Tag: Legal Pages

Is your website compliant? Do you know if your site is breaking any laws, or breaching the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose services or products you are advertising or endorsing?

Online laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t protect someone from taking legal action against your business.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau Website)

These laws affect various online business activities, including:

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

If your site does not display certain pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, online merchants like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could suspend your account, Facebook will suspend your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising and online marketing networks.

If your business online is not compliant, you could also face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

In this article, we discuss why it’s important to have a compliant website and how to quickly and easily add legal pages to your WordPress site using simple solutions.

Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice about your website or business. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is located.

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

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

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online workout program.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
• You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t spelled out exactly what you plan to do with their details.
• Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own website.
• There is no statement on your website making your site visitors aware that you are endorsing a product as an affiliate and may derive a commission if visitors decide to buy through your link.
• You did not spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• Online visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you.
• You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
• Your website includes adult-related information and you didn’t take appropriate measures to keep underaged persons from accessing it.

Consider also these actual case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users 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 he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped 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, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least 2 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 notices 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 a website owner can easily become exposed to the risk of litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Affiliate
• 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.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

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

You must let your site users know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases consumer trust and confidence in your site, it’s also required in most cases by most companies you will do business with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information if using many of their products. This includes using services like Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Generating revenue with your WordPress blog using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense display advertising policy requirements)

And even promoting your products using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information products through places 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 selling through ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission also requires you to add clear disclaimers and policies to visitors, especially if you plan to use product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)

FTC Regulations – Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant

New FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many business are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically 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 money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by ensuring that your site complies with all FTC regulations and guidelines.

Various business resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. See the references and resources section at the end of this article for more information …

(Wording your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure whether or not you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or use 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 provide on your site to comply with all 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, then it’s best to take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

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

Essential Legal Pages You Should Add To Your Website

If your web site is lacking in terms of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

Adding the following compliance pages to your website will keep you out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and third-party providers, and even help you avoid potential legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “takedown” notices):

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

As well as the pages above, you may want to consider including one or more of these legal pages:

• Affiliate Agreement (if you provide an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides money-making information)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Use Of Media (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding correct web content disclosure information is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets users be aware that you are not being paid for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets users be aware that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Lets users be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets users be aware that you were compensated in some way 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 online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

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

We recommend adding a legals directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this folder using FTP …

(Upload legal pages to your web server using FTP)

You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …

(Custom WordPress Menu)

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are kept up-to-date and display clearly to all visitors. You can add these to the sidebar menu (or the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors will be able to access the information from every web page …

(It’s important to display links to your legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar menu and footer in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding And Configuring Widgets On The Sidebar Section

Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a package of cut & paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These 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 details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use.

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

For more details, go here:

• Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates

WordPress Plugins – Legal Pages

As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple using a plugin.

Here are some great plugins for WordPress-powered sites worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

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

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

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

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Content editor lets you edit legal pages just like any page on your website.
• Shortcodes – You can add shortcodes to your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks when the user agrees to your legal terms.
• Additional Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will be added to your main dashboard menu …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Screen)

The plugin gives you the option to create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, niche sites, Amazon sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages – Create different legal pages)

Choose from a number of pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages – 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

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

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

complete website compliance & disclaimer solution …

Learn We have written a detailed review of this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(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 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 the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Visit this site for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your site until you can afford professional assistance.

We want your website to be legally 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 documents, or a WordPress legal pages plugin as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator)

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

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As stated earlier, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site complies with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party products and services that you may be promoting or selling 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, we are not lawyers and we cannot provide legal advice here. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law concerning your specific business.

Additional Legal Information

Here is a useful list of websites we recommend you visit to help you better understand what your website may require 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
• 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

See Also …

• Google 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 this article 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 WordPress website or blog using simple and cost-effective legal resources and plugins.

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