Category: Security

I know this tip isn’t always ideal for a lot of the bloggers out there, but it’s always a good idea to run anything locally in a test environment before uploading to a live site.

Thank God, I found this article! Few days back, when I was trying to modify one of my blog’s theme footer (I had to add sitemeter code next to the footer links), I saw such kind of codes. Initially I could not understand anything from that code and hence thought of removing that suspicious long code from the footer.php. But surprisingly my blog went down and it did not open. It was displaying a notice “Theme Error”.

I could not dare to take any chance. So, I restored the footer.php from the backup via FTP client. And then everything started working normally. After that I simply changed that theme and now using another one.

Also, I have seen few themes with malicious iframe links in the footer. So, it’s a wise idea to check theme files manually before using.

Well , its true that the wordpress theme making community is getting bigger and bigger and anything that is growing such rapidly its going to have its flaws. The main reason behind these encrypted code is because of theme sponsoring. Sponsoring?? , well as a wp theme designer my self , ive had a few sponsors my self, for my wordpress themes.

Many designers make wordpress themes just to get sponsors , ive seen many people making only one theme , changing the colors and the header making it a new theme ( so they say ) and get sponsors , the average sponsor link is worth $30-40 and a sponsored theme has 3-4 such links making a revenue of average 150$ / theme .

So i havnt explained the reason , well the 2 main conditions that are required for a theme to be sponsored by a sponsor are

1: Encrypted footers
2: Heavy promotion

Encripted footers:
As you may or i must say definitely have read this informative article , most of new wordpress themes contain such encrypted code. Whats behind them is links, yes in most cases and i am not justifying the acts of people who have done things in the above articles, but am saying that in this encrypted code are hidden sponsored links which the sponsors have paid for. So why do people encrypt the footers? well if you see some one honest using a free theme they dont remove the footer link as they know its someones hard work , but most of the people remove the links in the footer taking the credit them selves. So in a nut shell its basically done for sponsoring.

And as said in the article , you should download themes from sites of the theme makers or atleast download from a reputable themes gallery.

Have a nice day .
Ace.

Well , its true that the wordpress theme making community is getting bigger and bigger and anything that is growing such rapidly its going to have its flaws. The main reason behind these encrypted code is because of theme sponsoring. Sponsoring?? , well as a wp theme designer my self , ive had a few sponsors my self, for my wordpress themes.

Many designers make wordpress themes just to get sponsors , ive seen many people making only one theme , changing the colors and the header making it a new theme ( so they say ) and get sponsors , the average sponsor link is worth $30-40 and a sponsored theme has 3-4 such links making a revenue of average 150$ / theme .

So i havnt explained the reason , well the 2 main conditions that are required for a theme to be sponsored by a sponsor are

1: Encrypted footers
2: Heavy promotion

Encripted footers:
As you may or i must say definitely have read this informative article , most of new wordpress themes contain such encrypted code. Whats behind them is links, yes in most cases and i am not justifying the acts of people who have done things in the above articles, but am saying that in this encrypted code are hidden sponsored links which the sponsors have paid for. So why do people encrypt the footers? well if you see some one honest using a free theme they dont remove the footer link as they know its someones hard work , but most of the people remove the links in the footer taking the credit them selves. So in a nut shell its basically done for sponsoring.

And as said in the article , you should download themes from sites of the theme makers or atleast download from a reputable themes gallery.

Have a nice day .
Ace.