Theme Sponsorship

[krishrun]

Hi,

Is sponsoring a wordpress theme a good option to for link building ?

[StalkerB]

Hi krishrun, I would say not really.

a) Your link will be in the footer

b) Your link will be on lots of non-relevant sites

c) Chances are the developer with use base64 encoding to obfuscate the links in the footer and even if you trust them other might not, either removing the obfuscated section (as it's possible to hide malicious code) or otherwise not using it

It did work quite well for a while, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do it now.

[krishrun]

Thanks for the reply Barry ...

One thing , I am not very techie ... can you explain the following again such that a techincally handicapped person like me understand

"Chances are the developer with use base64 encoding to obfuscate the links in the footer and even if you trust them other might not, either removing the obfuscated section (as it's possible to hide malicious code) or otherwise not using it"

[StalkerB]

While the license agreement for these themes usually stipulates that you cannot remove the links in the footer, I'd say 90% of people who grab the theme would immediately remove them given the chance.

To counter this coders obfuscate the code in the footer making it uneditable. It's also possible to hide nasty code in there at the same time (though that's probably more rare these days).

It's not too difficult to get around though - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/decoding-a-theme-footer?replies=38 - depending how it's done.

I personally would never use a theme that had obfuscated code, even after decoding it to make sure it wasn't dodgy. I just seems scummy from the outset.

[krishrun]

Thanks ... now i understand ...

There is no wasy way ... ... Perhaps should start my own template company ...

Cheers

Krish