Hello I’m seriously thinking of starting a blog but I’m really worried about all legal stuff such as privacy policy, terms and conditions, cookies, disclaimer.... Do I need to have it straight away or can I add it later? Or should I just concentrate on content to start with and do the legal bits later if it will ever have any traffic. If it will I would like to collect emails to be able to send new post notifications and use some affiliate marketing. I will not be selling anything. Any info appreciated. Thank you
Start off by posting a disclaimer policy. Always be mindful of defamation, so tread diplomatically. Use watermarks on your images or state clearly that people can use your images. If your going to use other peoples images then send off an e-mail to the creator asking for permission to use them. Assert upfront that your content is yours. The same applies to any and all music and lyrics that you may use. Don't worry too much about the rest of the legalities right away. If your blog takes off then you can cross any bridge you need to at that point. Good luck to you with this.
I believe that the Google algorithm still checks for a Privacy Policy much like it does for mobile responsiveness and other attributes that it considers mandatory. So, if you hope to get traffic from Google over time, you should have one in place. There are many free templates that you can use for this. If you plan to collect emails from the European Union, you should make sure that your privacy policy is GDPR compliant. @Spoiltdiva makes a good point about having a Disclaimer statement, as well.
Some notes for your privacy policy: When you don't collect any data, you can focus on your content. You can work on the legal bits just before you want to collect data from emails, analytics, and using third parties to collect data from the visitor. Describe in your Pirvacy policy exactly what you collect, what tools you use, how long you are saving the data, and for what purpose.
Just a clarification for the readers since you were typing so fast that you forgot the subject and the helper verb in your reply.
I use a program called Legal Pages Generator. You can check it out at master resell rights. It's a com site. I don't have any affiliation with them other than using their software as far as I remember.