One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
If your website isn’t compliant with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring significant financial losses and the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this post, we look at a simple and cost-effective WordPress solution that can help make your website fully compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules are constantly changing, it’s vital that you stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your website or blog remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence is a fundamental part of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your web site (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 will not allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend your web apps, and you won’t be accepted into a number of leading advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to being exploited by opportunistic people or organizations.
At the very least, if your website is not compliant, trust and confidence in your business may become an issue.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on our website.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with mandatory laws that govern your business,
- The importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be promoting or endorsing online, and
- There are easy solutions for WordPress users that can help your business become more compliant, such as the plugin that we review below.
If your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, below we review a simple WordPress plugin that you should know more about.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is an easy-to-install and simple-to-use plugin for WordPress users with over 20 customizable compliance disclaimers for your online business …
More info: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your website or blog compliant:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Ready To Use In No Time.
Compliance Bar is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Easy-To-Edit Page Templates
Easily modify the built-in legal templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the WordPress visual content editor.
24/7 Support
Compliance Bar provides dedicated support to help users with anything they need.
Additional benefits include:
- Customized Templates: The plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training Library: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and a complete library of training videos is provided.
- Can Be Used Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to make sure that the legal templates provided in the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Can Be Used For Any Website Purpose: 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 irrelevant.
Features
Compliance Bar offers many features to web site owners. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Show Visually Appealing Icons – Display links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed anywhere in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Restricted Information – If your website includes content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), the plugin can display popups that force users to accept your terms and disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you are based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying visitors and covering your website from non-compliance issues.
- Records & Stores IP Acceptance – The plugin can record and store your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to populate legal pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (even in the popups).
- Works On All Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on visitor mobile browsers.
Using The Plugin
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” area is added to your WP admin area.
Let’s review these settings briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this area where you can enter your business information into entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Company Address,” “Location Details,” “Product Name,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Registered Business Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to populate and display the information from your User Profile fields in your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been input into the user profile fields, you can then access the other plugin areas.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section contains all of the plugin’s legal pages …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
When we last checked the Compliance Bar plugin website, there were over 22 compliance page templates made available:
- About Us
- AdSense Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreements
- Affiliate Disclosure
- 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
You can easily create compliance pages for your website simply by selecting checkboxes and clicking the “Save” button on the “Compliance Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside the “Pages” section of your site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons can be changed. You can purchase an additional set of icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Pages
You can edit and delete the compliance disclaimer templates in the “Compliance Pages” tab, just as you would any typical WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before installing the plugin).
Compliance Bar
You have many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to display links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, selecting 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, etc. …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create unlimited Compliance Bars to display different icons on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in other areas of your site.
- The plugin allows you to display the Compliance Bar on the front page of your site, even if you are using particular theme frameworks (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a normal “static” page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile device screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have configured your Compliance Bar settings, it displays links to your legal using dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like your compliance icons to be featured …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), you can display popups that restricts access to visitors who do not accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up for different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your site …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time interval, and even record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Screen: IP Log Details – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
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 requirements …
Compliance Bar 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” area …
(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” area, lists all of your compliance disclaimers and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” tab, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin update notifications …
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback users have provided for Compliance Bar Plugin:
”I got a chance to review the Compliance Bar plugin…WOW!! I have to say that its definitely one of the most NECESSARY, yet easiest to use plugin’s to hit the scene in a while. Very Solid Product. Great job Anton & team!” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
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”Truly Amazing Product!” Patrick Mauchant – PT Enviromate Technology
Useful Tips
Below are a few useful ways to use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons on specific pages only.
- End refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If your website includes content for adult readers, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Product Support
Compliance Bar provides users with a dedicated team to help users if they experience any issues. You also have access to an entire set of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, thirty day, 200% refund guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hrs (M – F), your purchase price will be refunded in double.
Software Price
- Single User Personal License – Can be installed on 1 of your own sites. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business License – Can be installed on up to twenty-five sites that you own. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Edition – Install the plugin on multiple of your own sites. Can be installed on any client site for payment or part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: The price of the Compliance Bar Plugin software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product sells for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the product site 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 – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Additional Info
Legal Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal templates have already been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For ”how-to” videos showing plugin usage, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
What We Recommend
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites and blogs. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no 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 in your country or region.
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