I thought I needed blog posts. Apparently I also needed privacy policies, disclosures, disclaimers, and an entire tiny legal department.
When I decided to finally start The After-Hours Dreamer, I knew there were going to be things I had to learn.
WordPress.
Domains.
Pinterest.
SEO.
Writing blog posts people might actually want to read.
I even expected to spend an unreasonable amount of time changing fonts, adjusting margins, moving things around, changing them back, staring at my screen, and deciding that yes, apparently three pixels absolutely matter to me now.
What I did not expect was to be sitting around watching TikTok and suddenly realizing:
Wait. Does my blog need legal pages?!
Excuse me?
I came here to write about building dreams after work. 😂
Sometimes You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
That’s probably been one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned while building this entire thing.
You can research something for months and still not know everything before you start.
Actually, I’m beginning to think that’s inevitable.
I spent more than two years thinking about starting a blog before I finally launched one.
And yet, after launching, I was still learning things I hadn’t even thought to research.
This particular lesson came courtesy of a woman on TikTok talking about blogging.
She mentioned legal pages.
That sent me down another rabbit hole.
Suddenly I was looking at my own website thinking:
Well, shit. We should probably handle that.
So I did.
The Very Unexciting Side of Building Something Online
I already had a Privacy Policy on my website, but I realized there were other things I needed to think about too.
Because The After-Hours Dreamer isn’t just a personal diary.
I’m building a business.
I write about products and tools.
I use affiliate links.
I participate in the Amazon Associates program.
I talk about things I’m trying in my own business, including self-publishing, blogging, Pinterest, Etsy, KDP, marketing, and eventually other income streams.
That means I needed to make sure the website actually reflected what I was doing.
So my little footer got some new roommates:
Privacy Policy. Affiliate Disclosure. Disclaimer.
Not exactly the glamorous entrepreneurial empire I pictured, but here we are. 😂
Why I Added an Affiliate Disclosure
This one is especially important for me because I’m using affiliate marketing as one of the potential income streams for The After-Hours Dreamer.
If I recommend something and use an affiliate link, I may receive a commission when someone makes a qualifying purchase through that link.
And I want people to know that.
I don’t want somebody wondering whether I’m recommending something because I genuinely like it or because there’s money attached to the link.
If there’s an affiliate relationship involved, I’m going to disclose it.
Simple.
And because I’m currently an Amazon Associate, I also added the appropriate Amazon Associates disclosure to my site.
Then Came the Disclaimer
This one made even more sense once I thought about what I actually write about.
I’m documenting my experience.
I’m not standing on top of the Internet Mountain holding stone tablets containing The One True Way to Build a Business.
Good Lord. I’m figuring this shit out too. 😂
I’m going to talk about what works for me.
I’m going to talk about what doesn’t.
I’m going to share numbers sometimes.
I’m going to talk about KDP, blogging, Etsy, Pinterest, affiliate marketing, products, mistakes, successes, and whatever other strange corridor this business takes me down.
But my experience isn’t a guarantee of someone else’s results.
And I’m certainly not anybody’s lawyer, accountant, financial advisor, doctor, or tax professional.
So the Disclaimer makes that distinction clear.
I’m sharing the journey. I’m not promising you the destination.
This Is Exactly Why I Wanted to Document the Messy Middle
Here’s the funny part.
A year from now, this will probably feel obvious.
I’ll look at a website and immediately think:
Privacy Policy. Disclosure. Disclaimer. Got it.
But right now?
I’m learning.
And this is the part I want to document.
Because someday another woman is going to be sitting on her couch after working all day thinking:
I really want to start a blog.
And she’s probably going to Google how to start one.
She’s going to find beautiful websites explaining domains, hosting, themes, SEO, content calendars, email lists, and monetization.
All useful things.
But I also want somebody out here saying:
Hey. Before you get too far, don’t forget the boring stuff.
Because apparently the boring stuff matters too.
Starting Before You’re Ready Doesn’t Mean Staying Uninformed
I’ve spent a lot of time in my life waiting until I felt ready.
I wanted to understand everything before I started.
I wanted the entire road map before taking the first step.
And I’m realizing how impossible that is.
I couldn’t have known every problem I was going to encounter with KDP before publishing a book.
I couldn’t have known everything I would eventually want The After-Hours Dreamer to become before launching the website.
And I couldn’t possibly know every lesson I’m going to learn while trying to turn this little after-hours project into an actual business.
The goal isn’t:
Know everything before you begin.
It’s:
Begin. Pay attention. Learn. Fix. Keep going.
That’s exactly what happened here.
I learned something.
I looked at my website.
I realized I needed to make some changes.
So I made them.
No dramatic existential crisis required.
Okay.
Maybe a tiny one.
😂
Consider This Your Friendly Nudge
If you’re building your own blog or website, take some time to research which policies and disclosures may apply to your particular website, location, audience, business model, and the services you use.
Don’t blindly copy mine.
And definitely don’t treat this blog post as legal advice.
Remember the Disclaimer we just spent an entire section talking about? 😂
Requirements can vary, and your business may need things mine doesn’t.
But if you’ve been so focused on creating your logo, writing posts, picking colors, making products, figuring out social media, and doing the thousand other things that come with building something online that you completely forgot about this side of it…
Well.
Same.
Consider this the random Internet nudge that TikTok gave me.
Another Finished Thing
The Privacy Policy is there.
The Affiliate Disclosure is there.
The Disclaimer is there.
And The After-Hours Dreamer is a tiny bit more grown up than it was before.
That’s what building this has looked like so far.
Not one giant moment where suddenly I know what I’m doing.
Just hundreds of little moments where I know more than I did yesterday.
And then I do something with what I learned.
That’s enough for tonight.
🌙
Dream it. Plan it. Build it after hours.