Case Study: The Pros and Cons of Banning Sponsored WordPress Themes

A few days ago I read some blog posts regarding sponsored WordPress themes. Many people are opposing sponsored WordPress themes, and some people are supporting sponsored themes.

I would like to present to you here a case with a little bit information from both sides of the story, and my opinion too. I hate sponsored things with ads that interfere with different things, but I have no problem with sponsored themes which do not link to spam sites. I would like to begin by telling you a bit about sponsored themes, and then moving on to topics that tell you why you should care about this issue, and why in my opinion you should support the idea of having sponsored WordPress theme.

To begin with, I have never made any sponsored WordPress theme, nor am I using one, nor do I have any personal or financial interest in such themes. Therefore, I think I am free to swing around the issue with both logic and a little bit of trademarked business and personal emotion.

What is a Sponsored WordPress Theme?

A sponsored WordPress theme is basically a theme where the theme creator has sold some links to random sponsors, and put those links into themes to give away to people for free. Anyone who uses such themes is usually not allowed to remove those links. That way, anyone who likes such aa sponsored theme can benefit from using the theme for free, and the theme author can also earn a little bit money or even a living from such a business of creating WordPress themes and offering them to others.

Why should you care?

Because if you do not, a lot of people are going to die! Ok, maybe that is not entirely true. Any blogger, commentor or a reader who runs into a WordPress powered site is usually shown a layout, which is the WordPress theme. Having sponsored links in themes mean that on site which are willing to use such themes, there will be constant and confirmed ads somewhere in the layout, usually at the bottom of the page.

For bloggers, one of the ways it affects blogs is that automatic advertising, even when the revenue does not go to the blogger directly, is always around. Second, someone making a theme can give it away for free and at the same time earn money for themselves by implementing those themes.

A reader can enjoy a beautiful theme, and based on the blogger, may also be subject to sponsored links. While putting in ads anywhere results in readers seeing those ads, a blogger can easily acknowlegde that they use a sponsored theme, by their own will, because they like the design.

The biggest reason you should care is because this debate can dictate a lot of future trends: should we prohibit anyone else from doing something we do not like doing? Should all WordPress themes never had ad links in them, even when a blogger is free to choose or ignore such a theme? Is it true that all people who are involved in sponsored themes are evil, greedy and spammers? Is it true that we ourselves love stereotyping and want to control other people’s actions simply because we do not like it?

Based on this, there may be a time when there will be both theme authors making designs for free, and theme authors making themes for money or for sponsored links. Either way, people will have a choice, since no one is being manipulated or forced into choosing one over the other. That is the sole reason I do not agree with forcing readers to choose only sponsor-free themes; I can make my own choice.

Pros and Cons of having sponsored WordPress themes?

Pros of banning sponsored WordPress themes

1. Less advertisements and less spam links on blogs
2. Less outgoing links to sites you have no control over
3. More ways for designs themes to be completely customizable
4. All WordPress themes will have no sponsored links in them, besides the default link pointing back to the theme developer’s site or the one that points to WordPress.
5. More people will create themes with the sole intention of spreading good designs
6. More availability of high quality themes that everyone can afford for free. Even though sponsored WordPress themes are free, many people, like myself, think that having an ad in any form is like making a payment. Thus, without sponsored WordPress themes, all themes available will be completely free, unless the developers requires a link back to their site no matter what.

Cons of banning sponsored WordPress themes

1. All legitimate businesses are being stereotyped as being bad, scammers or spammers.
2. Less choices for the readers to choose from, and anyone wanting to make money through this method will be an evil, unwanted and spammy outcast.
3. Eliminating an idea, like a business idea, or banning it, for no clear reason other than love for the concept of themes means controlling the market, specially if sponsored theme developers are also making quality themes.
4. Because of some spammers, anyone who wants to have sponsored themes in order to make an honest living, by telling people “Here is my theme. It has sponsored link in it. Please do not remove it. Use it or don’t, your choice.”, get punished too. Innocent people get punished because they are categorized in the same category as spammers. People will be stereotyped.
5. Businesses will have more say in controlling parts of the market. For example, Mark can offer an opinion, even though he earns money beause of the popularity of WordPress and because of being featured in the WordPress Planet news itself, but Matt should not because he has a direct conflict of interest. You can also read a better written post [than mine] to find out Ryan’s opinion on Matt Cutts and Matt Mullenweg wanting to ban all sponsored WordPress themes. Maybe Mark from WLTC also has a direct conflict of interest, or maybe Matt Mullenweg also does not have any conflict of interest and I am misinterpreting something? Maybe Matt Cutts has a conflict of interest because he works for Google and Google does not want to complicate search algorithms for trying to find any possible spamming links on WordPress-powered sites?

I do not like sponsored themes. I also do not like dictatorship banning and criticizing anyone who likes sponsored themes.

Sponsored themes can be like sponsored, ad-filled software. Use it or don’t, but classifying all software people who create ad-supported software to be spammers is being extreme without logic. Such a trend of wanting to ban people from doing something, if gone unnoticed, can move on to other things in the future. Linking back to a site to earn traffic for your own site to make money directly or indirectly, or to earn money through sponsor links directly, is the same in my view.

“Every theme should be free“; why? Why should it not be free? How is putting any sponsored link spam? Can you provide a clear cut logic leading from a sponsored link to every link being a spam, whether or not the link in question is actually spam?

Someone wants to make money through something you did not think of making money from, or something you do not want to make money from? Let them be, and mind your own business. Who is anyone else to tell you how to run your life, and who are you to tell someone else to run their lives? Unless someone’s actions affect people in a negative manner, let them be. Also, just because someone questions Matt’s or someone else’s major decision that affects others does not mean some people have to get defensive and personal. Matt isn’t god, and nor is anyone else in the blogosphere. Anyone can question anyone else at any time, regardless of whether they use a free script or whether they use something by that person. The last time I checked, majority of the supposed-civilized world had promised to give up the idea of having butlers, servants and slaves who were punished for questioning anything. Maybe I am living in an illusional dream of mine where I think others can be allowed to question things if they have some logical backing to their questions.

Matt says the majority of the WordPress community is opposed to sponsored themes. I found contradicting data instead.

Matt said on his site “I know that this is something the majority of the WordPress community has voted for.” The link Matt points to has 10 pages of comments, with about 18 comments on each page, with many users opposed to the idea and many people supporting the idea. The idea itself has gathered 310 votes overall, many negative and many positive, and 180 comments almost, also divided between supporting and opposing the idea.

So the actual number of people supporting the idea, according to the link Matt posted, is probably less than 200. Even if we cover our eyes and think that anyone who opposed the idea on the thread that Matt considers support from “majority of the WordPress community” and assume that all 310 voters voted against sponsored themes, 310 voters represent majority of the WordPress community? I am sure Matt made a mistake in his post, or I am not getting some logic. If anyone could help me, I would appreciate it.

This is supposed to be a free world. If someone does something you do not like, let them be and talk against it. But if you take actions to prohibit someone from doing something, it is taking an extreme measure simply because of your personal preferences. Are we living in an extreme world where we want to prohibit others from doing normal things that we do not do? Designs are made and sold everyday; I think sponsored themes are the exact same, with people giving away themes for free in return for ad links. What is wrong with that model? Matt said some people support sponsored themes because they are trying to protect their money. I agree, and I also agree with Jeremy ShoeMoney that maybe Matt himself is trying to protect his money too. This is working both ways probably.

Are we stereotyping and categorizing everyone in the same category?

A sponsored theme with spam links can be bad. Not all sponsored themes are bad. Get my idea? A sponsored theme that hides spam links and manipulates readers is bad. All sponsored themes are not bad. Get my idea? Maybe I am not understanding some logic here that Marc, Matt and Connor have. I do not see the link between taking a free thing or a concept [the idea of free WordPress themes], customizing it, and offering that customization to readers as a choice, for a free cost of having sponsored links at the bottom.

I do not see how that is dishonest, and I do not see how that is unethical in any manner. I personally hate the idea of having a theme with links pointing to companies I have no control over. However, that is the exact reason I do not like sponsored themes, but I cannot use such a reason to deem all sponsored themes and anyone prompting sponsored themes to be pure evil. That is categorizing, generalizing and stereotyping too much, both ways. I do not see the logic in telling everyone else that they cannot do something simply because I do not do it. The sponsored WordPress theme developers are offering readers more choices and freedom than the people completely taking away those choices from people through a ban. That is very weird in my view. Are people so immature and not able to make their own decisions that rules have to be enforced for their own protection and safety?

This is not politics where the republicans can force democrats into not doing something, or the democrats can force republicans into doing something. This is not abortion vs. non-abortion, gay vs. non-gay, smoking vs. non-smoking, kind of debate. This is not your country where you can wage a war against someone else to enforce your ideas onto others. This is business, and it affects other businesses and that is why this amount of tension is there; focus only on the business and the customers, who are mainly the bloggers. Having the idea “ban” is just funny. If you can’t change them or fix the issue, you simply force others to not do anything? Is that how you solve issues, by forcing others to agree with you? If that is the case, then we are talking about a completely different issue, like the inability to cope and coexist with others.

To people who are name-calling Matt and Mark : grow up!

Same goes for sponsored WordPress theme supporters who want to criticize people like Mark or Matt on a personal level. Mark recently talked the people calling him names. I know about Matt’s business, but I do not know Matt personally. I can say I care about Matt’s personal life and then criticize him; I do not know him personally, so I cannot criticize him. I can say I do not care about Matt’s personal life and thus come up with some way to criticize him; even not caring means I have thought about it and acknowledge something. For me, Matt does not exist outside of the computer, and thus for me his personal life simply does not exist. That is why I cannot understand why so many people oppose the idea of banning sponsored WordPress themes by name-calling people like Matt or Mark. Sure, some random person like Mark and Matt are talking about things which may affect your income and your business life, but what will arguing about the issue in any manner other than using logic and reason going to achieve? They are keeping things on a business level; why can’t some people on the other side of the garden keep it on the same level too? Are you really a spammer and someone who is acting unethically, and you are so offended by this that you have no example or logic to prove your point, so all you can do is call someone a bad name?

This is business for many, people. If you cannot handle it, maybe you should focus on non-business issues. Combining business with personal life can be good, and it is something I do. However, taking a purely business topic completely person does not make sense. The more name-calling you do, the more I think highly of Mark in this very issue, because he approaches this logically, whereas some others are simply expressing emotions without considering others. Why is this important? If you want others to listen to you, you have to be at least a little bit considerate of others, or a bit considerate about something. In fact, even if your livelihood and your honest business is being affected by this, name-calling will not do anything, and instead you should find ways to let others like Matt and Mark know why you oppose the ban. It is nice to express your emotions, but basing an entire argument on extreme emotion and wanting to annoy and coerce others through insults is simply, how to put it, childish?

Labeling all sponsored WordPress theme developers as spammers is stereotyping and discriminating.

Label a spammer and a spam-linked theme spam, and I will agree. Call everyone who engages in sponsored themes a spammer or a con artist or evil, and you are someone who stereotypes and categorizes people and discriminates against others because you assume everyone out there will do something that you fear. In reality, it is your personal issue of dealing with business and financial fear. You deal with it. If you believe that you can stop others from doing things you do not like, you are in for a big surprise.

Sponsored themes will always be there and will continue to grow. The only thing we can do is to make sure we have guidelines to ensure that spammers and scammers do not overshadow all sponsored themes. This can be done through awareness, like “Do not buy sponsored themes unless the sponsored links are to prominent and well-respected sites that promote good ethical values” or “Make sure your sponsored theme comes from a trusted source“, or even “Check the sponsor links in sponsored themes before using them.”

Any ad on any site becomes part of the theme, for the amount of time that ad exists on that site. Does that mean WebLogToolsCollection.com is a spam filled site? No, WLTC is simply having a sponsor put ads on the site. Paid links in themes is similar; if a blog owner wants to use a theme, he or she is paying a sponsored theme developer by showing ads for that theme developer on a blog. How is that spam? I do not support banning anyone just because many people feel too emotional about this topic.

Many people are saying that only the sponsored WordPress themes community opposes the ban. I on the contrary have been seeing many people oppose the ban, and those people have no interest in sponsored WordPress themes or their community.

Can anyone point me to any website where all the sponsored theme developers meet or discuss things? I keep reading about sponsored theme developers opposing and name calling other people, or opposing this idea aggressively, but I do not see their hide-out or community forum anywhere. So far, I am seeing a mix of people opposing the idea of banning, including a lot of people who currently have no interest in creating or using sponsored WordPress themes, like myself. Why is it that the main people who are proposing banning sponsored WordPress themes are not disclosing the fact that many bloggers and commentors, who have no interest whatsoever in sponsored WordPress themes, are also opposing the ban? Are we manipulating the news and information to create a distorted and biased view in the readers so that they can be more biased towards the issue, and so that they end up supporting the ban too, because of not knowing that a big part of the general public is also opposed to the ban?

If an atmosphere is being created on purpose, to show the public that the only people opposing such a ban are the sponsored WordPress theme developers and their community, then I think it is reader manipulation, because I am seeing a lot of non-theme developers and people who have no financial interest at all in sponsored themes opposing such an idea too. If you could point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it.

Summary

1. WordPress community should come up with some guidelines to ensure sponsored themes do not end up being spammer’s way of getting links into blogs.
2. Banning is not the answer. Banning is what you do when you simply exercise your extreme power to eliminate problem and anyone part of the problem instead of addressing and fixing the issues that give birth to a problem.
3. Matt should disclose his financial and business interest, and thus conflict of interest, on his site.
4. Classifying all sponsored WordPress themes as being from spammers or full of spam links is stereotyping. Are we still debating on whether or not stereotyping and discriminating because of stereotyping is good?
5. Matt said majority of the WordPress community does not like sponsored themes. That is not an accurate statement, and thus it is a false statement that has no proof. The link that Matt provides as proof contradicts Matt’s claim.
6. People defending their sponsored theme business should take one step further: address the fears of the public that have been created by others. Calling Matt or Mark names will not do anything; show others why your theme deserves attention and how it is not spam. Accusations have already been made, so unfortunately, the best thing to do is to show through actual example how such accusations are not true, unless you do not care and can continue your blogging and business without clarifying anything.
7. The pro-ban-all-sponsored-WordPress-theme people should stop giving the impression that it is only the people who make sponsored WordPress themes who are opposing the ban idea. Other people are opposing it too. Giving such an impression without any actual proof or link to places where all the sponsored theme developers meet and oppose this idea is the same as manipulating your readers, because you may be trying to hide the fact that even normal people who have no interest in any of this are opposing the idea because they see no logic in such a ban.
8. All sponsored themes should have clear disclaimers about their nature, to ensure readers are not manipulated into not knowing about things they are getting into.
9. Right now, there are only two choices: like sponsored themes, or ban them. What happened to the third choice, “hate sponsored themes, but I will allow them to exist because people have their own choice to do things“?
10. Real spammers who are making or sponsoring themes just to get their links seen through unethical methods [what is the unethical method?] should be addressed and taken care of.
11. Labeling all sponsors in sponsored themes is being extreme, since any ad on any site is part of the theme for the duration of time it is running. Does that mean all ads are spam ads and all blogs that have such ads should be banned from public view or use?
12. Criticize actual sponsored themes which have spam links in them. If you cannot find spam link in a theme or do not have time to go through all the themes, avoid criticizing based on assumptions or because of wanting to follow a trend.
13. Avoid telling other businesses and readers what to do simply because of your preference of things. Unless a trend actually affects negatively, simply not liking something is not a good reason to criticize or stereotype others and label them as spammers.
14. Disagreeing with others is all right. Wanting to control their lives and actions is not all right.

Please let me know if I am misunderstanding or misinterpreting anything, since I have never made a sponsored theme and I am not using a sponsored theme. If you can think of more points or some corrections, please let me know. I am going to save an original draft of this, so that if you ever need a copy of the original copy, before I made any reader suggested revisions, I can e-mail it to you.

Thank you for reading.

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