Category: Website Planning

One of the worst situations a website owner can find themselves in is to be on the wrong side of the law.

Online laws are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

These laws affect various business activities, including:

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

Without certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote many advertising and affiliate merchant networks.

You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website or blog(s) may be subject to legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be recommending online, and that there are solutions that can help your sites become compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Is Your Site Breaking The Law?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As stated earlier, the aim of this article is only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you advertise on your website

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you’ll do with it.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website letting visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you are recommending and may earn a commission if they purchase products via your link.
• You did not spell out the terms of your refund policies.
• Online visitors claim your testimonials are misleading and decide to sue you because of it.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your site includes adult-related information and you did not take sufficient measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider now the real examples of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached at least three 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 cautions or lose access to the Google program whose policies they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming a target of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s vitally important to make sure that your digital presence remains fully compliant with the law.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

Complying with 3rd-party services terms and policies is important.

You must let your site visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you will interact with.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your website with Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your business via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell digital products with places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policies on your site, especially concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

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 reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. it’s best to protect your business by making sure that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines.

You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to create applications for your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services online via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
• If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Compliance Pages Does Your Website Need To Be Compliant?

If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external providers, and avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into implementing one or more of the following pages if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website provides general health or medical information)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add correct disclosures to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Discloses to visitors that you will not receive any type of compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to site users that you will be compensated if they purchase through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Lets users be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Lets site users be aware that you have been compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets readers know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Site

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

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website

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

We recommend creating a legal folder in your server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …

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

You can then easily add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your site) to ensure that visitors can access legal information from all of your web pages …

(It’s important to display legal pages to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer menu using widgets, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Sidebar

Using Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting sites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-prepared legal forms)

Go here to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to purchase a package of website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Legal Form Templates)

Cut & Paste website legal pages were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your legal pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new FTC regulations brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

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

More information:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using copy & paste legal templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites and blogs that you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you many headaches.

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

• Built-in Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your legal terms.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your main dashboard menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

With WPLegal Pages, you can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

You can also choose from a number of built-in legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured Legal 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

Visit the plugin website to learn more this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin with over twenty customizable compliance page templates for your site …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 And Conditions
• 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal expert.

We want your website 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 attorney-written legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you do business online (or are planning to), it’s important that your website is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party services and products that you may decide to promote or advertise online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even be aware of.

Being non-compliant 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 offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.

Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your site may require to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program
• 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
• US Copyright Office

Additionally …

• Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• AdSense Help – Required Content
• Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
• 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 presented above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using inexpensive solutions.

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