One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not excuse someone from taking legal action against you.
New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
These laws affect several business activities, including:
- Any kind of advertising, like contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising and online marketing networks.
If your business online is not compliant, 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 are subject to legal requirements according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be offering on your site, and that there are easy solutions that can help your website become more compliant, such as the plugins listed further below.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. As stated previously, this article is designed only to 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 providers whose services or products you endorse on your website or blog
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what could happen to your business if the scenarios below were to take place:
- A customer has a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives a number of users skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list provides a statement informing prospective subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you’ll do with the details you have collected.
- Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your website or blog letting your visitors know that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you will derive a sales commission if visitors buy it via your link.
- You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund policies.
- Someone claims that your testimonials are fake and tries to sue you.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your site publishes adult-related information and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.
Consider now these real examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how you could easily be exposed to the risk of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- MLM Networker
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Product Marketer
- Amazon Associate
- EBay Seller
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
- Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online
it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog is legally compliant.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are expected to let your site visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will do business with online.
For example:
Google requires your site to display certain information when using many of their products. This includes using services like Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Monetizing your websites with Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you sell products online with places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for sale …
(Policy requirements for selling via ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and statements on your website, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by making sure that your site complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.
Many online resources provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide references to a number of these at the end of this article …
(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Don’t Forget Social Media Applications
If you plan to create social networking applications for your site, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are not sure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything on your site as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)
Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Website
If you suspect that your website or blog lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following legal pages to your site will keep you out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and external providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to consider including any of the pages listed below:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides content about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding correct disclosure information is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – Informs site users that you are not receiving compensation for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Notifies visitors that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through one of your affiliate links.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets your readers know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service you’re reviewing by the author or product developer.
- Sponsored Post – Discloses to readers that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know 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 Compliance Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you should consult your lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in standard web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)
You can then easily add links to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every web page …
(Display links to legal information on all of your website’s pages)
If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar or footer using widgets, refer to this tutorial:
Ready-Made Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms)
Go here to learn more:
Alternatively, you can download a package of cut & paste website legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages)
These legal templates were written 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 Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines brought into effect on March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new page on your website for every legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described earlier.
Go here for more information:
WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages
In addition to using legal templates, another option for adding legal pages to your site is to use WordPress plugins.
Here are some great legal WordPress plugins you should check out:
WordPress Legal Pages Plugin
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.
Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages plugin:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other page on your site.
- Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
- 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. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your main navigation section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to create, edit and view your legal pages from your admin area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)
You can create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
You can also choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages – 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
To learn more this WordPress plugin, go here:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
total website compliance and disclaimer solution …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro)
Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress 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 Service
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress – 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.
For more details, go here:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal firm.
We want your site to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal documentation, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you make money online, you need to make sure that your website is found to comply with regulatory agencies and any terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or offering online. Your website must comply with a number of laws and regulatory guidelines, many 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?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Legal Resources And References
Here is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:
- Federal Trade Commission 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 – BBB
- 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
Plus …
- 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
- 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 the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your website or blog using simple methods and resources.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum