How to Get Your Site Legit - 36

This is Law and Wit Episode 36: How to Get Your Site Legit. Welcome to Law and Wit, Creative Counsel for Entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Brittany Rettell, mother of 4, entrepreneur, naptime lawyer, and attorney for creative entrepreneurs. I'm here to share inspiration and action so that you can tackle your business blocks and confidently own your business in every sense of the word. Thank you so much for being here. Hello friends and welcome back. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm just— I'm excited to get going. So that's what we're gonna do, guys. We are gonna get going because this is the second segment in my new kind of installment in my new series about business legal foundations, okay? Or my alternative title that is actually pretty— a lot more fun, and it's probably what I'm going to be doing is How to Get Legit with Brit. Part 2. That's what we're tackling today, okay? Tackling, topping, talking about and tackling all of the things, just wrestling with ourselves, wrestling with our business, our business planners, our hopes and dreams. And we are going to put them in a full— the full submission, okay? Post and get moving forward. That is the extent of my WWF knowledge. It's not great. So, um, couple apologies, disclaimers. I am still getting over a little bit of a cold, so I That's why if I'm sounding a little nasally, that's why. So sorry about that. I know that's kind of obnoxious to listen to. I don't like listening to my own voice, period, but it's been especially painful the last few days as I've been fighting this to have to listen to myself on podcasts and videos and whatnot, being a little verklempt. But what can you do? Life goes on and business needs to move on, and that's what we do. Second disclaimer, my classic attorney disclaimer, because what kind of lawyer would I be if I weren't interjecting a little legalese into your day, is that while I'm I'm a licensed attorney in Utah and soon to be Idaho. Any day now I'm going to get that paperwork back. Really, come on Idaho, believe in me. Um, I, uh, I am not your attorney unless you want me to be, and then I'd love to be, and we'll chat and you'll sign an engagement letter, and then we'll talk about my fee and what I do and what I don't do and what that looks like, all that good stuff. And if you're interested in having the first step of that, sign up for one of my free consult slots and we can talk about your business and maybe what I can do for you and what would help you achieve your business dreams and how can legal protect you and be part of that plan and not holding you back but helping you move forward. Um, so anything we talk about today, informational, educational purposes only, not official attorney-client privilege, not official legal advice. All right, so let's get going. Okay, so in the first part of our series, if you were here, we were talking all about, um, getting legit with your stuff. And this included talking about your business name, of your business, um, how to know if you really had a business versus a hobby, getting your tax ID, your EIN set up, um, your business formations, LLC entities, um, and kind of all of that beginning legit stuff, business foundation stuff. So if you missed that episode, um, if you would still like to have that, which I highly recommend, um, that you kind of do this in order— I picked this order of stuff for a reason, the sequence, because this is, I think, what probably is the most useful for you to try to conceptualize and wrap your arms around and move through as you're working on your business stuff. Then you want to listen to that, and that's episode 34. So, um, I'm including my interview episodes in here because I have so many that are in the bank that I've been banking up the last few weeks that I just— I need to get these guys out. So I actually might even do a couple of them in the row, but I believe in you guys. You're going to be able to follow the roadmap. I'm not going to lead you astray of where to go, um, and I've just got too much good content and it needs to get out, guys. We got to get it out. So hang on to your seats, this is happening. Okay, so let's talk about Getting your website legit. Okay, that is what we are talking about today, getting your website legit. Um, now I've talked about this before in one of my very first episodes. Um, episode 4 talked about the legal docs you need for your website. So, um, if you, um, haven't listened to that episode, I think you'll find it really helpful, um, in terms of I explain a little bit more about privacy policies and, you know, copyright and all of this. Um, but I'm also going to talk on that and talk and discuss that stuff today, um, just because I understand people come in at different times and seasons and you might not have listened to that. And I have also learned that I got to say this stuff more than once, guys, and that you might not be catching all my content in all the different places. And even if you are, you still might not be convinced because I still get so much pushback from people on this. I get so many people adding me and DMing me and asking me, do I really need a privacy policy? Do I really need these things? Yes, you do. You absolutely do. But you don't have to just take my word for it. We're going to talk about why this is important, and I'm going to show you and explain to you all the different things that are maybe going at play behind the scenes that you might not be seeing as to why you need to get this stuff and get it in place and not waste another iota of your brainpower fretting about this. Whether it needs to happen, it does. Now your only question is how. How are you going to implement it? How are you going to make this happen? Who do you need to assign? Who do you need to pay? Who you need to research to get this done today, this week, now and always? Okay, so the first thing that you need on your website is a privacy policy. Okay, it's 2019, people. You're online, you are collecting information from people when they come on your website. I guarantee it. Okay, I guarantee it. But Brittany, I don't have a contract form. So what? But Brittany, I don't, you know, I don't think I run Google Analytics. I have just a simple Wix or a Squarespace site. Guess what? Those website platforms collect analytics because they're doing you a service and a favor, and they want to make sure that you have access to that information. So you are collecting information of some sort, and if you're not, then that's stupid and you're not using your website like you should. So, so the answer is yes, you need a privacy policy, okay? This is the policy that you guys have seen. It's the same thing that you have to click through when you get one of those obnoxious iOS updates or when you download an app, you know, you read through and scroll and you click the box at the bottom, that thing that I know you didn't read unless you're a huge nerd like me and you actually read these policies. So it should be in the footer of your website, okay? It should have its own page and should always be one click away from whenever someone is on your website. No matter what page they're on, they should be able to click it one click away. So that means it needs to be in your footer. I think that's a really good, clear web design place for it to be. That's where people expect it to be. That's where anyone who would be checking on your website and looking for your compliance is going to be looking to find it. So make it easy for them, put it right there. Okay, um, so the first thing that we talked about is because you're collecting information. Another reason why you need to have this policy in place is because if you are doing any kind of involvement with a third-party app like Google, like if you're connecting with the App Store, if you have an app, if you're, if you're running ads and AdSense, if you're running analytics, if you want to have Facebook ads Okay, then they require those big players because they're trying to cover their butt. They require that you have a privacy policy, okay? And if you look carefully when you sign up for those services, you are agreeing that you have a privacy policy and you are compliant with all of your local laws, local, state, federal laws concerning privacy, okay? And some of those laws include California's privacy law, which you probably are selling to people in California. So guess what? You need to have a privacy policy. The GDPR, which it only applies to EU residents, but you might have some of those on your website, okay, depending on what you do and who your client base is. Um, this also applies because of the COPPA, which is the Child Online Privacy Protection Act, which says that you need to have certain things in place and disclosures about what information you collect for children, okay, which the internet law defines as anyone under 13. Um, some state regular regulations define that differently, like GDPR, but I think it's a good policy to say it's under 13. That's what COPPA says. Okay, so if you want to be in compliance with all of those laws, which actually have some teeth in it, the new California privacy law that's coming live in this next year, it's going to be live by 2020, includes a private right to action. That's a fancy way of saying if you don't comply, someone can sue you. Okay, that is what gives a lot of teeth. Okay, because you're right, does California have the resources to go after every, you know, Nettie Nina who's not paying attention and following their laws? No, they don't. But you know who might? Your competitor who wants to make your life a living hell, or a disgruntled customer who is looking at how they can get back at you, or some spam bot person online. Okay, so they can go and claim that private right of action and launch a lawsuit and, and make your life difficult. And you're going to have to hire people and spend money and have stress and turmoil and to be involved with litigation to try to defend yourself. And you're going to avoid a lot of that and make that job so much easier and pain-free and stress-free if you just do what you're supposed to and get your dang privacy policy, alright? I feel like I always need to quote Tom Hanks here in A League of Their Own. Well, it's actually not Tom Hanks, it's the other— it's the chick who's describing, you know, she has to bring her son with her on the trip because she's a mom and she's got the son and she's saying like, my husband, he just says that like I should just take him and and just shut up about it. So can I bring them? Can I bring them? Can I bring them? And Tom Hanks is just looking at her aghast because he's just like, there's no ladies in baseball. Spit, spit. Because of course he's not at peace with the fact that he's a female baseball coach. And it is a little vignette like this, which is exactly the reason why he is not happy about his current state of ladies in baseball, crying in baseball. And so sometimes I want to say that to people. So should you just do it and just shut up about it? Yeah, you probably should. Okay. And now, what does your privacy policy contain? I dig a little bit into more of that more in episode 4. But basically, it should explain in detail what information you collect from visitors, what you do with it, what their private— what their rights are in terms of collecting, amending, deleting that information, how they can get a hold of you. This policy should have an updated an update and correct email support information. There should be a way to get a hold of you or whoever it is who's managing your customer support or data support. It should have updated information about the correct legal entity that's taking control and ownership for any problems with your website. So that means that if you're using a DBA or a fictitious name or something, then you should have a clear connection. It should say, hey, you know, Ratel Holdings doing business as Fun Confetti Glitter Fun Fest. That's an awful name, but you get what I'm saying. I am connecting and showing the clear link that this is my LLC, my business, which is operating this domain or this website or this business or service, okay? So all that should be really upfront. And in terms of, you know, can you just use the default privacy policy that comes on, you know, maybe your template or comes with your website? Maybe. I mean, there's the thing, I haven't seen all of those. I've seen very, very wide range level of those policies and some are okay, and some are absolutely horrendous. They're tiny, they don't cover what they need to cover, they're not protecting you how they need to protect you. I've seen one that someone quoted for selling and it was a t-shirt shop and they said, "If we have any problems, we'll be looking to the guidelines of the American Medical Association." At a t-shirt shop. So that's a cautionary tale of copying and pasting other people's policies that don't apply to you and don't apply to your business and what you do and what you know, third-party services you might be using. If you're using, you know, um, tracking and you have pixels on there, um, if you have other, you know, LeadPages, if you have other and more advanced analytics or how you're using those tools, you need to make sure that that's all jiving together because this is a mini contract and you need to understand what it's saying and do what it says and says what it does and all of that good stuff. So, um, ideally you're going to purchase one of these from me or someone else online, a reputable you know, legal source who actually drafts these in compliance with law and is giving you the resources you need to be successful, is making it easy peasy lemon squeezy and letting you go on your way. So, um, I— yes, I do sell these in my template shop because there's such a demand for them. So, um, I'll give the link to the show notes, but it is at creativecontracts.co. I actually sell a website bundle with this one. And here's a great segue to the next, um, common document that you need, which is— are your terms, okay? Your terms of use, terms of service, website terms, terms and conditions, all the terms. You can call it whatever you want. I think terms is really clear and upfront. And again, this should be in your footer, okay? So you should have a little link to privacy and then you can have a little link to terms. Some people do a link for legal and then they have both of these on there. That's fine. Just remember, we want to have that one standard, okay? That's the best practice. One click away always from your website is where your terms should be, okay? Now, what should go in your terms? Now, your terms is again, is this is a little mini contract between you and in fact, some of them are not that many. They might even be the longest contract you have in your business between you and the users of your website. And this is going to outline the relationship of what happens when someone's on your site. You know, your website is your clubhouse, okay? So, welcome to my clubhouse, have a seat. But also, here are the rules. Here are the guidelines so that you're on good behavior, I'm on good behavior, we both know what's going on here and what's not going on here, okay? And that's what these website terms are. So they should definitely have some language about your intellectual property rights, okay? They should let people know what is yours on your website. Ideally, you're claiming rights to all the stuff on your website. What if people want to use your photos? What do they have to do? Do they have to reach out? Do they just have to give you credit? Do they have to get permission? I would probably recommend that you do the latter and that they have to get permission from you. What about the website text? Is there— are there any credits that you need to give to other people? This is a really good page and to have that on there. So if you've made agreements with other service providers, your photographer, your web designer, other people, a copywriter, anyone else, usually they're fine with being anonymous. But other people, there's— I've seen a lot of creatives who are getting kind of high and mighty in requiring credit on everything and that they create. If you've agreed to that, if you didn't push back about that, then you need to follow those terms that you agreed to and you need to be giving credit. You should also have some text on there about the community or user guidelines of your website, especially if you have community elements, okay? If you're running a forum on there, girl, you need to— not girl, wash your face— girl, get your guidelines in order, okay? Let people know what they can and can't do on your website and that way if they do some of those awful things, you can kick them off and they can't come crying to you and being like, "I didn't know." Yeah, you did. It's right there, Exhibit A. Boom, there you go. No thank you, be on your merry way. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, you lurker, you hater, you scammer. Um, you also need to have— if people especially can submit and put their own content on there, if you have comments enabled and people can put website links, if they can put, um, images, if they can put other content, you don't want someone ripping off something else and adding it to your website and then you getting in trouble for that. So you want to cover your butt there and say what you want and won't accept, and that you are not claiming any responsibility for other things that people add on to your website, if that's a capability you have. Um, you also want to have laid out very clear, very concise what your return or exchange policy is. Okay, this is particularly really important, obviously, if you are selling from your website a physical product or a digital product. I would argue both of them, it's really important for you to outline what someone has to do if they are trying to exchange or return it to you. If it's a digital product, what are the terms? Can they use this for their personal use? Is it restricted on their commercial use of what they can and can't do with this? Can they share it with their team if this is a business buying a product? Can people post it on someone else? Can they screenshot and share about it? If they do, how are they supposed to be crediting you if that's what you require? What about someone's physical product? Does there— what are the rules in terms of how soon do they need to mail it back to you and under what circumstances? Do you deduct shipping costs or handling costs or carrying inventory costs or anything like that? What shape does it have to be in? If you allow no returns or exchanges, that's totally cool. That's your right, but you need to say so. You need to say so, okay? And a lot of your, you know, Shopify has a part in here where it's going to ask you to have your policy, and it will— it has like some sample text for you to include. That's okay, that's a good start, but that does not a whole website terms make. You will notice if you go on to Shopify's policies, it does not talk about this other— these other things that I just mentioned, okay? Not a word about them. So, um, I'm not saying that you can't have that information, but you need to keep going, okay? Keep on cruising. That shouldn't be the end of that discussion and that little item on your list, okay, that your bulleted list. So, so those are the main things that I like to see covered in there. I also like to have some language about, you know, this is as-is, stuff in the website can go down, especially if this is a website where you are charging people for access to it. If you are, if this is, you know, if you have a, you know, membership, a paywall, if you get, you know, coaching or education or resources through this website, you want to make sure that if the worst comes to worst, it happens, your site crashes or it's down or something happens with your web developer, your host, and people don't have access to this, you want to cover your butt that people can't freak out too much and sue you over and saying, hey, I thought I was supposed to have lifetime access. What's this? You know, I couldn't get on and do what I wanted to do. So make sure that you're taking advantage of that and doing what you need to to cover your butt. Okay, so again, both of these things, these two documents, I sell in my— it's called the website bundle, and I'll link it in the show notes here. And you can get them at creativecontracts.co. And just FYI, I have a special code for you guys because you are my peeps and you're my listeners. So if you are interested in getting these, you can use special code LAWANDWIT. So L-A-W-A-N-D-W-I-T, no spaces, LAWANDWIT, and you will get 10% off, okay, this website bundle that I'm talking about today. So you can solve this problem right now, guys. The ball is in your court. Okay, the next thing that we want to talk about is our copyright notice. Okay, so this is a notice that is also going to be in your footer, and this is— I'm sure you've seen it, but it's that cute copyright symbol, the C with the circle that goes around it. It should also have the year that information was published or updated or that you're claiming the right. So sometimes people like to say, you know, 2015 to 2019 if you originally started your blog or website in 2015 and now it's 2019, you are claiming copyright for all of those years. With, with the words all rights reserved, and then it should have your legal entity that is claiming copyright. So if that— if you are a sole prop, sole proprietorship, then that's you because you have not set up a legal entity. If you have, then that's going to be the name of your LLC, okay, or your corporation, um, your nonprofit. That's going to be on there. With that, you should also make sure that in your website it should be either on the footer of your website or if not, then it should be at least in your website terms or privacy policy, is that you have a correct address, a physical address where people can get a hold of you. Now I know if you're worried about privacy, that's okay to have a PO box, but the CAN-SPAM Act, which I'm sure you're familiar with, and it makes your email manager, you know, that's one of the reasons why we pay email manager service providers software to do what they do, is because we are trying to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. That's the email marketing act that covers in the US, and it says that you need to give people an address to be able to get a hold of you because they need to be able to know who is behind this business, that this is not just like some ephemeral in the cloud. And they also obviously need to be able to tell you to unsubscribe, and it should be one click. So, um, as a good practice, as part of that, that same address should also be listed on your website, and it should be consistent. Again, you want to make sure that you have a clear contact, so if someone has a problem with your website, they have an easy way to get in touch with you. That's also really important with that refund and exchange policy So it's— if you are making it too hard for people to jump through hoops and get back to you and have problems with that, not only are you not creating a very good customer service experience, um, which is bad, you know, shame on you, but you're also making it hard for people to do what they're supposed to. And if you get a chargeback, if someone has a problem, um, and you're in Stripe or Venmo or PayPal comes to you, or your Amex, whatever, and says, hey, we have a chargeback, um, we're going to try to resolve it, the first thing that they're going to ask ask for is, are these policies— they're going to say, what is your website terms? What's your return and exchange policy? So you want to make sure that yours is super crisp and clear and all polished up and looking beautiful, and that it can watch and it's got your back, okay? In case anyone is giving you some chargeback grief, which sometimes happens, guys. It happens. Okay, um, so that's the copyright notice. Um, again, your stuff is protected the way copyright law works. As a little refresher, Um, your stuff is copyrighted as soon as it's created, but giving you that, that notice lets people, um, doesn't allow people to say like, I didn't know, you know. It's like someone jumping in at, you know, the water at the beach and being like, oh, I didn't know there was no lifeguard on duty. Well, yeah, no duh, there's a sign right there that says no lifeguard on duty. So by having this little sign up, you're making it really clear people can't claim that because it's right there they now are on notice that you are claiming copyright. So it just starts to give you a little bit of headway and giving you some power back in your court to go after and make sure that you are claiming all the stuff and protecting the stuff you need to be claiming. Ideally, you take a step further and you register the copyright to your website. You take all of your content of your website, you package it up in a giant PDF, and you'd upload it and register with the Copyright Office. Oh, and if you are interested in learning more about how to do that, then you are going to want to stay tuned for my new course that will be coming out next month. Oh my gosh, getting really excited and also really nervous, but mostly excited. Um, that's called Rip Off Resilient, and it's going to be all about how to protect your content, all of your creative amazing stuff that you're creating, um, what to protect, what not to protect. And anyway, it's gonna be really— it's gonna be— it's gonna be awesome, guys. So stay tuned for that, um, and I'm gonna have a I haven't gotten— my site isn't live for it, but it will be soon. And I'm going to put my opt-in for that. And, you know, so it goes in so that way if you are interested, you can start signing up to get information about that, about when it's going to be live and the training that's going to be coming before and then when the cart will open for that amazing course so you can have access of how to do all of that for your business. Okay. The next thing I want to talk about, point number 4, are disclaimers. Okay. And this one, it's really timely because timely, I was watching something. Oh, it was actually another attorney friend of mine pointed out because Gwyneth Paltrow, you know, actress extraordinaire, wellness founder of Goop, the, that really famous, you know, posh wellness website. She was at South by Southwest and being interviewed. And Gwyneth has had a little bit of problems with her Goop stuff in terms of the claims that some of her products have. Because, um, as you could imagine, in the wellness industry there's some stuff sometimes that's a little out there in the products and what they claim to solve and cure and fix. Um, and sometimes people kind of play fast and loose with, you know, science, medicine, um, and general law and regulation. So, um, and this is what's kind of happened to Gwyneth. Um, and so I want you guys just to be aware that if you are providing content or services or products in anything that touches or that's a border to a regulated industry— so this is especially anyone in the wellness field. So if someone's— if you're offering kind of healthcare-ish nutrition advice, fitness advice, that's you people. If you have products that are in these spaces that are touching on it, you know, if you're offering you know, or organic, you know, body wraps or chapsticks or stuff. If you're like life coaching or business coaching, I'm also going to put you in here because that kind of life coaching and business coaching kind of sounds like it could be legal advice or financial advice or accounting advice or it sounds like investment advice. It also sounds like it could be mental health advice or medical advice. All of those, because they're professions and they are regulated professions, we have certain rules about what people have to prove and what credentials they have to have to offer official advice, okay? Advice with like a capital A. And you want to make sure that if you are talking and putting content about that, that's awesome. No, I have no qualms about that. That's amazing. You should be putting out content, and I'm sure that's how people are finding you and finding value. But you also need to be very clear about who you are and who you are not and what credentials you have and what credentials you have, okay? And you do— you should not be playing coy here or playing cute about that information, okay? That needs to be really clear. If you'll notice websites like WebMD, in the bottom of their footer, they talk about this: none of this information is intended to diagnose or treat any illness or disease, okay? That's them covering their butt from someone going on and saying like, oh, well, these things all said that I don't have cancer, so I must be fine. And so someone doesn't go in and get checked, and then they die of cancer, and then they're a family or their estate sued somebody and is like, stupid WebMD, what were you doing telling them that? You have no business. So that's WebMD covering their butt from that. So you need to do the same thing. If you are in any of those industries, you need to make sure that you have some disclaimer text in your footer. It needs to be clear, not— and everyone needs to be able to see it at any point of your website. It also, it also should be in your terms and conditions, okay, your website terms to be really clarify if you have any credentials or any licenses, you know, licensures, then it should be clarify what those are. If you don't, then it should also clarify what you have. If you are talking about people getting any results, this is especially true of my people who might be offering coaching, digital products, swipe files, small group coaching, mastermind coaching, certainly any courses. You know, if you're looking to have that really strong transition and this is what you'll get at the end of it, I love that, that's great, that's really good marketing, but there's my fun-sucking bubble-popping attorney in with her butt, her big butt. You need to make sure that that result you can actually deliver and that you're clarifying that those kinds of results are dependent on individual circumstances and that results will vary, okay? If you are claiming that everyone will lose 50 pounds on your program, then you better make sure that people can lose 50 pounds. And if they can't, or if that depends a lot on what they do and bring to the table, then just say so, okay? Just say so and say, hey, individual results may vary dependent on people's effort, and, you know, you know, we have all different exercise levels, and make sure that you're consulting with a physician and all of that lawyer speak, okay? You know, I can't obviously give you exactly what you need to do because I don't know your business. And I don't know what content you're offering or what claims you are and what you're not, but just know that that needs to be a little red flag in the back of your mind if you are in one of these spaces, especially, um, that you're talking to someone and getting some good advice about what advice you're giving. Okay, and covering your butt there. So don't be a Gwyneth. Um, because I mean, moral of the story is Gwyneth has said that, you know, what did her— what was she quoted as saying? I just thought we were writing a blog. Um, and you were, Gwyneth, you were just writing a blog. But you were also writing a blog that was selling stuff and making a shizload of money. And it's a little naive, um, and dangerous to think that just because you're writing content that you're not responsible for what that content does. That especially if it's content that's crafted to sell something and to push something, um, and to solve people's problems in a particular way, you just need to make sure of what that's doing and what you're claiming to doing. And if you have stuff that's deceptive or not truthful or hard for people to understand, then not only could you get in trouble with the FTC, which is what Gwyneth happened, but you can also have consumers coming after you and having problems. So don't run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission. Make sure that you're being very clear in what you're offering and what you're not. And that way, if you don't have all the money like Gwyneth does to pay a team, a bevy of internet attorneys and scientists and people to check your claims and comply with all of that healthcare regulatory wellness law, that you are going to be in good shape anyway. Okay, because not all of us can afford to have that kind of cleanup on aisle 5, which incidentally is the same aisle that you can apparently buy a jade vagina egg. And yes, that is the first and probably last time I'll be saying that on my podcast, but I just— that I think summarizes so much of the wellness issue and Goop in general and that whole thing. So don't be that Don't, don't be that girl. All right, okay, um, my last thing is a good segue into that because we're already talking about FTCs, is about having, um, good FTC disclosures. Okay, I've talked about the FTC before, the Federal Trade Commission. They're the U.S. big brother agent that's in charge of looking out for consumers and making sure they don't get ripped off, okay, they don't get scammed, and they don't get deceived by what they're seeing in terms of content, marketing, advertising, whatnot. So You can imagine now that game is a little trickier because it's not like you're reading a magazine and oh, here's the editorial, very clear, and oh, there's the opposite page, that's obviously an ad. Now we have a whole mix of what people call advertorial, which is a little bit of content, a little bit of selling, hey, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know, a little bit of country, a little bit of rock and roll, and that's great and that's probably a good healthy mix of what your business should be. But again, we need to be satisfying the legal requirements so that we're not hamstringing our own efforts and getting into trouble here, okay? And that means, um, the rule is that if there is a material connection between what you are posting about and the brand, someone else, if there's a material connection there, meaning cash, they gave you money, they gave you a discount, they hooked you up with a free ticket, they comped your room, they gave you some VIP access or something, they gave you something of value, they hooked you up, and that's why you're talking about this thing or posting a picture or putting it in your resource list or in your guide or your files, you need to disclose that. You need to disclose that. And that disclosure needs to be clear and conspicuous. Okay, I'm gonna say that again. It needs to be clear and conspicuous. What does that mean, Brittany? What does that mean? It means you need to use the words affiliate. If you're an affiliate, you need to use the word sponsored. If something's sponsored, you need to use the word ad if it's an ad, okay? It's 2 letters, ad. It's not even taking up that much of your room, okay? You still got a lot of characters to burn there. You still have a lot of hashtags you can throw in. So you don't have to have the hashtag before. That's a myth that I see popping up in, you know, the Facebook legal university, is that you have to have the hashtag. You don't. That means that you can search for other ads, which I don't really know. I mean, who was like, you know what, I really want to see more ads. I'm going to search for— I'm going to click on hashtag ad. But I don't know, maybe some people are. So, um, but I think some people like that it kind of breaks it up. And certainly, you know, um, in your text. And so it needs to be in the first 3 lines of your Instagram caption. It needs to be above the fold. So if you're using a type of medium that, um, you know, contracts because of the user experience where you'd have to click something to read more You need to make sure it's above the fold, before the jump, okay? That's where your disclosure needs to be. It needs to be close to whatever it is you're talking about. So that means for affiliate, if you are talking about a resource, you need to have something in that post at the top of the post. Or if it's a whole list of things and some of these are affiliate links and some are not, then use an asterisk or use, you know, parentheses that says affiliate, okay? That makes it really clear what if something's an affiliate link. And you should also have some language about this again in your terms, but it should be more than just your terms, okay? It's not enough to have to have someone that's not going to go and look at your affiliate disclaimer to go find out. They need to know on that actual page when you're talking about email service providers that you are an affiliate for ConvertKit, okay? And when someone clicks on that, you get some money. Ain't no shame in that, okay? To solve people's problem and to point them to a solution that you have a good experience with that you think would be a good fit for your audience. There's nothing to be ashamed of to solve someone's problem and do a good job of doing that, okay? So don't be so freaking weird about using your disclaimers, okay? Put them in there, own it, put on your big girl panties. It's not a big deal. This is how you make your money. You're not running a charity, so you need to have your disclaimers in place where they need to be. They need to be clear, they need to be conspicuous, they need to pass the grandma test. If your grandma came on to your stuff and couldn't tell that there was a relationship, that that's why you were hawking and shilling for who you were shilling, then you need to do a better job. You need to do it more, you need to do it often, it needs to be brighter text, it needs to be not buried in a whole bunch of hashtags. If you're doing an Instagram story, it needs to be on every slide, okay? Um, don't me about this, okay? Don't DM me about this. Just do it, okay? I mean, um, that's, that's a little extreme. You can— you guys can still ask your questions and still come on my Legal Live and ask for clarification and questions. Um, Because I know it's hard with, especially with changing mediums. Like, what does that mean for like an Instagram story? Does it have to be like, I was talking about this and it was, you know, an unboxing or mail day and I was taking out the stuff? Well, just make it really clear. And you can even talk and use regular words and be like, oh, this is so nice, so-and-so sent this to me, um, for free, that's so kind of them. Or they just gifted this to me. Okay, well, that's pretty clear. They sent you something, probably wasn't the expectation that you would post, but you did, but that was your own free thing, like your own free will. Okay. That's pretty clear. Now, if you're a brand ambassador for something and you had an agreement where they were going to pay you $10,000 a year and you were going to do a post every quarter about something, that needs to be disclosed. Okay? There's a reason why you're talking about that brand and the way that you're talking about them. So be honest with yourself, with your people. Okay? Do it because it's the right thing to do. Do it because it's a legal thing to do and it's the ethical thing to do. Okay? Please, and your audience will appreciate your honesty, okay? They can handle it. They can handle it. If you're doing a good job of fitting in brands and working with people, partners that are a good fit for your audience, if you've been kind and thoughtful and intentional about who you work with and why, then it's not going to be a big deal for you to do sponsored content and for you to partner with other brands so that you can make your money and serve who you need to serve and accomplish what you want to accomplish, okay? All right, getting off my soapbox there. Um, and make sure that you don't use content without permission, okay? Don't use other people's text, graphics, artwork, illustrations, stuff, photography. Don't use other people's stuff without permission, okay? If it's not yours, it's not yours, and you don't get to post it unless it's yours. Giving credit is not the same as having permission, okay? Giving credit is not the same. That is a baseline nice thing to do. It does not give you the legal right to post someone else's stuff. So if you really love something, if you really want to post it, then you need to get the rights to it, okay? An email will suffice, a DM will suffice. I've even seen people saying like, hey, @reply to this if you give me permission. It's okay, it's better than nothing, you know? I mean, um, ideally, you know, in a lawyer's perfect world, we would have more than that, but if that's all you got, screenshot it, save it just in case, okay? The last thing that we're going to talk about are best practices that are kind of overall. These didn't really fit in any other neat categories. The last one I also talked about in my episode 4 is that make sure you're complying and doing your best to comply with the ADA guidelines. That's the American Disability Act, which also applies to your website properties. Just like the ADA, you know, tells you best practices of what you should be doing to make sure that your sites are physically accessible to people who have special needs, who have disabilities, the same should be said for your digital properties. Okay, so with this, we want to be looking at your website and what kind of content it has, looking at if it's an image-heavy site. That can be a real challenge for people who are visually impaired. So make sure that you are using your alternative text like it's giving you option 4. Make sure that you can navigate using a mouse and keyboard, or because if people struggle with, you know, more complex navigation schemes, they want to make sure that they can use just a simple mouse and keyboard to be able to click through and get to the different different pages that they want. So sometimes, you know, people, um, that are protected in the ADA are using some sort of assistive technologies to let them online and be able to use online space to the, to the best of their abilities. Um, but they sometimes need help bridging the gap. So it's a really great idea for you to be, um, of a leading and be a thought leader in that space and encouraging, um, people depending on a diverse representation of needs and abilities that they're able to access your content and to do it as most successful ways possible. And I have a couple tools that I found here that will be— that could be really useful for you. There's one that's a web accessibility evaluation tool called WAVE that basically does like a little scan of your website and tells you if there's things that may be a problem and what you can do to fix them. There's also some accessibility-designed WordPress themes, okay, that are specifically designed to make sure that they're accessible and that they're more accessible. So if you want to take a look at those, I'll put those in the show links. And there's also a couple plugins that will help too with things like dictation or alternative text, or again, help with kind of those— some of those navigation issues that can be. And this is something that people— that you can get sued at, and that you can— again, that people can have a private right of action. And that's what makes it possible for people to sue you and bring you to court. Not that they're trying to be a bad person and ruin your day, but it's a fact that people don't change their behavior until usually it hurts. Okay, I was having a conversation with my daughter last night because she's learning about the Titanic. At school, and we were talking about the lifeboat situation, and she was saying, well, I don't understand why didn't they have enough lifeboats for everybody? And I said, well, it's a sad reality that a lot of times we don't make the changes we need to in policy, especially when they're expensive or when they're onerous, when they're a burden to us, until we have to, until it hits us in the pocketbook, or in this case, you know, a gigantic emotional tragedy that was both expensive and really heartrending for all of, you know, America and Europe, that people don't change and we don't sometimes adjust laws. So, and that's sometimes, you know, the really bright side that I can see from lawyers. I know lawyers get a bad name for, you know, popping bubbles and being so like risk-heavy and being boring. I mean, obviously not, you know, present company excluded, of course, because I'm not a boring attorney, but, you know, other people are, other attorneys, not me. But the one good side that can come from the litigation and stress and people, um, is that they can get stuff changed. They can enact policy, they can change the rules and regulations to keep people safe. And sometimes that only happens after someone has had to pay out a lot of money to someone else to be like, guess what, we are going to have to change this. It's not worth it. We cannot continue on the same path. We have to make a change. There has to be a line in the sand. And now we can't go and do that same thing anymore. So definitely accessibility fits into that category. So, okay, so that is the, um, the episode today and the stuff we talked about. I want to do a quick recap. Um, the first thing we talked about is getting your privacy policy in gear. Second was getting your terms, your terms of use for your website. Again, these two things together are my website bundle that I sell in my shop creativecontracts.co, um, that you could get for a good price, a good nice and reasonable price for what you're getting, which is attorney drafted you know, peer-tested, client-reviewed, and honed and edited. And from me being in the trenches and reviewing all this relevant regulation and also trying to cut out as much legalese as possible, I really crafted and drafted these policies, every word, myself, because I wanted them to be understandable to— by people as much as possible. And I think that that's a really important part of what legal should do, is that it should be in this plain language as it can. And so I really try to do that with all my drafting. Number 3 is your copyright notice in your footer, okay? Number 4 are your disclaimers, okay? Especially if you are in a regulated industry or something that's touching a regulated industry, you want to make sure you're covering your back there of what you are offering and what your credentials are and what they are not. Number 5 is your FTC and your affiliate content disclosures, okay? So this is about ads and sponsored and affiliate links. And number 6 are best practices with ADA and making sure that you are trying to be as accessible as possible and making it easy for other people to bridge that gap and to use your content and services and products. So thanks so much for joining me here today. Thanks for reviewing the podcast. I review and read every single one of those reviews. And it makes a huge difference. It gives me a huge boost in morale, just personally. It makes me smile. It makes me, um, really feel grateful and connected to this process and, and to you. And it helps me, you know, just visualize and get a greater connection, because sometimes this could feel like a really one-sided medium, and that's not what I want. I want this to be a good conversation between us and a chat where I get to reach out and talk to you about some stuff that's going on in your business or that might be going on and that I'd love to have this be a dialogue where you get to talk back. And you could do that by leaving a review. You can do that on my Instagram. I love chatting with people there and connecting on my posts and through, you know, direct messages and feedback when I do stuff on my stories. I love it when you guys jump on my lives and you answer questions, or that you share, share any and all of this stuff with your friends. That's what's really the most meaningful for a content creator like me, who a big part of my business is creating good content and doing it for free, um, and putting it out there. It's the biggest compliment when someone shares something that's helped them or helped their business with someone else that they care about, you know, with their audience, um, and being able to spread that good word and help so that more creative entrepreneurs like you can find the help that they need, um, to get their businesses legally legit so that they don't, they don't feel lost, they don't feel underwhelmed or over— I guess not underwhelmed, overwhelmed, um, and they feel like there's someone out there who can listen and that's in their corner, okay? You know, bigger brands and corporations and people on the other side of contracts or websites or service providers, they've got someone in their legal corner. What about you? That's what I'm here for. I'm here for you, okay? I'm here for the creatives, and I'm really excited to be here and that you let me be here and be here and part of your club and part of your team because you guys are my favorite people, and that's who I want to hang out with. So make sure that you are listening, subscribing to this podcast on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, Spotify, Our Heart Radio, and at launwhit.com and brittanyruttell.com. If you're interested in working with me one-on-one, follow the link in my profile. Um, if you still need that legal checklist for your business, then make sure you're downloading that at brittanyruttell.com/checklist. Um, and make sure you're staying tuned, um, because I, like I said, I've got some amazing episodes. Next week is going to be Anna Is the Worst. Um, she's the creator of the amazing Kids Are the Worst account, which is hilarious. I'm sure you guys follow if you're parents. Even if you're not, it's really great. She also had— I think she also has like an Animals Are the Worst too. So for any of you fur baby parents too, um, she's also got your back. But she's an incredible resource about branding and social media use, um, and it was really cool to dig into her brain and get some of her great tips for what you should be doing online and what you should not be spending your time on. And so We've got all that laid out for next week's episode. So make sure you're tuned into that and I'll see you there. Have a great day and make sure you remember that you are a business owner and you need to own your business in every sense of the word. Thanks so much.