One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of having broken the law.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering significant financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this post, we look at a simple and very inexpensive solution for WordPress users that can help make your site fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Site Legally Compliant?
As the internet continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your web presence is a fundamental component of your overall business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not approve your digital products for sale, PayPal could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook and many other social sites could suspend your web applications, and you will not be accepted into various other advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
Plus, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to lawsuits or legal action.
At the very least, if you don’t make it clear to your visitors that your website complies with legal requirements and regulatory guidelines, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to be irrepairably damaged.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may probably not even be aware of),
- How important it is to maintain compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are promoting or using in your website, and
- There are solutions that can help your website become more compliant, such as the tool that we review in this article.
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites that provides a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your online business.
Introducing …
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your site …
More info: Compliance Bar
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your website or blog instantly compliant:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Compliance Bar installs just like every other plugin. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Page Templates Are Really Easy To Edit
Easily modify the pre-built compliance templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the WordPress visual editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Plugin Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated support to assist users.
Some additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Customized Templates: The plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - an entire library of training videos is available if you need help.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the built-in legal templates provided in Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Use For All Niches: If your website is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Just select the pages you need to include in your site and ignore irrelevant pages.
Compliance Bar Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many features to WordPress users. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to start using in no time.
- Show Visually Appealing Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere on your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Restricted Content – If you plan to display content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that force users to accept your terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must be aware of EU compliance requirements. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies users and covers your site from non-compliance issues.
- Records & Stores IP Acceptance – The plugin can record the IP addresses of your visitors for future reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcode Driven – The plugin uses shortcodes to automatically populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (including the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and will display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the browser being used.
Plugin Features – Details
Once you have installed the plugin, you will then get access to a number of sections where you can configure the plugin’s settings.
Let’s go through these settings briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this area where your business details can be input (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Desk URL,” “Company Phone Number,” “Market Niche,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Image source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses shortcodes to insert and display the information you’ve inputted into your User Profile fields into your legal templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the profile fields, you can then access the other plugin areas.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section includes a list of all of the plugin’s legal pages …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Here’s the complete list of legal templates made available by the plugin last time we checked their 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
You can create legal pages for your site quickly and easily simply by selecting checkboxes and clicking ”Save” in the “Compliance Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a built-in set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons are customizable. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your theme …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can customize and delete your compliance page templates in the “Compliance Pages” area, just like any other page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing your compliance pages is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before installing the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers many 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 home page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and more …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create an unlimited number of Compliance Bars to show different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in other areas of your site.
- The plugin lets you display the Compliance Bar on the home page of your site, even if you are using a specific theme framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” 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 displays links to your legal using dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance icons to appear …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that should 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 terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up displaying on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in other areas of your site …
You can also set a delay time to prevent Pop Ups from displaying immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time interval, and even record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Screen: IP Log Details – Image source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you do business in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU compliance laws …
The plugin lets you edit the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” section …
(EU Cookies Section: Manage Settings – Image sourced from 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 page 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 …
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin users have published about the Compliance Bar plugin:
“1000% Highly Recommend This” Anthony La Rocca – Founder (Hustle Marketing)
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”Truly Amazing Product!” Patrick Mauchant – PT Enviromate Technology
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Below are a few additional ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Displaying compliance icons on specific pages only.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before purchase.
- If your website includes adult content, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Plugin Product Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated support team to assist you if you experience any issues. Users also have access to an entire set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your version of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hours (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund twice the cost of purchasing.
Software Cost
- Single License Edition – Can be installed on one site that you own. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Can be installed on twenty-five of your own domains. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer License – Install the plugin on multiple of your own sites. Install the plugin on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product sells for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Info
Legal Page Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. 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 software works, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
The Bottom Line
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress sites. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Note: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
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