If you’re using your blog as an extension of your website for internet marketing reasons, you very likely have a customized blog theme to match the feel of your site. But if you’re blog is your site, then odds are good that you’re in the market for a new WordPress theme from time to time, to keep your site looking fresh.
If you are looking for a new WordPress theme, be very careful about sites offering free WordPress themes. Siobhan over at WPMU.org recently investigated the top 10 sites offering free WordPress themes … and found that 9 out of the 10 included malicious code that put spam advertisement on your site — usually in a way that is completely hidden in the back-end code.
For a complete look at the staggering research, see her article Why You Should Never Search for Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else.
But for the short version:
- WordPress.org was the one safe place to get your free WordPress themes — as we’d expect!
- Most of the sites used base 64 code to hide their ads in what looks like gibberish.
- Some of the sites didn’t even have original themes — they just stole someone else’s theme and put their ads on it.
- These ads usually appeared as text links in the footer of the site — links for cell phone services, online casinos, etc.
Why do so many people build sites offering free WordPress themes just to sneak evil little code in their themes? Well, because they want to make money! No doubt they have affiliate relationships with the companies the ads point to, and they get paid every time someone clicks through to those links. It’s also possible that they are selling the links to companies trying to invest in shady link-building SEO programs.
Worst of all, if you have a trusted, authoritative site on your subject, your readers may well assume that it’s safe to click on those links, because they trust you. They’ll also assume that you are responsible for putting those links on your site.
In the end it’s like Robert Heinlen said: TANSTAAFL — There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Except at WordPress.org, of course.
Other WordPress Posts:
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