Buying or creating your own legal software forms is not for everyone. For a large company that already has a brick and mortar in place, buying online legal software forms to ensure their site compliance is not necessary. The existing legal representation that these larger companies already get is enough. Their attorneys know what is needed to keep their business in compliance.

Yet, if the company is:

1)      A start up

2)      Mom or dad starting up their own online business

3)      An affiliate marketer

4)      Bloggers

5)      Or anyone else who does not have around the clock legal representation

These are the kind of online contributors who should consider buying some kind of professional software to keep their business from being sued, fined by the FTC, shut down completely or put in jail.

Now this might sound comical to the stay at home mom/dad, but if you are affiliated to another company, selling something online on your website or stating your own opinion on your blog about a product or service, you could be held liable. All it takes is one solid compliant to the FTC for them to come knocking on your website door. New laws have made it easier for them to act on suspicious non compliant websites.

Websites that do not have a “privacy policies”, “disclosures” or “terms of use” are their main targets. If you have a website up, you must have some kind of legal documentation that sets the rules for children looking at your site, money being generated and a whole lot of other stuff that is too detailed to get into right now.

Why Is The little Guy Doing Business On The Web Targeted?

It is not really the little guy that is being targeted. It is everyone on the web being targeted. It is years of fraud, unethical practices and consumer fear that has led to where we are now. The FTC wants to ensure that people feel as comfortable viewing, communicating and shopping online as they would out in the regular world.

What does this mean for the little guy? It means a whole lot. It means that if you are doing business in an ethical way, you have no reason to fear the FTC. If they see your business spelled out properly in the correct legal fashion, then you won’t be a target. They will simply pass you by for the next site.

A while back there was an affiliate marketer, who I will not name that was making a whole lot of money in a very unethical way. The FTC got a few complains and start to investigate. This person’s website was shut down, his bank accounts frozen and he is now currently looking at doing some jail time. Although this is an extreme example of what can happen. It is still relevant to the kind of online business that is being targeted on a daily basis by the FTC. Don’t be their next victim. Do something to protect yourself.

What Can You Do To Ensure Compliance With The FTC?

Below are a few simple things you can do to keep your site in top notch condition against lawsuits or FTC investigations. You can create these web pages yourself or simply buy them for little money online.

1)      Have a disclosure page on your website. Let your readers and customers know what you are doing on your site. Don’t hide it. Open up to your visitors so they have a complete understanding what you are all about.

2)      Terms of Use – Have you ever wondered how certain websites control their viewers and are not held liable if a child by chance views the site without the permission of a parent? It is through the “terms of use” web page. Here you specify in legal jargon, who and what can interact with your site. It has to be specific, but not too specific to leave out a certain group or affiliation. This is probably one of the most important pages you can have on your site. Especially if your site may have children reading it. You could be easily sued if a child were to view or read something that is inappropriate for their age. Take for instance, one day your site is hacked. You don’t realize it for a few days, but for those few days’ inappropriate material was being displayed on your website. You can and would be held liable for this material. Since you are the administrator of your site, you are solely responsible for the material. It is best to have a “Terms of Use” page to protect yourself.

3)      Lastly you need a good “Privacy Page”. A good privacy page is worth its weight in gold. It protects you from others suing you for collecting their data. This holds true even if you are not aware your site is collecting their data. This page will contain the right kind of legal wording to protect you. For example, many of use that use a hosting site for our websites do not know that the hosting site is collecting a ton of information from your reader. They collect IP addresses, locations, time on your site and a jumble of other information you have no control over. Yet if you do not disclose this information to your reader, you could be sued. You are affiliated with the hosting site, which makes you liable.

As you can tell from this article, the information is not fun stuff. Yet it is a necessary part of blogging or doing business in today’s internet. So what do you do now? Now you go take a look at your site and figure out what needs to be changed before the FTC tells you what needs to be changed. You ensure you are doing business legally and ethically as laid out by the FTC. Once you have that all sorted out. You need to keep yourself abreast of all the changes that take effect throughout the year. A lot of those laws will impact your business.

Now it is time to click on the picture below and see what Auto Web Law Pro can do for your business.