Category: Management Plugins

One of the worst situations a business owner can find themselves in is to break the law.

Internet laws, regulations, and guidelines were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against your business.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites 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 consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

These laws affect various business categories, including:

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

If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list digital products for sale, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your web applications, and you will not be accepted into various advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website(s) are subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern online businesses, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose services or products you may be selling on your site, and that there are easy solutions that can help your online properties become more compliant, such as the tools listed further below.

Is Your Site Legally Compliant?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. As previously stated, 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 governing online business practices and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of providers whose services or products you endorse on your website

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Is your business at risk? Consider for one moment what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A user has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness program.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone steals your content and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your site letting your site visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you are promoting and may get paid a sales commission if they purchase it.
• You didn’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and decide to sue you because of it.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider also the actual examples 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 details to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to give a copy of the judgement to everyone they do business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how a website owner can easily be exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• 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 digital presence complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Companies Terms And Policies

Compliance with third-party companies terms and policies is important.

You must let your site visitors know that your business complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you engage with online.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Making money online with your site with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

Or promoting your services using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell products online using companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you are required to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their network …

(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply

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 flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation 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 chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines.

Various sites provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. See the references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of websites like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site using affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your website 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 terminated.
• If you have been wondering 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, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Common Legal Pages To Add To Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your web site lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following compliance pages to your site should keep you out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external providers, and avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider adding any of the pages listed below:

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

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not be receiving any form of payment for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Informs site users that you may receive compensation if they buy through an affiliate link.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs users that you were compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors 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.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Site

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

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Site

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

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

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar menu (or the footer of your site) to ensure that visitors have access to the information from all your pages …

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu using widgets, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using WordPress Widgets

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

For more details, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut & paste legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your legal web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page on your website 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 the pages to your web server as described previously.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using templates, you can keep things really simple by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress websites and blogs that you may be interested in checking out:

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you many headaches.

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

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

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear in your dashboard area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, niche sites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Type of Site drop down menu)

Select from several pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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 great plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple WordPress plugin containing over twenty customizable legal templates for your site …

More info:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

Legal Suite Pro 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 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 site. Your legal pages can be 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 sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

Go here to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of legal experts to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your business to be protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal forms, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any type of business online, it’s important that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or recommend online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements concerning your specific business.

Additional Legal Information

Below is a useful list of sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your website to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau – 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
• United States Copyright Office

Additionally …

• 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 this article has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress site using inexpensive legal resources and solutions.

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