Hiding Links within Template Code

[chris.whiteley]

I was hunting down a few templates today. I'm trying to learn how to create my own WP templates. While I was hunting through some of the code I found this

		<!-- please don't remove the following code, it doesn't affect your blog design -->
		<form id="usrsearch" name="usrsearch" style="overflow:hidden;width:2px;height:1px">
			High quality <a href="http://wordpresshome.com/">wordpress themes</a> are available for instant download.
		</form>
		<!-- end of code -->

I imagine that it is done for the purpose of getting backlinks to the listed webpage. My goal in creating WP templates would be to get backlinks to my site and usually I see that the template writer just ads a credit link in the footer. I was planning on just adding my link in the footer, but this way seems quite effective as the listed page has a PR 5. The link does not show up on the page nor does it affect the blog design.

I was just curious what people in the blogging community thought about this method, or if anyone knows of a backlash that may come from using this method.

[thenetfool]

Yeah. Usually the ways people drop links are more obvious though. That's a key reason that people make their own WP templates, to get some free marketing from users downloading and using their stuff. I really didn't know about this method, but I'd imagine that a lot of designers use coding like that to ensure that people don't cheat them out of well deserved linkage.

[clipod]

oh this has been into practice since long and I would respect that coz after all we are using their design for your blog so a small credit back to them for their work. I tink you are new to this and you are not aware of