One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of suffering serious financial loss, but also the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your business reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and easy-to-use WordPress solution that can help make your site fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the digital realm continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules keep changing, it’s vital to stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your online presence is an integral part of your business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and many other social sites will suspend your apps, and you won’t be accepted into many advertising or merchant networks.
If your online business is not compliant, you could also face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, without making it very clear to your visitors that your digital properties comply with legal requirements and guidelines, trust and confidence in your business may be damaged.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- How important it is to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be promoting or using in your website, and
- There are easy solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your website become more compliant, such as the solution that we discuss below.
If your website is falling short in terms of compliance, there is a simple WordPress plugin that you should know more about.
Announcing …
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a simple and easy-to-install plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance disclaimers for your online business …
Learn more here: Compliance Bar
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar to instantly make your web site legally compliant:
Easy And Quick To Install
Compliance Bar is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Page Templates Are Easy To Edit
You can easily edit the prebuilt compliance templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the WYSIWYG content editor.
Dedicated Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides dedicated support to help users if they experience any difficulties.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Customized Legal Pages: The Compliance Bar plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training Library: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - a full library of training videos is available if you need help.
- Can Be Used Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to make sure that the default templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Use For All Website Purposes: As long as your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use the plugin for any website purpose. Just select the templates you need to add to your site and leave out unnecessary pages.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides a number of features to WP users. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Show Visually Appealing Icon Bar – The plugin will display links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed anywhere in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Sensitive Information – If you plan to display content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that force users to accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying visitors and covering your website from non-compliance.
- Records & Stores IP Acceptance – The plugin can record the IP addresses of your visitors for future reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcodes – The plugin uses shortcodes that automatically populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (even in the popups).
- Compatible With Mobile Devices – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on visitor web browsers.
Features – Details
Once the plugin is installed, you will then get access to various settings pages.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this screen where you can input your business information into entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Registered Business Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Product Name,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Business Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to populate the information in your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) data has been entered into the plugin settings fields, you can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen contains all of your compliance templates …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Here’s the full list of legal templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin when we last checked the website:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure Statement
- Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Contact Us
- Copyright/DCMA Notice
- Disclaimer
- Double Dart Cookies
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- FTC Statement
- Legal Disclaimer
- Linking Policy
- Medical Disclaimer
- Privacy Policy
- Returns/Refund Policy
- Support
- Terms
- Terms & Conditions
- Testimonial Disclosure
- XXX Disclosure
Creating legal pages for your site can be easily done. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” in the “Compliance Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under the “Pages” section of your site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a default set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons are customizable. You can purchase an additional set of icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your theme …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can easily edit and delete the legal pages in the “Compliance Pages” screen, just as you would any typical WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing your compliance templates is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. compliance pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin settings area provides various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to show links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, specifying which pages to include an icon for in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your main page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display the Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using particular themes (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a normal “static” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have specified your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your compliance pages using dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like to display your compliance icons …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that restricts access to visitors who do not accept your terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up for different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent Pop Ups from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and even record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Image source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you are based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU compliance laws …
The plugin lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU User Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” area …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” screen, lists all of your compliance templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials that customers have submitted regarding Compliance Bar Plugin:
”WOW” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
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“Don’t Risk Your Online Business” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin – Useful Tips
Here are some additional ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons on specific pages of your website only.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before purchase.
- If you publish adult content on your site, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Support
Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated support to assist users if they experience any issues. You also get access to full video training.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund double the amount of the cost of purchasing.
Software Price
- Single Edition – Install the plugin on 1 site that you own. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business Licensing – Can be installed on 25 of your own domains. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Can be installed on multiple sites that you own. Can be installed on any client site as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Compliance Bar product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar
Additional Plugin Info
Legal Page Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For ”how-to” videos showing how the plugin works, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Install The Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress sites. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
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