Why Do People Create Free Wordpress Themes?

[lossehelin]

i must be sleeping because i never found any sponsored theme... at least that im aware of...anyway, great explanation

[kathiemt]

There are some really great templates out there - thanks for telling us this. I must admit if I see a template I like on someone else's blog I always look to see who the designer was so I can go see what other designs they have. I have a couple of blogs where I'm looking for that design that would just be right for them. Mind you I have about 50 or more templates saved on my computer anyway but I often set up blogs for clients too so it's good to have stock available.

[thenetfool]

That's very correct Bloggeries. Thanks for the heads up,
I didn't consider that there could be such a huge advantage in making a template

[The University Kid]

The themes I give away bring in an additional 50~ links a month to the blog, which isn't that bad as I only paid $50.00 for them in the beginning.

WP Themes | The University Kid

As long as they're high quality, they help build brand exposure

[Bloggeries]

I have heard of late though that search engines may be discounting this type of practice as it's sort of a form of manipulation. Also you have no clue what site will use your theme meaning it MAY be a bad neighborhood.

Web marketing practices are definitely changing big time compared to a few years ago.

[erikko]

now i know why some make free templates, its another way of promotion

[WPThemeSite]

Originally Posted by Bloggeries

I have heard of late though that search engines may be discounting this type of practice as it's sort of a form of manipulation. Also you have no clue what site will use your theme meaning it MAY be a bad neighborhood.

Web marketing practices are definitely changing big time compared to a few years ago.

You know, have you ever heard of anyone getting rich, listening to the main stream? This is something I would not suggest, as the "main stream" runs and jumps on all kinds of trains, that end up crashing. (for example widgetbux)

Backlinks can only increase your webtraffic, and the more backlinks you have out there the higher up in the search engine ranking placements you will be.

EVERY FRIGGEN LINK you add somewhere else, is manipulation, lol! Right? Ignore them, add out as many links as you can, and do it as fast as you can, and you will get ranking PERIOD. I rank page 12 for wallpapers
and I did rank page 1. I was able to accomplish this through many different "taboo" methods, link building, buying links, using my own wordpress links.

The reason people don't want you manipulating the search engines like Google, is because if you learn how to do it correctly, you will be able to take any search phrase you want.

[Bloggeries]

Originally Posted by WPThemeSite

You know, have you ever heard of anyone getting rich, listening to the main stream? This is something I would not suggest, as the "main stream" runs and jumps on all kinds of trains, that end up crashing. (for example widgetbux)

Well said! You don't get rich 99% of the time following the mainstream. If that was the case everyone would be rich already!

I do hear what you're saying. I wasn't trying to be overly negative. I think the best recipe for this type of thing is to use many techniques in moderation instead of just focusing on one or two methods of building traffic.

[WPThemeSite]

I agree with you 100%.

I do many different forms of link advertisements, often I have to deal with a Google dance, but I like traffic so I do what I can.

[Strongbow]

What sort of numbers are we talking about link wise from the themes is it hundreds or thousands? I have often wondered how productive it is in terms of links.