Category: Engagement Plugins

One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.

As the cybersphere continues growing at an overwhelming speed and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vital to try and stay informed about what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if having a digital presence is an essential part of your overall business strategy.

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 commercial gain, then you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The new laws affect several online business categories, including:

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

If your site does not display certain legal pages (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 or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could suspend web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a number of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

If your digital presence is not in compliance, you could end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website(s) are subject to legal requirements, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be using on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the plugins that we discuss further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice about your website or business. As stated above, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose services or products you promote on your website or blog

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for one moment what the implications to your business would be if any of these scenarios were to occur:

• A person has a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives people skin rashes.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone steals content from your site and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your site telling your site visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you are selling and may receive a financial benefit if they purchase products via your affiliate link.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
• A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are false and tries to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related content and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider now the actual case studies of costly compliance breaches described:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he is now required to give a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 cautions 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 you could become exposed to the risk of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdWords Advertiser
• Info Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to ensure that your digital presence is legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

Compliance with 3rd-party companies 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 increases consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you will interact with.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display legal information if using many of their services or product features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your WordPress site with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information products with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add various legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale in their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for vendors selling through ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many business are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute 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. you should protect your business by making sure that your website complies with all FTC regulations.

A number of online resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide references to a number of these at the end of this article …

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create apps that will integrate with your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure 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 online using affiliate marketing, or generating revenue online with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their policies)

Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Website

If you suspect that your website is falling short in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following legal pages to your site should help your site stay out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external providers, and avoid possible legal issues):

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

In addition to the above, you may want to look into including one or more of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides general information about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (if you provide users with access to 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 your visitors be aware that you are not receiving any type of compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs site users that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets readers know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your readers know that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload these pages for you.

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

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

You can then add links to your pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Site

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

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

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar, see this tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Site

Ready-Made Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

For more information, go here:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to purchase a set of legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)

These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with simple search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your legal pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC regulations brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

More information:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress-powered websites worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If you don’t want to spend time creating legal web pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any WP page.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to your legal terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will be added to your navigation area …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche sites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)

You can also choose from a number of pre-configured 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

To learn more this plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

The Compliance Bar WordPress Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your website …

For a detailed article about this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin)

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 & Conditions
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro – 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 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 this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some form of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a legal expert.

We want your website to be safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (for FREE!), or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal page templates, or a legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator lets you easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online, you need to ensure 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) for third-party products and services that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.

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, please note that we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements regarding your specific business.

Resources

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your site may require to comply and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau Website
• 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
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

And …

• Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• Google 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

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add essential legal pages to your website or blog.

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