Different types of policies required for a blog

Policies are intended to protect you and your audience as well as set expectations about the type of content that will or will not be published on your blog. You need to establish three primary types of blog policies:

1. Comment policy
2. Privacy policy
3. Terms and conditions of use policy.

There’s no set format or text you’re required to use in your blog policies—in fact, publishing blog policies is entirely up to you. But it’s important to understand the basic purposes of blog policies and what information is typically found in them so you can create the most appropriate policies for your own blog.

Comment Policy:

A comment policy allows you to define what types of comments you will delete or edit using the comment moderation tools in your Admin panel of the website. Your comment policy also protects you, so you can refer visitors whose comments are edited or deleted to your established policy to understand why their comments were revised or not published at all.

Following is a sample blog comment policy. It can help you get started in writing your own policy for your blog.

Comments submitted to this blog may be edited or deleted in the following situations:

1. Comments that are considered spam or potential spam will be deleted. This includes comments that are irrelevant or with multiple links that are irrelevant to the blog post to which they are attached.
2. Comments including profanity will be edited or deleted.
3. Comments that could be deemed offensive will be deleted.
4. Comments that attack a person or entity will be deleted.

The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog at her own discretion and without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at any time and without notice.

Privacy Policy:

A privacy policy is used to tell visitors to your blog about the kind of information you collect when they visit your blog and what information you share with third parties. For example, some blog advertising programs require that the advertiser be able to collect and store information about visitors to your blog in order to serve more appropriate ads in the future. If you participate in this type of program, it’s likely that the advertising program will require you to publish a privacy policy on your blog explaining the type of information collected about each visitor and what that data is used for.

Here’s a sample, generic privacy policy for a blog that does track analytics but does not collect or share any other kind of visitor data. Use it to help you get started in creating your own policy for your blog.

We do not share personal information or behavioral information with third parties. We do not store information we collect about your visit to this blog for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at any time by modifying your web browser’s settings. We are not responsible for the republishing of the content found on this blog on other websites or media without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change at any time and without notice.

Terms and Conditions Policy/Disclaimer:

Following is a generic sample terms and conditions of use policy you can use to write your own.

The content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in the information available on this site or by following any link on this site nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. These terms and conditions of use are subject to change at any time and without notice.

Keep in mind that blog policies are meant to accomplish two primary goals: establish visitor expectations and protect you. If you are new to blogging sphere, take some time to read policies on other blogs, create your own to meet your needs, and provide the full disclosures and protection you require.