If you’re doing business – whether online or off – there are some
legal details that must be dealt with, including adding the appropriate
disclaimers to your website.
For most service providers, that means including three pages:
Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, and a Disclaimer. Here’s what each does
for you.
Terms and Conditions
This page is typically where you will spell out your payment
terms, refund policy, and other information about doing business with you. For
example, you might say that payment is required in advance, or that refunds on
web design work will be pro-rated and not include design time already invested.
You may also want to mention that your content is yours alone, and
that it cannot be republished anywhere without written permission. This falls
under copyright laws, but it can’t hurt to include it.
Privacy Policy
Your privacy policy is where you’ll mention what you intend to do
with the email address you’re collecting (you are building an email list,
right? More on that later…), and how you handle confidential information.
Disclaimer
Do you promote products for which you earn a commission? This is
where you’ll include a mention of that. In fact, if you sell anything through
an affiliate relationship, the FTC requires that notification of that
relationship appear on your website somewhere.
The Right Words
If you’re handy with a phrase, you can probably simply pen your
own terms and conditions, privacy policy, and disclaimer pages. Take a look at
some other sites, read their legal notices, and then spend a few minutes
creating your own. Just be sure to cover all the points above.
If you’re more comfortable with something a bit more formal,
though, there are plenty of places online to find templates. Check out:
Just to name a few.
Finally, be sure to go back and check your legal pages for
continuing validity and accuracy. If you ever run into a dispute with a client
over payments, for example, be sure to update your pages to avoid having that
same issue in the future. It’s also a good idea to keep up on changing laws, such
as the recently enacted cookie law in the UK. Those types of changes definitely
require an edit to your legal pages.
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