Category: Management Plugins

If you do any kind of business online, you do not want to learn the hard way that you have done something illegal.

Internet laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your site for material gain, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Do a search online for “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(Better Business Bureau)

These laws affect various business activities, including:

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

If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed to participate in many advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

If your digital presence is not compliant, you could also end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

In this article, we look at the importance of having a legally compliant website and list simple and inexpensive ways to make your WordPress site legally compliant quickly and easily.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice about your website or business. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

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

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t informed them exactly what you’ll do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone steals your content and publishes it on their website.
• You haven’t advised your site users that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you will earn a sales commission if visitors decide to buy via your link.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your refund/return policies.
• A visitor claims the testimonials on your site are fake and tries to sue you because of it.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult-related information and you haven’t taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider also these documented examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer copped 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 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, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in breach of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 with warnings or lose access to the Google program they had violated, 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 through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

it’s important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business stays fully compliant with the law.

Complying With 3rd-Party Companies

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your business complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you do business with online.

For example:

Google requires you to display legal information when using their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

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

(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information-based products via merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you are required to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for sale …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for digital product sellers)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to sell or promote products and services online using testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically 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 kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

A number of sites provide guidelines and examples 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)

Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance

If you plan to create apps for your website, sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others will require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or use 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 ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies)

What Compliance Information Does My Website Need To Be Legally Compliant?

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your site will help you stay out of trouble with many consumer protection authorities and third-party providers, and even help to avoid potential legal issues):

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

In addition to the pages above, you may want to look into including any of these pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general content about health or medical areas)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding correct disclosure information to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – This lets visitors be aware that you are not receiving compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets visitors know that you may benefit financially if they purchase through an affiliate link.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Lets site users know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to readers that you have been compensated in some way to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Compliance Pages To Your Website

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

Upload Legal Pages To Your Site

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

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

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

You can then easily add links to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu feature …

(WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can add these to your sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that users will be able to access legal information from every page …

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

If you need help adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar or footer, see this tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Website

Use Ready-Made Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more information:

• Find Legal Forms

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

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with search and replace to add your own business name and URL, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission regulations brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service & 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 every 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 web server as previously described.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using cut & paste templates, another option is to use plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress users you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WP Legal Pages Plugin)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …

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

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

• Pre-written Legal 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 – The plugin includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to any of your WordPress 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 check box and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks only when users agree to your terms.
• Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will display inside your dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate/review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page type drop down menu)

You can also select from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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

Go here to learn more this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

total website compliance & disclaimer solution …

More info:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 And Conditions
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro – 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. 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.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then at least consider implementing some form of basic legal protection on your site until you can afford a solicitor.

We want your site to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service of third-party sites that you may decide to promote or endorse online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.

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 do not offer legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

References And Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission 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

See Also …

• Google 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 above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.

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