One of the worst things that can happen to any website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of having broken a law or regulation.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring significant financial losses and the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this post, we look at a simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress users that can help make your website compliant just minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
As the internet continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules are constantly changing, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if your web presence is an essential aspect of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend your web apps, and you will not be accepted into many leading advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
At the very least, if your website is not in compliance, trust and confidence in your business could become an issue.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws and regulations that govern your business,
- The importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be promoting or endorsing online, and
- There are plugins for WordPress site owners that can help your website become compliant, such as the solution that we discuss in this post.
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in areas of compliance, below we discuss a simple WordPress plugin that you may be very interested in knowing more about.
Today We Review …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your online business …
Go here to learn more about the plugin: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your website instantly compliant:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Compliance Bar Plugin installs like any regular WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Legal Page Templates Are Very Easy To Edit
You can easily edit the pre-built legal page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the visual content editor.
Dedicated Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated 24/7 plugin support to help you.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Customized Templates: The Compliance Bar plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training Library: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - a complete library of training videos is provided if users need assistance.
- Use In Every Country: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to make sure that the templates provided with Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Use In All Niches: If your website or blog runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for any website purpose. Select only the types of disclaimers which suit your specific business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out those that are irrelevant.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar offers many unique features to site owners. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- Display Visually Appealing Icons – Display links to your legal pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Restricted Content – If your site includes content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), the plugin can display popups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If you do business in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law. The plugin displays an attractive bar that notifies your users and covers you from non-compliance issues.
- Record & Store IP Addresses – Compliance Bar can record and store your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcode Driven – The plugin is integrated with shortcodes to populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (even in the pop-ups).
- Works On Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on visitor mobile browsers.
Features – Details
After installing and activating the plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” area gets added to your WordPress backend.
Let’s briefly review these pages …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this section where you can input your business details into entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Email,” “Location Details,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Business Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to populate and display the information from your User Profile fields in your page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required data has been input into the plugin settings fields, users can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” area includes a list of all of the legal pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
When we last checked the plugin website, there were over 20 compliance pages available for complying with online business laws and regulations:
- 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
- Adult Content Disclosure
Creating legal pages for your blog or website is a simple process. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click the “Save” button on the “Create Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a default set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
Icons can be changed. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily customize and delete the compliance templates in the “Compliance Pages” tab, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Compliance Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing the legal pages is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before installing the plugin).
Compliance Bar
You have many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, specifying which pages should be included in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your front page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, etc. …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website.
- The plugin allows you to display the Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using particular 3rd-party themes (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 normal “static” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile devices, there is a limit to the number of page icons you can display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have specified your Compliance Bar settings, it displays links to your compliance pages using dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature the compliance icons …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), you can display pop-ups that restricts access to users who do not accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: 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 set a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and store the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU Cookie law …
Compliance Bar lets you customize the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” section …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” tab, lists all of your legal disclaimers and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin update notifications …
User Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials users have written about Compliance Bar:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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“Don’t Risk Your Online Business” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Below are a few useful ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protection against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages of your website.
- Reduce refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before customers purchase.
- If your website contains adult content, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated support to help users with anything they need. Plugin users also have access to a complete set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 200% refund guarantee. If your copy of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (M – F), the plugin developers will refund twice the amount of your purchase price.
Product Cost
- Single – Install the plugin on a single site. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business Edition – Install the plugin on 25 sites that you own. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer Licensing – Can be installed on multiple of your own sites. Can be installed on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Please Note: The cost of purchasing Compliance Bar depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here: Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Info
Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal templates have already been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get professional advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for peace of mind.
For ”how to” videos of the plugin in action, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Get This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites and blogs. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
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