Build A Blog

How to Create a Disclosure Policy

Written by Mandy

Why do I need a disclosure policy?

Why do I need one, I just want to blog? The way the internet has grown over recent years, it is now becoming more and more important to state where the views on your blog come from, and if they are influenced in any way.

So by having a disclosure policy you are telling anyone who visits your site where you stand and how it affects them. You are being honest about any advertising, so they can make up their own minds on how they feel about clicking an ad that may generate revenue for you, or someone you promote.

These things can concern some visitors, and by having a disclosure policy you are being clear and honest about what the blog contains, so the decision is up to them. The internet is a huge place with varying degrees of information, by being up front about it you are showing your visitors what type of site your blog is, that it can be trusted for what the content contains and where it has come from. So in short it covers your own back on content and advertising, stopping any unnecessary problems or causing anyone distress.

When planning a blog or re-designing it like I am, it is important that you try to think of everything. It’s becoming more important to consider disclosure partly because it’s good to be honest with your readers and partly because a lot of pay per click companies like Google Adsense ask us to have one as part of their terms and conditions now.

How do you get one?

So where do you begin! I didn’t have a clue how to write a disclosure policy so I went looking for an example on another blog to get some ideas.

I found that it is very easy to create a disclosure policy, the example of one that I found had a link at the bottom of the policy to create your own, how handy!

It takes you to the Disclosure Policy site where you are taken through a list of questions about you and your site, at the end you are able to create the policy from your answers. It is then the basis for your policy and you can add things to it and edit it as you like.

I copied it and then placed it on a page in wordpress, I set it to unpublished as I didn’t want it with my other pages in the header. I did link to it in the footer of my blog. Where you can also find my sitemap and other administrative information, which is easy to find for anyone looking for it as it appears on every page of my blog.

Mandy

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