Impact of Footer Links on Quality Perception

Hi,  I am about to start couple of blogs, and as I do not have budget to get a custom theme designed for my blogs (Even I do not know how much will it cost), I decided to go for either a free theme or buy a theme off-the-shelf, and after going through 10-15 respected wordpress themes seller (studiopress, wootheme, themeforest, and through the website of all the commercial theme seller listed on wordpress.org), and twice as many free WordPress theme online  directories, I decided to settle down for a semi-free theme. 

By semi-free theme I mean, If I decide to use the theme from say Website X then as stated in the theme usage terms by the website, I will have to retain the following sentences along with the links in the footer: 


XXX Theme is Designed By: X Company & made free by X website

In the above written ,Footer links to the designer and sponsor of theme are mandatory while using this Theme. 

This is the situation. Now, My questions are: 

1.  If I use the themes that comes with this kind of usage restriction for my blogs then will my blogs be seen as second-rate, or mediocre by the visitors, search engines and professional?   

2. Can I reduce the opacity of Footer links and texts without violating the copyright law? And will it be aright? And is it advisable? 


3. Will this kind of theme negatively reflect on the quality of my blog? I must add here, I will change the color scheme and do some editing to the themes like, will add twitter feeds, social networking links etc. to the theme. And I also emphasize that I am planning to not start this website as hobby, but  to establish it as a commercial blog that can earn. Will themes with this kind of footer backfire? 

Please help me out.   

Thanks for your time
Bikram

bikramksingh

Having credit where credit is due in the way of a link in the footer is very common. This is the case for paid and free themes. With most paid and free themes the user leaves the credit link and information as a courtesy, even though it is not required.

Since it does not reduce the perceived quality of your blog, I would leave the credit in the footer alone.

That being said, there are sitations where a very well-known theme or a link to Wordpress or whatever can be a spam magnet. Spammers can search on something like "@ wordpress" of "theme by .." to get a list of sites they want to spam. This will only be a problem for highly ranked sites since a search on "Wordpress" will bring up thousands of links and spammer only want the ones that will profit them.

Steve

you mean to say, it won't harm me in anyway whatsoever, right? I believe spamming is something one can take care of by using plug-ins and manual checks.

bikramksingh

The only thing I don't like is "made free for" which I frankly haven't seen that much.

Having a credit and link back to the maker is one thing. That is maybe a bit much. Still, that is the agreement that you accept by using the theme. It is up to you how you want to handle it.

In any event, not many people even notice what is in a footer.

Steve

Notice that this site gives credit to the forum software and theme designer. There is no obligation on our part to give any credit.

However, the credits are very, very unobtrusive.

BlogFoot

Dude, why would you use somebody else's work for free and not give them the credit?

Basil

And if the author wanted they could create a lawsuit but since most designers are not financially fit for that they wont pursue a lawsuit.  I definitely agree that if you use a free theme then credit needs to be given.

Rocksolid

I agree with the others who said you should give credit where it is due. A little footer link is a small price to pay. That being said, take caution when downloading themes. There are oodles of shady gallery-type sites out there distributing free themes containing spammy footer links which may hurt your Google ranking.

Another thing to remember (and I preach this ad nauseum in the WordPress support forum) NEVER use a theme that contains obfuscated code. Don't do it.

Apophis

Well, I am not agaisnt giving credit. I am concerned about how it will reflect on the quality perception of my blog.

As far as spammy footer is concerned. I am not sure if I am dealing with that issue. The creator of those themes are elegantwpthemes and themeinn, and sponsers are some uk-based companies.

bikramksingh

I am concerned about how it will reflect on the quality perception of my blog.

For the vast majority of bloggers I don't think anyone really cares. However, if you're using WordPress as a CMS and your site is a corporate site for example, then it may not appear to be very professional to have something like "sponsored by Ramblin Gamblin Willie Casino & Slots" in your footer.

Apophis

Well, I am not agaisnt giving credit. I am concerned about how it will reflect on the quality perception of my blog.

As far as spammy footer is concerned. I am not sure if I am dealing with that issue. The creator of those themes are elegantwpthemes and themeinn, and sponsers are some uk-based companies.

I don't think i've ever looked at a footer unless I really liked the theme and wanted to see who made it.

Rocksolid

We should give the credit because they have the right to receive it. Remember that the author may take many hours to make one theme can work well. We can change the anchor text, if it looks like a spammy or if you think it can hurt the overall quality of your blog,  but keep the url address untouched. At least give the author backlink in return for their hard work.

Martha
http://weightlossvalue.blogspot.com

Martha Monica