Every website you own should have the right legal pages on it. This will help to protect you against litigation, and that’s something you don’t want to have to worry about!
But before I go any further it’s important that I make the following disclaimer: I am a legal wannabe, i.e. I don’t have any legal credentials, and while I’m doing my best to steer you in the right direction, the information and advice presented in this article should not be considered legal advice. You should consult with your own legal counsel for advice specific to your circumstances.
All of your websites should have the following legal pages included:
- Affiliate Disclosure
- Earnings Disclaimer
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Use
Here’s a brief outline of what each page is meant for:
Affiliate Disclosure: You are required, by law, to disclose whenever you have any material connection to any product you are endorsing. For example, if you are earning commissions for the sale of a product that you are reviewing on your site, you need to disclose that you are profiting from any sales made of the product.
Earnings Disclaimer: This is a disclaimer that is required if you are claiming that people can earn an income from using your system. This could be a trading system, Internet marketing business, MLM opportunity, etc. Your earnings disclaimer should make it clear that you are not promising specific results. Everyone’s results will differ depending on how much effort they put into the program, and how well they understand the program.
You also need to be careful when using customer testimonials. It goes without saying that your testimonials need to be legitimate, but even if they are, you need to inform people of what your ‘typical’ results are.
Privacy Policy: This policy should clearly state how you intend to use and protect the personal information you gather from visitors to your site.
Terms of Use: This is also known as ‘Terms of Service’. This statement should explain clearly what the conditions are for use of your site.
Don’t worry! You don’t need to (and I don’t recommend that you do) write these legal pages up yourself. There are sites that allow you to customize and copy their legal pages onto your own site. Here’s a few:
Affiliate Disclosure: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/disclosurepolicy-website-disclosure-statement/
Earnings Disclaimer: http://www.easyriver.com/free/free_disclaimer.htm
Privacy Policy: https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/
Terms of Use: https://termsfeed.com/terms-service/generator/
There are also WordPress plugins that will create customized legal pages for you…
Affiliate Disclosure Statement
Auto Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Are there any other resources you use for your website’s legal pages? Leave a comment below!