The Revenue Opportunity Web Designers Forget About: Website Policies

My dad always told me, “Son, your time is the most valuable asset you have. Never be ashamed of knowing its worth.”

Just kidding.

He told me, “Son, never live in a place where you can’t legally pee off your back porch.” While this advice has helped forge the man I am today (for better or worse), it’s extremely unhelpful for this blog post. Therefore, let’s pretend he said the first one.

Web designers are already good at identifying what parts of a website take up their time and charging for that time appropriately. What’s less easy for people to see – other than every back porch I’ve ever owned – is how website policies are being overlooked for what they actually are: a fantastic revenue opportunity. 

What makes policies a great revenue opportunity?

The best recurring revenue sources are reliable, relatively easy to implement, and profitable. Lucky for us (and this entire blog), website policies are all these things.

1) Reliability

Website policies are here to stay.

Privacy laws that require websites that collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as names, emails or IP addresses to have policies are only becoming more and more common. In the U.S. alone, eight new privacy laws are coming in 2025. Each of these laws requires websites to have an up-to-date Privacy Policy that includes specific disclosures. These laws will join over a dozen privacy laws already in place – again, each requiring unique disclosures to be posted within website policies.

Combine this with the fact that most modern websites have contact us forms, analytics tools, newsletters, payment tools, or other third-party tools that require them to comply with several of these laws, and it’s safe to say that web agencies can count on policies being a part of the website-building process for years to come.

2) Easy to implement

There’s nothing easy about writing website policies on your own. To do this, you’ll need an advanced understanding of privacy law (a law degree helps), the ability to figure out which laws apply to your client’s website, the time to write up the policies with all the correct disclosures from each law that applies, constant reminders to update your client policies as these laws change or new ones go into effect, and a boat-load of caffeine to stay awake during this extremely dull and tedious process.

Not to mention, policies aren’t just a one-time project. They require regular updates to address changes in current laws as well as any new laws that will require additional disclosures. It’s a monumental task for web agencies.

OR, you can hire a lawyer like this guy. 

DOUBLE OR, if you don’t have the money to keep one of the best characters ever written on retainer (like many small businesses), you could use a Privacy Policy Generator. Preferably one like Termageddon where the characters are the ones doing the writing.

A good Privacy Policy Generator makes it much easier to implement and manage the website policies of multiple clients. Generators should also auto-update the policies (via a simple embed code) every time a law changes or a new one goes into effect – allowing you to avoid all the tedious steps we talked about earlier. 

Just to reiterate, if your client has an attorney who will draft their policies and keep those policies up to date over time, that is the best route to go. And, although you may only make a little revenue creating policy pages for that particular client, they are following best practices!

For all other clients (who can’t afford these types of attorney fees), a policy generator can be an excellent, affordable plan. BONUS: that’s where many of the recurring revenue options come into play.

3) Profitable

Finally, a good recurring revenue source will be profitable (obviously). Website policies are a great way to make some extra money. In terms of specific examples, that’s where the rest of this blog comes in. 

For now, just trust me on this one. 

3.5 ways to profit from your website policies

This is what you came for: To find out how those little hyperlinks in your websites’ footers can help you financially.

Please note: many of the following tactics will require you to be a Termageddon agency partner (free to sign up). You may be able to repeat some of these with other Privacy Policy Generators, but – as an avid non-user of other PPGs – I can’t say for certain.

While we’re making notes:

Please also note: None of this is legal advice. I’m in marketing, people. 

#1: Make upfront revenue

As someone who works with Privacy Policies all day – trust me when I say – very few people want to work with Privacy Policies all day. Just letting clients know that they (not you, the web agency) are ultimately responsible for complying with privacy laws, is usually enough to open them up to possible solutions.

For agencies that utilize multiple pricing tiers or plans, having “website policies” included in upper tiers is a great way to encourage clients to pay a little extra.

Don’t have a tiered pricing structure? Another option is to charge a one-time setup fee (usually around $100) for adding the policy embed codes to the website.

NOTE: Never promise a client that you’ll guarantee they’ll comply with privacy laws. This will open your business up to potential lawsuits. I recommend sending them our Website Policies Waiver to sign. This waiver lets them know that policies are their responsibility.

#2: Make recurring revenue

Some generators offer partnership programs that web agencies and designers can use to make some recurring revenue. Why? Because it just makes sense.

Privacy Policy Generators make the lives of web agencies so much easier by handling all the tedious and complicated work involved with the growing regulations in the industry. On the flip side, web agencies are a huge help to Privacy Policy Generators. Oftentimes, web designers are more enthusiastic about protecting their clients than their clients are about protecting themselves.

Since Privacy Policy Generators and web agencies share the workload of educating business owners on the importance of proper website policies, it only makes sense that they share the rewards.

*Termageddon bias incoming.

That’s why generators like Termageddon have an Agency Partner Program. By becoming an Agency Partner, web designers can test out the product for free on their website, and then boost their revenue in two main ways:

1) Affiliate partnership – We set partners up with an affiliate link and they receive a commission for every customer that signs up using that link. Since Termageddon is a subscription service, these payments could be a yearly or monthly treat.

2) Resell – We offer partners the ability to bulk-purchase licenses at a wholesale price. Agencies can then resell each license to their clients at the regular rate.

What’s that? You’d like a specific example and don’t care if I provide one using a shameless plug? Excellent! Don’t mind if I do.

Let’s say an agency takes part in our Black Friday deal starting November 25 and purchases 15 licenses for $337/year. That same agency signs up three clients and charges them the regular rate of $119/year. Just like that, it has paid for itself with another 12 licenses to go. 12 x $119 = $1,428 in potential revenue – all from setting up website policies that are required by law anyway. Plus, this will come in yearly since Termageddon is a subscription service that regularly updates customer policies via an embed code.

#3: It’s a competitive advantage

This one might not be a particularly sexy pitch because I can’t sit here and say that good privacy practices will earn you X amount of dollars from clients choosing you over “Bob’s Web Design & Personal Data Depot.”

What I can say is that a study by Axios found that 94% of Americans would switch to a company that prioritizes data privacy. So, rather than ignoring policies, turn the discussion about them into a competitive advantage when presenting your client quotes. While the websites you create are beautiful and high-converting, they are also secure, respect users’ privacy, and focus on compliance.

We’ve written an entire blog on how privacy can be a competitive advantage. It’s a good read. And I’m not just saying that because the President of my company wrote it, and I will likely read it as well.

#3.5: Keep the business you already have

This one is kind of cheating, I know. But according to every LinkedIn post ever, it’s cheaper to keep the clients you have than get new ones. Also, happy clients recommend your services to others.

Policies are just one more feature that can help increase the stickiness and retention of clients. It’s one less thing for clients to worry about, as you helped them develop a strategy to keeping their policies up to date.

Plus, I’m no Dr. Phil, but I’m pretty sure having a client get sued over something you built them won’t exactly nurture the relationship. Your reputation is one of the best ways to keep the money coming in, so don’t leave it up to chance when there are good, affordable Privacy Policy Solutions available.

Conclusion

Remember that faux fatherly advice at the beginning of this blog about charging for your time accordingly? Even with the help of generators, generating policies still takes work. Don’t be afraid to charge for that work. Whether that’s via setup fees, agency partner tools, or showing off your Privacy Policy knowledge to gain new business.

And yes, this blog was filled with Termageddon examples, but we don’t believe in pushing Termageddon exclusively. What’s best for everyone is for the agency/designer to: 

#1 – raise awareness of the importance of policies for website owners and their users

#2 – provide clients with options (hire an attorney, use a generator, or maybe do nothing)

#3 – respect the client’s decision as it’s ultimately their responsibility

P.S. During Black Friday we also offer two free licenses for new agency applicants looking to try out Termageddon. Use one on your own website and gift or sell the other to your favorite client.

That’s it. I’m done. There will be no more shameless plugs… after this word from our sponsor.