The world of blogging was once seen as little more than a hobby for coders who were striving to make their rather dull lives seem more interesting. As the years past the blogosphere benefitted from advances in technology which opened up blogging to non-techs.

This in turn lead to an explosion of more interesting blogs and of course the opportunity to make money from blogs. The ability to drive traffic and generate revenue has led to more corporate interest in blogging. However, now that blogging is moving ever closer to the mainstream there is an increasing amount of regulation being proposed or enforced on bloggers.

If you are a serious blogger then you need to keep up with these changes as they can have a very material impact on how you conduct your business.

A few days ago the High Court in the UK ruled that bloggers identities could not remain hidden. They made this ruling in connection with a blog that was being written by a serving UK Police Officer. However, the implications are very broad, by removing the cover of anonimity for bloggers it imposes a sense of self editing. Some people will see this as a good thing, some as a bad thing. I make no judgement yet, but it is certain to change how bloggers behave in the UK.

Later this summer the FTC in the US will rule on the use of giveaways and sponsored posts by companies and bloggers. No doubt they will be watching how things work out in the UK and make a decision as to whether to incorporate some type of language into the new guidelines that covers anonimity as well.

Do you keep up with the changing laws and regulations that affect bloggers?

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