I find the dangers we bloggers face online very alarming. Crimes like identity theft, scamming, stalking and harassment are only a few of some of these dangers. That’s why it’s important, as a blogger, to protect yourself.
It’s scary the internet, which is in fact, a blogger’s office, is becoming more and more unsafe. We depend on the social media and the internet as a whole to make a living as a blogger. So it is important to remember not to let our guard down and remain safe.
Here are some tips on how you can protect yourself online and continue your blogging activities in peace.
1. Keep Personal Information Personal
One of the keys to staying safe as a blogger is to set clear boundaries. There should be some things that you should keep off-limits from your blog. Whatever you put online is out in the open for millions of people to see forever, so you have to be extremely careful. Avoid mentioning your phone number, home address or other information that will give out your exact location. If, for whatever reason, you have to give away your home address publicly on your blog, use a P.O. Box. Also, make sure your blog host keeps your contact details private. You may need to pay an additional fee for this but it is so worth it.
When posting pictures, you also need to be cautious. Before posting pictures of yourself, check if the picture has a landmark, house number or anything that can be easily used to confirm your exact location.
Sometimes using your real name or your children’s name, if you are a mummy blogger, could pose a security risk. Use a nickname or screen name on your blog if you can.
2. Keep your friends and family out of it
As a blogger, you’re not the only one who’s at risk of the dangers on the internet. Your friends and family are too. So think twice before mentioning their full names on your blog. The same way you shouldn’t give out your personal information and be careful about the pictures you upload, is the same way you shouldn’t for them too. This is because through you they can be exposed to dangers online. But if your blog includes your family life, then it is up to you to figure out how to be safe.
3. Look out for comments or tweets made by friends and family
Since your friends and family are the ones closest to you, they may post information you want to keep away. For example, you need to check if they have left you a blog comment referring to you using your full name, mentioned where you live or gave away other private information you don’t want to share on the internet.
4. Friend Requests
I may have offended a few people by deleting their Facebook requests, but let me just say it as it is. My personal Facebook profile is in fact personal. I only add and accept requests from people I know in real life, people I am comfortable with, or people I want to know on a personal level. My Facebook blog page is public, I follow interesting people on Twitter and Instagram, on a daily basis. But my Facebook personal profile is so out-of-bounds. I just see it as very personal. I have a lot of my pictures on there, and pictures of my family and friends, so accepting everyone that adds me will feel wrong.And I think that she should be the same for others but I may be wrong. Lets face it, there are a lot of freaks online, and many hang out on social media platforms, so it pays to be safe than sorry.
How do you blog safely? Do tell.
I agree with all the TIPS. A lot of people ask why I don’t post pictures of my family online and so on, this is it right here.
Have a lovely day Stella.
M | http://www.mojintouch.com
Have a great day hun xo
I’m the same with my personal Facebook account. I have a blog account for a reason. Great tips!
Thanks Lyndsey.
I do exactly what you’ve written. I’m very careful with what I blog and hardly every mention family members and close friends (if I do, I ask permission first). I also very seldom post photos of us and when I do post photos of my daughter showing her face, I watermark it and put it really close to her face too, so it can’t be cropped. I’ve read more than a couple of stories about bloggers whose photos were stolen. I’ve also recently installed the WP content protector, no right clicks plugin on my blog. I know it’s not full proof, but just doing all these things just makes me feel a little bit safer 😉
Yea better to be safe than sorry.
These are good tips, hmmm how do I blog safely: well at the moment I am going for a lot of job interviews and my blog is on my CV as I’m going for Content Marketing, Social Media etc: so I make sure that my content is what I would want an employer to see/whilst still showing my personality to my Readers. I’m also careful not to give names of people when I tell my work horror stories. Ps as you know know, my new blog is uuuup: http://myfashionslashlife.com/2016/06/animal-print-pleather/
X
I have been on your blog and I love the new look. Thumbs up xo
Such an important post – I think a lot of people are oblivious of this. I try to keep everything as anonymous as possible because you never know who is reading. Scary.
Yea you never know..
I literally just added privacy protection to my domain plan! Thank you!
Ah nice. Glad you found it useful.
I never really thought about any of this. I guess it is kind of crucial, you want to show an update of your life but not enough that people can steal your identity! Crazy! Thanks for the tips, will most definitely be taking these in toi account now.
Yea. It pays to show a bit about your life so your readers can relate but not too much.
Well said I get a lot of bloggers try and add me on Facebook and while I find it flattering if I don’t know you well enough I will reject the request.
I just reject them all. Facebook is too personal for me.
I rarely publish anything that personal, but it is a balance especially with our blogs being as much about us as our brands. We are our blogs.
What I never do is live blog press trips. I do not want to advertise my property is empty.
Yea I try not to talk about holidays and trips until I am back..Lol.
I have to admit that I use the kids names on the blog and if I started again I probably wouldn’t, but if you google search them their names don;t come up
Ah that is great their names do not come up.
Good
These are great points which blogger should take a look deeply I agree with point 2, Keep your friends and family out of it. I never mentioned my family nor friend’s name in my posts so far and not planning to do so. They are anyway too private and blogging is public.
Yea that is a smart way to blog.
Some fab tips and I am forever refusing requests for friendship from people I don’t know (or dislike) x
I can imagine..
I am in total agreement with you, especially with Facebook. I had joined a Facebook blog group that required me to participate more than I was able to and required that I friend everyone in the group. This wasn’t something I was comfortable with but I did it anyway. I am the same as you. My personal Facebook page is personal and only those I know personally or want to know on a deeper level are accepted as my friends. So when I was asked to leave the group, I went and deleted most of the people in that group. It sounds harsh but I only share a few pictures here and there of my kids on my blog. I’m very protective over them and I have a lot more pictures on my personal account that I save for those who know my children. We have to be diligent about safety when online and elsewhere in the world. Love this post and I am glad I finally met someone who feels the same way!
Yea we have to. Too many bloggers take safety for granted. Thanks for reading.
Great advice. I think everyone does what they can to protect their families X
Yea I guess so xo
Some great tips here. I don’t think people take their online presence and security seriously enough!
Yea I agree, they don’t.
I have had a few blogging friends who have had their photos stolen and found other people pretending to be the mother of their children. It is so scary. Thanks for writing this post.
Oh that is scary. Thanks for reading Charlotte.
Great blog and tips. Whomever and whatever you do care online is paramount. I am very careful with my social media accounts. FB is personal and careful consideration. My account is friends and family only. Twitter I don’t bother so much over as I only really use for comping. I am also big on security and privacy meaning internet/and windows protection in anti virus, firewalls and much much more.
Yea general online protection is ace. So many fraudsters around.
I totally agree with all your tips! Especially the one of not getting family members and friends exposed and keep them on check of them not exposing you.
Yea it helps. Thanks for reading Roberta.
Great tips! I’m sure a lot of people don’t even think about this before they start blogging, especially those that blog about their lives.
Yea they don’t..
So great tips there… it’s so mental that things like this are such a concern these days and there are people out there that would use what they find on the Web about you to their advantage x
Yea many freaks about. We have to be careful.
great tips there.. yep i always try to keep my facebook personal
Yea me too..
great tips, I always worry about sharing things on my blog. I make sure I never mention where my children go to school, or there surnames ( it is different to mine so hopefully no-one will know it) x
Ah well smart.
Yea it pays to be careful.
These are great tips. Especially the friend request one. I guess telling the world you were on holiday and out of your home is not a good idea too x
Yea it isn’t..Lol
These are very true, also I’d say not to moan about family members either as they might read it and take offence… I called my sis lazy once haha but she forgave me 😛
Alina from The Fairytale Pretty Picture
Aha lol..Lucky you.
I’m really open about my kid’s names. I’ve never hidden them apart from in one blog post that involved the police, in which I held back my son’s name. I didn’t want that one showing up in a google search. But the “My personal Facebook profile is in fact personal” I totally agree with. I’ve had friend requests from people I’ve never met. Never gonna happen……
Yea I wonder why people bother requesting.
Great tips, I’d not thought about monitoring more what family and friends post. I’ll be keeping more of an eye on that in future
Oh good xo
These are such great tips! I especially agree with the last one as it’s something that’s been happening more to me recently. I feel bad declining requests – especially when they’re people I could well meet IRL – but my facebook profile is something I like to keep personal. Great post!
Yea me too Jodie.
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