Category: Engagement Plugins

Is your WordPress website compliant? Do you know if you are breaking any laws, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any companies whose products or services you are endorsing or advertising?

Internet laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not excuse someone from taking legal action against your business.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). 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 – Better Business Bureau)

The new laws affect several online business categories, including:

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

If there are no legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed into many advertising or online merchant networks.

If your digital presence is not compliant, you could face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This guide explains the importance of having a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress site using inexpensive methods and solutions.

Does Your Site Comply With The Law?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. As stated above, the purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal policies in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations that govern business practices online and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you promote

Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important

Are you at risk? Consider for one minute what would happen to your business if any of these scenarios were to take place:

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives people an allergic reaction.
• You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with their details.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your site making your visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you are selling and will earn an affiliate commission if visitors buy it.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
• Your visitors claim the testimonials on your site are fake and decide to sue you.
• You have not disclosed that you were given a free copy in your product review.
• Your website contains adult information and you haven’t taken appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider too these documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 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% were in breach of at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 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 risks of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

It’s imperative to ensure that your website has the right legal pages and information displayed to all site users.

Complying With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

All of the leading 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 with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of most companies you interact with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information if using many of their products and features. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your WordPress blogs using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your services via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information-based products via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will need to add certain legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for product vendors)

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

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by making sure that your website complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

A number of business resource sites provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. We provide links to and additional references to some of these at the end of this article …

(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to develop social networking applications that integrate with your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with information about various legal pages …

(Apps that interface with social networking sites also require compliance)

• 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 it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services online using affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, 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’ve 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 litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)

What Legal Information Should You Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?

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

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help your business keep out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider adding any of the following pages if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add the right types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs your readers that you will not receive any kind of payment for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors be aware that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Sample Or review Copy – Discloses to readers that you have received a review or sample copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to users that you have been 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 Compliance Pages To Your Website

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

Uploading Legal Web Pages To Your Website

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

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

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

You can then easily add links to these pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Website

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

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

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress using widgets, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In Your Website

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms – Attorney-drafted legal forms)

Visit this site for more details:

• FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms

Alternatively, you can download a package of website legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These templates were created by an attorney and 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 templates 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 that came into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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 these to your server as previously described.

More information:

• Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple using a plugin.

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-powered sites you should check out:

WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages)

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

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you loads of headaches.

Some of the reasons to consider using WordPress Legal Pages are:

• Pre-written Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other page on your site.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When users agree to the legal terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will appear inside your main navigation area …

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of easily creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, niche websites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages – Type of Site menu)

Choose from various built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – 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 site to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin that contains over 20 customizable compliance pages for your digital presence …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro 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 sites.

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of legal experts to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, consider implementing some form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal firm.

We want your website to be protected!

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 content, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As stated earlier, if you make money online, it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or offering online. Your website must comply with numerous regulations, some of which you may not 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Resources

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

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC 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
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• US Copyright Office

See Also …

• 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

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

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