It’s Tuesday and time for the second installment of Blog Talk Tuesdays!
Part two of this new mini-series on the blog addresses blogger safety. Let’s get to it!
Blogger Safety
- You share so much on your blog. Do you ever worry about your safety?
My safety is always on my mind.
- You share a lot of your personal life on this blog – from your wedding, to your high school and college, to pictures of friends and even the city where you live. How do you still make sure that you are ensuring your safety?
I make it a point to keep the following personal information private:
- My home address
- The location of our gym (I only revealed the location of our Orlando gym after we moved)
- What kind of cars we drive
- Place of employment
I also never show pictures of the outside of our home or the homes of my friends and family. I make sure street signs are not visible in pictures taken close to home.
Additionally, when Ryan goes out of town, I never talk about him being gone until after he gets back.
- I am scared to even put a picture of myself up on my blog! How did you get over the fear of sharing so much on the internet?
To be honest, my dad and Ryan were the ones who were nervous about me posting so many pictures for the public to see. They now serve as my “checks and balances” and I will get a phone call or an email from one of them immediately if I post information that they feel could jeopardize my safety.
As long as I blog with safety at the forefront of my mind, I feel as though I am doing the best I can to ensure my personal safety. If any of you ever notice something on my blog that you feel could put me at risk that I may never have even thought could be an issue, please, please let me know.
Also, as a blogger you should know that when you post an original picture on your blog that you took, you automatically have the copyrights to that picture and no one else can legally take your picture off your blog and post it somewhere else without your permission.
- Has anyone ever stolen content or photos from your blog?
Yes. A simple cease and desist email from a lawyer typically works wonders in this situation. 
As I mentioned above, when you publish photos or original content on your blog, you automatically own the copyright to the content and pictures and no one else may legally reproduce your content or pictures without your consent.
I am also in the process of trademarking “Peanut Butter Fingers” to ensure additional security.
- I noticed you share your last name on your blog. Were you nervous to do this?
When I first started my blog, I kept my last name off my blog. When other websites, local magazines and publications began reaching out to me, my last name was then published for anyone to see. After that, “Julie Bream (<—my maiden name) Florida” became one of the top search terms on my former employer’s website. I realized then that my anonymity went out the window.
I also realized that if I wanted to make a career out of freelance writing and blogging, it’s a good thing to be searchable to some extent.
I’m of the mindset that if people really want to find out who you are, they can. It’s a scary thought, but I know of blogger’s full names being “discovered” because readers searched the race results of a race they competed in and matched their name to their running bib. Seriously.
- Have you ever experienced any scary moments due to putting yourself “out there?”
Fortunately, no. I have not personally had to deal with any “in real life” safety concerns, threatening emails or anything of the sort. People have recognized me, Ryan and my sister from the blog, but everyone who has approached each of us has been nothing but kind and friendly.
- When you buy and register your own domain, can people find the information you used to register?
If you purchased your own domain, people can easily find your registration information, including the address and phone number you used to register the domain. All of my information is registered under a former address, so this is not a concern for me, but if you’re a blogger, you may want to pay a nominal fee to make this information private. I know Network Solutions offers this service for $10 a year and replaces your personal information with their contact information.
If you’re a blogger, try typing your domain name into this website. If the information that populates is your personal information, I would highly recommend making this information private.
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Another great Tuesday post, Julie! I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve even considered the scary aspect of blogging. I am such a new blogger, that I didn’t worry about tons of people reading it right now, but I will definitely want to keep all the pointers in mind! Thanks for reminding us to be careful!
Awesome post! I think you might run into issues with trademarking Peanut Butter Fingers, however, because it has been used long before your blog.
I hope this doesn’t sound rude, I just reread it and it could totally come off that way but I meant it otherwise 🙂
so far, so good! the only issues that came up in the process were with butterfingers (the candy) and a pie called “peanut butter nutter butter pie” from tgifridays.
I am loving these blog-talk Tuesdays! I just got serious about blogging in the last month or so, and I need all of the advice I can get.
I’ve often worried about sharing too much…for my own safety and for the safety & privacy of my husband, friends and family. At the moment I’m pretty sure all of my readers are friends and family, but this is a good reminder to keep myself and the ones that I love safe!
Thank you!
Brilliant tips, thanks Julie! I don’t think people talk about this enough.
Loving the blog talk series 🙂
i dont want to sound like a creeper, but i once forgot the url of your blog and wanted to show my sister something so i googled your full name — one of the first things that comes up is your linkedin profile which lists all of your places of employment. wanted to let you know because you said you tried to keep that kind of thing private…
oh i never even thought of that! yikes! fortunately i don’t work at any of those places anymore, so my linkedin profile can still be public, but that is a great thing to think about!
Great post Julie! Really, really helpful! 🙂 Especially for new bloggers like moi!
Wow. Those are good safety tips. I realize I’ve been a little careless. Thanks for sharing what’s made sense to you! 🙂
Great post. I’m always extra careful about security when I’m in NYC- I NEVER mention the neighborhood I live in, or where I’ll be at a specific time. One thing that kind of scares me is that my dad is pretty well-known in our community, so I try to keep my last name off the blog. I know people can easily figure it out with a little searching, but I prefer to keep it harder to get for the sake of my family’s privacy!
You’re so right. Especially being females, we have to be extremely cautious of our safety. At first, I didn’t even post pictures of myself. After a few months, I felt more comfortable with the idea (really after seeing so many other blogs with photos of the blogger).
Things like FourSquare and Facebook places freak me out. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to participate in those.
Thanks for the tips! I’m really enjoying Blog Talk Tuesdays!
as an actor, blogger, voice over artist. I get this and it was a GREAT post.
I dont know if anyone here knows this, but just recently on The Today Show and on our local news as well, they had a segment re: the fact that when you take photos with your phone and post them on FB or Twitter, no matter if there are landmarks or signs, your phone assigns a gps kind of number and people can get that right then and there and know your EXACT location!!! They had a way to turn this off but I dont remember now!
this information about safety is amazingly helpful. Thanks so much again! Love from runningwithmascara.com
Thank you for the tips! I’ve always tried to consider my safety since I started blogging a couple months ago, but these are some things that I didn’t really think about..and now I’m gonna make sure to keep them in mind!
What an excellent post about blogger safety as I have often wondered about the subject myself. Good advice about avoiding street signs and tell-tale information that could lead to exact locations when taking photos. Thanks for the advice and I will keep these tips in mind next time I do a post.
I love this series! Your tips are so helpful and great to hear from someone who has so much experience! Sometimes I have a hard time balancing the line of being too private and sharing too much but I will def keep this in mind in the future!
Thanks for the tips! I am always skeptical of things I post. I live by myself, so I definitely don’t want to invite any creepers in. I’ve noticed throughout my time reading your blog, that you are really diligent about your safety, and it reminds me to do the same!
I think you being married and being married to a big guy helps 😛
I’ve had a couple incidents with stalker-like people. Nothing remotely life threatening, but when a smores pillow shows up at your doorstep without you giving your address to someone, well, that’s a bit scary. I made my domain private after that. I’ve since changed the setting since I no longer live at my parents’ and use that as my registered address.
But yeah, no creepy stalkers since I started dating my husband, thank God.
Thank you! I’m learning so much from this series!
Great series! 🙂 I love all of these tips. It definitely made me think of somethings that I probably shouldn’t include in posts!
Thank you soo much! some of that I’ve never even thought of before! 🙂
Thanks for this post! Very informative. PS: We need more Sadie!
Another amazing post 🙂 And I’m with you on keeping certain things private – it’s just better that way!
Love these! Very helpful!!
Hi Julie,
First time commenter, long time reader-just wanted to thank you so flippen much for this post. I like to think I am a fairly seasoned blogger and am fairly comfortable with my web presence for the most part, but this post prompted me to check the whois website to verify that my domain is private…and it wasn’t. I’m not anonymous or anything like that, and I make my living primarily from blogging, but the thought of my current home address and phone # being right there totally freaked me out. Turns out when I switched from bluehost last year I didn’t double check this-yikes.
My new hosting company 1&1 offers private domain registration for free, in case anyone else uses them.
Anyway, sorry to ramble-but if you hadn’t posted this, my home address would still be up there for the world to see and I have some creepers who like to blog stalk me :). Just wanted to let you know that yes, you are helping all the newbie bloggers, but this is an awesome reminder for us not so new ones too 🙂 We can’t get too comfortable or let our guards down, you know? Have a great day!
Great tips!
Great tips!
Fantastic post! Thanks for all the information!
I love Blog Talk Tuesdays, thank you! I’m still a little worried about sharing my last name, but I know it’ll come out soon. When I bought my domain I bought the option to keep my information private so I’ve tried to stay safe in that sense…I haven’t even shared my town. Do you think that it’s ok to share the city you live in? I know you do, Orlando is more well-known and a little larger than the city in California I’m in. What do you think?
you could say you live in the “greater orlando area” w/o saying the specific town! just an idea! i am saying that i live in ocala now even though it is much smaller than orlando. while it is smaller, it is still large enough for me to feel comfortable sharing that information.
Excellent post! This is such valuable information – thanks!
Great post, I love Blog talk Tuesday!
Well you’re absolutely roght to keep your privacy and to be careful of what you share and not share. I see that people worry about you ^^
The only full proof way to guard against identity theft is to “freeze” your credit. Best way I’ve seen it explained is at Clark Howard.com, search credit freeze. His web site instructs you on how to freeze your credit with each agency. Even if the bad guys get your social security #, they are powerless. You will need to “thaw” your credit to buy a house or land, open credit card accounts, etc, which costs a small fee. The only time credit freezing is not worth doing is when you need access to your credit line constantly, for example if you are an investor. Good luck!
I very recently started a blog. I’m not as concerned about personal safety since I don’t document my every day life on my blog and I live in a big city. I chose to use, and even publicize my full name because I hope to do more journalism work, which would publish my full name. I’ve also been published before, so I have no problem with using my last name.
However, I’m pretty concerned about financial safety/identity theft. I don’t plan to sell anything on my blog, but I was wondering for those who do, how do you go about it? I have a paypal account, but it makes me nervous since my friend’s information was stolen and I’ve had eBay rip me off on my account more than once. I use my credit card for nearly everything since I know debit cards aren’t protected in the same way and that many places (not just the internet–grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants) can easily steal your debit card number.
If my blog ever gets big or generates money, I wonder how best to protect my financial information.
Actually julie, you have shown ryan’s car on the blog a few times. I assume he doesn’t mind.
Very good idea to not mention the husband being away until after he’s safely back home. My husband works crazy night call shifts, and I probably shouldn’t broadcast “Hey, I’m all alone Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of this week!” I also think taking those extra precautions with your home address is important for those of us that work from home and mention it on our blogs.
Hi Julie,
Great post! Security is something that I’m very aware of, but you mentioned some things that I never considered (like the car thing). I recently struggled with whether or not to share my ‘real job’ with my readers, but after a quick Google search, realized that all of the information was available online anyway. I am careful about showing my house or talking about what neighborhood I live in.
I love your blog, by the way – I’ve been following for a couple of weeks now. I’ve also been known to have ‘peanut butter fingers’ 😉
Thanks for including some Sadie pictures to keep us non-bloggers entertained! 🙂
Great advice! I have gone back recently and taken off some pictures of my kids…specifically, a picture of them in the tub. I would hate to think that there are predators out there looking at that! I checked my domain on that website you provided and all is well…PHEW!
You know what happened with me and my blog.
I noticed a lot of hits from a website I was unfamiliar of….and went to the website. Well, it was a men’s forum and they were posting pics and making crude comments about me…they were very sexual in nature.
They found out I knew and then became very rude and it really scared me. They took pics of Sean, my best friend, and tore them to shreds. It terrified me for a few days.
Here’s the post that details what happened: http://www.imanokie.com/2011/01/every-bloggers-nightmare-2/
I am much more careful these days about what I post.
Holy crap, Lisa!! I love your blog as a recent discovery — I had no idea that happened to you. Scary.
I don’t share my full name either, and I often blur out my race bibs in photos (though I don’t confess to be perfectly diligent about that) but I am also a realist — if somebody wants to find you these days, the interwebs make it very easy to do. This is why Roxie’s great-big bark and less-than-cuddly demeanor around strangers is a welcome thing 🙂
All of this does absolutely man that anybody who puts any part of their lives on the web needs to have security and safety in mind. Great post Julie — I was really looking forward to this topic!
THANK you for this post. Truthfully, safety hasn’t always been at the front of my mind when I blog. Being a relatively new (and young) blogger, I have been naive about safety, mostly because my blog is not “popular.” However, my blog content is still on the Internet, and I am most definitely going to concern myself more with safety. Thanks again!
Thanks so much for all of this! In the almost two months that I’ve been blogging, I’ve found safety to be my number one concern, but it’s so tricky. You want to share enough information that your readers know who you are, but at the same time you want to keep enough under wraps so creepy people can’t get creepy…it’s tough!
Thanks so much for the great info Julie! It will definitely be put to good use 🙂
My dad is super over protective of what I post too for safety reasons. One time I posted about a place being ‘a few blocks from my apartment’ and he immediately called me and told me to take that part down. I think he might be going a little too far sometimes, but definitely better safe than sorry!
Thanks so much for Blog Talk Tuesday! I love it!!
Haven’t read through the comments so I don’t know if someone mentioned this but here is some food for though:
I know what’s done is done but posting basic common “security” information, things like exact birthdates, mother’s maiden names, resume/employment information, previous and current pets names are one thing to consider, just for identity theft’s sake. Identity thieves can do SO much with so little.
Investing in a P.O. Box to register your domain under so you don’t have your home address connected anywhere. I learned this from my sister who sells things online.
NEVER Tweeting/Facebooking your current location and disabling or opting out of those GeoTags or Locators.
This one might be a little too paranoid and creepy but it happens: keep an eye on your WebCam! Make sure it is off.
Speaking of blogger safety + having readers approach you, my significant other and I saw you at the gym at the Atlanta Ritz Carlton! I REFUSED to come talk to you because I was super embarrassed, and decided to work out at another time. We had booked our hotel for a work trip a long time before you put it on your blog, but it still felt super creepy approaching you in a hotel that you had posted on your blog 🙂
oh my gosh, really!?! you should’ve said hi! 🙂 i promise i would not have been weirded out at all. hopefully we’ll run into each other again! hope your stay at the ritz was amazing!
Oooh I asked that second question…thanks for writing that post!
It still freaks me out a little, but I just have to be careful, I guess.
Even posting things on Facebook can be a little harmful sometimes as well!
Great post! I don’t blog but I participate in online email group and a minor scare reminded me I have to be careful with my information. I always re-read my emails to be sure I am not releasing any info I don’t want out there. I also changed my name on my email to reflect my first name only. My husband participates in an online car forum. Most of these people have all become really close friends but I am constantly reminding him to be careful what he posts online. The forum is open to the public. He may know the majority of thre group but there are many he still doesn’t know. I do know if someone really wants to find you they can and that is scarey.
One thing I haven’t read about here in your post or in the comments (unless I missed it) is posting on social media about travel schedules in advance of them happening. I really try to wait until I am totally home before posting photos, etc from trips. I just worry that someone can target your home for a burglary if they know you are not home.
Also – a friend needed my mailing address recently and found it here – http://www.whitepages.com/. I have since removed it. But as an example of what could happen – I would hate to post about a trip on my Twitter which is public, then have some criminal search my name and come upon my full mailing address. Just another thing to think about! I definitely recommend that folks remove their listing from there if they are concerned about safety!
This was a super interesting post to read! (I took a little break from reading and I’m catching up on my fav blogs) This was very insightful! I try to think about some of these things, although I just started my blog recently and only have a few followers. But this is important stuff to keep in mind. I really enjoy Blog Talk Tuesdays. 🙂