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Beware of sponsoring WP themes

Discussion in 'Link Development' started by xtremenitro911, May 7, 2009.

  1. #1
    Just wanted to let every one know what happened to me. I sponsored a couple travel wordpress themes and it seems the people that built the theme and sold me the link also sell the links to Drug/pharmacy related sites so every site that uses the theme now also links to my site and a pharmacy.

    And the worst part is, one of the themes, a travel theme, is used by a couple Marijuana sites. Now I have a bad neighborhood linking to my site.
    So be careful doing this everyone.
    I know sponsoring themes is a good way to build links over time but you never know who will be linking to you.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 7, 2009 IP
  2. dpwebmasterseo

    dpwebmasterseo Banned

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    #2
    yes thats true..
    sellers don't consider what they are linking..
    most of them contain gambling links.
     
    dpwebmasterseo, May 7, 2009 IP
  3. Bohra

    Bohra Prominent Member

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    #3
    That problem is going to remain always neone is free to use open source themes
     
    Bohra, May 7, 2009 IP
  4. debunked

    debunked Prominent Member

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    #4
    What do you mean by "sponsored" themes?
     
    debunked, May 7, 2009 IP
  5. Bohra

    Bohra Prominent Member

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    #5
    Sponsored theme means you pay someone to create a theme or you yourself create it and add links at the bottom and these themes are freely distributed for link building
     
    Bohra, May 7, 2009 IP
  6. debunked

    debunked Prominent Member

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    #6
    OK, so the free WP themes that have the person's site linked at the bottom may also have been used for p0rn or stupid disfuction type sites. I am using a couple that have the link in the bottom, but so far not having issues ranking these sites quickly in Google.

    I guess I should check the site it links to out, etc... and make sure I am not linking to a bad neighborhood.
     
    debunked, May 7, 2009 IP
    xtremenitro911 likes this.
  7. xtremenitro911

    xtremenitro911 Banned

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    #7
    All the people in the Link Sales forum here looking for sponsors for there themes. For there price they will include your link in the footer of the theme. These are free themes that they submit to WP theme sites.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 7, 2009 IP
  8. xtremenitro911

    xtremenitro911 Banned

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    #8
    YES! Always check the free themes you use on your sites. Also, buying these sponsored links puts you in danger of bad neighborhoods linking to you also.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 7, 2009 IP
  9. dpwebmasterseo

    dpwebmasterseo Banned

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    #9
    matt cutt is against such links
    weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/04/12/on-sponsored-themes/
     
    dpwebmasterseo, May 7, 2009 IP
  10. xtremenitro911

    xtremenitro911 Banned

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    #10
    good find. I'll be checking into that one. I did wonder how long it would take for Google to put a stop to this. Any time people find new tricks/tactics it don't take long for them to find out and put a block on it.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 7, 2009 IP
  11. dpwebmasterseo

    dpwebmasterseo Banned

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    #11
    that's very old article, issue had been raised before 2 years ...
     
    dpwebmasterseo, May 7, 2009 IP
  12. xtremenitro911

    xtremenitro911 Banned

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    #12
    I guess this is just more of a reason not to sponsor these themes.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 7, 2009 IP
  13. 5593907

    5593907 Active Member

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    #13
    This use to be a very effective method for picking up links, but it's become outdated as Google now frowns on it. It's still very commonly done, but isn't really all that effective any more (at least in my opinion).
     
    5593907, May 8, 2009 IP
  14. bobchrist

    bobchrist Active Member

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    #14
    Thanks for making us aware about that! Best to use clean theme from wordpress.org, it has now many varieties. :)
     
    bobchrist, May 8, 2009 IP
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  15. xtremenitro911

    xtremenitro911 Banned

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    #15
    Ya, that's what I been doing. Less outbound links on the themes and don't have to worry about bad neighborhoods.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 8, 2009 IP
  16. dglas

    dglas Peon

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    #16
    good point to highlight. can never know who will be linking to you but just hope for the best.
     
    dglas, May 8, 2009 IP
  17. linkmonkey

    linkmonkey Peon

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    #17
    You never have control over who links to you anyway.
    That can't harm your site, you only get bad neighbourhood when YOU link out to bad sites. Google won't penalise you if THEY link to you.
    Otherwise one of your competitors could just buy a ton of bad links into your site to harm you.
     
    linkmonkey, May 8, 2009 IP
  18. Bohra

    Bohra Prominent Member

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    #18
    eXactly :D
     
    Bohra, May 8, 2009 IP
  19. saiful-rez

    saiful-rez Peon

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    #19
    Thanks for the info.
     
    saiful-rez, May 8, 2009 IP
  20. xtremenitro911

    xtremenitro911 Banned

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    #20
    I have read some articles that say otherwise but hopefully your right. You do have a good point. However, I still won't use them cause people sell those sponsored links to pharmacy and gambling (not all of them do) and that would be linking to bad neighborhoods. I guess you could ask them to make sure they won't but as mentioned above Google is on to it and don't like it so I guess I'll give up that idea.

    Thanks everyone for the discussion.
     
    xtremenitro911, May 8, 2009 IP