One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to suddenly discover that you have broken the law.
Your website or blog must comply with various federal, state and even local laws and regulations, some of which you are probably not even aware of.
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 easily and inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and very inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your website fully compliant just minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
As the internet continues to grow at breakneck speed and the 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 with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence is a fundamental component of your business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and other social sites will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed into a number of leading advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to lawsuits.
At the very least, without making it very clear to your visitors that your site complies with legal requirements and regulatory guidelines, visitors could lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to a number of 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 be compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be offering or endorsing on your website, and
- There are solutions that can help your website become compliant, such as the tool that we discuss in this post.
If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in terms of compliance, below we discuss a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites you should know more about.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a simple and easy-to-install plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your online business …
More info: Compliance Bar
Benefits Of Using Compliance Bar Plugin
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar to make your website instantly legally compliant:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Compliance Bar Plugin is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user section and activate.
Templates Are Easy To Edit
Easily edit the built-in legal templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the visual content editor.
Dedicated Plugin Support Team
Compliance Bar provides a dedicated plugin support team to assist users with anything they need.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Customized Templates: The plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - a complete library of training videos is available if users need assistance.
- 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 page templates provided in Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever your business is located.
- Use On All WordPress Sites: If your site runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Select only the types of disclaimers that suit your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and ignore those that you don’t require.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar provides a number of great features to WP users. Below we have listed just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icons – The plugin will display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere on your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Restricted Information – If your site publishes content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that require users to accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you are based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies your users and protects you from non-compliance.
- Record & Store IP Acceptance – The plugin records your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to populate compliance pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (even in the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the browser being used.
Features – Details
After installing and activating the plugin, you will get access to various settings.
Let’s review these briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this section where you can enter your information into entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Support Email,” “Location Details,” “Product Name,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Registered Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Image source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to automatically populate and display the information you’ve inputted into your User Profile in your page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been entered into the user profile fields, users can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen contains all of your compliance pages …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Below is the full list of template pages made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked the site:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure
- 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 is a simple process. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” on the “Compliance Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to the “Pages” section of your site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of attractive 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 site’s design …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Pages
You can easily customize and delete your compliance disclaimer templates in the “Compliance Pages” section, just as you would any typical WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing your compliance 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 various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, selecting which pages should be included 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 offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create several Compliance Bars to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using particular 3rd-party theme frameworks (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 “regular” page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile devices, 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 compliance pages using a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature the compliance bar …
PopUps
If you plan to display content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), you can display popups that require users to accept your terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” page lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create a number of customized Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses in different sections of your website …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want a Pop Up to display as soon as visitors arrive, 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 Section: IP Log Details – Image source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law …
The Compliance Bar plugin lets you customize the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” tab …
(EU Cookies Screen: 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” area, lists all of your legal page templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” menu, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin update notifications …
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials users have written about the Compliance Bar plugin:
”WOW” 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)
Useful Tips
Below are some useful ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protection 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 the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you publish content that is considered inappropriate for persons below a certain age on your site, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Product Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated team to help users with anything they need. Plugin users also get access to a complete set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your copy of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (Monday to Friday), your purchase price will be refunded in double.
Plugin Cost
- Single – Install the plugin on 1 of your own domains. Price = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business – Install the plugin on up to twenty-five of your own sites. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional – Can be installed on multiple of your own domains. Can be installed on all client sites as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: Pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Info
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal templates have already been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your own peace of mind.
For demo videos showing how the plugin works, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
The Bottom Line
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites and blogs. We recommend installing this WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Important: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
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