Your website or blog needs 6 pages on it, whether you knew it or not, because of how the laws are changing. With scandals about paid advertising from the so-called pay-per-post communities, and the networks gaming social news sites, you can see that we're talking about real laws here, and real money. The time when you could post easily, without fear of being "Dooced" is long over. We live in a litigious world. Now, even tiny, no-traffic blogs get taken down because of DMCA violations, simply because they were either ignorant of the law, or because the law is so poorly conceived that it's almost impossible not to violate it.Yesterday, I worked on making sure I covered my tail, creating and modifying the pages that you'd expect for a business, but now even a personal blog needs.

About

Example: http://macstansbury.com/about It needs to have information about you. The owner. Or, if it's a team, then all of the writers. Anyone involved in the production of the content of the site. Something else on that page, you should put in some form of contact information. On the top of every page at MacStansbury.com, you've got that neat "Contact" link up there, and I added the trendy hCard page. As this site it produced by just me and me alone, I don't have to add any more details, but if you do...uh...you do.

Contact

Example: http://macstansbury.com/about/feedback/ I remember somebody saying something about that. You have to give an easily findable contact page so that people can get in touch with you as easily as possible. My contact page gives several ways to contact me (including Skype), and the link is on every page.

Colophon

Example: http://macstansbury.com/colophon/ Without going all Wikipedia on you, it's the page that describes how you made the site. Think of it as the credits. Think of it as not plagiarizing someone else's work, if you're using a modified or custom theme. Give credit to the people who's work you either use, copied, or modified.

Privacy Policy

Example: http://macstansbury.com/about/privacy-policy/ If you do nothing else, do this. Get a blank, sample Privacy Policy, or even copy mine, and put in the relevant data. This is what I meant when I said "overly-litigious." If nothing else, it'll help you focus on what you'd do with email addresses from people who comment on your site, their IP addresses, and other identifiable data you gather from your visitors. Ensuring that you're not selling or sharing that data with other people is important to the public trust. If you are selling that information, then it would be unethical to not disclose.

Disclosure

Example: http://macstansbury.com/about/disclosure/ I'm the best transitioner ever. It's because Privacy and Disclosure are so closely mingled that it's easy to get them confused. With faux-blogs and "astroturfing," you're sure to get questions on the involvement of any product you endorse on your blog. It's a sad state, but you can't just say, "I like product X," anymore. You have to prove you have no viable interest in the company, and if you do, you have to explain that relationship. Then there's the all caps. I put that last part in because it kinda made it look more legal-like, and official. Sadly, the truth rarely matters as much as appearances.

Disclaimer

Terrible example: http://macstansbury.com/about/disclaimer/ If you come to my site, if something goes horribly, horribly wrong with your computer, it's your own fault for coming here. I take no responsibility for your actions. Sound harsh? It is. But I'm protected from the lawyers. I hope. You see, even with these pages, I've probably missed something (and if you've read the disclaimer, that's highly unlikely). But there's always that possibility, so you should have these pages at a very minimum. Remember when the internet was still fun?

status: published
lastmod: '2006-12-17T03:12:08.000Z'
author: John Stansbury
cms: wordpress
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