For me, a link on my site implies my endorsement, and I’m selective about who or what I would endorse to my readers.

I would rather pay a small fee ($5 or $10) for the right to use a theme free of links than to have sponsored links. Otherwise, I’m going to go ahead an fork over the money for a premium theme that provides support from the creator, etc.

I would agree with OlleP specifically. I have a background in advertising and like OlleP I cannot stand most commercials because of the deceitful nature. However, some are very informative and helpful.

That being said, I feel the same about sponsored themes and the links they contain. If it’s spammy or leads to a sales pitch page (the ones with lots of yellow highlighting), then forget it! But, if a theme were to be sponsored by a legitimate website looking to gain some traffic and exposure, and one that is helpful or provides a decent service, then hell yes, gimmie some sponsored links.

Then the question is…how do you weed through the paying sponsors to make sure their legit, I don’t know.

My view is that as soon as sponsored links are in place the themes are no longer free, end of story.

At the end of the day it’s your site, your rules and your choice… it’s also your responsibility to accept what becomes of your site in the long term when/if you do have sponsored links.

Decisions, decisions

Regards,

Pete

Yea, I probably would consider sponsored theme.

But someone need to convince me that I get advantage over free themes, what can the sponsored theme do that the free once can not.

I hate commercials, on Aussie television (as to my experience US is no difference) it’s so abundant and annoying that I virtually abandon television.

On the internet I believe we grown use to “reading between the ads” somehow, thus stationary ads would be OK as a ‘theme sponsor link’ I believe. However Pop-Ups, Pop-Overs and too much animation in ads are annoying and frustrating.

Thanks for an excellent site Leland, you are welcome to make a million in ad profits on this one.

Olle…
http://www.goldcoastwebwiz.com
http://www.mudgeerabahilltons.com

I have no problem with it as many authors wouldn’t bother to make themes if they had to be free. As it stands now, people can get great free themes or really great themes for a price and everyone is happy.

I got out of this field a while back because themes weren’t making enough because everybody was selling sponsored links that it prices dropped dramatically and nowadays I wouldn’t bother with sponsored links in my templates, if I produce a free template then I link back to my template site where I sell my premium themes because this is basically the design by link.

Most bloggers don’t really care as long as the theme looks good and works the way they want it, links at the bottom aren’t really a problem.

@Andrea: Yes, usually the average blog visitor doesn’t even notice these links with them being in the footer, as they’re relatively unobtrusive.

@Randy: That’s an interesting idea. I was actually thinking about text links when I wrote this post, although you bring up an interesting point about graphical ads.

Appreciate the comments everyone!

honestly if the sponsor had 100×32 or smaller it would be ok. If there willing to sponsor a theme than they should be willing to create a variety of badges that the users can choose from and include it in the admin.

I think I’d rather strip them out though – if I had a choice of leaving sponsored links or sending a donation, I might send a donation. But most people are lazy. this way the designer gets to pay bills.