A Guide to Honest Blogging

Creating a blog site is a terrific way for someone to express their life experiences and to promote their profession. Up to now there is really no actual code of ethics for bloggers to follow. However, there are three common sense ethic codes that a blogger should follow while they are publishing their blog posts. These are the code of ethics that will authenticate you as a trustworthy blogger.

1. Be Honest and Fair:

You need to be honest and fair to your followers. You must make sure that all the information you provide is truthful. Do not include any incorrect information. When providing facts, you need to make them true, easy to follow and distinct. Do not try to distort your facts, visitors can sense this right away and, as a consequence, you will lose readers and followers. If the information you provide in your blog site appears to be doubtful to the reader, you need to clarify with factual information and back up your statement. When adding photos and images to your blog, add captions to explain to the reader about the picture. Honest and fair are two immensely fundamental aspects of the bloggers code of ethics.

2. Harm to others:

When creating a blog topic on a highly controversial issue, avoid naming names or places. This will protect you from potential lawsuits and also from hurting the feelings of your readers. A good principle for this code of ethic would be, say to about others that you would want them to say about you. Also, be sure that you protect other’s privacy. Invading a person’s privacy is intrusive as well as rude. If you do not wish someone doing it to you, make sure you do not do it to others. A good way to avoid violating this code of ethic is to refrain from using names or places wherever possible. If it is unavoidable, use it with as much caution as possible.

3. Be Accountable:

You should be prepared to accept the consequences that may come as a result of your blog. If you have made an error in any of your postings, own it up it right away, do not try to deflect it. Everyone makes mistakes sometime or other and if you own up to your mistakes, you will be more respected by your followers.

If someone questions your information on your blog, engage in a discussion with the person. Try to analyze why they feel the way they do and if you see that they are right, apologize to the reader and admit that they were right and you did make a mistake. If you are not accountable for your own blog, you will be blogging against the code of ethics and, as a consequence, you will lose followers.

All of these codes are common sense, the most ignored parts of blogging. Following a basic code of ethics will make you a trustworthy blogger on your topics and visitors will keep returning.