Yesterday we talked all about swapping out a website for a condo, but one area I didn’t get a chance to expand on much was that of INSURING our blogs and sites we so diligently work hard on every single day. It scares the poop outta me that we don’t have insurance for them, doesn’t it you?!
I know there’s “business insurance” out there and maybe that is where sites like ours fall under, but not once in my 4+ years of blogging have I ever come across insurance made specifically for blogs or websites (or maybe there IS one but only the elite like Perez Hilton or iJustine has garnered it?) And owning more than one site that produces income, I can tell you that it’s something I’d HIGHLY be interested in if one of you ever wants to create one ;) My freakin’ livelihood depends on it! Haha…
I tried Googling it a bit to see if maybe I’m just overlooking something already in place, but unfortunately typing in “insurance for websites” and “blog insurance” only points you to other blogs who like to write about insurance (big surprise). So if any of you have better researching skills than myself in this department, I’d be more than thankful to hear what you find :) Although I did come across an interesting article by the WSJ telling all bloggers to be aware that what we write can get us sued, which didn’t make me feel that much safer, haha…But DOES remind me that it’s a good idea for any of you out there with small businesses like these (cuz that’s what they are in effect – “small businesses”) to makes sure you have some legal protection backing you up! I personally have an LLC for all my online projects, and it feels great. But every person’s circumstances are gonna be different, so make sure to do your homework and find the best one suited for YOU.
But back to the topic of insurance. I feel like online blogs are just as valuable as other things we insure, and therefore we should have the opportunity to do so too. We have insurance for diamonds and RVs and cars and motorcycles and homes and commercial real estate and even WORKING in general (death and dismemberment anybody?), so why not blogs? Are we too weird? :)
As you can tell from my article yesterday, sites are just as financially valuable than other major properties are – many times even MORE. You know Get Rich Slowly? Sold for over a million dollars… Bargaineering? $3 million+… And these are just some of the sites we know about because of information that’s publicly available. You don’t even wanna know what the other niches out there bring in a month with money – it’s pretty incredible.
But just because they’re all smart enough to reap the rewards online than they are in real estate or cars or whatever else we’re able to insure these days, it doesn’t seem fair they don’t get the same equal consideration. Again, unless I’m missing something big here? And think about how ground breaking and how much of an UN-TAPPED market there is for blogger’s insurance!! You could make a KILLING if you wanted to be the first one to create the product and brand yourself like that, right? Are you listening, USAA? :)
Now, I have no idea how much would even be fair to have to pay to be insured like that, but I would be willing to shell out at least a few hundred a month for this killer peace of mind. Or maybe even up to $500? Seems like a lot of money for sure, but then again it would be protecting your entire empire there in the off chance the internet goes down one day ;) Although I suppose you could always just set money aside as more of an Emergency Fund for your biz too? I just don’t think that would feel as good, or offer you the same amount of protection. I dunno…
Either way, the whole thing just fascinates me. And I feel like I’ve stumbled across something entirely new and shiny here that’s never been touched by us PF bloggers before, haha… could it be there’s something NEW to discuss in finance after hundreds of years? ;) I may be on to something!
Thoughts? Ideas? Resolutions??
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