One of the worst predicaments you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
Your digital presence needs to comply with a whole set 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 incurring both 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 look at a simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress users that can help make your site compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the cybersphere continues growing at breakneck speed and rules constantly change, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your digital presence is a fundamental part of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your website (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal may shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook and other social sites could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed into most other advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
If your online business is not in compliance, 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 your web presence is not compliant, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to be irrepairably diminished.
(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 offer no legal advice on our website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to various legal requirements in accordance with compulsory federal, state or local laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- The importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are promoting or using on your website, and
- There are plugin-based solutions for WordPress users that can help your website become compliant, such as the solution that we review in this article.
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress-powered sites that provides a total compliance & disclaimer solution for your website.
Announcing …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Legal Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-install plugin for WordPress websites that contains over 20 customizable compliance disclaimer templates for your site …
For more details go here: Compliance Bar
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar to make your web site instantly legally compliant:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Compliance Bar Plugin installs like any other plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Easily Editable Page Templates
Easily edit the prebuilt legal page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the WordPress WYSIWYG editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin developers provide a dedicated team to help you if you experience any difficulties.
Additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Customized Legal Templates: The plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use and a complete library of training videos is provided if users need help.
- Use In All Countries: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the default 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 Niches: If your website runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. 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 ignore those that you don’t require.
Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many features to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Display Attractive Icons – Compliance Bar will display links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned on different locations on your pages. You can also upload your own icons.
- Show Restricted Information – If your website publishes content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), you can display pop-ups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU User Cookie Compliance – If you are based 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. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar notifying visitors and covering your business from non-compliance issues.
- Records & Stores IP Addresses – The plugin can record the IP address of your visitors for reference, just in case a user accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcodes – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes to populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (even in the popups).
- Compatible With Mobile Devices – The plugin has settings for displaying on mobile devices and can display mobile optimized icons automatically based on the web browser being used.
Compliance Bar Plugin Features – Details
Once the Compliance Bar plugin has been installed, the plugin’s “Settings” area will be added to your WP dashboard.
Let’s review these settings briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this section where your business information can be entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Company Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Niche Market,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Desk URL,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses shortcodes to dynamically insert the information inside your page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the plugin settings fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” area lists all of your templates …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Below is the full list of legal templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked their website:
- 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 legal pages for your blog or website is a simple process. Just select the checkboxes next to the pages you want to create and click the “Save” button in the “Create Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to 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 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: Legal Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can edit and delete your legal templates from the “Compliance Pages” tab, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes
- Editing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin notifies you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before installing the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin settings area provides many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to display 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 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 more than one Compliance Bar to show different icons on different pages, or to cover different uses in different sections of your site.
- 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 framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile devices, 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 legal using dynamic icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature your compliance icons …
PopUps
If your site contains content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), you can display popups that blocks access to visitors who do not accept your site’s terms and disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” tab lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create a number of customized Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover a range of uses in different areas of your website …
You can also specify a delay time to prevent Pop Ups from displaying as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, 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 you are based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …
The Compliance Bar 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” screen …
(EU Cookies Screen: Manage Settings – Screenshot 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” tab, lists all of your legal page 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 receiving plugin update notifications …
Feedback From Plugin Customers
Below are some of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted for the Compliance Bar Plugin plugin:
”One of the Best Plugins I Have Used” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)
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”I wanted to reach out & say Compliance Bar is a truly amazing product for keeping my online marketing efforts on the right side of the internet laws. Not only does it look fantastic on my sites, it is also intuitive and robustly powerful. It is packed full of features to allow me the flexibility to control exactly what my visitors need to see and know” Patrick Mauchant – PT Enviromate Technology
Plugin Tips
Below are a few additional ways to use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages.
- Minimize refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before customers purchase.
- If your site includes adult content, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Compliance Bar Product Support
Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated plugin support to assist users with anything they need. Plugin users also have access to an entire library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, thirty day, 200% refund guarantee. If your version of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hours (Monday to Friday), your cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Software Price
- Single – Install the plugin on one of your own sites. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business Edition – Can be installed on 25 of your own sites. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional Licensing – Can be installed on all of your own sites. Can be installed on any client site for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: Pricing details of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Additional Info
Legal Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers state on their website that all legal templates have already been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get legal advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.
For ”how-to” videos of the plugin, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar Plugin website.
Download The 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.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with the law wherever your business is based.
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