Inspired by a post on Ben Yoskovitz’s Instigator Blog I’ve decided to sit down and crank out a “5 Things” list. The idea behind Ben’s post is to help bloggers get focused and write within the popular structure of a “5 Things” list. Obviously, the number of items on the list can be longer or shorter, but the list itself must relate to one specific topic. Obviously, you can tell by my title that I couldn’t come up with 5 things related to this topic so I settled for a list of 3.

Seems that everywhere you look someone is blogging about how to monetize your blog. Since I’m new to blogging, these articles are greatly appreciated; however, the minute I started applying for the necessary accounts to help monetize my site, I quickly learned I had to provide more than my name, email and home address. Not having everything I needed to create these accounts resulted in several false starts. You, however, can avoid similar false starts if you just have the following 3 things in place before you apply for any account required for monetizing your site.

1. Get an EIN

Sign up for an affiliate program such as Amazon.com and you’re expected to hand over your Social Security number or a Tax ID. I’m a little paranoid about identity theft so I try to avoid giving out my Social Security number whenever possible. To satisfy my paranoid nature, I got an Employee ID Number (EIN) and use that number in place of my Social Security number.

By definition I don’t need an EIN, but there’s nothing that says I can’t get one either. The EIN online application is simple and immediately produces a usable number. The application is free, and provided you apply as a ‘Sole Proprietorship” reporting your income and expenses associated with this EIN is done with your personal taxes.

2. Get a bank account just for your blog

Once the money starts “rolling in” (at least you hope it starts rolling in), you’ll want to get paid. Most programs such as Google Adsense like to pay their participants via electronic funds transfer (EFT). You can use an existing checking account, but you might not be comfortable handing out that information, and it’s just a little easier to keep track of income and expenses when you use a dedicated account.

Head to a local bank and get the cheapest (hopefully free) checking account you can find. Once you have that, make note of your account and routing numbers. These numbers are the key to EFT and easily found at the bottom of your check.

3. Add a policy page to your site

The need for this final requirement depends entirely on the affiliate program you sign up with. In the case of iTunes, they require a “privacy policy” clearly stated on your site before you can sign up. And, since you might be adding a “privacy policy” to your site, you might as well add a general disclaimer (e.g. the views and opinions expressed at this blog are not those of my employer etc) to keep you out of hot water with your current employer. Finally, to close out the “legal” circle, you might consider adding a copyright statement (consider using a creative commons copyright statement) to protect your blog investment. Once you’ve created all of these “policies”, lump them together on a single page and call it “site polices.” Add the page link to your theme’s footer and you have covered your “legal” bases to the best of your abilities and without enlisting the help of a lawyer.

Obviously, if you look around my site, I haven’t created such a policy page (fear not…it’s on my to-do list). Therefore, you can probably guess that presently, I’m not participating in the iTunes affiliate program, don’t expect to receive a “naughty note” from my employer, and don’t believe anyone is going to exploit my blog for commercial purposes…at least at this time.

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Filed under: Blogging Related