Tag: Legal Pages

One of the worst things that can happen to a business owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.

As the digital economy continues to grow at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vitally important to try and stay on top of what’s happening and make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if your digital presence plays a significant role in your business strategy.

Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you plan to promote anything on your site for material gain, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau (BBB). Search online “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 affect various business categories, including:

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

If your site does not display certain pages to visitors (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook will disapprove your applications, and you will not be allowed into many advertising or affiliate marketing networks.

If your online presence is not in compliance, you could face a multitude 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(s) may be required to comply with various legalities according to laws that govern online businesses, 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 that can help your sites become more compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.

Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice about your website or business. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all laws and regulations wherever you do business.

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Consider for a moment what would happen to your business if any of the following scenarios were to happen:

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you promote as an affiliate marketer gives someone who purchases from your link an adverse reaction.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with the details you’ve collected.
• Someone copies your content and puts it up on their own website.
• You haven’t advised your site visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you are marketing that you may earn financial benefits if they end up purchasing through your link.
• You haven’t spelled out the terms and conditions of your refund/return policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are false and try to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website publishes adult-related content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to restrict access by underaged children.

Consider also the following real case studies 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 substantial $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 received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred randomly-chosen websites, more than 90% had infringed at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had infringed at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 with warnings or lose access entirely to the Google program they had infringed, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

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

Regardless of whether you are a:

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

It’s imperative to make sure that your website stays fully compliant with the law.

Compliance With 3rd-Party Companies - ToS, Policies, etc.

All of the big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the importance of complying with the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your visitors know that your website complies with all necessary laws and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also required by most companies you interact with online.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Google requires websites to display certain information if using their services. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Earning revenue online with your WordPress blog with Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense advertising policy requirements)

Or promoting your business using Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information products through companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you will need to add a number of legal pages before your products can be approved for sale in their marketplace …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for digital product sellers)

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also requires that you include clear disclaimers and statements to visitors, especially if you plan to sell products or services online using product testimonials or endorsements …

(FTC – 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. Search online and you will see that many websites are still unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this often prompts the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute 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 chances. Even if your business is not physically located in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your site complies with FTC regulations.

There are many business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site 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 Applications

If you plan to create apps that integrate with your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others require you to provide information about your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether or not you may be 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 plan to promote anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to include on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve been wondering whether “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 Pages Does My Website Need To Be Compliant?

If your website or blog is lacking in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.

At its most basic, adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your business stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities and external service providers, and avoid possible legal issues):

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

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

• Affiliate Disclosure (e.g. if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides general financial information)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Use Of Media (if you allow media downloads on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right type of disclosure to your website is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Disclosure that informs users that you will not receive any form of compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets site users be aware that you will be compensated if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
• Sample/Review Copy – Lets your visitors be aware that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re reviewing or writing about by the author or product developer.
• Sponsored Post – Lets your readers know 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you should consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this done, there are several ways to add them to your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares the legal verbiage for you in HTML format, you can simply upload these to your server, or have someone upload them for you.

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

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu)

Displaying Legal Pages On Your Site

Make sure that your legal pages are kept up-to-date and clearly visible to all visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) to ensure that visitors have access to legal information from every web page …

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

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

• How To Configure WordPress Widgets On Your Sidebar

Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

For more information, go here:

• FindLegalForms.com

Alternatively, you can purchase a set of cut & paste website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

These legal pages were written by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

The legal forms 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 FTC regulations 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 pages and publish or upload these to your web server as described earlier.

To learn more, visit this site:

• Website Legal Pages

Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using templates, you can keep things very simple by using WordPress plugins.

Here are some great WordPress plugins worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)

If the idea of setting up legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using a plugin like WordPress 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 and effort.

Some of the benefits of using WordPress Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and completely editable legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like every other page on your website.
• Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when you publish.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. Page unlocks and can be accessed only when the user agrees to your terms.
• New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.

After installing WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu feature will display inside your main dashboard menu section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)

With WPLegal Pages, you have the option of easily creating legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites, review sites, e-commerce sites, etc …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

You can also choose from several pre-written legal templates …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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

To learn more this WordPress plugin, go here:

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

Learn more about this plugin here:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(Legal Suite Pro)

Legal Suite Pro 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 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 one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites.

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

If hiring lawyers to create your legal documentation 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.

We want your website to be legally protected!

Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or consider using 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)

Legal Pages Generator quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website complies with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines provided by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or using online. Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of regulations, some of which you may not even be aware of.

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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.

References And Resources

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

• FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• FTC 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 …

• 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 legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly add legal pages to your WordPress website.

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