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 digital presence has to comply with many federal, state and even local laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may not be aware of.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering significant financial losses and the loss of 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 inexpensive solution for WordPress users that can help make your site fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the cybersphere continues growing at breakneck speed and rules keep changing, it’s important to stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains compliant, especially if your web presence is a significant part of your overall business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party 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 could shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook and many other social networks will suspend your apps, and you will not be accepted into various other advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If your business online is not compliant, you could also face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, without making it very clear to your visitors that your website complies with all legal requirements and guidelines, visitors could lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with mandatory laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- How important it is to comply with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are promoting or using in your website, and
- There are inexpensive solutions for WordPress users that can help your business become more compliant, such as the solution that we review in this post.
If your website is falling short in aspects of compliance, below we discuss a simple WordPress plugin you should know more about.
Introducing …
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Compliance Bar WordPress Plugin is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital business …
More info: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using Compliance Bar to make your site instantly legally compliant:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
Compliance Bar installs just like every WP plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Easily Editable Templates
You can easily modify the default compliance templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the WordPress visual editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Plugin Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides dedicated plugin support to help you with anything you need.
Some additional benefits include:
- Customized Legal Pages: Compliance Bar creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training Library: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and an entire library of training videos is available.
- Can Be Used In Every Country: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the templates provided with Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Can Be Used For Every Website Purpose: If your website runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Just select the templates you need to add to your site and ignore all other irrelevant pages.
Features
Compliance Bar offers a number of features to WordPress users. Below we have listed just some of these:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Attractive Icons – The plugin will display links to your legal pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Restricted Information – If your site includes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), the plugin can display popups that require users to accept your terms and disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU compliance requirements. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying users and covering your business from non-compliance.
- Record And Store IP Addresses – The plugin records and stores your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcode Driven – The plugin uses shortcodes that automatically populate compliance pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (including the popups).
- Works On All Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the web browser being used.
Using Compliance Bar
Once the plugin is installed, the plugin’s “Settings” screen gets added to your WP dashboard.
Let’s go through these briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this area where you can enter your business details into entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Support Desk URL,” “Company Phone Number,” “Market Niche,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Image source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses shortcodes to populate the information in your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been entered into the plugin settings fields, users can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section includes a list of all of the compliance template pages …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the Compliance Bar plugin website, there were over 22 compliance page templates available:
- 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 easily and quickly create compliance pages for your blog or website by simply selecting check boxes and clicking the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Create Pages” area …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside the “Pages” section of your site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a built-in set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
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 Plugin: Legal Page Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can customize and delete your compliance disclaimers from the “Compliance Pages” screen, just like any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing the 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. legal pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to display 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 home page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to display different icons on different pages, or to cover various uses in other areas of your site.
- The plugin lets you display the Compliance Bar on the home page of your website, even if you are using a specific 3rd-party theme (like Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a normal “static” 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 legal through dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance bar to appear …
PopUps
If you plan to publish content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that restricts access to users who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section gives you complete control over the settings and wordings of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create an unlimited number of customized Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Screen: IP Log Details – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU compliance laws …
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 – 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 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 update notifications …
User Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials that plugin users have submitted regarding 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 additional ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Displaying compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Minimizing refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before purchase.
- If your website published content that is inappropriate for minors, 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 dedicated 24/7 plugin support to assist users. Plugin users also get access to a complete library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 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 hours (M – F), your cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Product License Price
- Single License Edition – Can be installed on a single domain that you own. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business License Edition – Can be installed on 25 of your own domains. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer Licensing – Install the plugin on all 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 price of the Compliance Bar software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the plugin 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 Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Legal Pages Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal page templates have been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get professional advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For ”how to” videos showing plugin usage, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, 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 websites. 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 here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
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