One of the worst situations you can find yourself in as a website owner is to break the law.
Your digital presence has to comply with a whole range of laws and regulatory guidelines, some of which you are probably not even aware of.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering serious financial losses and the loss of 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 easy-to-use solution for WordPress users that can help make your site fully compliant in minutes.
Does Your Website Comply With The Law?
As the cybersphere continues growing at breakneck speed and the rules of the game are constantly changing, it’s important to stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your site remains legally compliant, especially if your online presence is a fundamental component of your overall business strategy.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms of service, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank will not allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal could close down your account and freeze your funds, Facebook will suspend your applications, and you won’t be accepted into most advertising or affiliate merchant networks.
Plus, you may also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to legal action.
At the very least, if you don’t make it clear to your visitors that your site complies with legal requirements and regulatory guidelines, trust and confidence in your business could be damaged.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party websites require you to comply with their terms of use!)
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 certain legal requirements in accordance with compulsory laws that govern your business (some of which you may not even be aware of),
- How important it is to comply 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 plugins for WordPress users that can help your website become compliant, such as the solution that we review below.
If you suspect that your web site is lacking in terms of compliance, below we discuss a simple WordPress plugin that you will probably be very interested in using.
Introducing …
Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Legal Plugin
Plugin Description
Compliance Bar Plugin is a simple and easy-to-use plugin for WordPress sites containing over twenty customizable compliance pages for your digital presence …
More info: Compliance Bar Plugin
Benefits Of Using Compliance Bar
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar to instantly make your site legally compliant:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Compliance Bar installs just like any other plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Easy-To-Edit Templates
Easily modify the pre-built templates inside the plugin from the settings menu using the WordPress WYSIWYG content editor.
Dedicated 24/7 Support
Compliance Bar plugin provides a dedicated support team to help you.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Customized Templates: The plugin will create your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
- Complete Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not complicated to use - a full library of training videos is provided if you need help.
- Use In Every Country: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to make sure that the legal templates provided with Compliance Bar are suitable and satisfactory for your business, country and website, you can use the plugin anywhere in the world.
- Use In All Niches: If your website is powered by WordPress, you can use the plugin for all kinds of websites. Select only the types of disclaimers which suit your particular business model (e.g. affiliate or CPA marketing, business services, AdSense, AdWords, adult, medical, etc) and ignore any pages that are irrelevant.
Features
Compliance Bar Plugin provides many unique features to website owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to use in no time.
- Display Visually Appealing Icon Bar – The plugin will display links to your compliance pages using attractive icons that can be placed anywhere on your pages. You can also upload your own icons.
- Display Restricted Content – If your website publishes content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult, etc.), you can display pop-ups that require users to accept your terms and 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 Cookie law. Compliance Bar displays an attractive bar that notifies visitors and protects your website from non-compliance issues.
- Records And Stores IP Addresses – Compliance Bar can record and store your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case a visitor accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
- Shortcodes – Compliance Bar is integrated with shortcodes to automatically populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your site or blog, (including the popups).
- Mobile Friendly – Compliance Bar has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices or tablets and will display mobile optimized icons automatically based on the browser being used.
Using Compliance Bar
After installing and activating the Compliance Bar plugin, you 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 fields in this area where you can enter your information into input (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Support Desk URL,” “Location Details,” “Niche Area,” etc.). Not all categories are compulsory, but some are (e.g. “Contact Name,” “Company Phone Number,” etc.)
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Section – Image source: plugin documentation)
The plugin uses dynamic shortcodes to insert and display the information from your User Profile inside your legal templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Image source: plugin documentation)
Once the minimum required information has been entered into the plugin settings fields, you can then access the other plugin screens.
Compliance Pages
The “Compliance Pages” screen includes a list of all of the templates …
(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
When we last checked the plugin website, there were over 20 legal pages available:
- 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 compliance pages for your website or blog by simply selecting checkboxes and clicking the “Save” button on the “Create Pages” screen …
(Compliance Bar: Compliance Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)
Your legal pages will then be created and added to your “Pages” section.
Compliance Bar Icons
The plugin comes with a built-in set of icons for referencing your legal pages …
The Compliance Bar icons can be changed. 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: Legal Template Icons – Image source: plugin documentation)
Edit / Delete Legal Pages
You can edit and delete your legal page templates from the “Compliance Pages” section, just like any typical page in WordPress …
(Compliance Bar: Edit Legal Pages – Image source: plugin documentation)
Notes
- Customizing the compliance pages is recommended, as the pages contain generic content.
- The plugin notifies you if it detects existing similar pages on your site (e.g. legal pages created before you installed the plugin).
Compliance Bar
You have many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, displaying links or icon images, background colors and images, icon size, specifying which pages to include an icon for 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 source: plugin documentation)
Notes:
- You can create more than one Compliance Bar to display different disclaimers on different pages, or to cover various uses throughout your website.
- The plugin lets you display a Compliance Bar on the home page of your site, even if you are using particular 3rd-party themes (like 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” WordPress page.
- Due to the smaller size of mobile screens, you can only select up to a certain number of page icons to display if you turn Mobile Settings “on.”
Once you have configured your Compliance Bar settings, it displays 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 display the compliance bar …
PopUps
If you plan to display content that should be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult content, etc.), you can display pop-ups that blocks access to visitors who do not accept your website’s terms or disclaimers.
The “Create Pop Up” section gives you full control over the settings and customization of your pop ups …
(Pop Ups Screen: Create Pop Up – Image sourced from plugin documentation)
You can create more than one Pop Up for different pages, or to cover different uses throughout your website …
You can also set a delay time to prevent a Pop Up from displaying immediately, set cookie durations to prevent Pop Ups from displaying again within a specific time period, and even 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 you are based in the EU 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 Compliance Bar plugin lets you edit the settings for compliance with EU User Cookies requirements, including the wording of your notification message and link text in the “EU Cookies” tab …
(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” screen, lists all of your legal templates 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 receiving plugin updates …
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin customers have written about Compliance Bar:
”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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”Truly Amazing Product!” Patrick Mauchant – PT Enviromate Technology
Compliance Bar Plugin – Useful Tips
Below are a few useful ways you can 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.
- Reduce refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before purchase.
- If you publish content for adult viewers on your website, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.
Support
Plugin Developers provide users with dedicated plugin support to help you with anything you need. Users also have access to full video training manuals.
Additionally, your purchase is backed by a risk-free, 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 business hours (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund twice the amount of your purchase price.
Software Price
- Single Site Personal License – Can be installed on a single domain. Cost = $47 (Normally $127)
- Business Licensing – Install the plugin on up to twenty-five of your own sites. Cost = $67.00 (Normally $197).
- Professional – Can be installed on multiple domains that you own. Can be installed on all client sites for payment or as part of a paid service. Cost = $97.00.
Note: Current pricing for Compliance Bar depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this content was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here: Compliance Bar Plugin
Compliance Bar – Additional Information
Legal Pages Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assert on their website that all legal page templates have been reviewed and approved by a 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 showing plugin usage, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, customer helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.
Get The Plugin
Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-driven websites. We recommend 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 – Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Note: Once again, we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law wherever your business is based.
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