One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Your website or blog has to comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you are probably not even aware of.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring significant financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this article, we review a simple and easy-to-install solution for WordPress users that can help make your website compliant in minutes.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
As the digital business realm continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is an integral aspect of your business strategy.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you won’t be accepted into a range of other advertising or merchant networks.
Plus, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
At the very least, if your online presence is not in compliance, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to be irrepairably affected.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice here.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to numerous legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- How important it is to remain compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be promoting or endorsing online, and
- There are inexpensive solutions that can help your business become compliant, such as the plugin that we discuss in this article.
If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, we discuss below a simple plugin for WordPress users that you should know more about.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is an easy-to-install WordPress plugin with over twenty customizable compliance disclaimers for your digital presence …
Go here to learn more about this plugin: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your website or blog instantly compliant:
Fast Installation
Compliance Bar is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Easy-To-Edit Templates
You can easily make changes to the pre-built compliance page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the visual content editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Plugin Support
The plugin develop provides a dedicated support team to assist users.
Additional benefits of using the plugin include:
- Customized Templates: The Compliance Bar plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training Library: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - an entire library of training videos is provided if users need help.
- Use In All Countries: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the default legal templates provided in the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Can Be Used In All Niches: If your website or blog is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for any website purpose. Just select the compliance pages you want to add to your site and leave out all other irrelevant pages.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many great features to web site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to use in very little time.
- Show Attractive Icons – Compliance Bar will display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed anywhere in your page. You can also upload your own icons.
- Display Sensitive Information – If your website has content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult content, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that require users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying users and covering you from non-compliance.
- Records And Stores IP Addresses – Compliance Bar records your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcodes – The plugin is integrated with shortcodes that automatically populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (including the popups).
- Works On Mobile Devices – Compliance Bar has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on visitor web browsers.
Using The Plugin
After installing and activating the Compliance Bar plugin, you will have access to a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured.
Let’s briefly review these pages …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this area where you can input your information into input (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Niche Area,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to insert the information you have input into your User Profile inside your page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been input into the user profile fields, users can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen lists all of the compliance template pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the plugin website, there were over 20 compliance templates made available:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure Statement
- Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Contact Us
- Copyright/DCMA Notice
- Disclaimer
- Double Dart Cookies
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- FTC Statement
- Legal Disclaimer
- Linking Policy
- Medical Disclaimer
- Privacy Policy
- Returns/Refund Policy
- Support
- Terms
- Terms & Conditions
- Testimonial Disclosure
- XXX Disclosure
You can create compliance pages for your website quickly and easily simply by selecting checkboxes and clicking ”Save” on the “Compliance Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to your “Pages” section.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
The icons can be changed. You can purchase an additional set of icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily edit and delete your legal pages from the “Compliance Pages” area, just like any other page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Compliance Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing your legal templates is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin notifies you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. legal pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, selecting which pages should be included in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your main page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and more …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your site.
- The plugin allows you to display a Compliance Bar on the home page of your website, even if you are using a specific 3rd-party theme framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have specified your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your legal through dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance icons to be featured …
PopUps
If your website publishes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), you can display popups that blocks access to users who do not accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” page gives you full control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up displaying on different pages, or to cover various uses in different sections of your website …
You can also specify a delay time if you don’t want Pop Ups to display as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time interval, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you are based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
The Compliance Bar plugin lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU User Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” screen …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” screen, lists all of your compliance pages and shortcodes, and lets you edit their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” screen, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
Testimonials From Customers
Here are just a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided for the Compliance Bar Plugin plugin:
”WOW” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
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”You wouldn’t drive a car around without insurance…so don’t RISK your online business by neglecting a simple, but important detail: website compliance. Grab your copy of Compliance Bar & protect yourself today!” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin – Useful Tips
Here are a few useful ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Minimizing refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If your website published content for adults only, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Compliance Bar Plugin Product Support
Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated support to assist you with anything you need. You also get access to a complete set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 business hours (Monday to Friday), your cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Product Price
- Single User Personal License – Install the plugin on one of your own sites. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Install the plugin on 25 of your own domains. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Can be installed on multiple sites that you own. Install the plugin on all client sites as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: Pricing details of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing: Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Legal Pages Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For ”how-to” videos of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Install This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-powered websites. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Note: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
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