10 Rules for Responsible Blogging
1. Check your facts: technology makes it incredibly easy to produce and share content nowadays. The result is that information is spreading like fire through social networks, bookmarking sites and blogs. Unfortunately we are talking about both correct and incorrect information. Make sure to check your facts before publishing posts or articles, else you might not only look dumb, but also misinform and damage other people.
2. Respect Copyright Law: people wrongly associate online content with public domain content. Did you know that every published material is copyrighted even if it does not show a copyright notice? More importantly, even if you remove the copyrighted content after the author contacts you the copyright infringement will still exist. Learn the basics of the Copyright Law to avoid costly mistakes (you can read more about it on the article “12 Do’s and Dont’s of the Copyright Law”).
3. Consider the implications: as mentioned before information on the Internet spreads like fire. Consider the implications of what you write, and remember that once you hit “Publish” you will immediately lose control over those words. The Kathy Sierra case is a good example, maybe what was supposed to be a joke (even if a quite harsh one) ended up damaging her career and arousing a discussion on the whole blogosphere.
4. Control the comments: anything that is published on your blog is your responsibility; that means that you should control not only the information that you include on the posts and articles but also what your readers add through the comments. First of all you could create a comment policy and attach a link to the comment form. This will ensure that readers are aware of what they can and can not say in a comment. You can check an example of a comment policy on Problogger.net.
5. Give credit where credit is due: always reference your sources. If you do not want to mention an external website on your content just add a link at the end of the post saying “Via: Reference.com”. This practice is not only important under an ethical point of view, but it also ensures that readers can eventually dig to the root of the facts. Secondly even if you are using free templates or open source software like Wordpress make sure to credit the authors.
6. Disclose professional relationships: if you work for a company or institution disclose it on the “About” page. Explicitly declare that the views expressed on the blog are yours and not the ones from your employer (unless you are blogging for that employer, obviously). A good example of such disclosure can be seen on TechCrunch. Check the bottom of the “About” page and you will see that Michael Arrington discloses all the companies that he participates or has invested in.
7. Disclose sponsored posts: sponsored reviews represent an efficient way for advertisers to build buzz and for bloggers to earn money. It is essential, however, that you make your position regarding those posts transparent in front of your readers. First of all you can insert a disclosure notice at the end of the sponsored post. Secondly you can create a dedicated page on your blog outlining how sponsored reviews will be treated and what the readers should expect from them.
8. Be transparent with affiliate links: many affiliate marketers use techniques like “link cloaking” so that readers are not able to identify affiliate links. While this method might increase your revenues on the short term it will probably be a bad idea over the long run. A deceived visitor is a lost visitor. Focus and on creating value for the reader and you will not even need to hide your affiliate links; if people believe in your work they will certainly accept your recommendations for products.
9. Respect Tax Law: bloggers and webmasters tend to equate online money with tax-free. Under the U.S. Law any income you make is taxable. If you win money playing online poker you will need to pay taxes. If you earn money through donations on your site you will need to pay taxes. The key factor is whether your blog is a hobby or a business. There is no definitive answer for this question, but a good starting point is whether your earnings are higher than your expenses. Do not forget to take into consideration the contributing writers as well. If you pay them more than $600 yearly you will need to file a 1099 form. You can read more about the Tax Law on the IRSwebsite.
10. Avoid “blackhat” methods: there will always be people trying to game the system, trying to find the shortcuts. Guess what, there are no shortcuts. If you want to make your blog or website popular or profitable just work hard and the results will come. What is more important, the results from hard work are solid, they will not vanish over night. By “blackhat” methods we mean trying to cheat social bookmarking sites (i.e. buying Diggs), trying to cheat search engines (i.e. hiding text behind images) and the like. Those methods certainly will bring some benefits, but they are not sustainable. It is like building a sand castle, sooner or later the sea will catch up with you (if you are looking for some “whitehat” methods read the article “25 Tips to Optimize your Blog“).
Taken from Daniel Scocco, http://blog.sponsoredreviews.com/?p=40
