It’s funny how the mind reels. You act on random thoughts that pop into your head and come across some very useful info.

It occurred to me that many bloggers, especially those earning a full-time income from their online businesses, stand to lose a big chunk if/when we’re all hit with massive power failures similar to the one in August 2004. Would they be covered by insurance?

Concerns about losing “impressions” or “clicks” income pale in comparison to the exposure bloggers (and podcasters) have to legal action.

Pull Your Pants Up, You’re All Exposed!

I came across an informative june 2007 podcast hosted by Shel Holtz of NevilleHolmanDotCom with guest Karl Susman. Karl is an insurance guy and a self-proclaimed techie. He dabbled in podcasting, dispensing advice to his listeners…until his wife asked him a simple question. Are we covered, dear? What if someone acts on your advice and it ends badly(jumps off a cliff)? Are we covered….dear? Mr. Susman checks policy, after policy, after policy…er, ah, no..dear…no, we’re totally exposed.

We, at least in North America, live in a very litigious society. It doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong or if you want to hide behind the cornerstone of liberal democracy, Freedom of Speech. It can cost you everything to mount your defense if someone takes offense to what you’ve said or acted on your advice and got burned by the outcome.

A couple of definitions are warranted. Bloggers are particularly vulnerable to libel suits, and podcasters to slander.

Libel: defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.

Slander: defamation by oral utterance rather than by writing, pictures, etc.

During the podcast, Mr. Susman details how he educated the insurance underwriters on the needs of the blogging industry and convinced them to provide liability insurance for bloggers and podcasters.

Visit his mini-site to get an overview of this newly-minted insurance policy and make sure you listen to the 20 minute podcast.

Protect your online business and your offline assets.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 10:33 am and is filed under A Day in the Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.