One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Your website must comply with various federal, state and even local laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not be aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of suffering financial costs, but also the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this post, we review a simple and very inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your site fully compliant in minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
As the digital business realm continues growing at breakneck speed and rules are constantly changing, it’s vitally important that you stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your website remains compliant, especially if your digital presence is an integral part of your overall business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your apps, and you won’t be allowed into a number of leading advertising and merchant networks.
Plus, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to being exploited by opportunistic online users.
At the very least, without making it clear to your visitors that your site complies with legal requirements and regulations, trust and confidence in your business may seriously diminish.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with federal, state or local laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may probably not even be aware of),
- The importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or endorsing online, and
- There are solutions for WordPress users that can help your site become compliant, such as the solution that we review below.
If your website or blog falls short in terms of compliance, we review below a simple plugin for WordPress users that you will probably be very interested in knowing more about.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is an easy-to-install plugin for WordPress users that includes over twenty customizable legal templates for your web presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your web site compliant:
Installation Is Easy And Fast
Compliance Bar is very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP admin area and activate.
Page Templates Are Easy To Edit
You can easily make changes to the built-in compliance page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the visual editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin develop provides dedicated support to help you if you experience any difficulties.
Some additional benefits include:
- Customized Templates: The plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - a full library of training videos is available.
- Use In Every Country: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the legal templates provided in Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Can Be Used On All WordPress Sites: As long as your website or blog is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for any website purpose. Just select the templates you need to include in your site and leave out irrelevant pages.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar provides a number of great features to website owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Show Visually Appealing Icons – Compliance Bar will display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned on different locations on your pages. You can also upload your own icons.
- Display Sensitive Information – If your website publishes content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), the plugin can display popups that force users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you are based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies users and covers your website from non-compliance issues.
- Record And Store IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar can record the IP addresses of your visitors for future reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcodes – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to automatically populate legal pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (even in the popups).
- Works On Mobile Devices – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and can display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on visitor browsers.
Using Compliance Bar Plugin
After installing and activating the plugin, you have access to a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured.
Let’s briefly review these pages …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this section where you can input your business information into input (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Email,” “Location Details,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Support Desk URL,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to populate the information from your User Profile inside your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the plugin settings fields, you can then access the other plugin section.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” area lists all of your templates …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Here’s the full list of template pages 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 compliance pages for your website can be easily done. Just select the checkboxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” at the bottom of the “Create Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Page Templates – Screenshot 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 attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
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 Template Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily edit and delete the legal disclaimer templates in the “Compliance Pages” section, just as you would any other page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Editing your legal templates is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin will notify you 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, icon 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, etc. …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your site.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using a specific 3rd-party theme framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is configured through the theme settings 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 configured your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your legal through dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like your compliance icons to appear …
PopUps
If your website includes content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), you can display pop-ups that blocks access to users who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area gives you complete control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up for different pages, or to cover a range of uses in other areas of your website …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from displaying 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 do business in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
Compliance Bar lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” area …
(EU Cookies Section: Manage Settings – Image 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” tab, lists all of your compliance templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have provided for Compliance Bar Plugin:
”I got a chance to review the Compliance Bar plugin…WOW!! I have to say that its definitely one of the most NECESSARY, yet easiest to use plugin’s to hit the scene in a while. Very Solid Product. Great job Anton & team!” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
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”You wouldn’t drive a car around without insurance…so don’t RISK your online business by neglecting a simple, but important detail: website compliance. Grab your copy of Compliance Bar & protect yourself today!” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Below are some extra ways you can use Compliance Bar:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before purchase.
- If you include adult content on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Plugin Support
Compliance Bar provides users with a dedicated support team to assist users. You also get access to a complete library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, thirty day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 business hours (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund twice the amount of the cost of purchase.
Software Pricing
- Single – Install the plugin on 1 domain that you own. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Edition – Install the plugin on up to 25 sites that you own. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Can be installed on all as many of your own domains as you like. Can be installed on any client site as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Please Note: The price of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price: Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Additional Info
Legal Pages Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers claim on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For a demo video of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
Download This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites and blogs. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Important: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
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