Protect yourself with Copyrights

In a way, you are protected by interllectual property copyright laws. Unless someone stolen copy from your blog and used it to make profit, there is nothing you can do. The good news is that your blog is copyrighted the moment you post it by default. You may post somewhere on your site, usually the footer, a copyright notice stating that you reserve all rights to the work you publish. You can copyright your words, but you cannot copyright ideas.

There is the possibility that it will happen, but in most cases, a nice cease-and-desist letter clears up any misconception that your blog posts are for the taking. Of course, unless what you post is for the public to take.

Creative property, such as a photograph, has varying levels of copyright protection. There is something called Creative Commons that allows people to use or copy your work for varying levels of uses, provided they give credit to the creator of the work.

A trademark is the legal registration of a service mark or a mark that identifies you or your business. Through a lawyer or trademark service, you can obtain a mark to protect your name, logo, tagline, or other identifying images in legal form.

When you have a trade mark, it prevents people from using your mark in any way, and you then have a legal leg to stand on with regard to your brand. However, this is not really a solution to the protection of your blog entries and materials. This, more or less protects you if your blog's popularity warrants your becoming a business or your branding is something you want to protect.

Stating Your Bio

Who you are as a person should shine through on your blog.

If blog readers are going to continue to visit your blog or subscribe to your posts, they need a reason to connect with you in some way, even if they lurk and never make themselves known. Having something common with your readers is what gives them something to identify with. Someone, somewhere out there may have similar tastes.

Including a bio or an 'About Me' section with your blog can deliver this information of who you are as a blogger to your readers. Write a paragraph or two about yourself, your interests, or perhaps why you start your blog. A little bit of background information can go a long way in connecting with your readers.

If you are not comfortable divulging much personal information, then you do not have to share it. You can still give people a feel for who you are and what you are about without providing identifying details about your personal life.

Most bloggers opt to provide readers a method to contact them, apart from leaving comments on their site for everyone to see. Sometimes people just want to say hi and not make a federal case out of it.

You can provide your email address in your 'About Me' information with a simple link. Of course this leave it open for anyone and anything to come your way. Some bloggers opt to create a contact form so that anyone sending you email has to provide a valid name and email address to contact you. Either way will do.

Gain Popularity

You may not care who reads what you have to say and just want a place to vent, express yourself, or keep a running record of specific events in your life. In this case, it is not so important what goes where and how you set things up.

But if your objective is to gain popularity and may be at some point make some extra cash, the following tips should be kept in mind:

• Consider placement of your different blog materials. Keep content in an easy to find area. Your post should be a prominent feature, and readers should be able to easily find archives and other related information.


• Write carefully and frequently. Take time to check spelling and grammer before yoou hit the publish button. If you are interested in building considerable traffic, post as often as possible. Fresh content is key, but keep it meaningful. Target to post at least three to five times a week or more if the topic warrants it.


• Leave room for expansion, either with content or advertising. Do not limit yourself to your chosen topic. Keep your options open and consider leveraging your blog to build new blogs about related topics that your audience will be interested in. Whether you create your blog yourself or use a hosted service, think ahead about what you want to achieve. If your goal is to include advertising or sponsor logos as a means of income, be sure to allow space to accommodate banner ads and sponsor graphics.

Defining your Blog Type

There are millions of blogs out there on the internet, possibly at least one for every topic that you can think of. That does not make your decision on what what your blog should be any simpler. If you have decided what your blog to focus on, good. But if you know you want a blog and just not too sure what direction to head to, here are a few broad suggestions:

• Personal: Personal blogs are the basic and most common of the blogsphere. They are what the phenomenon of blogging grew from. Personal blogs are basically just online diaries that are open to comments from readers. They express the personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences of everyday people. Entries may range from personal updates to anecdotes from people's daily lives.
• Group: Sometimes, people who share a certain interest come together and share a blog, called a group blog. A handful of people post to the same blog and welcome commentary from their readers.
• Topic-oriented: Some people blog for the sole reason of exploring, reporting, and discussing a particular topic or realm of subjects. Politics, design, news, fashion, or gossip, etc, the blogger posts entries that keep within a specific subject.
• Photo: Bloggers commonly post photos or use their blog as a sort of portfolio.

Of course, your blog need not fit in any one particular category. No one ever said blogs has boundaries. Just be certain that what you create will satisfy your objective.

Targeting an Audience

There are literally millions of blogs on the internet today, and the number is continuing growing. They cover just about every topic, and a vast number of them are dedicated to personal journaling. When deciding what you will blog about, you need to decide who your target is. Here is a short list of the type of blog you might want that have a specific target audience:

• A blog about the country's current administration and aimed at provoking other politically minded readers to participate in the topics you propose.
• A group blog for knitters that you want to expand into a full-blown community some day.
• A blog where you post your thoughts and feelings, intended as an outlet for you to express your emotions, and audience be damned.
• A fashion blog that you hope will gain mass popularity and make you a bundle of extra cash.

The audience you are aiming to please, whether it is yourself, your family and friends, the general public, or all of the above, is what should drive your content and your blog format. Cater to your audience.