One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
Your internet presence needs to comply with a number of federal, state and even local laws, many of which you are probably not even aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring financial costs, but also the loss of 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 easy-to-install solution for WordPress users that can help make your site compliant just minutes.
Is Your Site Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues to grow at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vitally important that you stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if your web presence is a significant component of your overall business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your website (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you will not be accepted into most leading advertising or merchant networks.
If your online business is not compliant, you could also end up facing a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if you are not in compliance, it may affect your visitors trust and confidence in doing business with you in the future.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use!)
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with compulsory 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 using online, and
- There are easy-to-install solutions that can help your site become compliant, such as the tool that we review below.
In this article, we review a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital business.
Today’s WordPress Plugin Is …
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a simple and easy-to-use WordPress plugin containing over twenty customizable compliance disclaimers for your digital business …
Learn more about the plugin here: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your web site instantly compliant:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Compliance Bar installs like every WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP admin login and activate.
Easy-To-Edit Page Templates
You can easily modify the default compliance page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the WordPress WYSIWYG editor.
Dedicated Plugin Support
Compliance Bar provides a dedicated plugin support team to assist users.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Customized Compliance Pages: The plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - an entire library of training videos is provided.
- Use In All Countries: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the legal templates provided in Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Use For All Website Purposes: If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, you can use the plugin for every website purpose. Just select the templates you want to include in your site and leave out the irrelevant pages.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features
Compliance Bar Plugin offers a number of features to WP users. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icon Bar – Display links to your legal pages using attractive icons that can be positioned on different locations on your pages. You can also upload your own icons.
- Show Sensitive Information – If you plan to show content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult content, etc.), the plugin can display popups that force users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If you are based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU compliance requirements. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying visitors and covering your website from non-compliance.
- Record & Store IP Addresses – The plugin records your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes to automatically populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (including the popups).
- Compatible With All Mobile Devices – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and can display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the mobile browser being used.
Features – Details
After installing and activating the Compliance Bar plugin, users will then have access to a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured.
Let’s review these settings briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this screen where your information can be entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Desk URL,” “Contact Phone,” “Refund Period,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Support Desk URL,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to insert the information from your User Profile fields inside your page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the user profile fields, you can then access the other plugin areas.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” area includes a list of all of your legal template pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the Compliance Bar plugin website, there were over 22 compliance page templates available to plugin users:
- 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
- XXX Disclosure
Creating legal pages for your site can be easily done. Just select the checkboxes next to the pages you want to create and click the “Save” button on the “Create Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a default set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The 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 Plugin: Legal Page Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Page Templates
You can modify and delete your compliance pages from the “Compliance Pages” screen, just like any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin will notify 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 many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to show links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, selecting 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, etc. …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create an unlimited number of Compliance Bars to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover various uses in different sections of your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the home page of your site, even if you are using particular 3rd-party theme frameworks (like 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” WordPress 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 compliance pages through a visually appealing icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature the compliance bar …
PopUps
If your website contains content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), the plugin can display popups that blocks access to users who do not accept your terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area gives you full control over the settings and wordings of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create several Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying immediately, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time interval, and store 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 visitors in the EU, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
Compliance Bar lets you edit 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 sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar has a non-intrusive way of notifying your visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
Page Templates
The “Page Templates” screen, lists all of your compliance pages and shortcodes, and lets you modify their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” screen, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
Feedback From Plugin Users
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that customers have published about Compliance Bar Plugin:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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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)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Below are some 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.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you include content for adult readers on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Support
Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated plugin support to assist users with anything they need. Users also have access to full video training manuals.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 30 day, 200% refund 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), your cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Plugin Cost
- Single User Licensing – Install the plugin on a single domain that you own. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Install the plugin on 25 of your own sites. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Edition – Can be installed on multiple as many of your own domains as you want. Can be installed on all client sites as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Please Note: Pricing details of the Compliance Bar Plugin software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by lawyers. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get 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 installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
In Conclusion
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress sites. We recommend downloading and installing this WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Note: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
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