One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring financial losses, but also the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this article, we look at a simple and very inexpensive solution for WordPress users that can help make your site legally compliant just minutes.
Is Your Website Or Blog Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules constantly change, it’s important that you stay on top of what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains legal, especially if your digital presence is an essential component of your business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites 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 various advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
At the very least, without making it very clear to your visitors that your online properties comply with all legal requirements and guidelines, expect visitor trust and confidence in your business to be irrepairably damaged.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to numerous legal requirements in accordance with federal, state or local laws and regulations that govern your business (some of which you may probably not even be aware of),
- How important it is to remain compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you may be offering or using on your website, and
- There are easy solutions for WordPress website owners that can help your business become compliant, such as the tool that we discuss in this post.
In this article, we review a total compliance and disclaimer plugin for a WordPress-based digital presence.
Today We Review …
Compliance Bar – WordPress Legal Plugin
Plugin Description
The Compliance Bar Plugin For WordPress is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your web presence …
More info: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar to instantly make your website legally compliant:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Compliance Bar Plugin installs like any other plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Legal Page Templates Are Really Easy To Edit
You can easily modify the pre-built templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the visual editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Support
Compliance Bar provides a dedicated support team to assist users if they experience any difficulties.
Additional benefits include:
- Customized Templates: The Compliance Bar plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training Library: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use - a complete library of training videos is provided.
- Use Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to make sure that the built-in templates provided in the plugin 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 website is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for every website purpose. Just select the legal pages you want to include in your site and leave out any irrelevant pages.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many unique features to site owners. Below we have listed just some of these:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in no time.
- Show Visually Appealing Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere in your pages. You can also upload your own icons.
- Display Sensitive Information – If you plan to show content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), the plugin can display popups that require users to accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If you do business in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies your users and covers you from non-compliance issues.
- Records And Stores IP Addresses – Compliance Bar records the IP address of your visitors for reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes that populate compliance pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (even in the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on visitor browsers.
Features – Details
After installing and activating the plugin, users will then get access to a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default categories in this section where your information can be entered (e.g. “Business Name,” “Registered Company Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Niche Area,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Registered Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses dynamic shortcodes to populate and display the information from your User Profile inside your legal page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been entered into the profile fields, users can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen contains all of your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Below is the complete list of templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked the 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
You can easily create legal pages for your website by simply selecting checkboxes and clicking the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Create Pages” tab …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal 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: Legal Page Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Page Templates
You can easily modify and delete your legal page templates in the “Compliance Pages” tab, just as you would any typical WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin indicates if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
You have various 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 more …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create several Compliance Bars to display different icons 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 Woo), where the home page is configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a normal “static” WordPress 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 configured your Compliance Bar settings, it displays links to your legal through a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have complete control over the location on your pages where you would like to display your compliance bar …
PopUps
If your site has content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult content, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that require users to accept your terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” screen gives you complete control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
You can create unlimited customized Pop Ups for different pages, or to cover different uses in different sections of your website …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want the Pop Ups to display as soon as visitors arrive, set a cookie duration to prevent Pop Ups from appearing again within a specific time period, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Section: IP Log Details – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you do business in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU Cookie law …
The Compliance Bar plugin lets you customize the settings for compliance with EU Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” section …
(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” area, lists all of your compliance pages and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” menu, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
User Feedback
Below are just a few of the testimonials and comments that users have provided for Compliance Bar Plugin:
”One of the most annoying parts about building out a site is to make sure it complies with the law. I always leave this part to the end because its painfully dry and boring and frankly I always just wished their was an easier way. Then I came across Compliance Bar and its literally the most versitile and brilliant plugin I have ever used. All my pages meet FTC requirements now and all I had to do was press a button! Anton and Jon..you guys friggen rock — 1000% highly recommend this!!” Anthony La Rocca – Founder (Hustle Marketing)
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”If you are like me, you maybe have quite a few WordPress sites, all needing attention and most importantly, all needing to be on the right side of the law! I’ve tried several legal pages plugins and in pretty much every case, they let me down. They simply cause more work than they solve.To me, the answer should be simple. It should work and it should let me get on with building my site. After all, I know I NEED to do this stuff, but hey, I don’t really WANT to! So, for me, I don’t want those plugins that cause more work than they solve. Simple eh? Well now it is because Anton & John have just created this baby that is the answer to my needs. The Compliance Bar Plugin does what I need it to do then lets me get on with my empire building…Perfect!” Tony Grant (Portfolio Sports)
Useful Tips
Below are a few additional ways you can use Compliance Bar:
- Protect against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Display compliance icons only on specific pages.
- Reduce refund disputes by clearly spelling out your refund terms before purchase.
- If your website includes content that is considered inappropriate for persons below a certain age, 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 plugin support team to help users if they experience any problems. You also get access to video training manuals.
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 hrs (M – F), your cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Software Price
- Single Site Personal License – Can be installed on one site that you own. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business Edition – Install the plugin on twenty-five domains that you own. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Can be installed on all as many of your own sites as you like. Can be installed on any client site as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Please Note: The price of Compliance Bar can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Compliance Bar Plugin
Additional Info
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert 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 for your own peace of mind.
For demo videos showing plugin usage, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
Our Recommendation
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven sites. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Legal Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
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