Category: Website Planning

One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.

Online laws and regulations are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws has ramifications for various business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

If you do not include certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you won’t be allowed into many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

If your business online is not compliant, you could face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this post is to help make you aware that your website(s) may be required to comply with various legalities, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be offering online, and that there are plugin-based solutions for WordPress site owners that can help your sites become fully compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Is Your Site Breaking The Law?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. As stated previously, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you promote on your website or blog

Why Making Your Website Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to take place:

• Someone has a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users skin rashes.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you plan to do with their personal details.
• Someone copies content from your site and puts it up on their own website.
• You have not divulged to your site users that you are an affiliate for the product you’re marketing that you will get paid a financial benefit if visitors buy using your link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your refund and return policies.
• Visitors claim that your testimonials are misleading and try to sue you.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site contains adult-related content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider now these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he is now required to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken at least 3 of Google’s policies. Although the website owners could technically be sued by Google, more than likely what could happen, is that they would be issued notices or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdWords Advertiser
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence is fully compliant with the law.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies Terms And Policies

Big companies and government regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you engage with.

For example:

Google requires websites to display certain information when using their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your blog using Google AdSense display advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your products via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell products online using merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their network …

(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to display clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any type of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations.

You can find many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references to a number of these at the end of this article …

(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to create social networking applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about various legal pages …

(Social networking apps also require compliance)

• If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

Common Legal Pages To Add To Your Site

If you suspect that your website lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following legal pages to your site should keep you out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and third-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the above pages, you may want to look into implementing one or more of the following pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides advice about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms (e.g. if you provide users with access to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets users know that you will not receive for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you may receive compensation if they buy through your affiliate links.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets readers be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs readers that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Content To Your Site

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Site

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in typical web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. via FTP) …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that users can access legal information from all pages …

(Display legal information to users on all of your website’s pages)

If you need help displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu and footer in WordPress, see this tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In WordPress

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)

Go here to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can download a set of legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, DoubleClick DART, etc.
• ToS & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

You can either create a new WordPress page for every legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.

More information:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using templates, another option for adding legal pages to your website is to use plugins.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress websites worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you time.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages:

• Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WordPress page.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when the user agrees to your terms.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will be added to your main WP dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

This allows you to create, view and edit your legal pages from your admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, niche sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages – Type of Site menu)

Choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Built-In Templates)

Legal page templates include:

• Terms of Use (Users are forced to agree to Terms and Conditions before using site)
• Linking Policy
• External Links Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Refund Policy
• Affiliate Disclosure
• Privacy Policy
• Affiliate Agreement
• Facebook Privacy Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• Antispam Policy
• DoubleClick DART Cookies Policy
• Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclosure Statement Template
• Medical Disclaimer Template
• Testimonials Disclosure – As per FTC guidelines
• Amazon Affiliate Disclosure Template
• DMCA Policy Template
• California Privacy Rights Policy Template
• Digital Goods Refund Policy Template
• COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Policy Template
• Blog Comments Policy Template
• Newsletter Subscription Policy and Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclaimer Widget

Go here to learn more about this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

More info:

• Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

This plugin lets you easily install professionally-written legal pages such as:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Social Media Disclosure
• Medical Disclaimer
• Terms of Use
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – Professionally-written legal forms)

Additionally:

• Drag & Drop FTC Disclaimer Widget: Add an FTC Disclaimer to any WordPress sidebar or widget area.
• Customizable EU Cookie Compliance Bar: Display an EU cookie compliance bar if you are getting traffic from the EU and your sites use cookies.

With just one-click you can install almost all of the legal pages your site needs and these professionally written legal pages can be created in your theme and/or as a standalone page outside of your theme.

The plugin developers secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

For more details, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some type of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your site to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (it’s FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator Software allows you to quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online (or plan to), it’s important that your website is compliant with regulatory agencies and any terms of service (TOS) and guidelines of third-party services and products that you may be promoting or offering online. Your digital presence must comply with a wide range of regulations, some of which you may not be aware of.

Non-compliance puts you at risk of suffering both financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

Legal Resources And References

Here is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to better understand what your business requires to comply and meet legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau
• Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
• Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act
• CAN-SPAM Act Guide
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• FTC Regulatory Review Web Page
• FTC Rules and Guides Currently Under Review
• The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force – Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework
• FTC Staff Report: Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising
• FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials
• US Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

In Addition …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• AdSense Help – Required Content
• Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
• Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress site.

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