One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect consumer rights, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering significant financial losses and the cost to your reputation. Why risk your money and your business reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?
In this post, we review a simple and easy-to-use WordPress solution that can help make your site legally compliant just minutes.
Is Your Site Legally Compliant?
As the internet continues growing at an extraordinary rate and rules keep changing, it’s vital to stay on top of what’s happening and to make sure that your website or blog remains compliant with all laws and regulations, especially if your online presence is a significant component of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not let you list your digital products on their network, PayPal could shut down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook and many other social sites could suspend your applications, and you won’t be allowed into a range of other advertising and merchant networks.
If your website is not in compliance, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
At the very least, without making it clear to your visitors that your web properties comply with all legal requirements and regulations, trust and confidence in your business could seriously diminish.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies!)
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice on this website.
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that:
- Your website could be subject to certain legal requirements in accordance with mandatory federal, state or local laws and regulations 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 may be promoting or using on your website, and
- There are inexpensive solutions that can help your site become compliant, such as the solution that we review in this article.
If your web site lacks in areas of compliance, we review below a simple plugin for WordPress users you may be interested in knowing more about.
Presenting …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Compliance Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your online business …
Go here to learn more about this plugin: Compliance Bar
Compliance Bar Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your site instantly compliant:
Installation Is Easy, Fast & Simple
Compliance Bar Plugin is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator area and activate.
Editable Templates
You can easily make changes to the built-in templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu using the WYSIWYG content editor.
24/7 Plugin Support
The plugin develop provides a dedicated support team to assist users if they experience any problems.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Customized Templates: The plugin creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Full Video Training: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and an entire library of training videos is provided if users need assistance.
- Can Be Used In Every Country: As long as you consult someone who is qualified to give you legal advice to ascertain if the default legal templates provided in Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin wherever your business is located.
- Can Be Used On All WordPress Sites: As long as your site is driven by WordPress, you can use the plugin for any website purpose. Select only the types of disclaimers that suit your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and leave out any templates that you don’t require.
Features
Compliance Bar Plugin offers many unique features to WordPress users. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Display Visually Appealing Icon Bar – Display links to your legal pages in the form of attractive icons that can be placed on different locations in your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
- Display Sensitive Information – If you plan to display content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, adult-related, etc.), you can display popups that force users to accept your website’s terms and disclaimers.
- EU Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in the EU or display your content to EU visitors, you must be aware of EU compliance laws. The plugin displays an attractive bar notifying visitors and covering you from non-compliance.
- Record And Store IP Acceptance – Compliance Bar records and stores your visitors’ IP address for future reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims otherwise.
- Shortcodes – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes to automatically populate the templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (including the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – The plugin has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and tablets and will display mobile optimized icons automatically depending on the mobile browser being used.
Features – Details
After installing and activating the plugin, users have access to various sections where you can configure the plugin’s settings.
Let’s briefly review these …
User Profile
There are a number of default fields in this area where you can enter your information into entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Support Email,” “Location Details,” “Product Name,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Registered Business Address,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Screen – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
Compliance Bar uses shortcodes to dynamically insert and display the information you have entered into your User Profile in your page templates …
(Compliance Bar User Profile Section: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) data has been entered into the user profile fields, you can then access the other areas of the plugin.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” section lists all of the pages …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Templates – Image source: plugin documentation)
Last time we checked the Compliance Bar plugin website, there were over 20 legal pages available, covering all aspects of compliance:
- 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 ”Save” in the “Compliance Pages” area …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added under your “Pages” section.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin is installed with a built-in set of attractive icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons are customizable. You can purchase additional icons from the plugin developer, or create/upload your own to match the style of your site’s design …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Page Template Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Compliance Templates
You can easily modify and delete your legal pages in the “Compliance Pages” tab, just as you would any other WordPress page …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Page Templates – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Tips
- Editing your compliance templates 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
You have many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including where to position the bar, whether to display links or icon images, background colors and images, image 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 sourced from plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create multiple Compliance Bars to show different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website.
- The plugin allows you to 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 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 screens, 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 through a visually attractive icon bar on your site …
You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like the compliance icons to display …
PopUps
If you plan to show content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. content related to alcohol, tobacco, adult, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that blocks access to users who do not accept your terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” screen gives you full control over the settings and wordings of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image source: plugin documentation)
You can create multiple customized Pop Ups displaying on different pages, or to cover a range of uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time if you don’t want the Pop Ups to display immediately, set a cookie duration 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 – 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 compliance requirements …
The plugin lets you edit 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 compliance templates and shortcodes, and lets you modify their content …
General Settings
The “General Settings” tab, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin update notifications …
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have provided for Compliance Bar:
”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)
Compliance Bar Plugin Tips
Here are a few useful ways to use Compliance Bar:
- Protecting against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
- Display compliance icons on specific pages only.
- Ending refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before customers purchase.
- If you publish content for adults only on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Plugin Support
Plugin Developers provide users with a dedicated plugin support team to help you with anything you need. Plugin users also get access to an entire set of training videos.
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 (Monday to Friday), your cost of purchase will be refunded in double.
Software Price
- Single – Can be installed on a single site. Price = $37 (Normally $127)
- Business – Install the plugin on twenty-five of your own domains. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Developer License Edition – Install the plugin on all domains that you own. Can be installed on any client site as part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.
Please Note: Current pricing for the Compliance Bar Plugin product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details: Compliance Bar
Additional Info
Legal Pages Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers claim on their website that all legal page templates have already been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get advice from a qualified legal expert in your area for peace of mind.
For ”how to” videos showing how the plugin works, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, 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-driven websites and blogs. We recommend downloading and installing this WordPress plugin if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – WordPress Compliance Plugin
Note: Once again, we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice here. 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 wherever your business is based.
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