Tag: Legal Pages

As a business owner, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you are doing something illegal.

As the cybersphere continues growing at such a fast pace and the rules keep changing, it’s absolutely vital that you stay informed about what’s happening and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your digital presence is important in the success of your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the 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 for more details.

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

These laws has legal implications for several online business categories, including:

• Any kind of advertising, including inline advertising, Google Adsense, etc.
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Bloggers
• etc.

If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not approve digital products on their network, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote most advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

If your website is not in compliance, you could also face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

The purpose of this guide is to help make you aware that your site(s) are required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of external providers whose services or products you may be selling online, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress site owners that can help your sites become more compliant, such as the tools listed further below.

Is Your Website Compliant?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice in this article. As stated above, this article is designed only to make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern online business practices and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of third-party companies whose products or services you use on your website or blog

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

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

• A user has a heart attack after they use your online fitness workout.
• The skin care creams you sell as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
• You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not described exactly what you’ll do with it.
• Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own site.
• There is no statement on your website or blog making your site users aware that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you will derive a sales commission if visitors decide to buy via your link.
• You don’t spell out the terms of your refund/return policies.
• Online visitors claim that your testimonials are false and try to sue you as a result.
• You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult information and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider now the actual examples of costly compliance breaches below:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up personal information (including credit card details to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a substantial $390,000 fine, he was also 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 received 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 details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits using software that scrapes UIDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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-picked websites, more than 90% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 cautions or lose access to the Google program with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming a target of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Publisher Of Adult Content
• Freelancer, Consultant Or Coach
• Seller Of Any Service Or Product Online

It’s imperative to make sure that your website or blog complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

Compliance with third-party services terms and policies is important.

You must let your visitors know that your business complies will all laws and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you engage with.

For example:

Google requires you to display certain information if using many of their services or product features. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your online properties with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services via Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell products online via places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …

(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your website, especially if you plan to use testimonials or product endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute website owners for breaches of regulation 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 interests by making sure that your website complies with all FTC regulations.

There are many business resources that can provide guidelines for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide a number of references at the end of this article …

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to develop applications that integrate with your site, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others will require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Apps that interface with social networks also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting products or services on your site as an affiliate marketer, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.

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

Basic Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website

If you suspect that your website or blog lacks in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your site will help your website keep out of trouble with most consumer protection authorities and 3rd-party service providers, and avoid potential legal issues):

• About Us Page
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above pages, you may want to look into adding one or more of these pages:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides financial advice)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

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

• No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets site users be aware that you may benefit financially if they purchase through an affiliate link.
• Review/Sample Copy – Informs your readers that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product.
• Sponsored Post – Informs site users 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 online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Site

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

Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Website

If someone prepares the legal content for you in typical web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

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

(Upload legal pages to your server via FTP)

You can then add links to your legal pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

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

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

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

• Adding WordPress Widgets To Your Sidebar Section

Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and internet forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more details:

• FindLegalForms.com

Another option is to download a set of cut and paste legal templates written by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with simple search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your legal web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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

For more information, go here:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

In addition to using cut & paste legal templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.

Here are some plugins for WordPress-powered sites you may be interested in using:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If you don’t want to bother with creating legal web pages manually, then consider installing a plugin like WP Legal Pages instead …

This is not a free plugin, but it’s a reasonably 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.

Here are just some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages:

• Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in a few minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages like any other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like every other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lockdown. Page unlocks only when the user agrees to your legal terms.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal pages)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Built-In 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 this site to learn more this plugin:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your site …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro For WordPress)

This plugin 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 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

For more details, go here:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring a lawyer to create your online legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your site until you can afford a lawyer.

We want your business to be protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal documentation, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to easily generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any type of business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with all laws and regulations and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or use online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law pertaining to your specific business.

References And Resources

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

• FTC 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
• 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

Plus …

• 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 this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add legal pages to your website or blog using inexpensive legal resources and solutions.

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