Is there any negative effect that distributing templates with footer links to your site can have on PR or otherwise? If your site has a good rank, I was just curious if allowing new sites that may be on off topic subjects linking direct to you can be a dangerous situation.
You won't get penalized, they just won't hold as much relevance as say something specific to your niche.
If you are a designer, it should be okay to include your link. However, if you want to promote a gaming site or a web directory with this, you might get a PR penalty. This has happened more than once with DP members
Why would you get a PR penatly, because teh argument that a competitor could do this to screw you. Also, i know in the webhosting arena seo is competitive. If you look at the top site: webhostinggeeks, they use word press footer links
I know it sounds weird (and it is), but Google is known for such random reactions. I am speaking from experience and can't justify their actions ) I know that a lot of people use wordpress (and other CMS templates) and manage to avoid any kind of penalty, but I believe it's safe for web designers and developers only.
I don't think so because if you are service provider then you can give link to websites like powered by or hosted by etc.