My insurance broker told me yesterday that my blog is covered by my homeowner’s policy, but he asked me not to present this as an across-the-board fact. Each case like mine would have to be handled on an individual basis.
I had to work hard to arrive at that definitive “yes.” First I asked Google by email about our business liability as Ad Sense Participants. Here’s what I got back:
“Google does not give out legal advice and if you would like to get an answer to your question, I recommend that you contact an attorney who specializes in this field.”
My attorney said that, as far as he knew, I would not. He’d never heard of a blogger being sued. The key phrase, “as far as he knew”, meant that I had to keep looking for a definitive answer.
Conducting Google searches for blog liability insurance, I came across someone else asking the same question about corporate blog liability.
Suzanna Gardner, author of “Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies, wrote:
Subject: Liability Insurance for Blogging?
“I spoke with a reporter today whose editor has asked for a story on liability insurance for corporate blogs—what companies offer it, what companies are buying it, and what it covers.
It’s a fascinating question—and one I haven’t been asked before (I love those). Unfortunately, it’s the first time it’s come up, at least for me, so I’m looking for anyone out there who has maybe thought about, looked at, or heard anything about blog liability insurance. The article could go a couple of directions, but certainly the obvious questions are, do you need liability insurance for a corporate blog, and do you need coverage when you encourage your employees to blog about their work experiences. So how about it, folks? Anyone know anything about blog liability insurance? You’ll likely get quoted for the article if you do!”
Posted by Susannah Gardner on 11/08 at 07:30 PM • Blogs and Business -- Law and Ethics.
Gardner welcomes any information and insight you might have. Log on to: Susannah Gardner's Website
When I first asked my insurance broker if he ever issued business liability policies to bloggers, he said he had not. After he hung up, he asked the company that issues my homeowner’s policy for a crash course on blogging. Then he asked for a crash course from me. When I described this blog site to him, he took extensive notes. Then he examined my site, along with the ads, until he got the gist of its intent.
The insurance company also looked at my blog, and from there the rep decided that, yes, my homeowner’s policy would cover my site at no additional charge. My broker said that when my blog earned $600.00 or more per year, I might need additional coverage.
So far, my site has earned a grand total of $2.33.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
Review of "Publishing A Blog with Blogger," by Elizabeth Castro
This book is like an instruction manual that comes with a new camera, but much better. Large color photographs of Blogger.com’s pages, along with clear instructions, helped me navigate the high seas of blogging. It is available at Amazon.com.
Castro shows you every aspect of your blog— launching, posting, digital imagery, editing, and advertising. I examined each feature, opened and closed each until they became as familiar to me as my stove and car. Best of all I overcame the fear that I’d break something accidentally, let’s say, erased a link or two that my tech trainer had created.
She wrote the book for both Mac and PC users and carefully deals with compatibility issues by warning that some of the book’s illustrations might not match what you see on your screen. She then guides you along alternative routes.
Taking a few hours to study Castro’s crash-course manual saved me days of trial and error. I recommend it to all bloggers with Blogger.com.
Castro shows you every aspect of your blog— launching, posting, digital imagery, editing, and advertising. I examined each feature, opened and closed each until they became as familiar to me as my stove and car. Best of all I overcame the fear that I’d break something accidentally, let’s say, erased a link or two that my tech trainer had created.
She wrote the book for both Mac and PC users and carefully deals with compatibility issues by warning that some of the book’s illustrations might not match what you see on your screen. She then guides you along alternative routes.
Taking a few hours to study Castro’s crash-course manual saved me days of trial and error. I recommend it to all bloggers with Blogger.com.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
What is Good Blog Writing?
Here it is for the umpteenth time: revise until spelling, grammar, and syntax are ready for public view, in other words, absolutely correct. I do my best, which doesn’t mean perfect. I’ve found myself revising posts.
My favorite non-fiction writing centers on emotions felt by the characters, whose feelings trigger actions that evolve into anecdotes or stories. Both story and anecdote have a beginning, middle, and end. I’m working on my posts until they look a little more like that. I believe a good nonfiction writer takes you by the hand and leads you through the door and into a setting. But too often, the start of a typical post of mine would begin with me at my computer, staring out of the window, trying to decide what to write.
Right now I can imagine an alternative beginning for a future post, wrangling with my satellite Internet installers. During the satellite service installation, I’m imagining the installers asking questions I can’t answer. I’m imagining that those trees to the south, which they had said earlier would not interfere with reception from the equator-hovering satellite itself, actually do pose interference, but it’s too late to get a refund for the equipment.
Nonfiction story writing experts suggest escalating conflict until there is a declared winner, or loser. In that post, I would include installers’ frantic cell phone calls to headquarters, their facial expressions, body language, and anything else that would help my reader get a picture of what’s going on. Basically, I’d try to include all sensual input, what I see, smell, hear, touch, or taste.
At the end of that post, I deeply hope that I can declare myself a winner, that I’d have a high speed service, a clearer path to a wider variety in cyberspace, and that I will be able to offer you all the how’s, the what’s, the who’s, the where’s, and the why’s.
On “Online Journalism Review”, its article, “How to Write for The Web,” offers some good tips. Log onto:
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/wiki/Writing/
My favorite non-fiction writing centers on emotions felt by the characters, whose feelings trigger actions that evolve into anecdotes or stories. Both story and anecdote have a beginning, middle, and end. I’m working on my posts until they look a little more like that. I believe a good nonfiction writer takes you by the hand and leads you through the door and into a setting. But too often, the start of a typical post of mine would begin with me at my computer, staring out of the window, trying to decide what to write.
Right now I can imagine an alternative beginning for a future post, wrangling with my satellite Internet installers. During the satellite service installation, I’m imagining the installers asking questions I can’t answer. I’m imagining that those trees to the south, which they had said earlier would not interfere with reception from the equator-hovering satellite itself, actually do pose interference, but it’s too late to get a refund for the equipment.
Nonfiction story writing experts suggest escalating conflict until there is a declared winner, or loser. In that post, I would include installers’ frantic cell phone calls to headquarters, their facial expressions, body language, and anything else that would help my reader get a picture of what’s going on. Basically, I’d try to include all sensual input, what I see, smell, hear, touch, or taste.
At the end of that post, I deeply hope that I can declare myself a winner, that I’d have a high speed service, a clearer path to a wider variety in cyberspace, and that I will be able to offer you all the how’s, the what’s, the who’s, the where’s, and the why’s.
On “Online Journalism Review”, its article, “How to Write for The Web,” offers some good tips. Log onto:
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/wiki/Writing/
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
We Don't Have to Wash Out of Cyberspace
When I first viewed a line of “html” a while back, I blinked, froze, and asked my tech trainer to handle it. I’d hired him to design my website, a portfolio of my artwork. That’s why he’s here, right? Creating my artworks kept me busy enough, right?
But blinking, freezing, and passing it on keeps threatening to wash me out of cyberspace. Techniques to combat these behaviors: Breathe deeply until very still inside. Understand exactly why I need all this kind of stuff: to get out of my back yard. Blow off embarrassment about not getting it immediately. After the last session with my tech trainer, I gave myself a homework assignment to create links on this blog.
I’ll stop a second here to tell you that I’d been reading Elizabeth Castro’s book “Publishing a Blog with Blogger”, which I’d ordered through Amazon.com. I examined each feature of Blogger, opened and closed them again and again over and over, until they became as familiar to me as my stove or my car. Best of all I overcame the fear that I’d break something accidentally, let’s say, erased a link or two that my trainer had created.
From the Template feature, Edit Current, I copied one of my trainer’s lines for a link, pasted it onto a Word document. You might wonder why I included the Word document in this procedure. Well, on the Word document, I could scrutinize the line, making sure every word and symbol were correct before moving on to Blogger’s Template, Edit Current.
On the Word document, I erased the address and title in that line and replaced them with the address and title of the new link that I wanted to create. Then I copied the revised line into the Template, Edit Current. Instructions for saving and republishing are clear. So far, so good.
The title of the link appeared on my blog. Fine. But when I clicked on the link, I got an error sign. When a hidden ding compels you to throw your computer against the wall, repeat the above exercises. When my trainer showed up, we got to work on this ding immediately. Almost by accident, he’d found out earlier that you couldn’t paste an “html” line copied from Word onto Template, Edit Current. Using TextWrangler, we could.
By the time of this post, I had hoped to find out what if any business insurance policy you would need for an advertising blog. I have found out nothing. If you find your way here and have any information about this subject, I would deeply appreciate your input.
Next leg: I’ll read Elizabeth Castro’s book, “HTML for The World Wide Web.” Castro’s books are excellent training manuals. In "Publishing a Blog with Blogger," large full color illustrations, with clear labeling, draw you in and keep you reading and puttering page after page.
But blinking, freezing, and passing it on keeps threatening to wash me out of cyberspace. Techniques to combat these behaviors: Breathe deeply until very still inside. Understand exactly why I need all this kind of stuff: to get out of my back yard. Blow off embarrassment about not getting it immediately. After the last session with my tech trainer, I gave myself a homework assignment to create links on this blog.
I’ll stop a second here to tell you that I’d been reading Elizabeth Castro’s book “Publishing a Blog with Blogger”, which I’d ordered through Amazon.com. I examined each feature of Blogger, opened and closed them again and again over and over, until they became as familiar to me as my stove or my car. Best of all I overcame the fear that I’d break something accidentally, let’s say, erased a link or two that my trainer had created.
From the Template feature, Edit Current, I copied one of my trainer’s lines for a link, pasted it onto a Word document. You might wonder why I included the Word document in this procedure. Well, on the Word document, I could scrutinize the line, making sure every word and symbol were correct before moving on to Blogger’s Template, Edit Current.
On the Word document, I erased the address and title in that line and replaced them with the address and title of the new link that I wanted to create. Then I copied the revised line into the Template, Edit Current. Instructions for saving and republishing are clear. So far, so good.
The title of the link appeared on my blog. Fine. But when I clicked on the link, I got an error sign. When a hidden ding compels you to throw your computer against the wall, repeat the above exercises. When my trainer showed up, we got to work on this ding immediately. Almost by accident, he’d found out earlier that you couldn’t paste an “html” line copied from Word onto Template, Edit Current. Using TextWrangler, we could.
By the time of this post, I had hoped to find out what if any business insurance policy you would need for an advertising blog. I have found out nothing. If you find your way here and have any information about this subject, I would deeply appreciate your input.
Next leg: I’ll read Elizabeth Castro’s book, “HTML for The World Wide Web.” Castro’s books are excellent training manuals. In "Publishing a Blog with Blogger," large full color illustrations, with clear labeling, draw you in and keep you reading and puttering page after page.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Ad Sense Zeroes in on What I Really Am
As I set out to conquer cyber-phobia, I’m learning to keep an eye out for the kinds of preconceptions about cyberspace that scare the wits out of me in the first place.
First, what would I advertise on my blog and how? I imagined working as a blog broker for companies whose products I use because they make my life on cyberspace easy and enjoyable. I was thinking about Microsoft (Mac OS), Canon (printers and cameras), Apple computers (notebooks), and Adobe. But what if a flaky customer, who had logged onto my site, clicked an advertisement for one of those companies, ordered through me, and then stiffed the company? Would I get sued? I’ll need to ask my insurance agent what kind of business liability insurance policy I need.
At our last meeting, my tech trainer helped me complete my Ad Sense application. Ad Sense, owned by Google, serves subscribing companies by inserting their ads on appropriate blogs on Blogger.com. Google also owns Blogger.com. Ad Sense selects ads for the blogger. I don’t choose my ads, Ad Sense does.
How does Ad Sense select appropriate ads for a new participant? The devises they use are called spiders. Spiders scan your content and select ads that reflect your blog’s message. I worried that the spiders would find nothing. “Wait,” I said to my trainer. “I’ll need to post material that mentions computers, photo printers, digital image processing, and browsers.”
Then I decided to let the spiders do their work without interference. Let me be surprised. I was. Ad Sense zeroed in on exactly what I was — a PHOBE. I am not a nonfiction writer. I’m not a blog broker of top-rated tech equipment. To the Ad Sense spiders, I am first and foremost a person with phobia.
Delicately, Ad Sense sprinkled ads offering healing resources. Speak to an audience without fear. Fly in an airplane without fear. During all my surfing, I’d never thought once to look for blogs or sites about phobias. Next leg: Google "phobias"
First, what would I advertise on my blog and how? I imagined working as a blog broker for companies whose products I use because they make my life on cyberspace easy and enjoyable. I was thinking about Microsoft (Mac OS), Canon (printers and cameras), Apple computers (notebooks), and Adobe. But what if a flaky customer, who had logged onto my site, clicked an advertisement for one of those companies, ordered through me, and then stiffed the company? Would I get sued? I’ll need to ask my insurance agent what kind of business liability insurance policy I need.
At our last meeting, my tech trainer helped me complete my Ad Sense application. Ad Sense, owned by Google, serves subscribing companies by inserting their ads on appropriate blogs on Blogger.com. Google also owns Blogger.com. Ad Sense selects ads for the blogger. I don’t choose my ads, Ad Sense does.
How does Ad Sense select appropriate ads for a new participant? The devises they use are called spiders. Spiders scan your content and select ads that reflect your blog’s message. I worried that the spiders would find nothing. “Wait,” I said to my trainer. “I’ll need to post material that mentions computers, photo printers, digital image processing, and browsers.”
Then I decided to let the spiders do their work without interference. Let me be surprised. I was. Ad Sense zeroed in on exactly what I was — a PHOBE. I am not a nonfiction writer. I’m not a blog broker of top-rated tech equipment. To the Ad Sense spiders, I am first and foremost a person with phobia.
Delicately, Ad Sense sprinkled ads offering healing resources. Speak to an audience without fear. Fly in an airplane without fear. During all my surfing, I’d never thought once to look for blogs or sites about phobias. Next leg: Google "phobias"
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