Tag: Legal Pages

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

Online laws were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t excuse 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 plan to promote anything on your website for commercial gain, you will need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, 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 to learn more.

(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program)

These laws has consequences for various online business activities, including:

• Any form of advertising, including Google AdWords or AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank or JVZoo won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could shut down your account, Facebook could reject web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in a range of advertising or online marketing networks.

You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.

This guide explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and how to quickly add legal pages to your website or blog.

Is Your Website Breaking The Law?

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. As previously stated, the purpose of this article is only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal policies in accordance with the laws and regulations governing your business and that compliance may be required with the terms of service of companies whose products or services you promote

Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important

Is your business at risk? Consider for one moment what could happen to your business if any of the situations below were to happen:

• A person suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
• The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives someone who purchases from your link an allergic reaction.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you have not informed them exactly what you’ll do with it.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
• There is no statement on your website or blog letting your site visitors know that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you may receive an affiliate commission if they purchase it.
• You didn’t spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• Visitors claim the testimonials on your site are all fake and decide to sue you because of it.
• You have not disclosed that you received a free copy in a product review.
• Your site publishes adult information and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider now the following real 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 a debt reduction offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer was slapped with a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• 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, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independent 2010 study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% were in violation 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 breaking 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 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 through non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

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

It’s vitally important to ensure that your website remains legally compliant.

Complying With Third-Party Services

All of the big companies and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of third-party service providers.

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

For example:

Google requires your site to display legal information when using many of their products or service. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)

Making money online with your websites using Google AdSense advertising …

(Google AdSense - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services through Google AdWords …

(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)

If you plan to sell information products through merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will be required to add various legal pages before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements digital product vendors selling via ClickBank)

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

(FTC – consumer policies and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

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 ignore) these requirements. As has already been the case, this will most likely prompt the FTC to make an example of businesses and prosecute companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any kind of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business interests by ensuring that your site is compliant with FTC regulations and guidelines.

Many business resources provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business comply with FTC requirements. See the 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 plan to develop applications for your site users, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide access to your 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 service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything on your site via affiliate marketing, or generate revenue with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon ads, or driving visitors to your site using Google AdWords, 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 - don’t risk having your accounts shut down.
• If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)

Common Legal Pages You Should Include In Your Site To Ensure Compliance

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

At its most basic, adding the following legal pages to your website should help your website stay out of trouble with most regulatory agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “take down” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimers
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

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

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you provide information about affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website provides general information about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
• Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
• Media Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

It’s important to add correct disclosures to your site. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your readers be aware that you’re not receiving compensation for writing the post.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your readers know that you will be compensated if they buy through an affiliate link.
• Sample Or review Copy – Disclosure that informs users that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re writing about.
• Sponsored Post – Discloses to users that you have been compensated in some way to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets users know 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 show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been created, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Pages To Your Website

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

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

(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)

You can then easily add a link to your legal pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Web Pages On Your Website

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly accessible to visitors. You can insert these into the sidebar (or place them in the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors can access the information from all your pages …

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

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

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Sidebar

Using Store-Bought Legal Templates

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

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

More info:

• FindLegalForms.com

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

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Website Legal Pages)

These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a simple quick search and replace to insert your own details, then pasted into your web pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates Federal Trade Commission guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
• Privacy Policy: Google, DoubleClick DART, etc.
• ToS & Conditions of Use.

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

More info:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Plugins

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

Here are some great legal plugins for WordPress-driven websites worth looking into:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Legal Pages)

If creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages …

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

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

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of your basic legal pages 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!)
• Easy To Edit Pages – Full WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any other page on your site.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lock down. Page unlocks and can be accessed when users agree to your legal terms.
• New Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

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

(WordPress Legal Pages – Menu)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)

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

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)

Choose from various pre-written legal templates …

(WordPress Legal Pages – Built-In 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 about using this great plugin, visit this site:

• WordPress Legal Pages

Compliance Bar Plugin – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

total website compliance and disclaimer solution …

For an in-depth review of this plugin go here:

• Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance

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 Plugin 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 site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the license allows you to install and use this plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).

Go here for more information:

• Legal Suite Pro Plugin

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

We want your website to be legally 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)

Legal Pages Generator allows you to 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 we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of business online, it’s important that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and any guidelines and terms of service (TOS) of 3rd-party sites that you may decide to promote or offer online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumers, 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, please note that we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice. You are strongly advised to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts to ensure that your website fully complies with the law concerning your specific business.

Additional Information

Here is a useful list of additional sites we suggest you visit to better understand what your site may require to remain compliant and meet its legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission 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 – BBB
• 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

And …

• 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 you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information above to quickly add essential legal pages to your WordPress website using inexpensive solutions.

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