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 a law or regulation.
If your website doesn’t comply with laws intended to protect the rights of consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of suffering 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 review a simple and easy-to-use solution for WordPress users that can help make your site compliant in minutes.
Is Your Website Legally Compliant?
As the digital business realm continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules are constantly changing, it’s vitally important to stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your web presence is an integral part of your business strategy.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not approve your digital products for sale, PayPal may close down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed into a range of advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
You may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
At the very least, if you are not in compliance, it could impact on your visitors trust and confidence in doing any business with you in the future.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to many legal requirements in accordance with mandatory laws that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- The importance of being compliant with the terms of service of third-party providers whose products or services you are offering or using online, and
- There are plugin-based solutions for WordPress users that can help your business become compliant, such as the plugin that we discuss in this post.
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress users that provides a complete compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital presence.
Announcing …
Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-install and simple-to-use plugin for WordPress sites with over twenty customizable legal templates for your online presence …
To learn more about this plugin go here: Compliance Bar
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your site instantly legally compliant:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Compliance Bar is quite easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin user login and activate.
Templates Are Very Easy To Edit
You can easily edit the pre-built legal page templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu with the WordPress visual content editor.
24/7 Support
The plugin developers provide dedicated support to help users with anything they need.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Customized Templates: The Compliance Bar plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use and an entire library of training videos is available.
- Use Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to make sure that the legal templates provided with the plugin are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever you are located.
- Use On All WordPress Sites: As long as your website or blog is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Select only the types of disclaimers that suit your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out any that are not required.
Plugin Features
Compliance Bar offers a number of great features to WordPress users. Below we have listed just some of these:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in no time.
- Display Attractive Icon Bar – Display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed anywhere in your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Restricted Content – If your website contains content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), the plugin can display pop-ups that force 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 must be aware of EU compliance requirements. The plugin displays an attractive bar notifying visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
- Records & Stores IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar can record and store 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 – The plugin uses shortcodes to automatically populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (including the pop-ups).
- Mobile Friendly – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on visitor web browsers.
Features – Details
Once you have installed the plugin, a section where the plugin’s settings can be configured will be added to your WP backend.
Let’s review these briefly …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this section where your information can be input (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Registered Company Address,” “Contact Phone,” “Company Registration Number,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Website URL,” “Registered Business Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses dynamic shortcodes to populate the information you have entered into your User Profile into your legal pages …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been entered into the profile fields, users can then access the other plugin areas.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen includes a list of all of the legal page templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Below is the full list of 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 compliance pages for your website or blog can be easily done. Just select the check boxes next to the pages you want to create and click the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Create Pages” area …
(Compliance Bar: Legal Page Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under 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 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 Page Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily edit and delete the compliance page templates in the “Compliance Pages” area, just like any other page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Edit Legal Pages – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Tips
- Editing your compliance 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. compliance pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
The plugin offers various 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, specifying 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 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 various uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the front page of your site, even if you are using a specific theme framework (e.g. Genesis, Thesis or Woo), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme settings as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” 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 will display links to your compliance pages 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 you plan to publish content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, ecigs, dating, etc.), the plugin can display popups that force users to accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” screen gives you complete control over the settings and wordings of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Section: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up for different pages, or to cover a range of uses throughout your site …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want Pop Ups to display as soon as visitors arrive, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time period, and record the IP addresses of visitors who accept your terms and disclaimers for future reference …
(Pop Ups Screen: IP Log Details – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
EU Cookies
If your business is based in Europe or display your content to EU visitors, you need to be aware of EU Cookie law …
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” screen …
(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” tab, lists all of your legal templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify the page content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” screen, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and receiving plugin updates …
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have provided for Compliance Bar Plugin:
”WOW” Shon Chris – Director (JV Peer Group)
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“Don’t Risk Your Online Business” Mike Thomas (The Mike From Maine Show)
Useful Tips
Here are some useful ways you can use Compliance Bar:
- 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 the refund terms before customers purchase.
- If your site contains content for adults only, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to access your content.
Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated support to assist users with anything they need. You also get access to a complete library of training videos.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 30 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 business hours (M – F), your money will be refunded in double.
Product Cost
- Single – Can be installed on 1 domain that you own. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Licensing – Can be installed on up to 25 sites that you own. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer License – Install the plugin on all of your own domains. Can be installed on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Please Note: Pricing details of the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Info
Legal Pages Reviewed By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal templates have been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we highly recommend that you get professional 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 installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar 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 WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – WP Compliance Plugin
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice here. 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.
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