Tag: Legal Pages

As a business owner, the last thing you want to do is to find yourself breaking laws, rules or regulations.

Online laws are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who sells, markets or promotes products or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not protect you from being slapped with a legal notice.

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

(Better Business Bureau – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

The introduction of these laws affect various business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdWords
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages to visitors (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not let you list digital products on their network, PayPal could close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could reject your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote most advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

In addition, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to expensive litigation.

This guide explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and shows you simple resources and solutions that will make your WordPress website compliant quickly and easily.

Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking The Law?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws in your country or region.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Is your business at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A customer has a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness program.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you will do with their details.
• Someone copies content from your website and puts it up on their own website.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making your visitors aware that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling and will earn a commission if visitors buy it.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• Someone claims the testimonials on your site are misleading and decides to sue you as a result.
• You did not disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your site publishes adult content and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.

Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would be required to give up personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a significant $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to issue everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking at least three 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 notices or lose access entirely to the Google program they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA, CPC or PPA Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords User
• Niche Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to make sure that your online business remains fully compliant with the law.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services

Leading online companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your business complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required by most companies you will engage with.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information when using their products. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue online with your site using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

Or promoting your business via Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information-based products with places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant sites, you will be required to add various legal pages to your site before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements product vendors using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires that you display clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell products and services with the aid of testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Site Is Compliant

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

If you plan to do any type of business 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 ensuring that your website complies with FTC guidelines.

Various resources online provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site comply with FTC requirements. See the resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Structure your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you plan to create applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others with information about your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of sites like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services online via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or using Google AdWords pay-per-click ads to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to include on your site to comply with all 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, then it’s best to take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use)

Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Site

If your web site is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your business stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and external providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

As well as the pages above, you may want to look into implementing any of these pages if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general content about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Audio/Video Terms (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

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

• No Material Connection – Informs users that you will not receive any form of payment for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Disclosure that informs your readers that you may be compensated if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets readers know that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Informs readers that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site

If someone prepares the legal content for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your site, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend adding a legals directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder via FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder in your web server and upload pages via FTP)

You can then easily add a link to these legal pages from your WordPress site using custom links in your menu admin area …

(WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and display clearly to all site visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar menu (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access legal information from every page …

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your sidebar and footer here:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To Your Sidebar

Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

Go here to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Another option is to purchase a set of website legal templates written by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

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

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

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

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using cut & paste legal templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered sites that you should check out:

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal pages manually, then consider choosing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages …

The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.

Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any page on your site.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your WordPress pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other WordPress page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will appear inside your dashboard menu …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

You have the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Page Type)

Select from several built-in legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Legal 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

Visit the plugin website to learn more about the benefits of using this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

The Compliance Bar WordPress Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your online presence …

Go here to learn more about the plugin:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 Service
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin – 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them 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 license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of lawyers to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, consider implementing at least some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional legal services.

We want your website to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As stated earlier, if you are making money online (or plan to), it’s important that your website remains compliant with government regulations and any terms of service and guidelines of third-party sites that you may decide to promote or use online. Your internet presence must comply with a whole set of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may not even be aware of.

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, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law regarding your specific business.

References And Legal Resources

Here is a useful list of sites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to remain compliant and meet its 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 – Better Business Bureau
• 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
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

And …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• AdSense Help – Required Content
• Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
• Google 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 and easily add essential legal pages to your WordPress website or blog using simple legal resources and solutions.

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