One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of breaking the law.
If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring serious financial loss, but also the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this article, we review a simple and very inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your site fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the internet continues growing at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vital to stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your digital presence is a fundamental component of your business strategy.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t approve your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and many other social sites will suspend your applications, and you will not be accepted into a number of leading advertising and merchant networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to lawsuits.
At the very least, if your website is not compliant, trust and confidence in your business could become an issue.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to numerous legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern your business,
- The importance of complying with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be promoting or using on your website, and
- There are plugin-based solutions for WordPress users that can help your website become compliant, such as the tool that we review in this article.
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress-driven sites that provides a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your web presence.
Today We Review …
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a simple and easy-to-install plugin for WordPress users with over twenty customizable legal disclaimer templates for your web presence …
For more details go here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your web site legally compliant:
Ready To Go To Work In No Time
Compliance Bar is quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Easy To Edit Page Templates
You can easily edit the default legal templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the visual content editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Plugin Support
Compliance Bar provides dedicated support to assist users.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Customized Compliance Pages: The Compliance Bar 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 provided.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the legal templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Can Be Used For All Website Purposes: If your website is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Just select the legal pages you need to add to your site and leave out any unnecessary pages.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar offers many great features to WordPress users. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- Show Attractive Icons – The plugin displays links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned on different locations in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Restricted Information – If your site has content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), you can display pop-ups that require users to accept your terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you are based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU compliance requirements. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies your users and covers your website from non-compliance issues.
- Record & Store IP Addresses – The plugin records and stores your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to automatically populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (including the popups).
- Works On Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on the mobile browser being used.
Using The Plugin
After installing and activating the Compliance Bar plugin, a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured gets added to your WP admin area.
Let’s briefly review these settings …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this section where your business information can be entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Email,” “Location Details,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Support Desk URL,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to automatically populate and display the information from your User Profile inside your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) data has been entered into the user profile fields, users can then access the other plugin section.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen includes a list of all of the compliance page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Below is the complete list of legal templates made available by the plugin when we last checked the site:
- 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
- Adult Content Disclosure
You can easily and quickly create compliance pages for your website by simply selecting check boxes and clicking the “Save” button in the “Compliance Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside your “Pages” section.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a built-in set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons can be changed. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your theme …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Page Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Pages
You can edit and delete the compliance disclaimer templates from the “Compliance Pages” area, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing 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 settings area provides various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, selecting which pages to include an icon for in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your front 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 icons on different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the front page of your site, even if you are using a specific 3rd-party theme framework (like Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile devices, there is a limit to the number of page icons you can display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have specified your Compliance Bar settings, it displays links to your compliance pages through a visually attractive 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 your site publishes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), you can display popups that restricts access to visitors who do not accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up displaying on different pages, or to cover different uses in other areas of your website …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent Pop Ups from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, 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 – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU compliance requirements …
Compliance Bar lets you edit the settings for compliance with EU User Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” screen …
(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” section, lists all of your compliance pages and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and comments that users have submitted regarding Compliance Bar Plugin:
”When I got my hands on Compliance Bar, I knew I needed help to be compliant, but I had no idea how much danger I was in, nor did I know all of the different things I needed to be compliant. Once I installed Compliance Bar, I was able to very quickly add all the items I needed to ensure I didn’t end up getting fined by various agencies, or have my site pulled from Google. The best part is that getting it all set up took only minutes, and I know that I am far safer than I was. Compliance Bar is one of the best plugins I have used in a long time.” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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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 – Useful Tips
Here are a few additional ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Display compliance icons only on specific pages of your site.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before purchase.
- If your website published content for adult readers, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Compliance Bar Plugin Support
Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated support to assist users if they experience any problems. Plugin users also have access to video training manuals.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, thirty day, 200% money-back 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 cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Software Pricing
- Single – Can be installed on a single domain. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business License – Can be installed on twenty-five of your own sites. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional – Install the plugin on all as many of your own sites as you like. Install the plugin on all client sites as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Please Note: The cost to purchase the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information here: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Info
Legal Pages Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for peace of mind.
For a demo video of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
Our Recommendation
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites and blogs. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that 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 is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
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