Terms and conditions for blogs – Example and what they should include

At their most basic, Terms and Conditions (also called ToS – Terms of Service, Terms of Use or EULA – End User License Agreement) are documents which protect you (the business owner) by setting legally binding rules on how users can interact with your product/service.

As mentioned above, Terms and Conditions set the way in which your product, service or content may be used, in a legally binding way. They’re important for protecting your content from a copyright perspective as well as for protecting you from potential liabilities.

They typically contain copyright clauses, disclaimers and terms of sale, allow you to set governing law, list mandatory consumer protection clauses, and more.

You’ll likely need to set Terms & Conditions if you:

• want to set the rules for user behavior (including comments) and state grounds for termination of accounts;
• allow your users to upload comment or content;
• have different user levels (eg. registered vs non-registered);
• participate in affiliate programs;
• provide advice which can potentially cause harm if misused;
• would like to have some legally enforceable control over, and set rules about, how your product, service or content may be used.

Particular emphasis should be given to copyright and the limitation of liability clauses (and disclaimers), for example when giving advice or promoting affiliate products.

As Terms and Conditions are legally binding agreements, it is best practice (and required in some instances) that they be easily accessible to users. For this reason, we suggest making them readily available *both* at the site of any explicit agreement (such as on sign-up and account creation forms), and in the footer of your blog.