Sponsored Themes
Filed Under: WordPress
Weblog Tools Collection, one of the foremost blogs on the world of WordPress, has a fascinating discussion on the use of ’sponsored’ themes. Previously there were two types of themes available to WordPress users - free and paid. Free being a theme made available to anyone who wanted to use it at no cost and paid being one designed specifically for a particular user for a fee and available to only that user.
But recently a new category has emerged dubbed ’sponsored’. Basically a designer will create a theme for widespread distribution free of charge then sell a sponsored link much like the sponsored ads on radio and television. For example, if I wanted to sponsor a theme I would pay a fee to a designer who would then include a ’sponsored by’ link to my blog somewhere in the HTML, usually the footer. It seems a reasonable compromise to me. In fact this blog uses a sponsored theme.
While I have no problem with sponsored themes it seems some others do referring to the practice as tacky. I see nothing tacky about it. Being a partisan political blogger this site has already oodles of external links including blogrolls. What is one more link? While I appreciate the fact some bloggers are conscientious of what they link to nobody is forcing them to use a sponsored theme. If it truly is a concern then they can utilize the thousands of free themes - or pay to have one designed.
What is so wrong about a theme designer wanting to make a little money?
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