Blogging can be a fun hobby for leisure, most people use blog as a platform to express themselves in many ways. The concept of blog was derived from journalism, where writing is involved to log special events that they experienced so they may honour their news piece. But almost anyone who can write today can use a blog. And because blog posts are usually presented as a personal view, it means issues can get personal with you. Nonetheless, blog is one of the most powerful tools for political propaganda. Where no personal views are accepted in other media, blog would be the place for the ultimate freedom of speech.

With that, great power comes with great responsibility, definitely. But before you shout out loud for the freedom of speech, be sure to check where you are to know if your geography’s culture and government is qualified for this belief.  And whether you are writing for yourself or on behalf of an organization, there are some expected norms to comply if one intend to blog safely.  This generally consists of more things about what NOT to write about in blogs.

Sensitive issues

If you are not in a country where freedom of speech is qualified, you might want to avoid writing anything related to politics or religion. These two topics are sensitive at nature and are best to be avoided at all times if you are unsure of the possible triggering effect. In some countries, you would not be sued when you draw the big F word on a wall expressing your view on political figure, because you have the freedom of speech, but on the other side of the world you could be jailed by just expressive your decent view. There have been many laws implemented on bloggers who are subjected to sedition, some governments are extra sensitive about the use of blog for these two topics because it is powerful and could lead to rebellion and terrorism.

Personal topics

You may not have the patriotism to criticize political matters, but you need not to be too self-absorb as the same time. The true is, people simply have no time for your personal matters. If you want to whine about how bad the traffic was or how bad the food was you had for lunch, then you are better off writing this somewhere else and not in a public blog because people have more significant interests on other maters than yours. Unless you are a well-known celebrity, then people might want to know if you think Chinese cuisine is better or indian’s.

Original content

In some cases, it is a legitimate crime to copy-and-paste contents from other website without seeking their prior approval. There’s nothing much to be said about using the contents of other without their permission but to let know that ‘stealing’ is simply not right. Aside from a possible lawsuit filled against you, your blog also do not benefit from search engine’s improvements. So make sure all contents are originally produced.

Managing comments

If you are able to attract or provoke people to comment on your blog, then you must learn to manage these commentaries well. Not all comments favors your content, you may choose what is most appropriate of feedbacks that may be valuable for your clients. You may also encounter spams, and you should clean it whenever possible as people don’t expect to see some viagra promotion to be on a religion blog. You should be able to make more sense with what is most relevant and beneficial to your blog and your readers. Nonetheless, you should also maintain a neutral attitude when responding to unfavorable comments to show some professionalism and objectivity.

Disclosing your identity

The world connects everyone closer to each other. Disclosing your identity,contact,  lifestyle and habit give yourself more visibility and fame. But just like superstars, their fame sometimes attracts unwanted people and threatening situations in their lives. The same goes to you and your blog, the more information you disclose to the public, the more high profile you are and the higher chance of you inviting a stalker in your life. As long as your blog is available publicly, you’ll never know who could be reading it. So avoid posting topics that include a specific incidents and dropping names.

Generalizing views

Being diplomatic in writing means being safe. It shows professionalism and objectivity. So try not to use too many adjectives in your writing, avoid using 1st person words and maintain a 3rd person view whenever possible. This gives better credibility and acceptance for your contents

Remember, your blog is the work of yourself and it can be used as a legal documentation should any problems arise. Despite that post only topics that you are really serious about or no reader will take your blog seriously, if you still have a reader. Now go and blog something : )