One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to suddenly discover that you have broken the law.
Your website or blog must comply with a number of federal, state and even local laws, some of which you may not be aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring significant financial costs, but also the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and easy-to-use solution for WordPress users that can help make your site legally compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the cybersphere continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules keep changing, it’s vitally important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website remains legal, especially if your web presence is a fundamental part of your business strategy.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend your web apps, and you will not be allowed into a number of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to being exploited by opportunistic people or organizations.
At the very least, if you are not compliant, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to seriously diminish.
(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 cannot offer legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to numerous legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- How important it is to remain compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are promoting or using online, and
- There are plugins for WordPress site owners that can help your website become compliant, such as the plugin that we review in this post.
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress users that provides a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a simple and easy-to-use plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable legal templates for your online presence …
To learn more about this plugin go here: Compliance Bar
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your site compliant:
Ready To Use In No Time
Compliance Bar Plugin installs like every other plugin. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Page Templates Are Very Easy To Edit
Easily edit the built-in legal templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the WordPress WYSIWYG editor.
Dedicated Plugin Support Team
Compliance Bar provides dedicated 24/7 plugin support to help users if they experience any problems.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Customized Templates: Compliance Bar creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - an entire library of training videos is available.
- Can Be Used In Every Country: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the default legal page templates provided in the plugin 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 Website Purposes: If your site is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Select only the types of disclaimers that pertain to your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out any pages that you don’t need.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar offers many features to WP users. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icon Bar – The plugin displays links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be placed on different locations on your page. You can also upload your own icons.
- Show Restricted Information – If you plan to show content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
- Records & Stores IP Acceptance – The plugin 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 uses shortcodes that populate compliance pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (including the popups).
- Works On Mobile Devices – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and can display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the mobile browser being used.
Using The Plugin
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, users get access to a number of sections where you can configure the plugin’s settings.
Let’s go through these settings briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this section where you can input your business information into input (e.g. “Website URL,” “Company Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Niche Market,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Support Email,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to dynamically populate the information you’ve inputted into your User Profile in your legal page templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) data has been entered into the plugin settings fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen contains all of the pages …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Here’s the full list of templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked their website:
- 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
You can create legal pages for your site quite easily simply by selecting check boxes and clicking the “Save” button on the “Create Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a default set of attractive 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: Legal Template Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Templates
You can easily edit and delete your compliance disclaimers in the “Compliance Pages” section, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Editing 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 you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, displaying 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 main page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, etc. …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create unlimited Compliance Bars to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your site.
- The plugin allows you to display a Compliance Bar on the home page of your website, even if you are using particular 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 screens, 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 your site includes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), you can display pop-ups that require users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create several customized Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover different uses in other areas of your website …
You can also set a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and store 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 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 Compliance Bar plugin lets you customize the settings for compliance with EU 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 legal disclaimers and shortcodes, and lets you modify their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin customers have written about Compliance Bar:
”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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”I Highly Recommend Compliance Bar” Tony Grant (Portfolio Sports)
Useful Tips
Here are some extra ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Display compliance icons only on specific pages of your site.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before purchase.
- If you have content that is deemed inappropriate for minors on your site, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Plugin Product Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated support to help users with anything they need. Plugin users also have access to full video training.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 30 day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (Monday to Friday), your purchase price will be refunded in double.
Plugin Pricing
- Single – Install the plugin on a single domain. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Can be installed on twenty-five sites that you own. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Can be installed on all as many of your own sites as you want. Can be installed on all client sites for payment or part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: Pricing details of Compliance Bar Plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was correct at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers claim on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get legal 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, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
In Conclusion
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Important: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no 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 all legal requirements in your country or region.
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