One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to receive a notice of legal action as a result of breaking the law.
Your internet presence must comply with a wide range of federal, state and even local laws, some of which you are probably not even aware of.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering significant financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
In this post, we review a simple and easy-to-install WordPress solution that can help make your site fully compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the digital realm continues growing at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s vital that you stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your web presence is a fundamental part of your business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t approve your digital products on their network, PayPal may close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and other social sites could suspend your apps, and you will not be allowed into a number of advertising or affiliate marketing networks.
If your digital presence is not compliant, you could face a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, if your web presence is not in compliance, visitors may lose trust and confidence in your business.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to various legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws that govern your business (some of which you may probably not even be aware of),
- The importance of complying 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 website become more compliant, such as the plugin that we discuss in this post.
In this article, we review a complete compliance & disclaimer plugin for a WordPress-based website.
Today’s WordPress Plugin Is …
Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your online presence …
Go here to learn more: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar to instantly make your web site compliant:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
Compliance Bar is quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Templates Are Very Easy To Edit
Easily edit the built-in templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu with the WYSIWYG editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Plugin Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides dedicated plugin support to assist users if they experience any difficulties.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Customized Templates: 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 - a full library of training videos is provided.
- Can Be Used In All Countries: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the default 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.
- Use For Any Website Purpose: If your site is built with WordPress, you can use the plugin for all website purposes. Select only the types of disclaimers which pertain to your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and ignore any pages that are irrelevant.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features
Compliance Bar offers many unique features to site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- Show Visually Appealing 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 your own icons.
- Display Restricted Content – If you plan to show content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that force users to accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU Cookie law. The plugin displays an attractive bar that notifies visitors and protects your website from non-compliance issues.
- Record And Store IP Acceptance – The plugin records and stores the IP addresses of your visitors for future reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcodes – The plugin is integrated with shortcodes that automatically populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (even in the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices or tablets and will display mobile optimized icons automatically based on visitor web browsers.
Using Compliance Bar Plugin
After installing and activating the plugin, users get access to a number of sections where you can configure the plugin’s settings.
Let’s review these briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this area where your business details can be entered (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Address,” “Company Phone Number,” “Refund Duration (Days),” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Business Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Image source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to automatically insert the information from your User Profile fields in your legal templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been input into the plugin settings fields, users can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen lists all of your compliance pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Below is the full list of templates made available by the plugin when we last checked their website:
- 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 check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” at the bottom of the “Create Pages” area …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added inside the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a built-in set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
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 Plugin: Compliance Template Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can customize and delete your compliance page templates in the “Compliance Pages” area, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing your compliance templates is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. compliance pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin settings area provides various options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, displaying 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 – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create a number of Compliance Bars to show different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using a specific theme framework (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” page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have specified your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your legal using a visually appealing icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature your compliance icons …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that blocks access to visitors who do not accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” tab gives you complete control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create an unlimited number of Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover different uses in different sections of your site …
You can also set 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 capture 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 need to be aware of EU compliance laws …
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 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” tab, lists all of your legal templates and shortcodes, and lets you edit their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
Testimonials From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have published about the Compliance Bar plugin:
”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)
Useful Tips
Here are some extra 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.
- Minimize refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before purchase.
- If your website contains adult content, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Plugin Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated plugin support team to assist you if you experience any problems. Plugin users also have 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 hrs (M – F), your money will be refunded in double.
Product Price
- Single – Can be installed on one domain that you own. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Licensing – Install the plugin on 25 sites that you own. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Licensing – Install the plugin on all sites that you own. Install the plugin on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: The price of Compliance Bar Plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details: Compliance Bar
Additional Information
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 highly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for your own peace of mind.
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 website.
Get This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress websites and blogs. We recommend downloading and installing this WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Note: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
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