Have You Made A Blog Will

The sudden death of British actress, Elisabeth Sladen (former Dr Who Assistant), has reminded me about a writer I met online. She was very talented and quite prolific. She had all the big social networking sites covered, including Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon. Her profile on Triond (a paid, writing site) and Blogger were impressive, and she'd even managed to publish a book - a book I bought and read. She had many aliases, but the name I knew this writer by was, Jan Harper.

I recently checked her Twitter profile and it was eerie seeing all the things she'd uploaded just before she died. I'm guessing no one knows her usernames or passwords to either upkeep or delete her various profiles. 

This set me thinking, what happens to the money she gets paid every month from her various sites. Those of us who write or have written for Triond, know that we get a Pay Pal deposit every single month without fail. Many of us bloggers also write sponsored posts for various sites, all of whom pay online - requiring usernames and passwords. 

How many online sites do you log into and use? If, God forbid, you were to die today, would your various profiles just become obsolete and deserted? Is there anyone who knows your sites? You've worked hard to build up your blogs. Would they just fall by the wayside if you die because your survivors can't log in to tell your fans you're no longer there? A virtual will would solve this problem

Would your payments all go to waste because no one knows they're there? Would your Pay Pal account see deposit after deposit for years to come, while your kids are blissfully unaware of this legacy? 

If you haven't yet, you should make a Blog will. Write down your sites (especially those little earners), their passwords and usernames and how often you get paid. Show someone how to (at least) update one last post on your blog. Create a folder on your computer - in a secure data storage - of all your earning sites (which I've done), making them easy to find if one day you should kick the bucket rather suddenly.