How to Write an Interesting Blog Disclaimer

Nienke Krook reports:

"Since you are the writer of the articles [on your blog], you are responsible over anything that appears on your blog. With a disclaimer (that is accessible from every page on your blog) you can protect yourself from some nasty things happening to you, legally speaking, that is...Even though a disclaimer is serious business, this doesn’t mean it cannot be fun to read. As a matter of fact, a disclaimer that doesn’t just use stiff, law school terminologies is much easier to read and understand by visitors...In the first part of the disclaimer, you explain to readers that all information provided on and taken from your blog is at their own risk. They are reading your blog of their own free will...Write down that unless otherwise noted, you are the legal copyright holder of all material on your blog and that others cannot use it to reprint or publish without your written consent...Explain that all the information provided on your blog is for entertainment purposes only and that you are not providing medical, legal or other profession advice (unless you actually do, of course, in [which] case you might want to get help from a lawyer to ensure you write a fitting disclaimer). Make sure your readers understand that they are reading and/or using any of the information from your blog at their own risk...Tell your readers that you will not sell any of their personal or contact information to another company. You will not put their information on spam lists. But also...that you are not responsible for the privacy practices of any of your advertisers or blog commenters...Write down that you reserve the right to change the focus on your blog, to shut it down, [to] sell it or to change the terms of use (go to a paid platform) at your own discretion...Explain that you are not responsible for the actions of your advertisers or sponsors. For example, when your readers buy a product [or] service based upon a link from your blog, they must take action with that exact company to resolve any issues, not with you...Let your readers know what will happen with any letters, messages, tweets or e-mails that they send to you. What is your policy? Will you share (parts of) those letters with your other readers? Will you keep everything confidential? Will you claim ownership of those letters to later use them in an [upcoming] book, blog or column (or will you allow the writer to keep ownership)? A thorough, but easy[-]to[-]read disclaimer is an absolute must for a blog. Better [to] be safe than sorry, right? When you have any doubt about things to put in your disclaimer, have a look at what other bloggers have come up with and learn from them. And of course you can always ask a lawyer when you’re not sure entirely."