Tag: Legal Pages

One of the worst situations a business owner can find themselves in is to be on the wrong side of the law.

Online laws and regulations were designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements will not prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.

New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your site for profit, then you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also known as BBB. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.

(BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these new laws affect several business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could reject your applications, and you won’t be allowed into many advertising or online merchant networks.

If you are not compliant, you could face a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

In this guide, we discuss the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your website.

Is Your Site Legally Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever you do business.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Consider for one moment what would happen to your business if any of the situations below were to occur:

• A customer suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online workout program.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
• You’ve told subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with the information you’ve collected.
• Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their site.
• You have not divulged to visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you’re marketing and will derive a financial benefit if visitors decide to buy through your affiliate link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Your visitors claim your testimonials are fake and try to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose that you have received a free copy in your product review.
• Your site publishes adult-related information and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider now these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card details to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to issue everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private information.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-picked websites, more than 90% were in violation of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had breached at least 3 of Google’s policies. Although the website owners could technically be sued by Google, more than likely what could happen, is that they would be issued with warnings or lose access to the Google program they had violated, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to be exposed to the risk of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s imperative to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your digital presence complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With Third-Party Companies

All the leading companies and government agencies that regulate trade in many countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of 3rd-party service providers.

You are expected to let your site visitors know that your business complies with laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your websites using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your site using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell products online via companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add a number of legal pages to your website before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for selling through ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements on your site, especially when using product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As is already the case, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by making sure that your site complies with all FTC regulations.

You can find many online resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

If you are planning to develop social networking applications that will integrate with your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with access to various legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote services or products on your site using affiliate marketing, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)

What Legal Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Site To Be Safe From Legal Compliance Issues?

If your website is falling short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to consider including any of the following pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general content about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you will not receive any kind of payment for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers know that you will be compensated if they buy through your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets visitors know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service.
• Sponsored Post – Lets visitors know that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets readers know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult a lawyer or a legal firm and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages Manually

If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder (e.g. using FTP) …

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

You can then add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu administration …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add these to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that users will be able to access legal information from all of your pages …

(Display links to your legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

We have written a detailed tutorial about displaying links to pages on your WP sidebar or footer here:

• Using WordPress Widgets

Use Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can easily find attorney-drafted downloadable forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more details:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to purchase a set of website legal templates created by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your legal pages.

The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

You can either create a new page for each legal form you want added to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described earlier.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Website Legal Pages

Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple by using plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

If manually setting up legal pages for your website seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s an affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you a great deal of time and effort.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages plugin:

• Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like any page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. When users agree to your terms, the page unlocks.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with every new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will appear inside your navigation section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

This lets you create, view and edit legal pages from your admin area …

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, medical sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Type of Site drop down menu)

You can also choose from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Pre-configured Templates)

Legal page templates include:

• Terms of Use (Users are forced to agree to Terms and Conditions before using site)
• Linking Policy
• External Links Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Refund Policy
• Affiliate Disclosure
• Privacy Policy
• Affiliate Agreement
• Facebook Privacy Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• Antispam Policy
• DoubleClick DART Cookies Policy
• Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclosure Statement Template
• Medical Disclaimer Template
• Testimonials Disclosure – As per FTC guidelines
• Amazon Affiliate Disclosure Template
• DMCA Policy Template
• California Privacy Rights Policy Template
• Digital Goods Refund Policy Template
• COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Policy Template
• Blog Comments Policy Template
• Newsletter Subscription Policy and Disclaimer Template
• FTC Disclaimer Widget

To learn more this plugin, visit this website:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that contains over 20 customizable compliance pages for your web presence …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress lets you easily install professionally-written legal pages such as:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Social Media Disclosure
• Medical Disclaimer
• Terms of Use
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress – Professionally-written legal forms)

Additionally:

• Drag & Drop FTC Disclaimer Widget: Add an FTC Disclaimer to any WordPress sidebar or widget area.
• Customizable EU Cookie Compliance Bar: Display an EU cookie compliance bar if you are getting traffic from the EU and your sites use cookies.

With just one-click you can install almost all of the legal pages your site needs and these professionally written legal pages can be created in your theme and/or as a standalone page outside of your theme.

The plugin developers have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).

For more details, visit this site:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire a lawyer.

We want your website to be legally protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documents, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

Legal Pages Generator lets you quickly generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or plan to), it’s important that your site is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines for 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or using online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.

Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering both financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your specific business.

Additional Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to stay compliant and meet legal requirements and guidelines:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB
• Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
• Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act
• CAN-SPAM Act Guide
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
• FTC Regulatory Review Web Page
• FTC Rules and Guides Currently Under Review
• The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force – Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework
• FTC Staff Report: Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising
• FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials
• US Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

In Addition …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• Google AdSense Help – Required Content
• Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
• AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your site.

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