Blog Privacy & How to Make Your Blog More Safe

I googled my name the other day, and was surprised to find that I came up in a ton of blogs. So, I've been thinking once again about blog privacy. I had tried going private for a while, and that just wasn't fun because I love to meet good people on line. Plus, I had a lot of problems with people saying they couldn't log in for some reason. So, I've been thinking about all of this, and then I read this post on my friend Melanie's Blog (she got it from Darby's Blog) on how to make your blog more safe:

• Go into "my settings" and then go to "Settings", select "Basic" and it will say: "Add your blog to our listings?" SELECT NO (this means that when you update your blog it does not show up on the blogger homepage or any other page as being updated - very important)
• Also on that same page it will say: Let search engines find your blog? SELECT NO (this means that search engines can not bookmark your site at all -important if you are a family)(Scroll down and click Save Changes)
• Next go to "Comments" (still in settings) it will say: Who Can Comment? SELECT REGISTERED USERS - includes OpenID (this means that only people who can comment are those with gmail accounts - or who have active blogs open - this helps eliminate computers from spamming)
• On the same page it will say: Enable comment moderation? SELECT YES (this means that no comments will post to our blog with out you approving them first - this way you can axe anything before it shows up)
• Same Page- It will say: Show word verification for comments? SELECT YES (this is super annoying, but important to stop spam and deter unwanted comments because it's an extra step) Scroll down and click Save Changes
• LAST THING- Never mention last names, show your address or town and try to not tell the full names of anyone else on your blog either. Also don't post birthday specifics or when you'll be out of town. All of that will just lead to a home alone movie where the burglers find out when you are leaving. leave that kind of stuff to personal emails to family or blog about it when you get home. Also try to respect friends privacy by not posting photos that could embarrass. The internet is really quite insane. Once it's on the web it's ALWAYS on the web so post with courtesy and care. All in all these are safe blogging tips. the first few are really important as they block the search engines from seeing your blog!

So, I made the changes to my blog last night, and I also changed my links so that they only say the first name and last initial. I've found it to be pretty annoying already (the name thing that is), but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Please feel free to share these tips with your friends & family so that we can all be safe online.