Alexa James' Blogger: PB126: How to Create a Blogging Will (and Why You Should)

Creating a Blogging Will

Today, I want to talk about something that may come across as a little morbid or depressing, but something that I think is important – particularly for those of us who do generate a living from our blogs (or at least a decent part time income).

It’s all about how to prepare a ‘blogging will’.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your blog if you were to pass away?

Over the years, I’ve known a number of bloggers who have sadly passed. Many of them, I only knew online and didn’t know their families. While reflecting on their lives, I often wondered how their families dealt with the bloggers online affairs after they were gone.

Every time I thought about this, I also wondered what would happen to my own blogs and business if I were to pass away.

Ever since 2006, I’ve had a ‘blogging will’ to help my family work out what to do if that were to happen.

As a solo entrepreneur, I realized that much of what was needed to run this business was locked up in my head—a dangerous thing if something happened to that head!

I remember waking up in a bit of a panic one night wondering what would happen if Vanessa didn’t know how to access my blog or understand how I’d set things up business wise.

I got up and created a little document for her to use in such circumstances.

In Today’s Episode What Does My Blogging Will Contain?

People

Names and contact emails of people I trust and work with
15 people who I have different working relationships and friendships with who could help with different aspects of my business from:
- Server setup
- Income streams
- Business partners
- Team members
- And more
I include a brief description of who they are, where they live, and what they can do to help
With the right people around my business could be sustained at least to a point where parts could be sold

Business overview

General business structure and overview of blogs, eBooks, courses, sister sites, job boards, teams, and income streams.
Advice
- In the will are a few paragraphs of advice about what I’d do if I was in the situation of having to run the business without much prior knowledge of it.
- I explain what I’d try to sell, who I’d try to convince to run things, what products I’d release, and so on.
- While none of it is legally binding, I want to leave my family in the best position to be able to sustain themselves in the long term if something were to happen to me.

Passwords, login details, access codes

Many parts of my business are reliant upon third parties, and anyone wanting to keep things running would need to access those services.
For example, they’d need my PayPal account login details, affiliate program logins and ad network access details, domain name registration access, servers, bank accounts, email accounts, social media access and of course passwords to the blogs themselves.
I guess ultimately email access is key as so many of the others can be accessed with being able to reset passwords and send them to that.
Without these, it would be almost impossible to keep things running profitably.
While I don’t include the passwords in the document (security reasons) I give information on how she can access them!