My Take On Sponsored Themes
- Filed under: WordPress
For those that don’t know, free WordPress theme sponsoring is the practice of paying the author/designer of a certain theme to link to your site through a footer link (usually in the copyright area).
The designer gets paid and the sponsor’s site gets promoted for being linked by hundreds of blogs. (It’s almost guaranteed that each free WordPress theme gets downloaded at least one hundred times. Several of my themes have been downloaded by the thousands.) The main benefit for the sponsor’s site is Google Pagerank. Pagerank is only important to people that know what it is. If you don’t know then forget about it.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is that, to some, theme sponsoring is considered spam. Right now, sponsored themes are up for downloads just like regular free themes. You download and use it for your blog, but you don’t know the sponsored link is in the footer of your site (unless you check for it), which means you’re unwillingly linking to the sponsor’s site without knowing it.
How come this is happening?
Not all bloggers, downloading themes for their blogs, are checking for the sponsored links. Not all bloggers are aware of this in the first place. Sponsored themes are being uploaded onto free-theme-download sites just like the rest of the free themes. It’s hard to tell unless you actually check theme-by-theme to make sure you’re not downloading a sponsored theme. And last, but not least, the theme designers are not warning us up front.
So what’s my take on it?
I am not against it if the theme designers make sure that people know what they’re downloading. If you know that it’s a sponsored theme and know that there will be a site-wide link at the bottom of your blog (to whatever site), yet you still download and install it, that’s acceptable to me.
Personally, I chose not to offer theme sponsorship.
Advice for WordPress theme designers
I know it takes quite a few hours to put a theme together and all of us should get rewarded for that, but try to be transparent and up front with what you’re putting out there. Then, you should be fine.
I am sorry to discover that you are doing this…
er.. What are you talking about? I don’t do sponsored themes Garry.
the 6th link on your site links to someone who does. I don’t believe in this and can not associate myself with this. It is wrong and it takes advantage of the people in the WordPress community.
I am sorry man… I love your work, but I can’t associate with this. I hate spam with a passion, and Themey has found a loophole that benefits himself at the expense of thousands of bloggers who are unaware of his intentions.
Best Regards,
Garry Conn
Garry, I’m refunding his money (full refund) for the sponsored link position on my site because I care about my readers’ experience on my blog, not because I agree with your way of approaching this problem in the wp community.
For what it’s worth, I thought his site was for selling themes and getting custom design jobs.
And like I said, if the blogger is fully aware of what he or she is downloading and will be using, I don’t have a problem with it.
Hey Small Potato
Thanks for your professional attitude towards this issue.
I have no desire to spam or trick anyone, and as you can see from my site I am upfront about theme sponsorship.
As you may know, I am not the only theme publisher who offers themes sponsored in this way.
I have contacted the admins at the themeviewer in an attempt to clarify what is and isn’t allowed when uploading to themes.wordpress.net
Keep turning out the great work
Wow… I totally respect that move. 110% respect that!
I really and deeply feel that this practice is very shady! Now I didn’t know that this was a paid link on your site… because of me being new here and not knowing you more personally, I was lead to believe that you had an affiliation with Themey. I am glad that you don’t.
And I am really sorry for stirring up the pot here… but I really, really hate spam.
I am all about making money… but I feel that there is a right way going about things and a wrong way.
WordPress is free. The themes are free. And I don’t think paid third party links should be on any of the themes. Its one thing to link to the author’s page… designers bust their butts working on themes… so credit is by far due and due more than a footer link in most cases… but third party links… no way!
[...] just one link back to this site in the footer, and was labelled a spammer again. I have also had advertising cancelled because of this [...]
I was hoping that my post would trackback, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen so here’s my two cents: http://deanish.com/posts/the-ad-sponsored-wordpress-themes-debate
There is one thing I didn’t get here. How come a link in a free theme becomes a problem? Users of that theme can delete sponsored link if they want. Or don’t they allowed to do that? And another thing, a sponsored link should be clearly visible or google won’t take it to calculate the pagerank. Am I wrong? I feel I am missing somethings here.
Kozalax,
The link to the author of the theme isn’t the problem. It’s the extra or sponsor link that links to some unrelated site is the problem because not everyone knows it’s there and not every theme designer warns us in the first place.
If theme designers that accept theme sponsoring choose to, they can make it illegal to remove the sponsored links.
Whether it’s visible or not, Google takes it into account.
The important thing to note isn’t just that it’s shady and many people don’t realize it’s there, but that it’s against Google’s webmaster guidelines to sell links like that and they regularly police against it.
So in effect, you’re putting hundreds or thousands of innocent blogs at risk of being penalized by Google because of the links you sold in a theme. (The theme author, not you specifically.)
Is the gamble worth it? For some folks, maybe. However I can speak from experience of being at the wrong end of this before that it never ends well.
I think we all agree that it’s the author’s responsibility to let us know what’s going on and what consequences can arise from it.
We need a way to clearly distinguish sponsored themes from the rest of the free themes on public download sites, without discouraging regular theme users from downloading non-sponsored themes.
Oh!
Is it that worse!!
Please Matt, reply to my E-mail ASAP !!!
[...] Mullenweg, creator of WordPress, commented on Small Potatoes thread about theme sponsorship. As we all know, Matt once sold 100,000 plus pages of spam content on WordPress.org, which kinda [...]
[...] Small Potato (one of those great designers who contributed to Theme Viewer) shared his view on the issue. As well as the concerned person himself, [...]
I’m having a blonde moment…I don’t get it…
When I downloaded WordPress theme Abstrakt 3c by Kausal Sheth, I noticed it a line “Sponsored by Aviva Web Directory.” I deleted that link, not because of spam concerns but because it violated the margins of my sidebar. I gave the designer credit for his work. and I did not think that I could be disallowed from removing the sponsored link, the same way I removed all those folks from the blogroll and replaced them with my own.
I’m glad you brought this up.
Hey Small Potato
Totally agree with you. I feel strongly that artists freely give of their creative efforts should be allowed to fund their work. Where it gets sticky is when they don’t use discretion that honors their customers rights.
Making them plainly aware of your sponsorship is the right approach, and one that I hope will be adopted by everyone. There’s just too many talented folks out there for this to become a dividing issue.
Garry Conn, its pretty pathetic what a ruckus you make over other peoples free themes. I hope you put as much effort into your “blog”.
On the same note (sorry for dupe commenting) the themes I’ve seen here are very nice and high quality. Keep up the good work! =)
Hey Mod,
A pathetic action would be not taking action. I am protecting Open Source from people who care nothing about our objective, which is keeping WordPress free of spam and advertising. An author, publisher, or site owner should have the right to have or not have links embedded automatically on his site. Aside from giving credit to the theme author, there should be no 3rd party links embedded into the footer.php file or any file for that matter… especially a sponsored link or link that points to a site of total unrelated content to that of their own. That is clearly spam, and doesn’t look good in the eyes of major search engines such as Google.
I am sorry, but WordPress out of the box is a natural search engine magnet… additionally there are various mods and tweaks that can be made to the program to better optimize it. One thing that you don’t want is a 3rd party sponsored link to some kind of affiliate site, money making site, credit card sale pitch site…
Sorry for stirring up dust… but I feel that this movement of Sponsored Themes is something that can cause our community more harm than good.
Best Regards,
Garry Conn
I guess I’m somewhat confused. I’m not sure what people are suggesting here. Should designers NOT upload their themes to the theme viewer if they are sponsored? What’s an appropriate disclaimer? Are you suggesting a separate theme viewer/downloader for sponsored themes (sponsoredthemes.wordpress.net)?
One small point of contention. If a designer chooses to take the time to release a theme for free, doesn’t he have the right to put whatever he wants to into the footer? If he wanted to put “happy birthday grandma” into the footer or the sidebar, he’s perfectly within his rights. HE DESIGNED IT!!
Sponsors pay for the google pagerank, true. But designers (sometimes) design for the google pagerank. What’s the difference?
Sorry, it just doesn’t seem like anyone’s being clear as to what exactly you are proposing should be done about this “problem”.
Looks like the themeviewer admins have finally clarified their policy towards this issue
Really? I haven’t followed the news. What’s the verdict?
….
Thanks for linking me. I read that update already. Although there’s mention of spam, it didn’t specifically address the sponsored themes issue.
Sponsored themes creates an interesting situation. To me, it doesn’t really make a difference whether the designer’s link is in the footer and he / she is getting some SEO-love, or whether a 3rd party is getting the love. That said however, I’m not too keen on releasing a sponsored theme either…
Oh, and I wonder how much that Themey guy (themey.com) is actually making…
Adii, I somewhat agree…
I don’t think Google cares whether its a designer link or third party link. They’re all pagerank spam to Google’s eyes right?
[...] other news, after the last bit of ads-in-themes arm-waving, and free beer pointy-headedness, a solution from scott’s themes occured to [...]
[...] sponsored-theme designers are pushing it. Let me remind you I don’t have a problem with sponsored theme designers and the practice of theme sponsorship, as long as the designers make it clear to the users of what [...]
[...] Small Potato over at WP Designer.com: sponsored-theme designers are pushing it. Let me remind you I don’t have a problem with sponsored theme designers and the practice of theme sponsorship, as long as the designers make it clear to the users of what [...]
[...] of stuffing themes with sponsored links. Small Potato is a really talented designer who has taken a stand on the sponsored link issue and I agree with him. As a show of support for Small Potato and his [...]
[...] to his site because I find the way he has chosen to go about voicing his opinion on the subject by trying to publicly humiliate a WordPress theme designer rather [...]
[...] — http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/26/my-take-on-sponsored-themes/ [...]
Why is Matt so into this? Didn’t he do his own spamming a couple of years back by selling 100,000 links (or something like that). I seem to remember they were all using black-hat techniques too. Talk about hollier-than-thou!
Just remove the theme links if it’s a problem to you! It’s not rocket science!
Talk about learning from my mistakes, Mr Anonymous.
[...] other argument against sponsored themes is that the sponsored link can often be interpreted as being spam. I disagree. The developer is completely within their rights to sell a link on their work. Just as [...]
[...] like the mafia, begin harassing not only sponsored theme authors but the people who unwittingly supported them. He then sacrifices a sponsored theme author to get his message across to other designers as to [...]
Wow… I totally respect that move.
[...] of WordPress, has weighed in against this idea. In the comments section of the WPDesigner blog he wrote: The important thing to note isn’t just that it’s shady and many people don’t realize it’s [...]
[...] like the mafia, begin harassing not only sponsored theme authors but the people who unwittingly supported them. He then sacrifices a sponsored theme author to get his message across to other designers as to [...]