How to Legally Protect Your Blog from Law Suits

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Last updated on November 14th, 2023 at 08:16 am

If you own a blog or other website, this article will show you how to protect your blog from law suits.

If you’re a content creator or business owner who shares blog content on a website, you are automatically at risk for law suits. Some people are just looking for a quick way to score some cash. Others may just be website visitors who will take your “advice” or experiences as personal recommendations and when things don’t pan out, they want to sue.

Then, there’s just the law that states you MUST have certain legal policies in place and posted on your website. So, it’s not only important to make sure you have the right legal documentation in place. It’s a good idea to do so ASAP.

Avoid Legal Action

You need to understand so many things as a blogger, content creator or online business owner of any sort.

I can’t speak for others but I had no idea until recently, the importance of having the proper legal terms and conditions posted on a website. I used to use those free legal templates you find online. 

You know the ones. You put in some personal information (moreso, about your blog) like your name and location. Then, the computer program generates some free legal templates for you. The crazy things is there’s no way to even know if those free templates are actually legal or not.

I had no idea they were not only insufficient for protecting my blog but they aren’t always up to date with the latest laws and regulatory requirements.

Plus, depending on the type of blog posts and articles you write, it’s important to have the right disclosures and legal protection in place.

You may write articles for educational purposes or entertainment purposes. It doesn’t matter. You need to protect yourself and your work with the right legal requirements.

When you don’t have the correct legal documents in place on your website or blog, the absolute worst can happen including but not limited to:

• Being sued by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• Receiving a fine (ultimately affecting your personal assets)
• Being completely shut down

I don’t know about you but I don’t want all my hard work (and money) going down the crapper because I didn’t do my due diligence or invest in the legal documents needed to protect my blog from law suits.

My Legal Disclaimer

I’m putting it out there up front before you read on.

I am not offering legal advice in this article. I am not a lawyer but I did find one who provides all the legal documents you need to protect your blog from law suits. I’ll share more details later but just in case you wanted to jump right in to secure the proper legal documents for your own blog or website, please visit A Self Guru.

Lastly, by actioning any of the tips in this article you agree to be legally bound by the terms and conditions of this website which also include my disclosures, privacy notice and blog disclaimers (also linked in the footer of this website). See what I did there?

Now, before you think about just “scraping” my blog’s legal forms, think again. Be aware that to do so is a form of theft. Plus, you would be violating copyright law and God knows what other laws. Plus, my legal forms are tailored for my blog. However, I know you’d never do that right? I just have to let everyone know just in case.

Should You Hire a Lawyer?

Hiring a lawyer to help you generate all the legal “speak” needed to protect your blog from law suits is a smart move you can make as a business owner or blogger. However, it can be very very expensive. All attorneys know this too.

However, those who want to truly help small business owners and bloggers have come up with ways to do so on a broad scale that greatly reduces the expense.

Such is the case of Amira from A Self Guru which offers a blogging legal bundle amongst other legal templates for those of us with side hustles, work from home gigs, entrepreneurs, bloggers and other business owners.

Amira has created different bundles of legal templates that bloggers like myself have found comfort in using to protect ourselves and our livelihoods from legal battles. I find these to be the best legal templates to protect bloggers especially.

My Personal Tips for How to Protect Your Blog From Law Suits

As I stated, I’m not a lawyer or other legal professional. Yet, I learned a few things about protecting myself from legal action. From a very high level, here are the points I think all website/blog or business owners should be aware of:

• Having at least a basic understanding of Copyright Law and Privacy Laws
• Knowing what legal documents to have on your website
• Some key legal terms to know like “fair use,” “intellectual property rights,” “terms of use” and more

As content creators, the best way to avoid legal liability and protect our blogs from law suits is to ensure we are following certain best practices. Some of this may seem like common sense but you will be surprised at how some things go right over people’s heads.

Here are some best practices I follow and suggest you do as well:

1. Honor others’ copyrighted work. This is a “do unto others” practice. You wouldn’t want someone to “steal” your intellectual property or original work. So, don’t use others without permission either.
2. Don’t make claims you can’t back up. Making a false statement doesn’t just make you sleazy. It kills your credibility as a content creator or business owner.
3. Cite other people’s work. When using quotes or information provided by others, always site their work. Give credit where credit is due and never pass off someone else’s work (or statements) as your own.
4. Use original images. As much as possible, I use images on my blog that I take myself. These are usually photos of my own hair or products.
5. Purchase or obtain licensed images. When it’s not suitable to use my own photos for the online content I’m sharing, I will either purchase images for use from Deposit Photos. Otherwise, I will use free for use images (not just the image but used within a design) from a program I pay monthly for.
6. Avoid AI generated content. This one is not something that could necessarily get you in trouble (or it could if the content generated came from a copyrighted or trademarked source). However, using content that’s generated by AI does not make your content unique. People want to know more about what you actually know about and not just a regurgitation of something you read. You may be able to use AI to help you come up with a title but for the bulk of your content? Just no.

A Self Guru’s Legal Documents

When it comes to federal law, commercial use and all that legal stuff that you likely don’t understand (I sure don’t), you will need the right legal pages. You can find a number of legal documents available for a small investment (a deep savings) on A Self Guru.

You’ll find legal templates that can help you as not only a blogger. They are also help for the entrepreneur, a coach, a freelancer or other business owner.

Necessary Legal Bundles and Templates

Check out the Blogger’s Legal Bundle. This is what I purchased and it consists of:

• a Privacy Policy (here’s mine)
• Terms and Conditions
• Disclaimer

After my purchase, surprise. Amira gave a few other complimentary legal templates which I greatly appreciated. This could be you too!

Some of the other legal templates and documents include but aren’t limited to:

• For Google Analytics
• Copyright Protection & Disclaimer templates
• Terms and Conditions
• An Affiliate Disclosure
• Privacy Policy

She also offers a number of legal agreement templates including (but not limited to):

• Media Release Agreement
• Affiliate Agreement
• Confidentiality Agreement
• LLC Operating Agreement
• Agreements for when you do a guest post on another blog

These are available individually but the bundles are a gold mine for helping you to avoid legal trouble. And, if you aren’t sure which legal documents you need, Amira offers a questionnaire. This questionnaire will help guide you in the process.

One last thing to note is not only do these legal documents protect you from legal disputes and actions. They protect your peace of mind.

As a copyright owner, they also help protect your original content and creative work. Should you come across a situation where as the copyright holder, your original work is stolen you have some legal rights to assert as well.

Don’t be like me, start a new blog (or continue with an old one) and be totally unprotected from potential legal issues. Grab A Self Guru’s Legal Bundle today.

Disclaimer: Links to A Self Guru’s legal templates are affiliate links. Should you purchase your own legal templates, I may earn a commission from your purchase. However, as I mentioned, I purchased these very documents myself and would not recommend any product or service I do not or would not personally use.

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