Compliance Bar

One of the worst things that can happen to a website owner is to break the law.

Your digital presence has to comply with a whole set of laws, many of which you may probably not even be aware of.

Being non-compliant not only puts you at risk of incurring financial loss, but also the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and your good reputation, when you can protect yourself so easily and inexpensively?

In this post, we look at a simple and cost-effective WordPress solution that can help make your website legally compliant just minutes.

Does Your Site Comply With The Law?

As the digital realm continues growing at an extraordinary rate and the rules constantly change, it’s important that you stay informed about what’s happening and to make sure that your website remains legally compliant, especially if your online presence is an integral aspect of your business strategy.

If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, legal disclaimers, etc.), many sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t let you list your digital products for sale, PayPal may shut down your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook and other social networks could suspend your web applications, and you won’t be allowed into a number of advertising and merchant networks.

If you are not compliant, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

At the very least, if your online business is not in compliance, trust and confidence in your business could seriously diminish.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use!)

Note

Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we offer no legal advice on this website.

The purpose of this article is to make you aware that:

Your website could be subject to various legal requirements in accordance with mandatory federal, state or local laws and regulations that govern your business,
How important it is to maintain compliance 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 more compliant, such as the solution that we discuss in this post.

If your web site is falling short in terms of compliance, there is a simple WordPress plugin you should know more about.

Presenting …

Table of Contents

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar – Website Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Plugin Description

The Compliance Bar Plugin is a complete compliance & disclaimer solution for your web presence …

Learn more about the plugin here: Compliance Bar Plugin

Benefits

Here are just a few of the benefits of using Compliance Bar Plugin to make your website instantly compliant:

Be Up And Running In No Time

Compliance Bar Plugin is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate.

Editable Legal Page Templates

Easily modify the pre-built templates inside Compliance Bar from the settings menu with the WordPress visual editor.

24/7 Plugin Support

The plugin develop provides dedicated support to assist users with anything they need.

Additional benefits and advantages include the following:

Customized Compliance Page Templates: Compliance Bar creates your legal pages in seconds and customizes them to your business and website.
Video Training Manuals: Compliance Bar is not difficult to use and a complete library of training videos is available.
Can Be Used Anywhere In The World: As long as you consult a qualified legal representative to ascertain if the legal page 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.
Use For Every Website Purpose: As long as your website runs on WordPress, you can use the plugin for every website purpose. Just select the pages you want to add to your site and ignore unnecessary pages.

Plugin Features

Compliance Bar offers many unique features to WP users. Here are just some:

Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to go to work in minutes.
Show Visually Appealing Icon Bar – The plugin will display links to your compliance pages in the form of attractive icons that can be positioned anywhere in your pages. You can also upload icons of your choice.
Show Sensitive Content – If your site includes content that needs to be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, tobacco, dating, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that force users to accept your site’s terms or disclaimers.
EU Cookie Compliance – If your business is based in the EU or display your content to visitors in the EU, you need to be aware of EU compliance requirements. The plugin displays an attractive bar that notifies visitors and protects your website from non-compliance issues.
Records And Stores IP Addresses – The plugin can record your visitors’ IP address for reference, just in case someone accepts your terms or disclaimers and then claims they haven’t.
Shortcode Driven – Compliance Bar uses shortcodes that automatically populate templates with your personal information. These shortcodes also allow you to place information anywhere on your website, (even in the popups).
Works On All Mobile Devices – Compliance Bar has individual settings for displaying on mobile devices and displays mobile optimized icons automatically based on the mobile browser being used.

Compliance Bar Plugin Features – Details

Once you have installed the Compliance Bar plugin, the plugin’s “Settings” section gets added to your WordPress backend.

Let’s review these briefly …

User Profile

There are a number of default fields in this section where your information can be entered (e.g. “Website URL,” “Support Desk URL,” “Company Phone Number,” “Niche Market,” etc.). Not all categories are required, but some are (e.g. “Business Name,” “Support Email,” etc.)

(Compliance Bar User Profile Page – Image source: plugin documentation)

The Compliance Bar Plugin uses shortcodes to insert and display the information inside your legal pages …

(Compliance Bar Plugin User Profile Page: Shortcodes – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)

Once the minimum required (i.e. compulsory) information has been input into the user profile fields, users can then access the other areas of the plugin.

Compliance Pages

The “Compliance Pages” screen lists all of the plugin’s templates …

(Compliance Bar: Legal Templates – Image sourced from plugin documentation)

Here’s the full list of templates made available by the Compliance Bar plugin last time we checked the site:

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 blog or website is a simple process. Just select the checkboxes next to the pages you want to create and click ”Save” on the “Create Pages” screen …

(Compliance Bar Plugin: Legal Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)

Your legal pages will then be created and added to the “Pages” section of your site.

Compliance Bar Icons

The plugin is installed 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 theme …

(Compliance Bar Plugin: Compliance Page Icons – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)

Edit / Delete Compliance Templates

You can easily modify and delete the compliance pages in the “Compliance Pages” screen, just as you would any other page in WordPress …

(Compliance Bar: Edit Compliance Pages – Screenshot source: plugin documentation)

Tip

Tips

Editing 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 you installed the plugin).

The plugin offers many options to customize the Compliance Bar, including position, whether to show 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 home page, which pages the Compliance Bar will display in, mobile settings, and offset distance …

(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 a range of uses in other areas of your website.
The plugin lets you display the Compliance Bar on the main page of your website, even if you are using a specific premium theme framework (like Genesis, Thesis or WooThemes), where the home page is specifically configured through the theme itself as a built-in template, and not as a “regular” WordPress 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 specified your Compliance Bar settings, it will display links to your compliance pages using a visually appealing icon bar on your site …

You have full control over the location on your pages where you would like your compliance icons to be featured …

PopUps

If your website publishes content that may be restricted to certain age groups (e.g. information related to alcohol, ecigs, adult-related, etc.), Compliance Bar can display popups that force users to accept your terms and disclaimers.

The “Create Pop Up” page lets you fully customize 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 various uses in different areas of your website …

You can also specify 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 even record 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 visitors in the EU, you need to make users aware of your user cookies and notify them of how you use them …

Compliance Bar lets you customize the settings for compliance with EU User 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” section, lists all of your compliance templates and shortcodes, and lets you edit the page content …

General Settings

The “General Settings” section, gives you access to general information, such as promoting and sharing the plugin and getting plugin update notifications …

Feedback From Plugin Users

Here are some of the testimonials plugin users have written about the Compliance Bar plugin:

”When I got my hands on Compliance Bar, I knew I needed help to be compliant, but I had no idea how much danger I was in, nor did I know all of the different things I needed to be compliant. Once I installed Compliance Bar, I was able to very quickly add all the items I needed to ensure I didn’t end up getting fined by various agencies, or have my site pulled from Google. The best part is that getting it all set up took only minutes, and I know that I am far safer than I was. Compliance Bar is one of the best plugins I have used in a long time.” Ray Lane – (The Video Guy)

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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)

Plugin Tips

Here are some useful ways to use The Compliance Bar Plugin:

Protection against content theft by spelling out your website’s terms of use.
Displaying compliance icons only on specific pages of your site.
Reduce refund disputes by clearly spelling out refund terms before purchase.
If your site contains content for adults only, you can force visitors to click to confirm that they are of legal age to view your content.

Compliance Bar Support

Compliance Bar provides users with dedicated 24/7 plugin support to assist users if they experience any issues. You also have access to video training.

Additionally, your purchase is backed by a no-risk, 30 day, 200% refund guarantee. If your edition of Compliance Bar does not work within 30 days of purchase and it cannot be fixed within 48 hours (Monday to Friday), the plugin developers will refund twice the amount of your purchase price.

Software Price

Single License Edition – Can be installed on 1 of your own domains. Cost = $37 (Normally $127)
Business – Can be installed on twenty-five of your own domains. Price = $67.00 (Normally $197).
Developer Licensing – Can be installed on multiple sites that you own. Install the plugin on any client site for payment or part of a paid service. Price = $97.00.

Please Note: Price details for the Compliance Bar product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product retails for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.

Check the plugin’s website for the latest price: Compliance Bar

Additional Plugin Info

Legal Page Templates Approved By Lawyers – The plugin developers assure users on their website that all legal page templates have been reviewed and approved by a leading lawyer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you get advice from a qualified legal expert in your area to ensure that your site is fully compliant.

For ”how to” videos of the plugin in action, including installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Compliance Bar website.

Download The Plugin

Compliance Bar is an easy-to-use, simple and cost-effective solution for WordPress-powered websites. We recommend installing this plugin for WordPress users if you want immediate peace of mind and legal protection.

For more details, check out the plugin here: Compliance Bar – Compliance Bar – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Info

Note: 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 to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.

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