As a blogger and savvy internet users, we all are smart and we know how and where to download premium stuff online. May be not you, but look around for smart kids around you, who are using Torrent softwares to download and spread the piracy. Anyways, this article is not about Piracy but this is regarding one major issue which you might not have heard before.
Do you know most of the popular premium WordPress themes like Genesis, Elegant Themes, Theme-junkie themes are easily available for download on Torrents and file-sharing sites. Most of the newbie bloggers are also taking advantage of this availability without knowing the consequences of this mistake.
Have you ever thought? There is no free lunches in the world, and there is catch behind every thing which is free.
Imagine you have bought thesis WordPress theme for 87$ and are you going to give it for free to the world on torrent or on file-sharing websites? I’m sure most of answer will be no, because you have paid your hard earned money on something exclusive.
So now point here is why premium WordPress themes are available for free on Internet. If you remember my previous post on Free wordpress theme Vs Premium wordpress themes. I specifically mentioned about Encrypted footer, but its not the same in the case of such premium WordPress theme which is freely available on Internet.
In such themes, people who upload those themes, they upload it for specific reasons. In most of the cases reasons are adding codes in theme file, to pass on traffic or ranking . It may not appear to you at the beginning but later on when you will realize the traffic will drop, it will be too late.
Such codes are usually added into header.php or footer.php files of theme. More over it’s mostly a new file in your theme folder is added which has malicious code. Many times these free uploader uses encrypted code which is hard to get rid of.
There common place from where you get such malicious WordPress themes are :
- Torrents
- Websites
- File Sharing websites
So if you still fall in the trap of getting premium WordPress themes for free, think again. For few dollars are you going to risk your page rank and search engine traffic. If you don’t have money, go ahead and download any premium looking free WordPress theme, but don’t download themes or plugins from torrent or unreliable sources.
What is your point of view about such free Premium wordpress themes which are easily available on Internet. Are you going to use it in your blog? Or you going to let people know about problem of using such freely available wordpress themes?
People upload the wordpress themes for different reasons,
One reason, which won’t get the person who downloads it into a predicament with traffic theft, is WordPress themes are a scam. Look at the price for some php added to html. There is virtually no extra code added for many templates compared to a html twin.
Their plugin people, well that is different. They make some excellent things.
By the way, before you buy your premium WP, think about whether it will be accepted as WP. Demand you are given a refund if it fails to be accepted by a reputable host as legitimate.
Last, if you want a WP theme, google the WP code necessities. you might find you can add the few little bits of code to the HTML equivalent of the your desired WP theme which is selling at 14 dollars., not 58!
Of course, the more experienced know exactly how to get any theme (nearly) from source with simple web developer tools.
Hi harsh,
I completely agree with you on these points. Torrent has taken it all..
Couple of months back, i met a guy on Facebook and he offered me a premium Genesis theme.
I don’t know if there might be any malicious code in this theme. Are there any tools which can determine the malicious code? Like theme tester or something.
Any if, do let me know.
Thanks.
Well, as a web designer I never found any malicious code in any of the themes I downloaded from sites like Piratebay etc. Yes! It’s better if you buy the theme you want to use (if this theme it’s Premium) because of the people who created it. But non of this themes has any malicious code, and if it does, you can quicly delete it from the server using an FTP program.
I have come here in search for a pirated theme
Got to know that it is harmful…took back my thought..
Thanks alot..
I think there are no codes in those theme that is harmful except a link to the external file, which can be removed by editing the source. Please let me know if anything else is there.
how can i see the malicious code in the theme? And i just wanted to know if i download a premium theme for free. Can the owner of the page sue me for not paying it to use his/her theme.
And I want to use Nexus Premium theme.
Eagerly waiting for your reply!
Thanks,
Rahul
Technically yes, you could be sued for copyright infringement. If they hire some lawyers to, or if they’re a big theme company and have their own lawyers, you could feasibly be tracked down.
Is just sometimes you require to test it first so you can see if it accomplishes your needs so worth to pay for it
Can you be more specific how the traffic will be dropped or where this problem can actually be solved I might be a victim
Well it’s not just “a few dollars” 🙂 but again, I won’t ever use a pirated premium theme on my blog. Besides, there are so many good themes out there for free, why risk (not to mention the guilt feeling) having a pirated theme on your blog?
I fell for this scam with a website and complained to them but they didnt seem to care less.
Great they have the most latest premium themes but if you look closely in the index.php and footer.php files, they’re encoded with links for scam and money making websites.
I strongly agree with this post, either go for themes which look premium or just buy it! Themeforest.net is the most cost effect wordpress theme market, it wont break your bank.
Point is right but idea is that all blogger can spend huge money just for themes ? I notice also many theme which are free is having encrypted footer. so they have control over our theme. If you want descent looking theme then you have to ended with paying money or do lot of R & D for free themes. If you are having basic knowledge of editing theme, you can check extra codes in these said free themes. but conclusion is that If you are happy with free theme look and feel YOU SHOULD NOT GO FOR PAID (FREE FROM RAPIDSHARE) THEMES.
Well, there are some sites that take free themes and then insert suspicious code into them but such themes can be avoided by simply being more aware.
First, free themes should be downloaded only WordPress Codex and trusted sites. Most free themes only take a small footer link and I think they deserve it for the hard work put into theme!
But 87$ matters for Me!
I ll prefer free themes instead.. 🙂
me too…..no use putting your traffic and rankings on risk with free premium themes
I agree they add codes that inserts ad in your blog without our knowledge we should be careful !It common thing with free themes
Though so far I have not used any such themes, I will take more care in future. Normally I download the themes from the WordPress site.
People listen to harsh what he is saying is absolutely true and if you cant spend 87$ better use wordpress default themes or spend 2 $ for custom css.
These free themes from unknown torrents will create huge problem. If you are serious in blogging.
Yes @simran, Pirated sites are the best source for hackers to spread worms and trojans. WordPress have a massive users. there is no doubt people who love pirated softwares and scripts will go for such pirated theme downloads.
And hackers can take advantage of this by altering the actual codes of the script (or templates) , either adding a new file to take control of the entire server sometimes.
As usual, you wrote an useful post Harsh. Cheers !
I never thought of downloading free themes from torrents or rapidshare (actually didnt knew about it) but i will be carefull !!!
BTW, will try ti find some… LOL…
I will not suggest using such premium themes that are available for free on pirated sites. Instead of that anyone can use free themes as now days we can easily get premium looking free wordpress themes.
Yep I agree with you @ Simran
The best thing is to go for free themes and that too from the exclusive database of WordPress themes section..