There are a lot of great WordPress themes available online that you can download and use for free. A free WordPress theme is an excellent solution for anyone looking to start a new blog on a small budget.

Of course, as the saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Anyone considering using a free WordPress theme needs to be aware of the dangers involved in using one on their blog.

There is an entire industry of WordPress theme designers who build designs, sell links in the theme’s footer and then release the theme for free online. After these sponsored links are sold they are embedded into the theme’s code in a way that makes them almost impossible to remove without some programming knowledge. An inexperienced user who tries to remove the links almost inevitably breaks the layout of the theme in the process.

The motivation for the theme designer is to make money (and there’s nothing wrong with making money) and the link buyers are looking for ways to raise their relevancy in search engines by getting more links to their sites out there. So what’s the problem? Everyone wins, right? You get a free theme, the designer gets paid and the buyers help their search engine rankings.

The problem is that using a free theme with sponsored links opens yourself up to having your blog tied with sites that search engines consider bad or spam. It’s guilt by association with the paid links in the theme you’re using. This then imposes a penalty on your own site whether or not your blog’s topic is related to the sponsored links.

If you’re looking to use a free WordPress theme on your blog remember to do your due diligence and make sure if the theme contains any links that look questionable. If you’re uncomfortable with the links then your best bet is to pick another free theme to use instead.