Category: Management Plugins

One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.

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

New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for profit, then 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, also called the BBB. Look up “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 introduction of new laws affect various online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, including text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t approve your digital products for sale, PayPal may close down your account, Facebook will reject your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in many advertising and online marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your website(s) may be required to comply with legal requirements according to laws that govern businesses online, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you may be recommending on your site, and that there are solutions for WordPress site owners that can help your website become compliant, such as the tools listed further below.

Is Your Website Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all laws and regulations wherever your business is based in.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for one moment what would happen to your business in the following scenarios:

• A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate marketer gives a number of users an allergic reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not defined what you plan to do with the information you have collected.
• Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website making your site users aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re marketing and may get paid a sales commission if they decide to buy using your link.
• You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• A visitor claims your testimonials are false and tries to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult content and you did not take sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.

Consider now 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 personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to give everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 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 notices 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 easy it is to risk being exposed to litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdWords Advertiser
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s vitally important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website or blog is legally compliant.

Compliance With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You are expected to let your visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you will do business with.

For example:

Google requires websites to display legal information when using their products and service. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your sites with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your products using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell digital products using places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will be required to add a number of legal pages before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has already been 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 plan to do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site complies with FTC regulations.

You can find many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

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

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services on your site using affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site using 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 - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you have ever wondered if “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 Pages Should You Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?

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

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website will help your website stay out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

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

Additionally, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below where applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general financial information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you provide users with access to media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the correct type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets users know that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to visitors that you will be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Lets visitors be aware that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Lets visitors know that you were compensated in some way to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs readers 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your WordPress Site

Ideally, you should consult lawyers or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

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

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

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

(WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that users have access to the information from every web page …

(It’s important to display legal information to users on all of your site’s pages)

If you need help adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer, refer to this tutorial:

• Configuring Widgets On Your Sidebar Menu

Use Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-prepared downloadable forms and agreements by searching online, or going to sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Another option is to download a set of website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms)

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 pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use: with inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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

Go here for more info:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Forms

Legal Pages – Plugins

As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some legal plugins for WordPress-powered websites you may be interested in checking out:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages)

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

This is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you loads of headaches.

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

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any other WordPress page.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your 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 checkbox and delete and manage these like any page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks when users agree to your legal terms.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your WP dashboard area …

(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

You can easily create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, medical sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page type menu)

You can also choose from a number of pre-configured legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Built-In 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

Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that contains over twenty customizable compliance page templates for your web presence …

To learn more about the plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 of Service
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro 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 powered 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 (even sites that you decide to sell).

For more information, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

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

We want your site to be legally safe!

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 content, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

***

As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online, you need to ensure that your site complies with all government laws and regulations and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party sites that you may be promoting or offering online. Your digital presence must comply with a whole range of laws and regulatory guidelines, some 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 are not providing legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with the law in your country or region.

Additional Resources

Below is a useful list of sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet its legal obligations:

• 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
• 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

Also …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog.

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