One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
Your website must comply with a number of laws and regulations, many of which you may probably not even be aware of.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring financial loss, but also the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this post, we review a simple and cost-effective WordPress solution that can help make your site fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the cybersphere continues growing at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vitally important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your online presence is a fundamental component of your business strategy.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party 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 shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and other social sites will suspend your web apps, and you will not be allowed into a range of advertising and merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to being exploited by opportunistic online users.
At the very least, if your website is not in compliance, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to seriously diminish.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice in this article.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with mandatory laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may 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 promoting or endorsing online, and
- There are easy-to-use solutions that can help your business become compliant, such as the solution that we discuss below.
In this article, we review a simple WordPress plugin that provides a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your web presence.
Today’s WordPress Plugin Is …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a simple plugin for WordPress websites and blogs with over twenty customizable legal templates for your site …
For more details go here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your website instantly compliant:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Ready To Use In Minutes.
Compliance Bar installs just like any WordPress plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate.
Easy To Edit Templates
You can easily edit the pre-built compliance page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the visual content editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin developers provide a dedicated support team to assist you if you experience any problems.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Customized Compliance Templates: The plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - an entire library of training videos is provided.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the legal page 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 In All Niches: As long as your website or blog is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Just select the templates you need to include in your site and ignore any irrelevant pages.
Compliance Bar Features
Compliance Bar provides many features to site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed on different locations on your page. You can also upload your own icons.
- Show Restricted Content – If you plan to publish content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that require users to accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you do business in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU compliance requirements. The plugin displays an attractive bar that notifies users and covers your website from non-compliance issues.
- Records And Stores IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar records and stores the IP addresses of your visitors for reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcodes – The plugin is integrated with shortcodes that populate legal pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (even in the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and will display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the mobile browser being used.
Using Compliance Bar
Once the plugin is installed, the plugin’s “Settings” screen is added to your WP admin area.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this section where your business information can be input (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Business Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Refund Duration (Days),” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to insert and display the information from your User Profile fields in your legal templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) data has been input into the profile fields, you can then access the other plugin screens.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen contains all of your compliance pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the Compliance Bar plugin website, there were over 22 legal pages available for complying with online business laws and regulations:
- 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
- XXX Disclosure
Creating compliance pages for your blog or website can be easily done. Just select the checkboxes next to the pages you want to create and click the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Compliance Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to your “Pages” section.
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 theme …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Templates
You can easily customize and delete the legal templates in the “Compliance Pages” area, just as you would any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Editing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. legal pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin settings area provides various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to show links or icon images, background colors and images, image size, specifying which pages to include an icon for 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 sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create unlimited Compliance Bars to show different icons on different pages, or to cover different uses in different areas of your website.
- The plugin allows you to display a Compliance Bar on the front page of your site, even if you are using a specific WordPress theme (like Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” 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 specified your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your compliance pages through a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance bar to be featured …
PopUps
If your website has content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that restricts access to visitors who do not accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create multiple Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses in different sections of your site …
You can also specify a delay time if you don’t want the Pop Ups to display immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and even record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you must make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
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” tab …
(EU Cookies Section: 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” section, lists all of your legal disclaimer templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” area, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have written about 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
Below are a few additional ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protection against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages of your site.
- Reduce refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If your site published content for adult viewers, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Plugin Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated plugin support team to assist users with anything they need. You also get access to an entire library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 30 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 business hours (M – F), the plugin developers will refund double the amount of the purchase price.
Product Pricing
- Single Site Personal License – Can be installed on 1 of your own sites. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business – Can be installed on up to twenty-five of your own domains. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Edition – Install the plugin on all as many of your own domains as you want. Can be installed on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: Pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the product site 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 Plugin – Additional Information
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers claim on their website that all legal 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 a demo video showing how the plugin works, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Get This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven sites. We recommend downloading and installing this WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements in your country or region.
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