One of the worst things that can happen to you as a website owner is to break the law.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring serious financial loss, 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-use solution for WordPress users that can help make your website compliant just minutes.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
As the internet 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 website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is an essential component of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal may shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and many other social networks will suspend your web applications, and you won’t be accepted into a number of leading advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
Plus, you could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
At the very least, without making it clear to your visitors that your web properties comply with all legal requirements and regulatory guidelines, trust and confidence in your business may become an issue.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice here.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website may be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with mandatory federal, state and local laws that govern your business,
- The importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or using online, and
- There are easy solutions for WordPress site owners that can help your site become more compliant, such as the plugin that we review in this article.
In this article, you will learn about a complete compliance & disclaimer plugin for your digital business.
Today We Review …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
The Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
To learn more about the plugin go here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to instantly make your web site legally compliant:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Compliance Bar Plugin is quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Legal Page Templates Are Easy To Edit
Easily modify the default compliance page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the WordPress visual editor.
24/7 Plugin Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated support to help users with anything they need.
Some additional benefits of using the plugin include:
- Customized Templates: Compliance Bar will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - a complete library of training videos is available.
- Use In All Countries: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to make sure that the built-in legal page templates provided in Compliance Bar 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 site is powered by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Just select the legal pages you need to include in your site and leave out irrelevant pages.
Features
Compliance Bar offers many great features to site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in minutes.
- Display Visually Appealing Icons – Compliance Bar displays links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere in your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Sensitive Content – If you plan to show content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, adult content, etc.), you can display popups that force users to accept your terms and disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must be aware of EU Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies your visitors and protects your business from non-compliance issues.
- Records & Stores IP Addresses – The plugin can record your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcodes – The plugin uses shortcodes to populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (including the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and can display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the web browser being used.
Plugin Features – Details
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” area will be added to your WP admin area.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this screen where you can enter your business details into entered (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Company Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Niche Area,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to insert the information into your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been input into the user profile fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen lists all of your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
When we last checked the plugin website, there were over 22 compliance page templates available to WordPress 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
- Adult Content Disclosure
Creating legal 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 on the “Create Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Page 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 is installed with a default set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar 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: Legal Page Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Page Templates
You can easily customize and delete your legal pages in the “Compliance Pages” screen, just as you would any typical WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing your legal 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 various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to show 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 home page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and more …
(Compliance Bar Screen: Create Bar – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create a number of Compliance Bars to show different icons on different pages, or to cover various uses in other sections of your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the main page of your site, even if you are using particular WordPress themes (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or Woo), 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 displays 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 to display your compliance bar …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), you can display popups that force users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” area gives you full control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create an unlimited number of Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your site …
You can also set a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time interval, and capture 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 you do business in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
The Compliance Bar plugin 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” section …
(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 legal disclaimer templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” screen, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin update notifications …
Feedback From Customers
Here are some of the testimonials plugin users have written about the Compliance Bar Plugin plugin:
”WOW” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
***
“Don’t Risk Your Online Business” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Plugin Tips
Here are some useful ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Display compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before purchase.
- If you include content for adult viewers on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Support
Compliance Bar provides users with a dedicated team to help users. Plugin users also get 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 hours (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund double your cost of purchasing.
Software Cost
- Single Site License – Install the plugin on 1 of your own sites. Price = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Edition – Can be installed on twenty-five domains that you own. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Can be installed on all sites that you own. Install the plugin on all client sites for payment or part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: Current pricing for Compliance Bar can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar Plugin – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Additional Plugin Info
Legal Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by a lawyer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get professional advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for peace of mind.
For ”how-to” videos of the plugin in action, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer 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-driven websites and blogs. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin
Important: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law in your country or region.
***