Tag: Legal Pages

One of the worst situations a website owner can find themselves in is to be on the wrong side of the law.

As the digital realm continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s absolutely essential to try and stay on top of what’s going on and ensure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if having a digital presence plays an important part in your overall business strategy.

New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your site for commercial gain, you must follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau)

The new laws affect various online business activities, including:

• Any kind of advertising, like Google AdSense
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

Without certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could shut down your account, Facebook will disapprove your web applications, and you won’t be allowed to enrol in many advertising or online marketing networks.

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

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that your website(s) are subject to certain legal requirements according to laws that govern businesses online, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of other providers whose products or services you may be endorsing on your website, and that there are easy solutions that can help your site become compliant, such as the tools that we discuss further below.

Is Your Site Compliant?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice. As stated earlier, this article is designed only to help make you aware that your website may be subject to a number of legal requirements in accordance with federal, regional or local laws and regulations governing your business and that you may be required to comply with the terms of service of 3rd-party companies whose products or services you use

The Importance Of Making Your Website Compliant

Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:

• A person has a cardiac arrest after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives someone an adverse reaction.
• You’ve informed subscribers that you won’t sell their information, but you haven’t clearly spelled out what you will do with the details you have collected.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their own site.
• There is no statement on your site telling your site visitors that you are an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you could get paid an affiliate commission if they purchase via your affiliate link.
• You did not spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
• A visitor claims that your testimonials are fake and decides to sue you.
• You didn’t disclose in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
• Your website contains adult-related content and you did not take appropriate measures to restrict access by underage persons.

Consider too these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he was also ordered to issue a copy of the judgement to everyone he does business with for the next 20 years — including employees.
• A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping Users IDs. Many internet marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars 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% were in breach of 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 notices or lose access to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to be exposed to the risks of non-compliance?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
• MLM Networker
• 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 important to do whatever is necessary to make sure that your online business complies with all laws governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.

Complying With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of 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 business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you interact with online.

Here are just some examples:

Google requires your site to display certain information when using many of their services or product features. This includes Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Monetizing your sites with Google AdSense …

(Google AdSense ads - policy requirements)

Or promoting your services or products using 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 networks, you will need to add legal pages to your site before your products can be approved for sale in their networks …

(ClickBank – policy requirements for digital product sellers)

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

(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)

New FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply

FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites 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 companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you do any type 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 interests by making sure that your site is compliant with all FTC guidelines and regulations.

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

(You must word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)

Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements

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

(Apps for social networking sites also require compliance)

• If you are unsure as to whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then assume that you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything on your site using affiliate marketing, or monetizing your pages 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 display on your site to comply with all Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• 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 third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)

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

If you suspect that your website or blog lacks in terms of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your site should help your business stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party providers, and help to avoid potential legal issues):

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

As well as the above, you may want to look into including one or more of the pages listed below if applicable:

• Affiliate Disclosure (if you sell or promote affiliate products and services)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides financial advice)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Disclosure Pages – Types

Adding the correct type of content disclosure is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Informs visitors that you will not receive any kind of compensation for writing the article.
• Affiliate Links – Lets your visitors be aware that you may receive compensation if they act on your recommendation and buy through one of your affiliate links.
• Review/Sample Copy – Informs your visitors that you have received a review or sample copy of the product or service 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 users 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 display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.

Adding Legal Pages Content To Your Website

Ideally, you should have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once you have this, 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 as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.

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

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

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

(Custom WordPress Menu Feature)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Site

After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can add these to the WordPress sidebar (or place them in the footer 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 legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer menu using widgets, refer to this tutorial:

• Configuring Widgets On Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu

Using Store-Bought Legal Templates

You can find attorney-drafted disclosures and downloadable website forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to websites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(FindLegalForms.com)

Go here to learn more:

• FindLegalForms.com – Legal forms

Another option is to download a package of cut & paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert …

Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages

(Website Legal Pages)

Cut & Paste website legal 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 business details, then pasted into your pages.

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

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google, etc.
• Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.

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 these to your web server as described earlier.

To learn more, visit this site:

• Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Templates

Legal Page Plugins

As well as using templates, you can keep things really simple by using a plugin.

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

WP Legal Pages

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin)

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

This plugin is not free, but it’s a low-priced and well-supported premium plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your website a lot easier and save you many headaches.

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

• Built-in Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
• Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes fully customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
• Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other page on your website.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
• Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any other page on your site.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When the user agrees to your legal terms, the page unlocks.
• New Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will be added to your dashboard section …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Menu)

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

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings Area)

You have the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, e-commerce sites, etc …

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

Choose from several built-in 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

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

• WP Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users that includes over twenty customizable compliance templates for your online business …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Legal Suite Pro Plugin

(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 Use
• 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. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less 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).

Visit this website to learn more:

• Legal Suite Pro

If hiring 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 legal services.

We want your site to be legally safe!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal forms, or a WordPress plugin - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, 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, you need to ensure that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the terms of service and guidelines required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website isn’t compliant 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, we are not lawyers and we provide no legal advice here. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements in your country or region.

References And Resources

Below is a useful list of websites we suggest you visit to better understand what your website may require to remain compliant and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• Better Business Bureau
• 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
• US Copyright Office

Also …

• Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
• Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
• 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 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 and easily add legal pages to your WordPress site.

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