Link Building! - is this ethical?

There are people at DP's BST sponsoring wordpress themes, Is this is ethical way to building links?
If we see one side, a community (wordpress users) get something free and sponsor get credit for it.
Now,From one side it looks very ethical but from another angle it looks like sponsors are manipulating serp.
what are your views on this.
Also as I had studied some sites that have been benefited by this method.

Please share your views.

 

look at it this way - if you do link building, your site climbs up in SERP and you get PR boost. if you don't, then your site will be nowhere to be found. whats that gonna be?

 

Link building dates back to the beginning of the web..

 

Link building is what the 'web' is all about. Otherwise it would be called the 'string' or the 'singular thread which takes you nowhere'. Yes it's ethical and it's the world we live in. People pay for sponsoring bags at conferences not because they like to see their logo on a bag, but because lots of other people will too and they might get some business out of it.

 

Robert25, advertising is ethical ? In marketing, few things are ethical.

 

It is completely ethical.
For ex:In real world sponsors sponsor big sporting events like IPL or euro championship,then do you say it is unethical because they get so much publicity.The online world is catching up with the same concept.

 

In essence, isn't it similar to using Adwords? By using Adwords, you are paying a fee to have your link embedded on someone elses page. Although in the case of WP theme sponsoring you gain a permanent link.

 

Go for it. If your ethics are skeptical for that, you're gonna have to loosen them up a fair bit more to succeed in online marketing.

 

SEO = Search Engine Optimization = Manipulating serps.



If you think its unethical what are you even doing on DP?

 

Of course it is not! But people would kill for a backlink
Backlinks = SE domination = more money.
Ethical and money are quite the opposite.

 

How ethical it is really depends on you, if you're happy doing it then go for it. If you're worried about it then nofollow the links.

If you're asking for Googles viewpoint on it then Matt Cutts has blogged about it and explicitly recommends against them - http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/by-the-way-2/

Also in a Google Groups discussion,

http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/browse_thread/thread/59e796b85327a4b2

 

Ethical? What about completely monopolizing everything on the Internet - is that ethical?

 

MattUK posted useful info. Cutts is against sponsored themes.

Sponsoring themes does not appear to carry much risk now, but if Google ever started penalizing because of it then there would be trouble. And since Matt Cutts noted sponsoring themes is not a good idea, I would not risk it. Jeff from Aviva blogged up recovering from a Google penalty, and sponsored themes was one of many issues he had to deal with...

 

If you are going to be involved in sponsored themes, I would at least sponsor a theme that is styled in a way that its likely to be used by other people in your niche, and use your business name as the anchor. If you end up with your theme getting used by porno or casino sites, with a keyword spammed anchor, you're going to do infinetely more damage than good.

 

Guys, Its really help me lot to learn from your view points and those how will read this thread they might have lot of things to learn.

At some aspect its true also SEO = manipulating SERP, but those people who invest lots of in link building surely investing in adding value to their web site.

 

that depents on the your view point. i dont use sponsoring any themes