One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
Your website has to comply with numerous federal, state and even local laws and regulatory guidelines, many of which you may probably not even be aware of.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring both financial losses and the loss of 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 cost-effective WordPress solution that can help make your website legally compliant in minutes.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
As the cybersphere continues growing at an extraordinary rate and rules keep changing, it’s vital that you stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your website or blog remains compliant, especially if your web presence is a significant part of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend your web apps, and you won’t be accepted into many leading advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If your web presence is not compliant, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if you are not in compliance, visitors may lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies!)
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice here.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could 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 not even be aware of),
- The importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are promoting or endorsing online, and
- There are cost-effective solutions that can help your site become compliant, such as the tool that we review below.
In this article, we review a total compliance and disclaimer solution for a WordPress-based digital presence.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
Learn more here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your web site legally compliant:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Compliance Bar is really easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Editable Compliance Page Templates
Easily make changes to the prebuilt legal page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the WYSIWYG content editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin develop provides dedicated support to help users if they experience any difficulties.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Customized Legal Templates: The plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - an entire library of training videos is provided.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to make sure that the default templates provided with Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Use For All Niches: As long as your website runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for every website purpose. Just select the templates you need to include in your site and leave out any irrelevant pages.
Features
Compliance Bar Plugin offers a number of great features to web site owners. Below we have listed just some of those:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Attractive Icons – Display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed anywhere in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Restricted Content – If your website publishes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that require users to accept your site’s 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 Cookie law. The plugin displays an attractive bar notifying your users and covering you from non-compliance.
- Records And Stores IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar records and stores your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes to populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (even in the pop-ups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on the mobile browser being used.
Compliance Bar Features – Details
After installing and activating the Compliance Bar plugin, you get access to a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this area where your business details can be entered (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Business Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Niche Area,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses dynamic shortcodes to automatically insert the information from your User Profile in your legal page templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the profile fields, users can then access the other plugin section.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” area includes a list of all of your compliance pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the plugin website, there were over 22 compliance templates available to plugin users:
- 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 create legal pages for your site by simply selecting check boxes and clicking the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Compliance Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside your “Pages” section.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of attractive 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 Plugin: Legal Template Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily modify and delete the legal disclaimers from the “Compliance Pages” screen, just as you would any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Editing 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 you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to show links or icon images, background colors and images, image 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, etc. …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to display different icons on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in other sections of your website.
- The plugin allows you to 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 “regular” 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 specified your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your compliance pages using a visually appealing icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like to display your compliance bar …
PopUps
If you plan to publish content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that force users to accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section gives you full control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up for different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your site …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want the Pop Ups to display immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time interval, and capture 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 Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU compliance requirements …
The plugin lets you customize 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 sourced from 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 pages and shortcodes, and lets you modify their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have published about the Compliance Bar Plugin 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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”Truly Amazing Product!” Patrick Mauchant – PT Enviromate Technology
Compliance Bar Plugin – Useful Tips
Here are a few useful ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protection against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Display compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Reducing refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you include content for adult readers on your site, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Compliance Bar Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated 24/7 plugin support to assist users. Users also have access to a complete library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your version of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund double the amount of the purchase price.
Plugin Cost
- Single Site Licensing – Install the plugin on a single domain. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Licensing – Can be installed on up to twenty-five of your own domains. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional – Install the plugin on all of your own domains. Can be installed on any client site for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Please Note: Price details for the Compliance Bar Plugin software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here: Compliance Bar
Additional Information
Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal page templates have been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your own peace of mind.
For ”how-to” videos showing how the software works, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin 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 WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer 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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