To Disclaimer or Not

Sometime last year, one of the blogs that I read suggested adding a disclaimer to your blog. The recommendation was to go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org. It seemed like a good idea, but I never followed through with it. Today, while rummaging through my “blog article ideas for the next 7 days, 7 blogs,” I discovered some notes on disclaimers. So, off I went to the website and followed the easy step-by-step instructions on how to create my own blog disclosure statement. I made some revisions and came up with the following.   

This policy is valid from 26 February 2014

 This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I write for my own purposes. However, I may be influenced by our background, occupation, religion, political affiliation or experience.

 The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

 I am not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely mine. If I claim or appear to be an expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

 This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

I have a start date, describe that the blog is only written and edited by me and I would not present ideas that might present any conflict of interest. There’s a bunch of stuff about compensation, endorsement of products, etc. etc. etc. Now I need to decide where to put it. If I put it at the top it seems to get in the way of the blog articles themselves. If I place it at the end I feel like I've added “the small print.”  Is anyone really going to read it? There was only one instance of interest on my part about a disclosure and that was when it became part of a blog article. Maybe I will create another page entitled “If I Wanted a Disclaimer on My Blog It Would Be Something Like This.” Then I could write the following.

This policy is valid from when I first started writing, although I never documented it until today, 26 February 2014. It will probably change because we all change as we learn and experience life.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I write because I like to share my thoughts. So the writing is for my own purposes. I hope that readers will find it interesting and possibly learn from it. I am influenced by my background, occupation, religion, political affiliation and experience.

I don’t write for compensation but Google has this program called AdSense, so I added it to my blog.

I will provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics if I like them. These views and opinions that I express are purely mine. I will only endorse those things that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

This blog will not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

It doesn't contain as much detail but seems to cover the basics. If I have it on a separate page then those readers who are interested will be able to find it without searching all over the main blog page. Disclaimer yes or no, a decision to ponder.

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