Sponsoring Wordpress Themes for Backlinks

08. May 2007 | 12 Comments

Wordpress themes are so hot right now. Literally.

A recent technique for Bloggers to quickly build up some good link authority to new blogs & websites is to Sponsor various Wordpress Themes using varying anchor text.

Why is this good?

Well, first of all you can sponsor a theme fairly cheap. We’re talking from $25+ depending on where in the world the person who designed it is from.

Secondly, you can choose the exact anchor text you want to rank for in the link.

Thirdly, if the theme gets popular (have a look at themes.wordpress.net) you could be looking at upwards of 2000-4000+ installs. This equates to sitewide links on a HEAP of blogs.

Where can I get some of this action?

Simple, it’s all about networking. If you see a theme you like then simply email the author politely something like this:

Hey there %name% this is Stuart from Earners Blog. I really love your most recent Wordpress Theme & would love to sponsor it! Sponsorship would be nothing more than a link in the footer to my website & of course I would pay you to include it. How does $300 sound?

I’ve actually struck up a nice relationship with some Bloggers so much that when they write a new theme they ask me if I’d like to sponsor it right away (Why wouldn’t they?).

Need somewhere to start?

How about contacting some of the designers in this post

Happy Link Building

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12 Comments on "Sponsoring Wordpress Themes for Backlinks"

Jon Waraas 08. May 2007, 7:18 pm

I would like to add that this works great. I have made/sponsored a lot of themese. Great way for backlinks

Dominic 08. May 2007, 8:00 pm

I agree. I have never sponsored a theme, but the theme I released for my blog has got me heaps of backlinks.
http://www.internetwealthmaster.com/seo-simple/
Also, remember to market your theme or plugin as effectively as possible. There are plenty of blogs with lots of ‘Trust/Page Rank’ that report on recently released themes and plugins. There are also lots of highly ranked directories where you can list your theme.

Stuart 08. May 2007, 8:06 pm

Perhaps a post about Theme promotion might be on the card soon, cheers Dominic

Matt Propst 08. May 2007, 10:45 pm

Maybe it’s not good to spend that much. I’ll play devil’s advocate and say that on Digital Point Forums you can get a theme coded for around $50 if you look. More often than not you can find one for less than that uncoded. Why would I want to sponsor a theme for that much money when i could have one created for less and just distribute that?

Community Building Blog 09. May 2007, 3:46 am

My only reservation with sponsoring a theme is you do not know what that theme is going to be used for.

The last thing I would want is my link appearing on hate sites or blogs on topics I consider ‘undesirable’.

- Martin Reed

Samuel 09. May 2007, 3:35 pm

Will there be a lot of people who remove the footer links? I do that on all my wordpress blogs.

Eli 11. May 2007, 12:09 pm

$300 would be a bit pricey.

Stuart 11. May 2007, 2:05 pm

Depends on the theme, I’d more than pay $300 to sponsor the BloggingPro theme for example.

Maki 14. May 2007, 2:10 am

Stuart,

I wrote about this topic 2 mths ago.. if you’re interested, I’ve linked to it in my URL.

Wordpress Theme sponsorship is ineffectual in the current climate, IMO. There’s just too much heat on it and going big on Themes.wordpress.net won’t be as easy as before.

Producing your own WP theme and releasing is a far better link building strategy.

Shawn 17. May 2007, 1:26 am

This is smart thinking, and an easier way to get lots of traffic from a theme. My thought was to make my own theme(s) and of course host them. You can get tons of traffic from the fact that people are USING the theme and you’re linked in the tagline, but this is a VERY easy way to capitalize on someone else’s theme.

Harsh Agrawal 08. Aug 2009, 6:16 am

It’s a good idea but can be bad idea specially when backlinks are coming from bad sites .. Is int it??
Correct me if I’m wrong…