Category: Management Plugins

As a business owner, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you have done something illegal.

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

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you plan to promote anything on your website for material gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, 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.

(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws has legal consequences for various online business categories, including:

• Any type of advertising, like Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• 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 such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will suspend web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote many advertising or online marketing networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive 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 online business practices, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose products or services you may be selling on your website, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress users that can help your websites become fully compliant, such as the tools that we list further below.

Is Your Website Legally Compliant?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice about your website or business. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws and regulations governing business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose services or products you offer

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider for one moment what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to take place:

• Someone suffers a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate gives people an adverse reaction.
• Your opt-in list provides a statement letting subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you plan to do with it.
• Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their own site.
• You haven’t informed visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you could derive a financial benefit if visitors decide to purchase through your link.
• You have not spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund policies.
• A visitor claims that your testimonials are all fake and decides to sue you as a result.
• You did not disclose that you have received a free copy in a product review.
• Your site includes adult-related information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged persons.

Consider now these documented case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information (including credit card information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• 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 independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, 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% 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 cautions or lose access 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 easy it is to risk becoming targeted for non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Marketer
• 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 imperative to make sure that your website complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.

Big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of complying with the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with.

For example:

Google requires your site to display legal information when using their products or features. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue with your sites with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

And even promoting your business through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell digital products via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages to your website before your products can be approved for selling via their networks …

(ClickBank – policy requirements)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of doing business online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often ends up with 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 kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

You can find many resources online that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(You must structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to develop social networking applications for your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others require you to provide information about various legal pages …

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

• If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything online via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you have been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.

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

What Legal Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Safe From Legal Compliance Issues?

If your website or blog is lacking in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help you keep out of trouble with most consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and even help you avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

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

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider adding one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add correct disclosure information to your website. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you’re not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets visitors be aware that you will derive some form of financial benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors know that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing or writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets site users know that you have been compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets your visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Website

Ideally, you should have a lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Upload Legal Pages Manually

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

We recommend adding a legal folder to your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Site

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your site) so that users have access to the information from all of your web pages …

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

If you need help adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar using widgets, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Site

Using Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more information:

• Find Legal Forms – Attorney-drafted legal forms

Another option is to download a package of legal templates designed by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website templates were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer: multi-discipline professional disclaimers
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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 web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as previously described.

For more details, go here:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some great legal WordPress plugins you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

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

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site a lot easier and save you many headaches.

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

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to 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 WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks only 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 feature will display inside your dashboard menu …

(WP Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Page Type)

Select from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

To learn more this useful plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your web presence …

Learn more about the plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

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 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 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 the plugin on all of your sites.

For more information, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a legal expert.

We want your site to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As stated earlier, if you do any kind of business online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with all laws and regulations and any guidelines and terms of service of 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or advertising online. Your internet presence must comply with various 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice here. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.

Additional Information

Below is a useful list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:

• FTC 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
• 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

And …

• 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

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

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