Tag: Legal Pages

As a business owner, you do not want to find out that you have been operating on the wrong side of the law.

As digital business continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s absolutely vital that you try to stay on top of what’s going on and make sure that your website remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence plays a significant role in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for material gain, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)

These laws has legal implications for various business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, e.g. Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creators
• Blogging
• etc.

Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to sell digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising and online marketing networks.

If your online business is not in compliance, you could end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This article explains why it’s important to have a compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress site using simple and inexpensive methods and resources.

Is Your Website Or Blog Breaking Rules Or Regulations?

Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. As previously stated, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws that govern business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you endorse

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 user has a heart attack after they use your online fitness program.
• The skin care creams you promote as an affiliate gives someone allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you will not 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 publishes it on their own site.
• You have not divulged to your site users that you’re an affiliate for the product you are endorsing and may derive a sales commission if visitors decide to purchase through your link.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your refund policies.
• Your visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are fake and try to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose that you were given a free copy of the product you reviewed.
• Your website publishes adult information and you have not taken appropriate measures to keep underage children from accessing it.

Consider now the real case studies of costly compliance breaches listed below:

• 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 a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• 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 does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had infringed 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 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 risks of litigation through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA or PPA Marketer
• MLM Networker
• Affiliate Promoter
• AdWords User
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Associate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online

You need to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business stays fully compliant with the law.

Complying With Third-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

Complying with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.

You are obligated to let your site users know that your website complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your business, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you interact with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

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

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Monetizing your blog using Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products through Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell information-based products using merchants like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will need to add legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their network …

(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you add clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially regarding the use of product testimonials or endorsements …

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Be Compliant

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online reveals that many sites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting site owners for breaches of regulation 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 chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with all FTC regulations.

There are many resources websites for businesses that can provide guidelines and examples on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. See our additional resources section at the end of this article for more information …

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

Don’t Forget Social Media Apps

If you are planning to develop applications for your website, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide access to various legal pages …

(Facebook apps also require compliance)

• If you are unsure whether you are 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 are considering promoting anything online as an affiliate marketer, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, ads for eBay or Amazon products, 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 to avoid having your accounts terminated.
• If you have been wondering whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, 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 terms of use and policies)

Essential Legal Pages To Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance

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

Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help your site stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and third-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):

• About Us
• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above pages, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products or services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides health or medical content)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

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

• No Material Connection – Lets users know that you’re not receiving any form of compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you may be compensated if they act on your recommendation and purchase through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets users know that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product by the author or developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your visitors that you were compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs 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 should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been created, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually To Your Site

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your server using FTP)

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and display clearly to visitors. You can insert links to your legal pages into your WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website) so that users have access to legal information from every web page …

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

To learn more about adding links to pages on your sidebar menu or footer in WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Widgets

Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

More information:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can download a set of cut and paste legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates new Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines that came into effect on March 2012)
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page on your website 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 these to your server as previously described.

Go here for more information:

• Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

As well as using legal templates, another option is to use WordPress plugins.

Here are some legal WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WP Legal Pages Plugin

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s a very low-priced and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will make the task of creating and implementing legal pages on your website much easier and save you a great deal of time.

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

• Pre-written Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms Of Service, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages just like any other page on your site.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your pages and the information will then be automatically inserted into your content when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When the user agrees to the terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item is added to your navigation menu section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Create different legal page types)

Select from several built-in 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 for more information about using this plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin

complete website compliance and disclaimer solution …

For more details, visit the plugin site here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

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

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring a lawyer to create your legal documentation is currently out of your budget, then at least consider implementing some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford professional assistance from a solicitor.

We want your site to be safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator tool below, or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal documents, or plugins as described in the section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator lets you easily 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 we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online, it’s important that your site stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service of 3rd-party services and products that you may be promoting or recommending online. Your website or blog must comply with a whole range of regulations, some 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

Legal Information

Here is a time-saving list of sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your site may require 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
• 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
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• US Copyright Office

Plus …

• 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
• 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 all necessary legal pages to your site.

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