One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
Your website or blog needs to comply with a whole range of federal, state and even local laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you may probably not even be aware of.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of incurring serious financial losses and the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your business reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this post, we review a simple and very inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your site compliant in minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?
As the internet continues to grow at an extraordinary rate and the rules constantly change, it’s vitally important to stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your website or blog remains legal, especially if your digital presence is a fundamental component of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not approve your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and many other social networks will suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed into a range of leading advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
At the very least, if your website is not compliant, visitors could lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their policies!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with the laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may probably not even be aware of),
- The importance of being compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or using online, and
- There are solutions that can help your business become compliant, such as the plugin that we review in this post.
In this article, you will learn about a total compliance & disclaimer plugin for a WordPress-based site.
Our WordPress Plugin Of The Month Is …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
The Compliance Bar Plugin For WordPress is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your website …
Learn more here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your site instantly compliant:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Compliance Bar Plugin installs like every WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user login and activate.
Editable Templates
Easily edit the built-in legal templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the visual editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated support to assist you.
Additional benefits of using the plugin include:
- Customized Legal Pages: Compliance Bar creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and a full library of training videos is available if users need assistance.
- Use In All Countries: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the built-in legal templates provided in the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Can Be Used For All Website Purposes: As long as your website runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Select only the types of disclaimers which pertain to your specific business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out any pages that are not required.
Compliance Bar Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many features to site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- Display Attractive Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be placed on different locations in your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Show Restricted Information – If you plan to display content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that require users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU User 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 requirements. The plugin displays an attractive bar notifying your users and covering you from non-compliance.
- Record & Store IP Addresses – Compliance Bar can record your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcodes – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes that automatically populate legal pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (including the pop-ups).
- Mobile Friendly – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on visitor mobile browsers.
Features – Details
Once the Compliance Bar plugin is installed, a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured gets added to your WP admin area.
Let’s review these briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this screen where you can input your information into entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Registered Business Address,” “Location Details,” “Market Niche,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses dynamic shortcodes to populate the information into your page templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the user profile fields, users can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” area includes a list of all of the plugin’s compliance template pages …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Here’s the complete list of templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked the site:
- 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
You can create compliance pages for your blog or website quickly and easily simply by selecting checkboxes and clicking ”Save” at the bottom of the “Create Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under the “Pages” section of your site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a default set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The 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 Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can easily edit and delete the compliance disclaimers in the “Compliance Pages” screen, just as you would any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Editing your compliance pages 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 many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying 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 main page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to show different icons on different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website.
- The plugin allows you to display a Compliance Bar on the home page of your site, even if you are using particular theme frameworks (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), 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 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 displays links to your legal through dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature your compliance bar …
PopUps
If your site includes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), you can display pop-ups that restricts access to visitors who do not accept your terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section gives you complete control over the settings and wordings of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create multiple customized Pop Ups for 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 cookie durations 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 Screen: IP Log Details – Image sourced from 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 compliance laws …
The plugin lets you edit 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” screen, lists all of your compliance templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have provided for Compliance Bar:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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“Don’t Risk Your Online Business” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Here are a few extra ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Display compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Minimizing refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you publish content for adult readers on your site, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Support
Compliance Bar provides users with a dedicated team to assist you with anything you need. You also have access to video training.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 200% money-back guarantee. If your version 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 double your cost of purchasing.
Software Cost
- Single – Can be installed on a single domain. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business – Can be installed on up to twenty-five of your own domains. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional License – Install the plugin on multiple of your own domains. Install the plugin on any client site for payment or as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: Pricing details of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here: Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin – Additional Information
Legal Pages 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 advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For demo videos of the plugin in action, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
We Recommend
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 more information, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this 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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