Today I got something… special… for you.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to protect my assets and sites, especially since I’ve been delving into higher risk markets involving health and fat loss.
Below is an interview with a top Internet marketing lawyer.
His name is Mike Young.
And he specializes in helping entrepreneurs grow lawsuit-free Internet businesses. He’s created several Internet Law products (a few of which I am VERY glad to own), has an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 16 years of real world legal experience.
So he’s the “real deal.”
Anyway, take it away Mike…
BEN SETTLE: What are the biggest mistakes you’re seeing Internet marketers doing online from a legal point of view?
MIKE YOUNG: The top mistakes made by online entrepreneurs involved failing to treat their company like it is a business. Instead, it is common to find newbie Internet marketers playing with their websites as a hobby. They will put up a website hoping to make some decent bucks but don’t take the effort to protect themselves in the process. This leads to lawsuits and even “friendly” visits from government agents.
BEN SETTLE: Why is it so important to have legal documents on your sites?
MIKE YOUNG: Website legal documents tell your prospective customers that you’re running an online business instead of a hobby. If you’ve taken the time to put the right legal protections in place online, chances are you made the effort to make sure your products and services deliver as promised.
Your privacy policy tells your prospective customer to trust you because you respect the information he’s providing to you when he visits your site.
In addition, by having the right website legal documents on your site, you’re also reducing your risk of being sued or investigated by the government. Even if you goof up, the fact you’re trying to do the right things when running your business makes you a less attractive target than the sleazeball who set up his website with the goal of cheating as many people as possible.
BEN SETTLE: What are a couple real life examples of what happened to people who thought they could get away with not having these documents on their sites?
MIKE YOUNG: This is a sticky one to get into because of attorney-client confidentiality. Here are a few general examples…
There are people who will never do business with you if your website is missing website legal documents because the site looks like a fly-by-night hobby instead of a business.
Not having a privacy policy is an invitation to be sued if you’re collecting any info and using it without disclosing what you’re doing. And it’s important to realize that your ISP might be automatically collecting some website visitor data for you even if you haven’t asked it too. Thinks like visitor IP addresses, search queries, pages, visited, etc.
Selling health-related products with blog posts discussing medical conditions can lead to claims you’re providing medical advice to customers without being a physician. Health disclaimers pretty much make this a non-issue.
Lacking the right legal terms can jeopardize your rights when someone decides to pirate content (text, video, audio, pics, etc.) from your website.
Not having the right disclosures on your website/blog can lead to a government agency coming after you for engaging in deceptive business practices when you promote a product or service as an affiliate.
Frankly, there’s countless ways that you can get screwed over when you don’t have the right website legal documents.
Does this mean you will get hurt? Of course not.
It’s a risk like playing Russian Roulette with a revolver that has one bullet in the chamber. You might get lucky…at least for a while.
BEN SETTLE: Where on a blog or website should the legal disclaimers go?
MIKE YOUNG: The footer is the primary place to link to them. Maybe 5% of blogs link to legal disclaimers in the sidebar.
The key is to use text that’s the same size (or bigger) and color as your main text on your site. Don’t hide it in 6 point font white text on a white background. That’s deceptive.
BEN SETTLE: What legal dangers should people know about social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?
MIKE YOUNG: For Facebook, assume that whatever you post there is no longer private and you no longer own exclusive rights to it. If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see it on the front page of her local newspaper, don’t post it on Facebook. And don’t let your “friends” post it for you either.
For Twitter, the biggest risk is promoting products and services without the right disclosures. With the character limit, you’re kind of restricted in what you can say. Some use “spon” or “ad” as abbreviations to inform readers the tweet is piking something. The safe bet is to also disclose it on the sales page you’re driving traffic to with the tweet. Sending someone to a product “review” that happens to be an affiliate pitch without disclosing affiliate status is crossing the line.
BEN SETTLE: What mistakes are you seeing Internet marketers making with testimonials?
MIKE YOUNG: Fake testimonials, testimonials that discuss atypical results as if the average customer will achieve those results, and testimonials by someone who gave it as a friend or in exchange for something of value.
The last is a bit tricky. For example, if you got a free ticket to a seminar that would have cost you $995, and you gave a glowing testimonial while at the seminar, you should have disclosed the fact you received a freebie ticket. And if you were the one comping the ticket and soliciting the testimonial, you’d want to disclose the circumstances too even if the person giving the testimonial failed to do so.
The government wants full disclosure of key facts so the person looking at your testimonial can make an informed decision.
BEN SETTLE: What is a DMCA Notice and who needs to have one on their site?
MIKE YOUNG: DMCA Notices are a way to provide information to website visitors that lets them contact you (or your ISP if necessary) to resolve copyright infringement complaints. Having a DMCA Notice with a designated agent to handle complaints is one of the easiest ways to stay out of court if someone thinks you’ve stolen their sales copy, photos, videos, etc. and placed them on your website.
Remember that there are some dishonest copywriters and web designers out there who will steal from other websites and charge you for “work” they never did themselves. Don’t assume that an infringement complaint is bogus until you’ve investigated it.
And if you’ve got a website that does business in the U.S., having a DMCA notice is extremely important…unless you just like getting sued instead of handling
BEN SETTLE: Will having the right disclaimers help keep bureaucrats and “sue happy” people off their backs? Or at least off their radars?
MIKE YOUNG: The right website legal documents reduces your chances of getting sued or hassled by bureaucrats. There’s always risk in business that you do online and offline. But legal documents make you a less attractive target than someone who doesn’t have them. If nothing else, the person considering making your life difficult will assume you’ve got a lawyer.
For some people, that’s enough to stop them dead in their tracks. It’s like locking your door, having a burglar alarm, a guard dog, and floodlights on at night. You could get burglarized but the thief is probably going to move on to easier pickings at some place with less protection.
BEN SETTLE: What happens if people don’t keep current, up-to-date legal documents on their sites, and how would they know they even need to be updated?
MIKE YOUNG: That’s like not updating your anti-virus software on your computer. Your website legal documents should reflect where Internet law stands and provide key protections against major risks. As for staying updated, keep in touch with the source of your website legal documents, whether it’s an Internet lawyer or do-it-yourself software.
Taking the advice of some “guru” non-lawyer is too risky. Many so-called gurus think building a big email list for piking products makes them experts at everything else, including Internet law. That’s silly and too dangerous to bet your business on.
There’s one jackass out there who is giving away his lawyer’s legal documents to anyone who opts into his email list. What’s scary about this is the documents are of questionable value, there’s no indication his lawyer ever gave permission for the documents to be given away, and there’s no way to tell if the lawyer owned the rights to the documents in the first place.
A couple years ago, another Internet marketer sold legal documents that were owned by an Internet lawyer. They were sold without the lawyer’s permission. The seller had to make a public apology and his customers paid $3,000 to $5,000 bucks each to the lawyer for using the documents without permission. What a costly “shortcut.”
BEN SETTLE: Why should people avoid using boiler plate legal forms or trying to write them themselves?
MIKE YOUNG: There are some risks that are simply unacceptable. Practice medicine without being an experienced physician? Fly a plane without being a pilot? Why practice Internet law without knowing what you’re doing?
The source of “boilerplate” legal forms says a lot. If you’re not getting them from an Internet lawyer, you have to ask yourself what exactly you are getting. Something old? Defective? And does the seller even have the legal right to sell them to you?
BEN SETTLE: Tell us about your legal form generator software?
MIKE YOUNG: Website Legal Forms Generator software quickly and easily generates privacy policies, DMCA notices and other important website legal documents in about 10 minutes. You simply type a few pieces of key information (such as your website’s name) and click the “Generate” button.
The software instantly creates all the legal documents for you. Simply upload them to your site and link to them in the footer. That’s it.
Here’s two key points you need to know.
First, these website legal documents were created by me based upon the latest key changes in U.S. Internet law. If you have U.S. customers, that’s important for reducing your risks.
Second, my law firm owns the registered copyrights for all of these documents and has licensed the documents for use in the software. This means that customers can use the software legally to create legal documents for websites they own.
Pretty cool, eh?
I have Mike’s legal form generator software and I love it, use it all the time for multiple sites, and it’s one of the best investments I ever made.
In fact, I like it so much, I’m an affiliate for it.
And, if you buy it from my affiliate link:
… I will give you some rare bonuses.
(Just email me your receipt to collect them).
And here they are…
Bonus 1: Gary Halbert Secrets From Beyond The Grave
(Length: 1 hour 57 minutes)
This is a 2 hour interview with Doberman Dan Gallapoo about the real life marketing “adventures” he had working with the late copywriting genius, Gary Halbert. Includes “nuts and bolts” training as well as surprisingly deep success tips you won’t easily find anywhere else.
If you’re a Gary Halbert fan, this’ll be like solid gold for you.
Bonus 2: How To Make Ten Times More In Copywriting Fees:
(Length: 46:37 minutes)
This is a lesson I once taught about a secret way to make ten times more fees from copywriting clients. This is without playing any negotiation games and without getting any resistance whatsoever.
When I was a broke newbie this info helped pay off my car!
Bonus 3: Sales Letter “Jam” Session:
(Length: 1 hour 12 minutes)
This was a “round table” talk between myself, Doberman Dan Gallapoo, and Caleb Osborne (a copywriting whiz who won Clayton Makepeace’s “best ad” contest in his $7k seminar… and who makes a TON of profit for his clients in multiple competitive niches like dating and health products).
And it’s all about the exact processes we use to write ads.
Including little-known ways to make writing easier, more profitable and more FUN.
Bonus 4: The $997 Email Mini-Manifesto:
This is a 5 page email I sent to some (prior) business partners about email strategies I use to stand out like a sore thumb in peoples’ inboxes. It was written totally “off the cuff”, yet one of the guys said this information could easily be expanded into a $997 course.
Will it really be worth that much to you?
I honestly don’t know.
But this info has been worth much more than that for me.
Bonus 5: How To Get Booked Solid With Clients In 30 Days:
(Length: 1 hour 15 minutes)
This is a lesson by John “Angel” Anghelache about getting freelance copywriting clients. John used these exact techniques when he was a total newbie to nab assignments from guys like the late Gary Halbert, Michel Fortin, Yanik Silver, David Garfinkel, Peter Stone, and more.
This is perfect for anyone who wants clients — fast.
Again, this IS my affiliate link:
But, if you order from it this week, I will give you all the above bonuses free.
Just email me your receipt for your bonuses…
Ben Settle
