One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to suddenly discover that you have broken the law.
Your website or blog has to comply with various laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may probably not even 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 easily and inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and easy-to-use solution for WordPress users that can help make your website fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues to grow at breakneck speed and the rules of the game constantly change, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence is an integral component of your business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not approve your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook and many other social networks could suspend your web apps, and you will not be allowed into most other advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
If you are not in compliance, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, without making it very clear to your visitors that your online properties comply with legal requirements and regulations, it could affect your visitors trust and confidence in doing any future business with you.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern your business,
- How important it is to be compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be offering or endorsing online, and
- There are easy solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your site become more compliant, such as the tool that we discuss below.
In this article, we review a complete compliance & disclaimer plugin for your WordPress-based digital business.
Announcing …
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
To learn more about this plugin go here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits Of Using Compliance Bar
Here are just some of the benefits of using Compliance Bar to make your website instantly compliant:
Fast Installation
Compliance Bar is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Easy To Edit Templates
Easily edit the prebuilt templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the visual content editor.
24/7 Plugin Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides a dedicated support team to help users.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Customized Templates: Compliance Bar will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and a complete library of training videos is available.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to make sure that the built-in legal templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Use On All WordPress Sites: If your website runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Select only the types of disclaimers that pertain to your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and ignore those that are unnecessary.
Compliance Bar Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides a number of features to WP users. Here are just some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Show Visually Appealing Icons – The plugin displays links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere on your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Sensitive Content – If your website has content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU compliance laws. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying users and covering your site from non-compliance issues.
- Records And Stores IP Addresses – Compliance Bar records and stores the IP addresses of your visitors for future reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcodes – The plugin uses shortcodes that populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (including the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on the browser being used.
Using The Plugin
After installing and activating the plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” section gets added to your WordPress admin area.
Let’s briefly review these sections …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this section where your information can be input (e.g. “Business Name,” “Registered Business Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Refund Period,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Desk URL,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to dynamically insert and display the information from your User Profile inside your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been entered into the plugin settings fields, users can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen includes a list of all of your templates …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the plugin website, there were over 20 legal pages available, addressing all aspects of compliance:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure Statement
- Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Contact Us
- Copyright/DCMA Notice
- Disclaimer
- Double Dart Cookies
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- FTC Statement
- Legal Disclaimer
- Linking Policy
- Medical Disclaimer
- Privacy Policy
- Returns/Refund Policy
- Support
- Terms
- Terms & Conditions
- Testimonial Disclosure
- Adult Content Disclosure
Creating compliance pages for your website is a simple process. Just select the checkboxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” on the “Compliance Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
Icons are customizable. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Template Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can easily modify and delete the compliance templates in the “Compliance Pages” area, just like any other page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Editing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin will notify you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before installing the plugin).
Compliance Bar
You have various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to display links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, specifying which pages should be included in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your main page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and more …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create multiple Compliance Bars to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover different uses in different areas of your website.
- The plugin allows you to display the Compliance Bar on the main page of your site, even if you are using a specific WordPress theme framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a normal “static” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile device screens, there is a limit to the number of page icons you can display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have configured your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your compliance pages using a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like to display the compliance bar …
PopUps
If your site includes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), you can display pop-ups that restricts access to users who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” page gives you full control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create several customized Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want Pop Ups to display as soon as visitors arrive, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time interval, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Image source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law …
The plugin lets you manage the settings for compliance with EU User Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” screen …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Image source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” tab, lists all of your legal page templates and shortcodes, and lets you edit their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” tab, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have published about Compliance Bar Plugin:
”WOW” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
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”You wouldn’t drive a car around without insurance…so don’t RISK your online business by neglecting a simple, but important detail: website compliance. Grab your copy of Compliance Bar & protect yourself today!” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Useful Tips
Here are a few extra ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages of your website.
- Minimizing refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before purchase.
- If you have adult content on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Plugin Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated team to assist users if they experience any difficulties. You also have access to an entire library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, thirty day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your copy of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 business hours (M – F), the plugin developers will refund twice your purchasing price.
Software Cost
- Single – Can be installed on a single site. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business License – Install the plugin on up to twenty-five of your own sites. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Install the plugin on all domains that you own. Can be installed on all client sites as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: The price of Compliance Bar depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Legal Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For a demo video of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
Install This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-powered websites. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
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