One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to be on the wrong side of the law.
If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of suffering 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 very inexpensive WordPress solution that can help make your site compliant just minutes.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
As the digital business realm continues to grow at breakneck speed and rules keep changing, it’s vital that you stay informed about what’s going on and to make sure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is a significant part of your business strategy.
If there are no legal pages on your site (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many 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 freeze your funds, Facebook and other social networks could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed into many other advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
At the very least, if you don’t make it clear to your visitors that your website complies with all legal requirements and guidelines, it may affect your visitors trust and confidence about doing business with you in the future.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines!)
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 could be subject to various legal requirements in accordance with federal, state or local laws and regulations that govern your business,
- How important it is to remain compliant 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 business become more compliant, such as the plugin that we discuss in this post.
In this article, we review a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your WordPress-based web presence.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital business …
Go here to learn more about this plugin: Compliance Bar
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar to instantly make your website or blog legally compliant:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Compliance Bar installs just like every plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Editable Legal Page Templates
Easily modify the built-in legal page templates inside the plugin from the settings menu with the WordPress visual editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated plugin support to assist users.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Customized Compliance Pages: Compliance Bar creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and an entire library of training videos is provided if users need assistance.
- Use In Every Country: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to make sure that the built-in legal templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever your business is located.
- Can Be Used In All Niches: If your website or blog is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Select only the types of disclaimers which suit your specific business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and ignore any that you don’t require.
Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many great features to site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Show Attractive Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed anywhere on your page. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Restricted Content – If you plan to publish content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in Europe or display your content to visitors in the EU, you must be aware of EU compliance requirements. The plugin displays an attractive bar notifying users and covering your site from non-compliance issues.
- Record And Store IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar can record your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they didn’t.
- Shortcode Driven – The plugin uses shortcodes that populate compliance pages with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site, (including the pop-ups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically depending on visitor mobile browsers.
Using Compliance Bar
Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” screen is added to your WordPress backend.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this screen where your business information can be input (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Desk URL,” “Contact Phone,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Company Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar User Profile Screen – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
The plugin uses shortcodes to populate and display the information from your User Profile inside your page templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been entered into the profile fields, you can then access the other sections of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen lists all of the plugin’s compliance page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Below is the complete list of template pages made available by the plugin when we last checked their site:
- 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
- XXX Disclosure
Creating legal pages for your website is a simple process. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” on the “Create Pages” section …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under the “Pages” section of your WordPress site.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a default set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons are customizable. You can purchase an additional set of icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your theme …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Template Icons – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Pages
You can easily customize and delete the legal templates in the “Compliance Pages” area, just as you would any typical WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Page Templates – Screenshot source: 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. compliance pages created before installing the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, selecting which pages to include an icon for 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, and more …
(Compliance Bar Section: Create Bar – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create unlimited Compliance Bars to display different icons on different pages, or to cover various uses in other sections of your site.
- The plugin allows you to display a Compliance Bar on the front page of your website, even if you are using a specific theme framework (like Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a normal “static” page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile device screens, 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 compliance pages through a visually appealing icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like to feature the compliance icons …
PopUps
If your site has content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), Compliance Bar can display pop-ups that force users to accept your terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” page lets you fully customize your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up displaying on different pages, or to cover a multitude of uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want Pop Ups to display 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 Screen: IP Log Details – Image source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If you are 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 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” screen, lists all of your compliance disclaimers and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” section, lets you access general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin updates …
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials and comments plugin users have submitted regarding the Compliance Bar plugin:
”WOW” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
***
”You wouldn’t drive a car around without insurance…so don’t RISK your online business by neglecting a simple, but important detail: website compliance. Grab your copy of Compliance Bar & protect yourself today!” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Here are some useful ways you can use The Compliance Bar Plugin:
- Protection against content theft by spelling out terms of use of your website.
- Display compliance icons only on specific pages of your website.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you include content for adults only 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 dedicated 24/7 plugin support to assist users if they experience any difficulties. Users also get access to video training.
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 business hours (M – F), the plugin developers will refund twice the amount of the purchasing price.
Product Pricing
- Single Edition – Install the plugin on a single domain. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business – Install the plugin on twenty-five of your own sites. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer – Install the plugin on multiple of your own domains. Install the plugin on any client site as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Note: Pricing for Compliance Bar depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here: Compliance Bar
Additional Information
Templates Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal templates have already been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly 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 of the plugin, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
Install This Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress websites. We recommend downloading and installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
***