One of the worst things that can happen to any website owner is to break the law.
Your digital presence must comply with various federal, state and even local laws, some of which you may probably not even be aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring financial costs, but also the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this article, we review a simple and easy-to-use WordPress solution that can help make your website compliant in minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
As the digital realm continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules are constantly changing, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if your online presence is a fundamental aspect of your overall business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and other social networks could suspend your apps, and you won’t be accepted into most leading advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
If you are not compliant, you could also end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if you don’t make it clear to your visitors that your site complies with legal requirements and guidelines, visitors may lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to various legal requirements in accordance with federal, state or local laws that govern your business,
- How important it is to be compliant 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 solutions that can help your site become more compliant, such as the tool that we discuss below.
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress users that provides a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your site.
Our WordPress Plugin Of The Month Is …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is an easy-to-use WordPress plugin with over 20 customizable legal templates for your online business …
To learn more about the plugin go here: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your website legally compliant:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Compliance Bar Plugin is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user login and activate.
Easy To Edit Templates
Easily modify the built-in templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the WordPress visual editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin develop provides dedicated 24/7 plugin support to help users.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Customized Compliance Page Templates: The plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and an entire library of training videos is available.
- Use In Every Country: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the default templates provided in 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 Niches: If your website or blog runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Just select the compliance pages you need to add to your site and leave out irrelevant pages.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar Plugin offers many unique features to WP users. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to start using 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 Information – If you plan to display content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that require users to accept your terms and disclaimers.
- EU 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 laws. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying users and covering your website from non-compliance issues.
- Record And Store IP Addresses – Compliance Bar records your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (including the popups).
- Works On Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices or tablets and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on the web browser being used.
Using Compliance Bar Plugin
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” section is added to your WordPress dashboard.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this section where you can enter your business information into entered (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Business Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Support Desk URL,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to automatically insert the information from your User Profile into your page templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) data has been input into the plugin settings fields, users can then access the other plugin screens.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section lists all of your compliance templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
When we last checked the plugin website, there were over 20 legal templates available, covering all aspects of compliance:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure
- 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 can be easily done. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click 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 to the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
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 Plugin: Compliance Page Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Page Templates
You can easily edit and delete the legal disclaimer templates from the “Compliance Pages” section, just like any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Compliance Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. legal 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, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, specifying 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 Screen: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different icons on different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your website.
- The plugin allows you to display a Compliance Bar on the home page of your website, even if you are using a specific theme (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” 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 dynamic 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 you plan to show content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that restricts access to users who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” page lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create an unlimited number of customized Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time to prevent Pop Ups from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time interval, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you do business in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
The Compliance Bar plugin lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” screen …
(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” tab, lists all of your legal page templates and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” screen, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
User Feedback
Here are just some testimonials that customers have provided for Compliance Bar:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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“Don’t Risk Your Online Business” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Useful Tips
Here are some useful ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you include content that is inappropriate for underaged viewers on your site, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Product Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated support to assist users if they experience any issues. 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 (Monday to Friday), your purchase price will be refunded in double.
Software Cost
- Single User Personal License – Install the plugin on one domain that you own. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Edition – Can be installed on 25 sites that you own. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer License – Install the plugin on multiple as many of your own sites as you need. Install the plugin on any client site as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing Compliance Bar can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here: Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Information
Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal page templates have been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your peace of mind.
For a demo video of the plugin in action, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
We Recommend
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress websites and blogs. We recommend downloading and 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 – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Important: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
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