Tag: Legal Pages

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

As the cybersphere continues to grow at such a fast pace and the rules of the game keep changing, it’s vitally important to stay on top of what’s happening and ensure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if having a digital presence plays a significant role in your business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, you must follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “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)

These laws affect various business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• 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 such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed to promote various advertising and online merchant networks.

You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.

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

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. As stated above, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws that govern your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of providers whose products or services you endorse on your website

Understanding The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider for one minute what would happen to your business if these scenarios were to occur:

• A user suffers a heart attack after they use your online workout program.
• The skin care products you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone allergic reactions.
• Your opt-in list displays a statement that lets subscribers know that you will not sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you will do with their details.
• Someone steals content from your website and publishes it on their own website.
• There is no statement on your website informing your site users that you are promoting a product as an affiliate and could derive a financial benefit if visitors decide to purchase via your affiliate link.
• You have not spelled out the terms of your refund/return policies.
• A visitor claims that your testimonials are false and decides to sue you.
• You have not disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult content and you did not take appropriate measures to keep underage persons from accessing it.

Consider too these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card information to complete a debt reduction offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to give everyone they do 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 without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. 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 websites chosen at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were breaking at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were breaking 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 infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how you could be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or PPA (Pay Per Action) Marketer
• Network Marketer
• Affiliate Product Marketer
• AdSense Publisher
• Product Publisher
• Amazon Associate
• e-Commerce Store Owner
• Adult Content Publisher
• Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
• Online Seller Of Any Service Or Product

It’s vitally important to make sure that your digital presence has the right legal pages and information displayed to site users.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Services

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

You are obligated to let your site users know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only increases trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will do business with.

For example:

Google requires your site to display legal information if using many of their services. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Generating revenue online with your blog with Google AdSense online advertising …

(Google AdSense advertising - policy requirements)

And even promoting your business using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you sell information-based products with places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their network …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for sellers)

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

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many sites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has happened in the past, this often results in 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 plan to 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. you should protect your business by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.

A number of sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

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

Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance

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

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you are considering promoting services or products online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, ads for Amazon or eBay products, or driving visitors to your website using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to provide on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you have ever wondered if “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 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Basic Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Website To Ensure Compliance

If your website lacks in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

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

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

In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider adding any of these legal pages if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you promote or sell affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides money-making advice)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Video/Audio Terms Of Use (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

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

• No Material Connection – This lets users know that you will not receive for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets readers know that you may benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample Or review Copy – Explains to site users that you have been given a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets visitors be aware that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
• Third Party Advertising – Informs readers that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you will have a lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been completed, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Website

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

We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory via FTP …

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

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

(WordPress Menu)

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert these into the WordPress sidebar (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that users have access to legal information from every page …

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

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

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In The Website

Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Visit this website to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms

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

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Scott Talbert’s Legal Page Templates)

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

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, DART, etc.
• 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 pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your server as described earlier.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using cut & paste templates, you can simplify things by using a plugin.

Here are some great legal WordPress plugins you should check out:

WP Legal Pages

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)

If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WP Legal Pages …

WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, 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 WordPress site much easier and save you a great deal of time.

Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages:

• Built-in Templates – Over 20 built-in legal templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• 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.
• Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like every other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes Integration – You can add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content 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 other page on your website.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your terms.
• New Features – More features are being added to this plugin with each new version.

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings Area)

The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites with products, affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

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

Select from a number of 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

For more details about using this handy plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered sites that includes over 20 customizable legal templates for your digital presence …

Learn more here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro)

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 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 plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites.

More info:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your website to be legally protected!

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

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you are making money online (or are planning to), it’s important that your site complies with government laws and regulations and any terms of service and guidelines required by 3rd-party sites that you may be promoting or recommending online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.

Non-compliance 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 provide no legal advice on our website. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your business.

Resources

Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what may be required of your website to stay compliant and meet 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
• BBB – 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

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
• Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add all necessary legal pages to your WordPress website.

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