One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of having broken the law.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering serious financial losses and the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your business reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this post, we review a simple and easy-to-use WordPress solution that can help make your website compliant just minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
As the digital business realm continues growing at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vitally important that you stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your web presence is a fundamental part of your overall business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal could close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook and many other social sites could suspend your web applications, and you will not be accepted into most advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
At the very least, if your online presence is not compliant, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to seriously diminish.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to numerous 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),
- 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 using online, and
- There are easy-to-use solutions that can help your business become more compliant, such as the solution that we discuss below.
If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in aspects of compliance, there is a simple WordPress plugin you should know more about.
Our WordPress Plugin Of The Month Is …
Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your website …
For more details, visit the plugin site here: Compliance Bar
Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your web site instantly legally compliant:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Compliance Bar Plugin is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Compliance Page Templates Are Easy To Edit
Easily modify the pre-built legal page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu with the WYSIWYG editor.
Dedicated Plugin Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated 24/7 plugin support to help you with anything you need.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Customized Legal Templates: Compliance Bar creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - a complete library of training videos is available if users need help.
- Use In Every Country: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the default 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.
- Can Be Used For All Niches: If your site is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Just select the pages you want to include in your site and leave out all other unnecessary pages.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar Plugin offers a number of great features to WP users. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icon Bar – Compliance Bar will display links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed on different locations in your page. You can also upload your own icons.
- Display Sensitive Information – If your website includes content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), you can display pop-ups that force users to accept your terms and disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies users and protects your site from non-compliance.
- Record And Store IP Acceptance – The plugin records your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcodes – The plugin uses shortcodes that automatically 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).
- Works On All Mobile Devices – Compliance Bar has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the browser being used.
Using Compliance Bar
Once the plugin is installed, users will then 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 screen where your business details can be entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Business Address,” “Location Details,” “Product Name,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses shortcodes to insert the information into your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been input into the plugin settings fields, you can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section contains all of the legal page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Below is the full list of templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked the 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
You can create compliance pages for your blog or website quite easily simply by selecting check boxes and clicking the “Save” button on the “Create Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside the “Pages” section of your site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The icons can be changed. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Templates
You can modify and delete the legal templates in the “Compliance Pages” screen, just like any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Customizing the compliance pages is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin notifies you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin settings area provides many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to show 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 more …
(Compliance Bar Section: 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 different uses in different areas of your website.
- The plugin allows you to display the Compliance Bar on the main page of your site, even if you are using particular WordPress themes (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, 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 dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like your compliance icons to be featured …
PopUps
If your site contains content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that restricts access to visitors who do not accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” tab lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create multiple Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover a range of uses throughout your site …
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 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 you are based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must 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 – 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” area, lists all of your legal page templates 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 just a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about Compliance Bar Plugin:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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”I Highly Recommend Compliance Bar” Tony Grant (Portfolio Sports)
Compliance Bar – Useful Tips
Here are some additional ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protection against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Display compliance icons only on specific pages.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you publish adult content on your website, 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 help you. Plugin users also have access to an entire set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 business hours (M – F), the plugin developers will refund twice the purchase price.
Software Price
- Single License Edition – Can be installed on one of your own sites. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business License – Install the plugin on up to twenty-five of your own domains. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer Edition – Can be installed 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: The cost of purchasing this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Legal Pages Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers claim on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by lawyers. 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 a demo video showing how the software works, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Install This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-powered sites. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here. You must 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 in your country or region.
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