One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of having broken the law.
If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring significant financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and easy-to-use WordPress solution that can help make your website fully compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the internet continues to grow at breakneck speed and rules keep changing, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains compliant, especially if your web presence is a fundamental component of your overall business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to list your digital products on their network, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and many other social sites will suspend your web applications, and you will not be accepted into a range of other advertising and merchant networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, you could also face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if your online business is not in compliance, trust and confidence in your business may become an issue.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
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 may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with federal, state or local laws that govern your business,
- The importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or endorsing online, and
- There are solutions that can help your business become compliant, such as the solution that we review in this post.
In this article, we review a complete compliance and disclaimer plugin for your WordPress-based digital presence.
Announcing …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is an easy-to-install and simple-to-use plugin for WordPress users containing over 20 customizable compliance templates for your site …
More info: Compliance Bar Plugin
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your website or blog instantly compliant:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Compliance Bar Plugin installs just like any other plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin account and activate.
Easy To Edit Page Templates
Easily modify the pre-built legal page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the WordPress visual content editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides a dedicated team to help users with anything they need.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Customized Templates: The Compliance Bar plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - an entire library of training videos is provided if users need assistance.
- Can Be Used In Every Country: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to make sure that the legal page 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 For All Niches: If your website or blog is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for any website purpose. Select only the types of disclaimers that pertain to your specific business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out any that are irrelevant.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features
Compliance Bar offers a number of features to WP users. Below we have listed just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Show Attractive Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere on your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Sensitive Information – If you plan to show content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law. The plugin displays an attractive bar that notifies users and protects your website from non-compliance.
- Records And Stores IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar records and stores the IP address of your visitors for future reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcodes – The plugin is integrated with shortcodes to populate compliance pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (including the pop-ups).
- Compatible With All Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices or tablets and will display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the web browser being used.
Features – Details
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” section gets added to your WordPress backend.
Let’s review these briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this screen where you can enter your information into entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Desk URL,” “Company Phone Number,” “Refund Duration (Days),” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section – Image source: plugin documentation)
The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to insert the information from your User Profile fields into your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required data has been entered into the profile fields, users can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen contains all of your legal templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Below is the complete list of legal templates made available by the plugin when we last checked their website:
- 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 can be easily done. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” in the “Compliance Pages” area …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Pages – Screenshot 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 icons for referencing your legal pages …
Icons can be changed. 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: Legal Page Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Pages
You can easily edit and delete the legal templates in the “Compliance Pages” tab, just as you would any other page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Compliance Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Editing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin notifies you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. compliance pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to show links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, specifying which pages should be included in the Compliance Bar, whether or not to display the Compliance bar on your front page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different icons on different pages, or to cover different uses in different areas of your website.
- The plugin lets you display the Compliance Bar on the home page of your site, even if you are using a specific premium theme framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” 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 specified your Compliance Bar settings, it displays links to your compliance pages through dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance bar to show …
PopUps
If your site includes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that force users to accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create unlimited Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover a range of uses throughout your site …
You can also specify a delay time if you don’t want Pop Ups to display as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time period, and capture 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 you do business in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
Compliance Bar lets you customize the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” tab …
(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” menu, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials customers have submitted regarding Compliance Bar Plugin:
“1000% Highly Recommend This” Anthony La Rocca – Founder (Hustle Marketing)
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”I Highly Recommend Compliance Bar” Tony Grant (Portfolio Sports)
Compliance Bar Plugin – Useful Tips
Below are a few useful ways you can use Compliance Bar:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Displaying compliance icons on specific pages only.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out your 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 view your content.
Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated 24/7 plugin support to assist users if they experience any difficulties. Plugin users also have access to a complete set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your version of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hours (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund twice your purchase price.
Software Cost
- Single – Can be installed on one of your own domains. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Install the plugin on twenty-five of your own sites. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional License – Can be installed on multiple domains that you own. Install the plugin on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: The cost to purchase the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Information
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal templates have already been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your own peace of mind.
For a demo video of the plugin in action, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Our Recommendation
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven sites. We recommend 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 – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
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