How To Copyright A Blog in 3 Easy Steps

Does your blog have a copyright policy?

If you write great content, sooner or later, someone reading your blog will want to reuse your original content.

Encourage readers to reuse your work with permission, by adding a clear and visible copyright policy to your blog.  

Here’s how:

How To Copyright A Blog in 3 Easy Steps

Here’s a simple, 3-step process for adding a copyright policy to your individual blog:

1.    Add a copyright notice to the footer: 

Your blog is protected by copyright, even if you don’t have a visible copyright notice. But, having one provides an added benefit:  it reminds others of their legal (and moral) responsibilities when it comes to reusing your content.

At a minimum, the copyright symbol and notice should be part of the universal footer of your blog, visible at the bottom of every page. For many bloggers, this will already be part of your blog’s theme.  If it isn’t, add it.

A sample copyright notice can look like this:

© [Your Name] [The Year] [Rights Clarification].

For more on the 3 elements of a copyright notice, read  “How To Write A Copyright Notice” by Jonathan Bailey, author of Plagiarism Today.

2.  Decide on your “Terms of Use”: 

Is your online content free to reuse?  By whom?  How much?

Decide how you want others to be able to reuse your content.  You may be happy to allow others to excerpt or republish it, as long as you receive the proper attribution and a link back to your site.

Or, you may want to monetize your blog content, and license it for commercial uses, according to rules that you set.

Be very clear about your terms of use.  Let people know what you require, and make it easy for them to comply!

3.  Add a detailed copyright policy to your blog:

A copyright policy gives you a place to explain specifically what reuses you’ll allow, and how people can go about gaining permission.

Why is it necessary?  Because a copyright notice in your footer is easily overlooked, and doesn’t provide needed details for your reader.

When it comes to a copyright policy, the more detailed and prominent, the better.  Write one, and then post it visibly on your blog.

Note:  the FREE iCopyright Toolbar comes with a default Terms of Use page, easily editable by you, saving you the work of creating one from scratch.

Digital Copyright Tools:  Copyright for a Digital World

Adding a copyright notice and policy to your website or blog is no guarantee that readers will comply.  They may not see it …  or just copy and paste as a matter of habit.

Or an automated bot might scrape your RSS feed.

Instead of relying on readers to proactively read your policy, or going after scrapers after the fact, a digital solution, such as iCopyright’s free plugin, can help.

Digital copyright tools make the process of giving permission to republish your content automatic and seamless …  instantly adding an extra layer of protection for your online content, on every post.

To see how the iCopyright Toolbar works, watch a quick video or check out the toolbar and interactive copyright notice on top and bottom of this post.  

P. S.  Free Ebook:  The Blogger’s Guide to Copyright Protection

If you would like to learn more about how to copyright a blog, you might be interested in our free e-book.  It goes into more depth about how to protect your work, and what to do if your content is used without permission.

The good news?  Most people will respect your copyrights, if you let them know how.

Do you have other questions about protecting your content, or growing and monetizing your blog?  Do you have a story of someone infringing your copyrights? Let us know in the comments!