Guest blogger? How to protect your content + what you should know

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Congratulations! You’re a blogger on a mission to show the world your ideas and to help people, and now, you’re honored to be a featured guest on someone else’s blog. Or, you might be inviting someone else to be a guest blogger for you.

But what are some basic facts you should know before joining another blogger as a guest blogger, and vice versa?

In this article, I will go over some key points that will hopefully help you out with this new endeavor!

What is a guest blogger agreement?

A guest blogger agreement is used when someone publishes articles on their website that are written by other people, often called guest posts.

A guest blogger agreement is necessary to protect the blogger and their business from legal implications that are related to using and owning content created by other people, while also giving the blogger the legal right to use the content for their own marketing and promotions purposes.

The guest blogger agreement also states the guest post guidelines that ALL guest writers affiliated with your website must follow.

Who would need a guest blogger agreement?

Anyone who allows guest bloggers to submit articles to their website.

Without this type of legal agreement, the blogger is not protected from legal disputes that may arise from this sort of partnership.

If you are working extremely hard on your content day and night, the last thing you want to do is leave yourself vulnerable to legal disputes that could occur when it comes to blogging!

It’s a good idea to cover yourself whether you are the guest, or the host, in this situation.

“How do I protect myself with a guest blogger agreement? I have no idea what to do!”

I did some digging and I found a guest blogger agreement template written by an attorney who is also a blogger and coach. If you want to check it out, you can use my link, HERE.

I found that this template was a lot more comprehensive and has the key legal provisions I needed, as opposed to using a very unsafe, ‘free’ template from some random place on the internet. Read more about the template, HERE.

I find that the best way to implement this agreement is to follow the guidelines written for you when you download it, and you can customize the agreement to fit your business or blog’s needs.

For example, one blogger said this template was “easy-to-read and covered every angle,” and that, according to him, it costs less than a Wordpress plugin.

Although I do not use Wordpress, I feel that the value he’s talking about is pretty on-point! You do not want to use a ‘free’ template off the internet because it’s just not going to cover you the way it needs to, in my opinion. If you want to see the legal template and more details on its pricing, go HERE.

If you would like more information on how to protect your blog, check out this blog post I wrote: 3 Simple ways to protect your blog (and your money) 

If you aren’t ready to implement your guest blogger agreement template:

It’s understandable if you just aren’t ready to make this type of investment.

If that sounds like you, you can definitely save the information HERE for later, and then come back to it when the time is right!

When I first started blogging, I had a whole list of bookmarks that I wanted to look at later on when I knew the time and the money was right to implement the things on them. So, go ahead and save that information!

Conclusion

Whether you are a guest blogger for someone else, or you are hosting another guest, it’s important to implement a coverage strategy to protect your business.

Your content is something you take pride in, and you want to continue to guard it.

Find more resources on protecting your assets HERE and reach out to me with any questions you may have on what you need to implement the proper coverage!

When I first started my blog, I made it a point to research the legal side of things. Now, I can help you do the same!

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Thank you for reading!