Yesterday I wrote a bit about search targeted advertising and a company called Chitika.  Search targeted advertising is advertising that is customized and geared towards visitors who arrive to your site from a search engine.  When it comes to monetizing, one of the things that mom bloggers are afraid of is alienating or scaring off their regular readers with ugly ads that they are not interested in.  On top of that, it’s been shown in studies across the web that regular readers aren’t the ones who click on ads to make them profitable, it’s people who are looking for information, and are just passing through.

So what about Adsense?

Raise your hand if you think Adsense ads are pretty.  Probably not a single hand is raised.  Even their image only ads aren’t always very attractive, and that matters – who wants their blog to look spammy?  But Adsense does have a purpose and a benefit for SOME of your readers.  Those who didn’t completely get their questions answered or their searches satisfied with your post that they happened upon, providing ads gives them something to click on to continue their search – to keep looking for what they need.  Because both Adsense and Chitika are SEARCH TARGETED meaning that usually the ads that show up have some relevance either to the post they show up in or the search the person did to find it.

I searched long and hard for a way to manually edit my theme to allow Adsense ads to ONLY show up for a visitor who arrives to my site from a search engine and there are a bunch of tutorials but I spent hours and none of them work.  The problem is that I was trying to have the ads show up on EVERY page of my site that the person visits, but they would only show up on the first page.  Chitika will continue to appear for the visitors as they browse your site, keeping the possibility open that they might click on a link to continue their search.

In the end, right now, I’ve had to accept that option as better than nothing, because taking the chance that someone will click on an ad on their initial visit is better than not having the ads at all.

So how did I do it?

That’s the easy part…

There is a Wordpress plugin called Who Sees Ads that takes all the guesswork out.  In general, I always prefer to hard code as much as I can into my theme and not rely on plugins, but in this case, I’m using the plugin.

Install the plugin, activate it, create a context area (ie – above posts, below posts, etc), create active rules, then add the line of code to your theme in the location you want your ads to show.

I still plan on trying to modify it so the ads show on ALL pages visited by the search engine visitor, but in the meantime, this is working ok for me.  My Adsense clicks have already increased – I used to show an Adsense image only ad below all my posts but now I have text and image ads for search engine visitors only and my clicks have increased even though the ads show to fewer people!

~Kim

UPDATE

I lied….now that plugin is showing Adsense on ALL pages search engine visitors click to.  THAT IS GREAT NEWS!  But I swear it wasn’t yesterday LOL.

Carry on…

Last year I put up a post on my blog about monetizing your site with an ad company called Chitika.

Chitika is an ad network that shows text type ads and pays per click and is SEARCH TARGETED.  This means that your regular users don’t see the ads, only those who find your site from search engines.

For more information and some screenshots, you can check out the post on my blog: How to monetize your site with Chitika.

Chitika also now has an option to show ads to more than just search targeted traffic depending upon the users chances of clicking an ad, they call this “select traffic”.

I wanted to give you an update since I had just started using Chitika at the time I put up the first post.

I have been using Chitika on What’s That Smell? since about October and I am pleased with the results.  My regular users do not see the ads but I can take advantage of the people who stumble upon my site from the search engines – the people who are SEARCHING for something to begin with, and are more likely to click through an ad to another site to keep looking.

Some months I barely made $15, others I made over $50, depending upon my traffic each month.  I think I average around $30.

But for people who do not get much traffic from search engines, Chitika might not be worth it, although I’m of the mind that a few dollars a month adds up as residual income.  And when you begin to diversify, and add layers of monetization, you’ll begin to see how they all add up.

Overall, considering that Chitika ads do not show on all pages, they pay well per click and I recommend at least giving them a try on your blog.

Seriously, the only thing you have to lose is MONEY!

~Kim

A CPM ad network is a network that pays you a certain dollar amount for every 1,000 impressions (pageviews) their ads show on your site.  Most networks do not guarantee a set CPM, some ads will deliver $6 or $7 (gross, then the network takes a cut) and some ads in the network will deliver mere pennies per 1,000 impressions.  The average of everything that shows on your site will vary depending upon the quality of the ads the network can provide.  A really great CPM (or eCPM) is $3-$4, if you can average over $2 CPM you are doing really well.

If you are interested in CPM ad networks you need to evaluate a few things.  First, many require above-the-fold placement, so if you don’t get a huge number of pageviews, the real estate might be too valuable to devote to a CPM network.  Because traffic doesn’t always determine influence, you might get a better rate on a direct sale ad.  Make sure potential advertisers realize a certain spot is for sale, either with a blank spot that says “your ad here” (UGLY) or on your PR or contact page.

If you do think you have enough traffic to give a CPM network a try, not all networks are created equal.  The best ones may not even accept you, and the worst aren’t even worth your time.  I am going to share with you the networks we use, and also give some tips for how to MAXIMIZE YOUR EARNINGS.  Because it’s not as simple as just slapping a network’s ad code up and watching the money roll in.

• Sometimes networks have no inventory to serve and your ad spot sits empty.
• Sometimes they serve PSA (public service announcements) ads to fill the empty spot that you DO NOT get paid for.
• Sometimes some of their ads pay so low, you wonder if you would be better off with something else in that spot.

But I can tell you how to ensure that you almost always have a paid ad in that slot, and really make sure you are getting the most bang for your bloggy real estate.

Juice Box Jungle

The first ad network that we use is one called Juice Box Jungle.  They are a parenting community and their ad network is rather new, but they actually seem to pay a flat CPM based upon the size of the ad (interactive widget) that you put up.  Their rates are very fair and I actually really enjoy the ads and the interactive features.  The ad spot will never be blank, they always have something in it and for the most part they seem to pay for EVERY impression.  I highly recommend Juice Box Jungle as an ad network.

Burst Media

In addition to Juice Box Jungle, both here at Top Mom Blogger and on my site, the other main ad network we use is Burst Media.  Burst has been fantastic to work with so far, with quality ads and the best part is that they have started a new moms network with relevant ads targeted at moms, perfect for mom blogs.

As I mentioned, Burst is great, but they still don’t always have enough ads in my preferred CPM range.  The beauty behind Burst is that they have direct targeted ads that pay very well, but they also have a whole range of ads that you can select from at varying CPM rates.  If the rate is too low for you, choose not to run it.  But when you do that, you open yourself up to the possibility of running “default” ads.  “Default” ads are non-paid, PSA ads that basically fill the space but you earn no income off them.  I have good news though…most ad networks allow YOU to define a separate default from an external ad network so you don’t lose out on any income.

ValueClick Media

I have ValueClick Media setup as my default for Burst.  I haven’t noticed a great number of their ads running (I selected only ones that perform better than some of the Burst ads, which isn’t many), and the income hasn’t been anything to jump and down over, BUT, I also have a default ad setup for ValueClick, so it certainly isn’t a waste.

Adsdaq

I have Adsdaq setup as my default for ValueClick.  So when Burst doesn’t show an ad, and ValueClick doesn’t show an ad, Adsdaq shows an ad.  With Adsdaq I don’t get to select individual ads but I do get to set my minimum CPM.  If they don’t have any ads to meet my minimum CPM, I then have a default set up for Adsdaq, again to make sure I always have an ad running in that spot that earns money.

Adsense

I have Adsense setup as my default for Adsdaq, but image only ads, no text ads.  So when Burst doesn’t show an ad, and ValueClick doesn’t show an ad, and Adsdaq doesn’t show an ad, Google Adsense shows an ad.  Adsense is not CPM, it is CPC (pays per CLICK) but sometimes those clicks can add up to big money.  I’ve been paid as much as $5 for a SINGLE CLICK, and sometimes even if I don’t have any clicks, I still get paid a small amount.

Diversity is key!

The key to success with CPM networks is to take advantage of default ads.  You could technically sign up with 20 CPM ad networks and have them set up as default ads for each other.  You can ensure maximum income by being selective within each network, showing only the highest paying ads.  If the first network runs out, it defaults to the next, and so on.   Why let a single ad network run ads that pay less than $1 CPM when there are numerous others out there that can at least fill some of your inventory at a much higher rate?

Most times, setting up a default ad for a given network is as simple as copying your ad code from another network into a box in your account.  Most ad networks have a section called “default” or “default ads”.  Paste the code from a different network in there and watch it grow!

~Kim

People ask all the time how to get involved in product reviews and giveaways on their blogs.

Below I made a brief list of some basic steps you can take to get started.

1. Make a contact page and/or about page that indicates that you are PR friendly.   Companies and PR reps will often find you.
2. Review stuff you have around the house and put it up on your blog.  Show a history and a pattern of thorough, quality reviews.
3. Don’t be afraid to email companies directly and ask if they are interested in having their product spotlighted on your blog.
4. Join a review group.  Below are a few, but there are plenty more.  They generally email the ops to you, you indicate your interest and they will tell you if you are selected.  Some have a waiting list.  Some are blogger run, some are corporate.
   • Mom Central
   • MyBlogSpark
   • One2One Network
   • The Parent Reviewers
   • Team Mom
5. Establish relationships with brands and companies on Twitter.  Communicate, offer feedback and then pitch them.  In many cases the person behind the Twitter is PR or trumps PR and would love to work with you.
6. (ok I make it six) Join the Momdot forum and VIP for access to shared ops and PR contacts.

I first learned about FTP many years ago. Ill admit, I was very scared of it. What if I messed it up, what if I deleted something, even… what is it? I am someone that learns by doing so I downloaded a few FTP clients for free just to see what they were. From changing your templates, to adding video, to making back up files, FTP isn’t as difficult as you would perceive it to be.

I currently use Seagull Free FTP, which I believe has been renamed to Bluezone and you can find here. Kim uses FileZilla and CoreFTP, both free downloads and work great.

Lets start with the basics.

FTP stands for “file transfer protocol”. Which boils down to you transferring files from your computer into your website, without signing into your cpanel. Or simply put…drag and drop.

You drag a file from one side (your computer) into the other side (your website) and it uploads into the file you specify.

Let me go through the steps and use the video I uploaded as an example.

First you will need to set up your FTP.

Your hoster will have sent you information when you first signed up that included all the info you need. I bet you always wondered what all those extra logons they sent you were for. For the record, this will only be relevant if you are self hosted-otherwise you wont have access.

Sorry blogspot users!

Getting Started:

Connection name is what you decide to name your connection so you know what site you are signing on to. Generally you will only have one of these and you name it your website. But if you are a designer, you may be using your clients FTP and can name those files each site so you know where you are at.

Your host address could be a series of numbers that look like a domain name (ie 45.34.343.12 ) or could be a series of letters ( ftp.yoursite.com).

Username and password will be what you set up with your hoster.

The rest I generally never have to fill in.

Step #1: The information on the left are all the files on my computer. The information on the right is my website.

Right now I have not signed in, so there is nothing there.

Step #2: Go to connect and connect to the website that you have already set up.

Step #3: When you sign in, provided you did everything right and dont get an error message, your website will download into the other side of your FTP.

Step #4: Now you need to navigate on your computer where the files are that you intend to transfer. I keep my files generally in a document or download file so its easy for me to send over.

You can navigate your entire computer this way and find whatever you need.

Step #5: Navigate to the folder you want to drop the files in on your website. I am uploading a video, so I find my video file. FTP is often used for themes, so you would go to your wp-content, go to your themes and drop in.

Also, if you are uploading a theme, you must have your file UNZIPPED for it to work correctly this way.

Step #6: Once you have your files in front of you on your computer on the left and your correct folder open on the right, you just drag one file from the left to the right.

If you are taking something OFF your website and putting it on the computer, you drag from right to left.

Step #7: Now you can see it “sending” my file from my computer into my website. In this case, its a video.

That’s it. Very easy, right?

FTP can be a huge time saver for me. If I put together a bunch of photos I want to have uploaded into a gallery, I’ll save them all on my computer after editing and then add in one big bunch at a time to the website.

On my FTP, if i hit CNTRL and then click, I can pick out several files at one time to drag over.

If I hit SHIFT and pick a file on the top and a file on the bottom, it will envelope all the files in between for transfer.

This may, of course, vary on your version of FTP and what you are using. Refer to your FAQs for your own person controls.

I hope this mini tutorial helps you start to discover how easy it is to take control of your own website. Feel free to leave questions below!

~Trisha

Lately it has seemed like a lot of Wordpress blogs have been hit by hackers.  While in general it’s not a common occurrence, there are some quick and easy things you can do to make it a little more difficult for hackers to infiltrate and cause major damage to your blog.

1. Update Wordpress

The first thing you need to do to protect your blog is to make sure your Wordpress install is up to date.  You know that annoying little message across the top of you dashboard that you FEAR pressing “update” because you are afraid to break you blog?  Yeah, well not updating can make you vulnerable.  One of things Wordpress updates do is to plug holes so make your bog more secure.

You don’t have to be afraid of the update so long as you do a full backup first (which you should be doing regularly anyway).  For information on how to manually backup your blog look here: Wordpress Backups in the Wordpress Codex.  If that scares you, at the very least copy over all your Wordpress files to your local computer (the uploads and theme folder are the most important) and in your dashboard “export” your posts to your local computer.  Worst case you can import them back in.

2. Update plugins and delete unused plugins

Plugins add vulnerability to your blog.  If you are not using some, delete them.  Always keep plugins updated.  Just like Wordpress, the updates may have addressed some holes that had let hackers in.

Also, make sure you don’t just install random plugins on your blog.  If it is not in the Wordpress plugins repository especially, research it and make sure it is legit before installing it and read the comments and feedback about it.

3.  Create a master admin account

If you are using “admin” or the name you publish posts under as your admin login for Wordpress, you may be opening yourself up for trouble.  Once hackers have your user name, all they have to do is guess your password and they can potentially lock you out of your blog.

The safest scenario for this is to create a “master” admin account with a name and password both ridiculously hard to guess (make sure you write it down) and turn the account you publish under into an author or editor.  By doing this, your public persona (nor the obvious ‘admin’) does not have complete and final control over your admin log-in.  You always have that secret master log-in the ensure you are always able to access your blog.

4.  Hide the contents of your Wordpress directories

If a hacker can access any of your Wordpress sub-directories and see the contents, you are potentially vulnerable.  You have 2 choices.  Add a blank file named index.html to each of your Wordpress sub-directories (not in the root, there is an index.php in the root).  This will prevent anyone from seeing the contents of those directories.  Or, you can add the following line to the top of your .htaccess file and it essentially does the same thing:

Options -Indexes

If you don’t have a .htaccess file, create one using a text editor and add that line to it.  Save it in the root directory of your blog.

There are a number of other steps you can take to “harden Wordpress” even more, most of which involve installing plugins.  For more detailed information about protecting your Wordpress install from hackers, visit the Wordpress.org Codex: Hardening Wordpress

A few minutes now can save you a lot of time and headache down the road.

~Kim

Have you ever wondered exactly how people get involved with PR and product reviews and giveaways?  Like, where to start and how to contact them?  A lot of times, PR will email you directly after stumbling upon your blog and ask you if you’d like to participate in a promotion.  But there are a TON of blogs out there and it is sheer dumb luck sometimes that they find you.

The blogosphere in general is very protective of their PR contacts.  Most of the time if you email a blogger that you barely know and ask for the contact information for a specific product or company, they are not going to give it to you.  I’m not sure I would either through email.  And it’s not because I am selfish and foolishly believe that the information is a secret.  It’s because I don’t know you and if you use my name as a reference and turn out to be a schmo, then it might reflect on me and affect my relationship with that company or rep.

Trisha and I firmly believe that sharing and helping each other is actually a better way to grow and further establish the power and influence of mom blogs than the “every man for himself” philosophy.    Since the inception of MomDot in 2008, Trisha had a vision to be able to provide a place where bloggers would share and help each other, even in the area of PR and product contacts.  When she started the MomDot forum, her vision became a reality and people began helping each other, sharing contacts, giving feedback on working with reps and more.

Over time, the openness of the system was abused and people were taking but not giving.  They would come into the forum, use the provided information but not share any of their own, and not even participate in any of the forum discussions.  It was totally not fair to the people who routinely provided new information for everyone else.  So the program went “private” and was given the title VIP.

Currently VIP is a successful group of dedicated review bloggers who take the time to ask PR reps and companies if they can share opportunities with other bloggers, and then provide those ops in the forum for other people to take advantage of.  They give back.  They interact with each other, give advice, share feedback about working with specific reps and companies and really work together to help each other grow their relationships with PR and brands.

In the past, you had to be an active member of the MomDot forum for a specific time period prior to even being able to apply for VIP, but in the interest of taking it to the next level we are opening up VIP again, so all you have to do to join is to be a member of the MomDot forum and have a blog.

If you are interested, the MomDot forum is free to join but VIP does have a fee associated with it.  It is $6/mo.  The purpose of this fee is two-fold.  First, there are a couple of ladies working on the back end of VIP to keep it organized and to find new and great opportunities for all the members in addition to member submitted ops.  Second, we have found that the nominal fee acts like an investment and people are more likely to participate in order to get their money’s worth.  This helps everyone.

How to join:

Email me at kim@topmomblogger.com with the following info:

• Name
• Email address
• Blog URL

We will create a forum account for you and email you your login info.

At that point, your profile will provide a way for you to subscribe to the VIP forums using Paypal.  You can sign up to pay manually monthly or automatically as a subscription.  Basic VIP contains review and giveaway ops posted by users and others in the forum.   Once you have been a member for 2 months, you will then be allowed to access to VIP Elite which contains PR rep and company direct contact information.   There is no additional charge for Elite, but you must be an active member of basic VIP to obtain access.  We do this to ensure the integrity of the information exchange and to make sure no one takes advantage of it.

I know this sounds like a lot of hoops and rules to go through but it is worth it and for the benefit of the serious review blogger.  I recently helped organize a Mother’s Day gift guide and all I had to do to find the contact information for the companies I wanted to pitch, was check the VIP forum.  It was a huge time-saver.  And when I couldn’t find a specific contact email, I posted a request and it was answered within a day or two.

VIP is a great resource for review bloggers.  It will save you time and increase your PR exposure and relationships exponentially faster than you could do it on your own.  You will get insight into which companies are currently working with bloggers, direct contacts for PR with active ops, and a database of contact information so you can spend your time crafting your pitches rather than desperately searching the web for the media contacts for companies and products.

Not to mention, the friendships you will make and the fun you will have as a member of the forums.  There is no better more supportive community of mom bloggers out there (and we even have a few dads).

I look forward to seeing you there!

~Kim

For a long time I was anti-facebook.

I am one of those people that really doesn’t participate in farmville, twitter parties, dinosaur eggs, growing flowers, and sending hugs.

I could not understand how people wanted to sign on and read 2o34203894 game updates all day because that was all I saw when I logged in. I personally only use social networking to advertise my blog, keep up with my community members, and to speak with friends or family.

Then one day I scrolled over a post and a little “hide” button appeared.

I’m going to use this status update as an example (although I do not hide swagbuck updates):

If you scroll your mouse over app updates like Farmville, Bejewelled, etc. that button will appear.

If you click on it, you get this:

You have a choice to hide the app or hide the person. I am not sure why you would hide the person over taking them off your page, but the option is there.

I hide the app.

Now you can go through your account and hide every single game that your followers put out and it leaves you with CONTENT only on your wall.

You only have to hide the game on one persons account for it to remove  them from everyones updates.

So if I take off ’swagbucks’ from Matthew for example, it will take swagbucks off of EVERY account that is active on my wall.

This one little change to my facebook account has enabled me to find the true interaction, blog posts, and comments my facebook experience was missing. As a result, my relationships have grown and the time I spend there has become much more vaulable.

Happy Wall (content) Hunting!

~Trisha

The other day I told you that you need to beware of free Wordpress themes with encryption and links in the footer to other sites besides the theme designers site.  I also promised to explain exactly how to remove the encryption, if you do have a theme with encrypted areas in it.

There are two ways to remove encryption from your Wordpress theme.

#1: Find a decoder script online that works for that particular encryption.  This is time consuming and doesn’t always work.

#2: Find out what the encryption stands for and replace it in your theme.

We’re going to talk about option #2 because it’s pretty easy to do.

First step: access your index.php

You need to find the encrypted sections in your theme.  Usually it’s just in the footer.php file but sometimes other files are affected too.  We’re going to assume for this example that we are decrypting an encoded footer.

• If you use FTP, download and open up your index.php in your code editor.
• If you make edits through the Wordpress dashboard, navigate to ‘Appearance’ and ‘Editor’ on the left side.  Then on the right side, select your index.php.

Second step: locate the code that calls the footer

The code that calls the footer usually looks like this:

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Third step: add placeholder text to make it easy to locate the code

Place a line of code above and below the call to the footer so we can easily locate it.  It should now look like this:

<!--Stupid crap starts here-->

<?php get_footer(); ?>

<!--Stupid crap ends here-->

Save your index.php (if using FTP, upload it back to your site).

Fourth step: view source code

In your browser, you need to view the source code of the page and search for the two lines of text we added above “stupid crap starts here” and “stupid crap ends here”.

In Internet Explorer: go to “view” then “source”

In Firefox: go to “view” then “page source”

Fifth step: copy the code between the “stupid crap” statements to your clipboard

The code between the two statements that we added to the index.php that shows in the source code is basically the decrypted version of your footer.php.  So you want to copy all the code between “stupid crap starts here” and “stupid crap ends here”.

Sixth step: overwrite footer.php

Open your footer.php (in FTP or your Wordpress dashboard) and delete the entire contents of it.  Then paste the code you copied from your source code and save it.

Check your site to make sure everything works, and VOILA’ you have successfully decrypted your footer. Now you can easily edit it to your liking.

Don’t forget to go back into your index.php and remove the statements about the “stupid crap”!

Keep in mind that by doing this you may violate the theme designer’s requirements that you agreed to when you downloaded the theme. My recommendation is to not use a theme that has encrypted parts, but if you choose to do so, at least you have the knowledge to be able to ensure there is no malicious code hiding inside it.

You’ve heard the old adage “you get what you pay for” and probably most people have experienced that truth at some point in their life. There are promises all across the web for FREE this and FREE that and often, there is a catch.

When it comes to Wordpress themes, and probably any blog platform themes that you get FREE from a third party, there is something that you have to watch out for, because if you are not careful you have a lot to lose.

FREE Wordpress themes could end up COSTING YOU. Not just in money either.

Tell the truth, when you come across a blog that you like the design or layout of, especially if you are in the market for a new theme, you scroll to the footer to look at the credits to see where the theme came from.

Admit it.

You do it.

I do it too.

Have you ever come across one of these footers with strange links in them? Like instead of saying who the designer was with a link to their site, it links to an online casino, or some other unrelated site? Or maybe even to a sort-of related site either in addition to or in place of the theme designer’s site?

Something like the example below…

In most cases, your use of the free theme requires you to leave ALL links intact.  See, theme designers create these free themes and that is great for you and I, but they want to make a little bit of money too so they sell text links to companies and require you to leave them in the footer if you use the theme.  And often too, they don’t give you much of a choice…they encrypt the footer and other parts of the theme to make it impossible for you to edit if you don’t know what you are doing.

Why is this a problem?

By using a theme like this, you have essentially provided a lifetime text link (in the example above – 2 links) to a company that you have no relationship and a site you know nothing about – FOR FREE.  Sure you could look at it as payment to the theme designer for the use of the theme, but even a low ranking site can get $100-$150 for a year for publishing a single text link.  So while this “free” theme did not technically cost you anything, you are giving something away in exchange that has a much higher value.  Your real estate and page rank. 

But more importantly, who knows what else is hiding in the encryption that could damage your site. It could be malicious code that infects your site or your visitors computers.

How do you identify an encrypted theme?

Below is the code from my footer on What’s That Smell? so you can see what the code of a typical footer looks like.

<div id="footer">
 <div id="footerleft">
    <p>Hosting by: (use coupon code GREEN for 20% off)</p>
    <a href="http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-2982924-10410811" target="blank"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/images/hostgator.png"></a>
 </div>

 <div id="footerright">
    <p>&#169; Copyright 2010 <?php bloginfo('name'); ?>.  All rights reserved. </p>
    <p align="right"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/accidentalmommies/post" target="blank"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/accidentalmommies/post?bg=ffffff&amp;fg=000000&amp;anim=0" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>
    <p align="right">Theme design by <a href="http://topmomblogger.com">TopMomBlogger.com</a>.
 </div>

</div><!-- end #footer -->
</body></html>

Below is a partial screen shot showing what encrypted code looks like (in your footer or anywhere in the theme).

It’s a mess and you have no idea what is says!

Now you have two options if you want to decode it, one is complicated and one is easy….I’ll tell you about them in my next post so stay tuned.

Oh, and for the record, SkinPress, whose theme that original footer above is from does not appear to encrypt their themes, nor did I find any requirements that the links needed to stay intact.  I could be wrong, but I didn’t come across any in the theme I downloaded.  So while I used one of their themes as a visual example, their code might be perfectly normal and benign.

Always double check any free theme you download for encryption prior to using it on your blog. Who knows what kind of malicious code is inside it!

~ Kim