Over the next few weeks, Tech Tuesdays will be all about blogging. There is a lot that goes into running a well thought out blog, and I want to share some of the the things that I’ve learned over the past couple years. Let me start by giving John Saddington a shout out, as his work on TentBlogger.com has helped me tremendously and a lot of what I am going to share is what I’ve learned through his site. Last week I mentioned a Valentines-ish deal on the premium theme called Standard Theme. Standard Theme is the foundation of this blog and a couple others that I have designed. It is worth much more than the retail price, so this 20% discount is a GREAT deal.

Tony Recommends Standard Theme

You've Gotta Love the Tron Sub Theme...

Enough about that though. This week’s topic in my “Blog Tips” miniseries is Disclosure Policies.

Keeping It Legal

Did you know that the Federal Trade Commission has rules that apply to blogging? I sure didn’t until I read about it on TentBlogger.com. If you need to build your own disclosure policy, I recommend reading this post as it helped me build mine.

If you don’t have any personal or professional gain from your blog you might not need a disclosure policy, but it’s better to be safe than sued, right? Not only does misleading people look bad legally, it makes you look bad personally.

Keeping It Personal

I don’t know many (any) people who enjoy reading through legal mumbo-jumbo, so have fun with it. Your disclosure policy should be about building trust, not boring people to death. Building trust is also a key part to growing your audience. If your readers don’t trust you, chances are they won’t send their friends or colleagues to your blog either.

Keeping It Simple

Some people like complexity, but simplicity can carry more meaning for the reader. If you’re readers are like me, they can get easily distracted half way through a long post or article, especially if it’s legal mumbo-jumbo. Think about this: How many people do you think have read through the entirety of the iTunes EULA or any other EULA for that matter? Disclosure policies do not have to be long and complex. Just keep it simple and just be sure to link to FTC.