Eric Giguere asks an interesting question over at his blog – Do you have an “AdSense Will”?

It is actually a question V (my wife) and I have talked about and made plans for over the past year or so.

It became more serious for us to talk about when we realized that our family’s main income source was blogging and when we started planning a family (funny how things get more serious when you realize you’re responsibly for a little one).

Phase one of getting things in order was getting our wills together and setting up our business in a smart way.

With that out of the way we had one level of the problem solved – but another question arose.

V came to me one day and said ‘if you died, how would I know what to do with your blogs?’ and ‘Would they keep earning money without you?’

The second question first – yes they would continue to earn money, but on a decreasing scale over time. It would be important for her to either manage the blogs and find a way for them to continue to operate with soeone e

Now V’s a pretty smart person, but she’s not a blogger and while I’m not a techie, she makes me look like a hardcore coder. Like Eric writes in his post, she wouldn’t have the faintest on where to start in a lot of the logistics of what I do.

As a someone who works largely alone I realized that I needed to put together some sort of dossier to help her out in case anything untoward were to happen to me.

Here’s what it includes (so far – it is a work in progress):

• Contact details for partners – I have a number of blog partners that would be able to help her navigate some of the logistics of managing my blogs
• Contact details for trusted other bloggers – a few others who know enough to be useful
• Passwords and Contact details for Advertising Programs and Affiliate Programs – to be able to access and manage income
• Contact details of bloggers who work for me – a number of my blogs are written these days by others.
• Contact details for web hosts – without these the blogs fall over and income disappears
• Passwords for Paypal accounts
• Backup details – for blogs and computers
• Blog and hosting passwords – to give her (or those who help her) access
• Instructions on what to do – a few notes on what I’d suggest she does. Which blogs she could sell (and who could help her sell them), which to allow to run (and who to write on them), what my agreements are with different people etc

I’m also going to give V some blog lessons in the coming months and be more intentional in talking to her about the day to day running of my work so that it isn’t a completely foreign thing to her. She’s also going to meet some of my blogging partners next year when we head to North America which I’m sure will help also.

Eric calls this his ‘AdSense Will’ or ‘Disaster Recovery plan for your online business’ – I just call it thinking ahead and being smart for the sake of those you love.

PS: Interweb also has a piece picking up on Eric’s post titled AdSense in the Afterlife? as did Blogging Pro.

Digg This Post Here

Michael Moncur has written a thoughtful post asking Whatever happened to online etiquette? which bounces off (and largely rejects) the NYT piece by David Pogue of the same name.

I think Michael makes some worthwhile points – particularly in his third point about Anonymity and fifth point about content inspiring community.

Anonymity – while some do like to hide behind anonymity I find that the majority of attack within blogging circles happens not because people can remain hidden but because it actually gets them attention and they think it will raise their profile. Thankfully the ‘snark strategy’ to build a blog’s profile has died away a little over the last 6 months. While it can raise your profile it can also destroy your reputation.

Content Inspiring Community – Michael quotes a comment from Gina Trapani of Lifehacker which is insightful and worth highlighting again:

“Also, netiquette in public forums has a lot to do with the content around which the community is centered. Lifehacker’s posts set out to help folks, so in kind, our readers want to help us and each other back. Digg is a popularity contest of oneupmanship. Gawker is all about making fun of things, so its readers mock each other and it right back in the comments. Karma’s a boomerang.”

My feeling is that sites develop a culture around them. This is often set by the tone and voice of those who set them up and provide the lead (in the case of a blog – the blogger/s).

If your blog is written in a positive, optimistic, helpful and inclusive voice then I find that those commenting generally respond with a similar tone. Write in a snarky, negative, rant dominated tone that makes fun of others and you can expect a very similar vibe in your comments.

In fact I think that this principle extends out of your comments section into the way that other bloggers interact with you from their blogs also.

Of course there are exceptions to this – even the most positive and helpful bloggers get attacked from time to time – but I find that this is more the exception than the rule.

What do you think?