One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to suddenly discover that you have broken the law.
Your website needs to comply with many federal, state and even local laws, many of which you are probably not even aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring significant financial loss, but also the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this post, we look at a simple and inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your site compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues growing at breakneck speed and rules are constantly changing, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence is a significant aspect of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your apps, and you will not be accepted into a range of other advertising and merchant networks.
If your business online is not in compliance, you could end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if your website is not compliant, trust and confidence in your business could be irrepairably.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, state or local laws that govern your business,
- How important it is to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or endorsing in your website, and
- There are solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your business become compliant, such as the plugin that we review below.
If you suspect that your web site falls short in terms of compliance, we discuss below a simple plugin for WordPress users you should know more about.
Announcing …
Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your online presence …
Learn more here: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar to make your website instantly compliant:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Compliance Bar installs like any WP plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Editable Templates
You can easily make changes to the default compliance page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the visual content editor.
24/7 Plugin Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides dedicated support to help users with anything they need.
Additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Customized Templates: The plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - a full library of training videos is provided.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to make sure that the default legal 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 For Any Website Purpose: If your website or blog is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for every website purpose. Select only the types of disclaimers which suit your specific business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out those that are irrelevant.
Compliance Bar Features
Compliance Bar Plugin offers a number of features to WP users. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in very little time.
- Display Attractive Icons – Compliance Bar displays links to your legal pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere on your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Sensitive Information – If your site publishes content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), you can display popups that require users to accept your terms and disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU Cookie law. The plugin displays an attractive bar notifying your users and covering your site from non-compliance issues.
- Record And Store IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar records your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes that automatically populate legal pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (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 visitor web browsers.
Plugin Features – Details
After installing and activating the Compliance Bar plugin, users will get 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 fields in this section where your business details can be input (e.g. “Business Name,” “Company Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Niche Area,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to populate the information entered into your User Profile fields in your legal templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the user profile fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen includes a list of all of your templates …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Below is the complete list of template pages made available by the plugin when we last 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
- Adult Content Disclosure
Creating legal pages for your website or blog is a simple process. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click the “Save” button in the “Compliance Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to your “Pages” section.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a default set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons can be changed. 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: Compliance Page Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily modify and delete your compliance pages from the “Compliance Pages” section, just like any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- 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 settings area provides many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to display 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 front 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 icons on different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display the Compliance Bar on the home page of your site, even if you are using particular premium theme frameworks (like Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is specifically 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 device 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 through dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like your compliance bar to display …
PopUps
If your website contains content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that blocks access to users who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” page 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 an unlimited number of customized Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in different areas of your site …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying immediately, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from appearing 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 – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you are based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
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” section …
(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 disclaimers and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” tab, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have provided for 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
Below are a few useful ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Display compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Minimizing refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before purchase.
- If you have adult content on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Product Support
Compliance Bar provides users with a dedicated plugin support team to assist you if you experience any problems. Plugin users also have access to an entire set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your version of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (M – F), the plugin developers will refund twice the cost of purchase.
Software Price
- Single User Personal License – Can be installed on 1 of your own sites. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business License Edition – Can be installed on 25 of your own domains. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Edition – Can be installed on all domains that you own. Install the plugin on all client sites as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: Current pricing for Compliance Bar Plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar
Additional Information
Legal Page Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly 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 showing plugin usage, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
What We Recommend
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress websites and blogs. We recommend installing this WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice in this article. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.
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