Popular WordPress Sites Say “No” to Ad-Sponsored WordPress Themes
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By Recently, two popular WordPress-related sites took a stand against ad-sponsored WordPress themes. Mark Ghosh, publisher of Weblog Tools Collection declared that he would no longer promote sponsored WordPress themes on his site. Shortly thereafter, WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg stated that all sponsored themes “should” be removed from the Wordpres Theme Viewer site. As for Matt’s comments, I’ve requested clarification from him, but I assume he means there’s currently a project underway to actually remove sponsored themes from the site.
About Sponsored Themes
For those new to the topic, a sponsored WordPress theme is one that includes one or more text-link ads somewhere on the theme’s pages; usually at the bottom of each page. As an example of how a sponsored WordPress theme works, consider the free WordPress themes I offer here on Solostream. If I wanted to, I could sell a text-link to an advertiser, and place that link within one of my free themes. Then you come along and download the theme to use on your own WordPress site, and the paid text link shows up on each page of your site (click on the graphic to the right for an example).
About the Controversy
As far as I can tell, the sponsored theme debate has been going on for quite a while. This past April, however, Mark added some fuel to the fire with this post in which he concluded:
“I will not be the theme/sponsorship police. I do not intend to chastise sponsored theme developers nor do I intend to attack their form of income. All I want to have happen is for WordPress users to have a steady flow of new, cool and useful themes and plugins and for theme authors to have a steady stream of WordPress users. That is my primary goal. We intend to try and bring the community together.
“However, I want to educate the users and readers of this blog and let them decide what is best for their needs and suits their opinions. In that spirit, all themes with sponsorship links will be labelled [sic] as such when they are published, non-sponsored themes will be published first and we require sponsorship disclosure to be made to us when authors make us aware of their new themes (emphasis his). If this disclosure is not provided and the theme has sponsored links, the author will be barred from being able to post their new themes on weblogtoolscollection.com until further notice.”
A few days later, Matt published this essay on Weblog Tools Collections. His opinion on sponsored themes was decidedly more negative than Mark’s:
“Two years ago I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life when I made a decision to accept a “sponsorship” on WordPress.org without considering the ramifications it would have for its users, our community, and the web as a whole. It pains me to see others going down a similar path. We should think about how these people are trying to exploit the WordPress community and good name instead of looking the other way because they’re paying.”
Ultimately however, Matt left it up to the WordPress community to decide. He proposed an idea to remove these themes from WordPress.org and asked others in the community to vote for or against the idea. It seems the majority of folks agree with Matt as his idea has received four stars out of five.
My Take on the Whole Issue
1. I don’t do sponsored themes. The only links on the themes I offer are a link back to my own site and a link to wordpress.org. I appreciate the people who leave those links on their site, but I don’t make it a requirement to use the theme.
2. There’s nothing inherently wrong with sponsored themes. Although I don’t do sponsored themes myself, I hold no moral judgement against those developers who do use them. I know the time and effort it takes to create a WordPress theme from scratch, and there’s nothing wrong with being compensated for that effort.
If, however, you are merely redistributing – and/or taking credit for, and/or profiting from – the fruits of someone else’s labor, you should be ashamed.
2a. Full disclosure is a wonderful thing. Potential theme users should know if they are using a sponsored theme. Ultimately, their site and all its content is a direct reflection on them. If they are going to be linking to other sites, they should be aware of where those links point.
3. Mark and Matt made the correct decisions. However they came to their decisions, Mark and Matt each fulfilled the dominant desires of their respective communities. And to me, that’s just good business.
4. Some people might be better served if they spent more time tending their own gardens and less time tending others’. You know who you are.
(Hat tip: Iskwew)
About the Author
Michael Pollock is the marketing and product development guy for Solostream. He's also a blogger, a web marketing trainer and an entrepreneur. When he's not evangelizing Solostream, he trains other solopreneurs on how to use the web to reach more people, earn more money and live a bigger life. Michael's Website.
I have several websites that I run as blogs. I, as the web site owner, place text link ads on my website. Then again, I design site, I own the site, I can place whatever I want on the site….
[...] Sponsored themes are a little more invidious: they are supported by advertising links in the footer and/or sidebars. Some people object to this, and some don’t, but it’s something to be aware of: you should know what you’re advertising on your own blog. [...]
[...] Sponsored themes are a little more invidious: they are supported by advertising links in the footer and/or sidebars. Some people object to this, and some don’t, but it’s something to be aware of: you should know what you’re advertising on your own blog. [...]
[...] Sponsored themes are a little more invidious: they are supported by advertising links in the footer and/or sidebars. Some people object to this, and some don’t, but it’s something to be aware of: you should know what you’re advertising on your own blog. [...]
i agree with Lic plate. the lease a developer can get back is a link. this is just my opinion
I do not agree, if you like the theme someone else has developed, why not thanks him with a link?
Yeah, I agree that if something is free it should be free. If it’s some kind of an ad than it’s not free!!
Sometimes they insist that we shall not remove those links. Well, they also have a point that we should acknowledge their work, but some designers put their links at prominent places. Better if they leave it to the webmasters to where the theme developers links / whatever should appear.
[...] synes jeg er en god ting. Mitt template har ikke slike, og Michael Pollock, som har laget det, lager ikke sponsored themes. Det eneste som ligger i min footer er lenke til wordpress og til Michael, og det synes jeg er helt [...]
I never use free themes which has a bloody link to their sites!
why should i?
if it s free then it must be free!
thanks
Is there any way to implement banner invocation codes from my openads server.
[...] The BizWalk, on the other hand, uses a free theme designed by Micheal Pollock, CEO of Solostream. Micheal doesn’t do sponsored Wordpress themes even if he has nothing against those who [...]
I agree with Matt L’s comment above.
Why is it that people get pissed off so much when they see the person just starting out attempting to make money over the Internet.
Nobody complains about the blog links that come preinstalled on the WordPress script, yet everyone is pissed when someone who hasn’t made a name for themselves tries to do the same thing.
But most importantly, the theme designer has the right put whatever he/she wants on their theme. If the website owner has a problem with it, then they have every right not to use the theme.
I agree..
I would just remove the link anyway, if its not related to the blog theme designer
I saw good on them.. remove them all
i like your stand on sponsored themes. and i wish there were more generous, talented designers like you around. solostream’s designs are simply great!
1. a website owner, who provides all the content, should be the one to get his own sponsors. he works longer on building his site than the one who designed the basic look.
2. the designer should not ’spam’ a another person’s blog by insisting that his sponsor be included another’s website just because he allowed his design to be used for free. because no one forced him to submit his design to the wordpress theme viewer in the first place.
3. the sites linking back to his site, based on his theme’s popularity, should be enough for him to get many sponsors to HIS site.
lastly, all that mark and matt are saying, really, is that they will no longer allow sponsored themes to appear in their collections, which is their right. sponsored theme designers are, of course, free to display their work elsewhere. it’s also not fair that these guys are spending hours to maintain these sites for free public use while others are making money by simply designing a template.
keep up the good work!
If a person is getting a free theme, it doesn’t matter one iota whether the person benefiting from the link at the bottom is the designer, or someone who paid the designer… except in the minds of those who believe that profit and business is “evil”.
Of course most of those guys griping about sponsored themes have a job with a company that makes a profit, or contract themselves out as programmers… for profit. Seems very short-sighted an naive, but like you said. It’s their sites & they can do what they want.
There are actually quite a few people paying for themes to be developed for them, then claiming authorship in the footer and providing the themes for free use.
It would be very hard for people to determine if this is being done or if the actual website owner created it themself. It is helping some of my competitors rank higher in the Search Engines. I think it is perfectly fine, which why I may eventually try this same thing.
I have several websites that I run as blogs. I, as the web site owner, place text link ads on my website. Then again, I design site, I own the site, I can place whatever I want on the site.
When it comes to free WordPress Themes, there should not be any advertising on them. If the person that downloaded the theme wants to place an ad on it, then that is their choice. They are the web site owner.
A lot of designers have put hard work into their designs and if they want to have sponsors, that is their decision. As a user of nice theme designs, I can chose whether to use the sponsored themes or not. I guess I don’t understand the problem.?.
Why do big entities like WordPress have such limited thinking – remove sponsorship and back links removes motivation for lots of designers.
The common sense idea would be to take the polar opposite view and promote sponsored themes. Why not set up a site where big companies pay a designer to create a cool theme, featuring the company’s banner or some such, which is then offered free to bloggers.
If I like Hershey chocolate I’d download one of the Hershey sponsored themes. Another money making idea thrown out into cyber space…….
I posted about this recently. I am of the opinion that people should leave copyright links on a design if they are asked to and if they have a problem with it they should not use the design.
A link back to the authors website is the main source of traffic for a lot of designers.
The day wordpress bad designs with copyright links is the day the wordpress link is being removed from my blog
I wonder how many of these themes there are on wordpress.org. Any idea?
I think for the theme author not to be allowed a link back to his own site, as token of the great work done to make the theme, would be wrong. But that’s not what this is about, although I saw some confusion in the debate at Weblog Tools collection.
What I would mind strongly is to have a theme where there are hidden links I don’t know about. I wasn’t even aware of this possibility, and I am glad I regularely read Weblog tools collection, so that I now know.
But I don’t either see anything wrong with sponsored themes as long as you are explicitly told that it is such a theme. Removing them from wordpress.org though, I think is a good thing. People who don’t know won’t them be linked to pages they might have issues being linked to, without even knowing.
I do not use sponsored themes anymore. I pay for themes or use ones like yours. Actually, your themes are the only free ones I use and I do not mind keeping the solostream link. The links I don’t like are ones to all sorts of companies that are not related to my website and ones that I would not necessarily recommend. It’s just a new way for internet marketers to get their links out there.