let others know that your content cannot be stolen, misused, or reproduced in any way.

I know that the words “copyright”, “trademark”, “trade names,” etc. can be confusing. I wrote a blog post going over the definitions of this family of legal terms. You can check it out here or Pin it 📌 for later.

4. To Explain Your Website’s Rules

It is best practice to have a Terms of Use aka Terms and Conditions policy in place to communicate clearly with your visitors about what is and what is not allowed on your website.  This is important because if someone violates your Terms of Use policy, you can take appropriate legal action towards them.

Also, this protects you because your intentions for the information on your website are clear. An example of this is if a visitor exercises spam behavior on your website or uses abusive language. You can call the internet police on them.

5. To Work With Advertisers

One of the first things bloggers do when looking to make money with their blog, is apply for affiliate programs, sponsored posts, and ad plugins. But often bloggers find themselves rejected from these opportunities and they don’t know why. Most of the time, these big companies won’t take the time to tell you why.

More often than not, bloggers are rejected from ad, affiliate, and sponsorship opportunities because they don’t have proper legal pages on their blog. If you don’t have well written legal pages for your blog, a lot of companies won’t work with you because they don’t want to be sued.

For example, you are required by the FTC to disclose your affiliate relationships to your visitors. I wrote an entire blog post on that here. Be sure to check it out or Pin it 📌 for later.

This means that anything that you publish on your website that brings you compensation or encourages people to make a purchase, like an affiliate link or sponsored post, must be announced to the consumer. This is something that would disclose on an Affiliate Disclaimer.

Ultimately, the purpose and goal of these laws is to discourage misleading advertising. Something we can all fall victim to.

6. To Protect User Privacy

Another thing I am shocked to hear a lot is that most bloggers think that they don’t collect data on their site. These days, there is virtually no way you can run a website without the tech collecting data, whether you know it is or not. Also, emails are data.

So if you are collecting emails or running pop ups for any reason, your website is collecting data. But we don’t even have to go that far. When someone visits your website, these things called “cookies” collect information about them. This is done by both your website and any third-party applications you may be using. 

So, you must define what type of information is being collected from your website, how it is stored, and how that information is used.

The consumer has the right to be informed about these processes when visiting your website. This goes back to almighty Privacy Policy and why the law requires that you have one on your blog.

So What legal pages does my blog need?

Every blog needs to have a Privacy Policy, Website Disclaimer, and Terms of Use. There are the three legal pages you must have on your blog.

I have taken the time to make easy-to-use legal templates so that you can easily legally protect your blog in less than thirty minutes. All you have to do is download them, customize them, and them upload them to your blog. Did I mention that I have bundled these three pages together for a special discounted price just for bloggers like you (and myself) in my Website Legal Bundle.

What about free legal pages for websites?

Honestly, they’re trash. There is a lot of “free” stuff out there on the internet, don’t fall victim for it.

I swear on my attorney’s license my very first case as a lawyer was trying to get a judge NOT TO THROW OUT a contract that my client had downloaded off some website for free. 

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” – Your Grandparents

People put things on the internet and you have no idea who wrote them, where they came from, or who they were intended for.

When it comes to legal pages for your blog be smart about where you get them from.

What’s included in my blogging legal bundle…

The three legal pages that you need for your blog: Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Terms of Use. And two amazing bonuses!

The first bonus is: If you purchase today, you get my bonus Amazon affiliate disclaimer language template to help you become a successful Amazon affiliate. 

The second bonus is: You automatically will receive FREE updated versions of the documents, in the event there are changes to the law. 

This is the best deal because it saves you a ton of time and money. As a blogger, your time is best spent blogging, not trying to write legal jargon.

Now that you know what legal pages for your blog you need

Ideally, you want to have these legal pages fo your blog the day that you launch your blog but if you have already started your blog you want to grab them sooner rather later. These legal pages are too important to procrastinate. If you’ve been getting by without them consider yourself lucky.

 If you have any questions about blogging legally, you can find me in my Facebook group. It is a community of bloggers helping each other blog profitably and legally. 

Have a question about legal page templates for your blog? Ask below or shoot me an email!

Check out my blog for more legal tips for bloggers