Tag: Legal Pages

One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.

As the internet continues to grow at such a fast pace and the rules constantly change, it’s vital that you try to stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your site remains compliant, especially if having a digital presence is an essential factor in your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 that regulate how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

The new laws has implications for several online business activities, including:

• Any type of advertising, like pay-per-click advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Bloggers
• etc.

Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank will not approve your digital products for sale, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to promote a range of advertising and online merchant networks.

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

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website or blog are required to comply with certain legalities according to laws that govern online business practices, the importance of being compliant with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be advertising online, and that there are easy solutions for WordPress that can help your site become more compliant, such as the tools listed further below.

Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. As previously stated, the aim of this article is to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you use

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for one minute what the implications to your business would be if any of these situations were to take place:

• Someone has a heart attack after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone an allergic reaction.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement that lets subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you will do with the information you’ve collected.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their site.
• There is no statement on your website making visitors aware that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re endorsing and may receive a sales commission if visitors buy it.
• You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund policies.
• Your visitors claim the testimonials on your site are misleading and decide 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 website publishes adult information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider also the following actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up personal information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’ve also been ordered to provide everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $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 does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% were in breach of at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of 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 cautions or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to become exposed to the risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

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

It’s vitally important to ensure that your online business is fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Services Terms And Policies

Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You are obligated to let your visitors know that your business complies with all necessary legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires you to display certain information if using their products. This includes Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your WordPress sites using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your products through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell products online with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add certain legal pages to your site before your products are approved for selling via their marketplace …

(Policy requirements for vendors selling through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policy statements to visitors, especially when concerning the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any kind of selling 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 ensuring that your site complies with FTC regulations.

There are many online business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(It’s important to word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)

Social Media Apps Also Have Compliance Requirements

If you plan to create social networking applications for your website, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others require you to provide information about various legal pages …

(Facebook apps 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 websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote products or services online using affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or driving visitors to your website with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts suspended.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your business interests.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies)

What Legal Information Do I Need To Add To My Site To Be Legally Compliant?

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

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should help keep your business out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and 3rd-party service 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 And Conditions
• Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

Additionally, you may want to look into adding any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you promote or sell affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

It’s important to add the right disclosure information to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your visitors know that you will not receive any kind of compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Discloses to site users that you may derive some form of financial benefit if they buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets your visitors know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product or service by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets readers be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will consult your 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 Manually

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

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

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then easily add a link to your pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to all site visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your site) so that visitors have access to legal information from all of your site’s pages …

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

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

• How To Add Widgets To WordPress

Using Legal Templates

You can find downloadable attorney-drafted forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting sites like this one:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Go here for more info:

• Find Legal Forms

Another option is to download a set of legal templates designed by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new 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 added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload the pages to your web server as described earlier.

More information:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

As well as using legal templates, another option is to use a plugin.

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

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s a 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 loads of headaches.

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

• Built-in Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the basic legal pages you will need in a few minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Fully Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other WP page.
• Custom Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information will be automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when the user agrees to your terms.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your main navigation menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, AdSense sites, etc …

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

Choose from several pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – 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

To learn more this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress websites that includes over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your digital presence …

More info:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin 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 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 site. You can have legal pages 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 the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell).

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your business to be protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates necessary 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 engage in any form of business online, you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations and any terms of service and guidelines of third-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. Your digital presence must comply with a number of regulations, many of which you may not 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?

Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice on this website. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.

Legal Resources And References

Below is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what may be required of your site to stay compliant and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau – 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
• US Copyright Office

See Also …

• 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 compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your site using simple and cost-effective methods, resources and WordPress plugins.

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