Category: Management Plugins

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

As digital business continues growing at such a fast pace and the rules constantly change, it’s important to stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your site remains compliant, especially if your online presence plays a significant role in your overall business strategy.

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 material gain, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection 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 introduction of these laws has legal ramifications for several online business activities, including:

• Any form 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, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote many advertising and affiliate marketing networks.

If your online business is not in compliance, you could face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website may be required to comply with certain legalities, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be using on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your websites become more compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.

Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

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

• A customer has a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
• You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly informed them what you’ll do with their details.
• Someone copies your content and publishes it on their site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog letting your site visitors know that you are an affiliate for the product you are marketing and will derive a sales commission if they buy it.
• You didn’t spell out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Someone claims that the testimonials on your site are misleading and tries to sue you because of it.
• You did not disclose that you were given a free copy in a product review.
• Your site includes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider too the documented case studies of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $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 details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet 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 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two 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 easy it is to risk becoming targeted for litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your website remains legally compliant.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies

All of the big websites and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the need of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will do business with.

For example:

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

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your WordPress blog using Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your site via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you sell products online with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you are required to add various legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies 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. it’s best to protect your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.

Many resources online provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide links to resources to some of these at the end of this article …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you are planning to develop social networking applications for your site, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether you are 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 plan to promote services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or generating revenue with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
• If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, 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 policies and guidelines)

What Legal Information Pages Does My Website Need To Be Compliant?

If your web site is lacking in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website will help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):

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

As well as the pages above, you may want to look into including one or more of these pages if applicable:

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

Types Of Disclosure Pages

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

• No Material Connection – This lets site users be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs users that you will derive some form of financial or similar kind of benefit if they purchase through your affiliate link.
• Sample/Review Copy – Explains to users that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs users that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets 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 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 content of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Website

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

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

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can add these to the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that users have access to legal information from all pages …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress here:

• How To Add Widgets To Your WordPress Sidebar

Use Store-Bought Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-prepared internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by visiting websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms)

More info:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to purchase a package of cut & paste website legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

These 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 details, then pasted into your legal pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• 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 WordPress page for each legal form you want to add to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as previously described.

More info:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using cut & paste legal templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.

Here are some WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages)

If the idea of manually setting up legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WordPress Legal Pages …

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

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

• Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – 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 legal pages just like any page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to the 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 feature is added to your navigation area …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate/review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)

You can also select from various pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – 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

Go here for more details about the benefits of using this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites that includes over twenty customizable legal pages for your site …

More info:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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 & 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites.

To learn more, visit this site:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your website to be legally safe!

Download the Legal Pages Generator tool below (it’s FREE!), or choose one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal content, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

***

As stated earlier, if you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website complies with regulatory agencies and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or offering online. Your website or blog 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 cannot provide legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements in your country or region.

Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to stay compliant 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 – Better Business Bureau
• 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
• United States 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

We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using simple legal resources and solutions.

***