Does anyone have any experience in sponsoring a wp theme to get backlinks? Any one in particular that you recommend?

You could always just have a nice unique one developed by a WP designer, or REW staff - the more effort you put into making it unique and robust, the more success you will have with it (And the more it will cost you to develop)

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Strep throat! - Yup tis the season - boooo if you are wondering why you haven't seen me as much it's because I had strep throat for a week, feeling better just playing catch up. Merry Ho Ho folks

That is something I do intend to do, when I have a bit better cash flow. As a new agent, I have already spent way too much on my online presence. (Not complaining though)

if that theme is installed on some MFA sites can be bad for your site. be careful!

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San Diego Real Estate | San Diego Foreclosures | San Diego Short Sales

I would think that a site should not be negatively impacted because of who links to that site. If it did, the system would be open to so much abuse.

you don;t know who will install that theme, depends on luck . also, what if 1000 sites install your theme in one month? looks like a spam case to me.

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San Diego Real Estate | San Diego Foreclosures | San Diego Short Sales

I can certainly see the point in building links too soon, or wandering off your link-building profile

Theme sponsorship has been great for some and not-so-great for others. I've been in the second group. If you're going to do this, I would plan on shelling out some good $$ for a popular theme and then spending some time and money to promote it after it's released. I would also suggest that your theme be real estate-related in some way. Random non-theme inbounds might have a little bit of value but nothing compared to inbounds from theme-relevant blogs.

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Eric Rogers - REALTOR
Century 21 Pro-Team
Aurora IL Real Estate | Batavia Real Estate
Yorkville Real Estate

What is a wp theme? What can this do for me and my site? How do you go about using this? I have always tried to stay organic and grow my site slowly.

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Real Estate Web Design
Custom Web Site Design

In my experience you should go with a custom theme thats design ties back to the neighborhoods you want links from.

Example: One of my clients sells golf related info products. We contracted a golf related wordpress theme. That way the sites your theme is installed on are closer to your own. Granted you will not get as many installs but the links will be more relevant.

Carrot: Wordpress is an open source blogging platform. You can download themes for the site and the creators of the theme often have text links in the footer. You can use this technique to build in bound links, whic inturn can help your organic rankings.