Questions about Wordpress and blogging in general

[Jordi]

Hi there -

I'm about to launch my first Wordpress blog/news site in my niche, and I just have a few questions:

Themes:

I'm all for purchasing a great theme, and I've identified one that I really like. While I don't mind at all purchasing it the first time, the license agreement says its only for one website. If I decide in future to work on another niche, can I use the same theme and same license with the confidence that I won't get caught? Or do most of you just pirate it from the get-go?

I'll be developing this site with the idea of monetising through Adsense and CPA offers. I plan to keep the site mostly white hat with quality content that I am interested in writing myself. Is this a solid approach, or is there some key black hat services you would recommend? (I want the site to be as white hat as possible, as it is something I am interested in maintaining for a number of years to come, although I don't mind employing black hat methods outside of my site).

I plan to create an Instagram account to link with my niche and drive some traffic there. I have seen a plethora of different Instagram bots, but no two people seem to have recommended the same one. What's your go-to bot for IG followers?

Is there any advice you can give me before I start this venture based off what I've posted?

If you took the time to read this, thank you. I will be making a journey and sharing my experience!

 

[rimvy]

Actually, it depends on the theme, if you need to enter purchase code somewhere, then you could use this theme on single site. If they don't check for how many websites you using it, theoretically you can use it for as many as you want.

 

[Jordi]

Actually, it depends on the theme, if you need to enter purchase code somewhere, then you could use this theme on single site. If they don't check for how many websites you using it, theoretically you can use it for as many as you want.

Did not know that. I suppose in the grand scheme of things if I'm dedicating the time to creating and managing another site, the cost of another theme is small.

 

[Deleted member 877043]

WordPress is based on the GPL license and since WP themes and plugins are derivatives from WP proper you are allow to do what ever you want.

Only exceptions are that you should always credit the original authors and keep notes in a changelog about what you added or changed. But this applies for so called “forkes” of themes and plugins and is not what you are asking specifically.

In answer to your question; you can install themes and plugins on as much sites as you like. Even premium ones.

The difference between free plugins/themes and premium ones is support.

Premium plugin/theme developers will give you support for the specific amount of installations based on the plugin license.

So a license for One install will give you access to support from the dev for One install only.

I.e. you installed a plugin on domain abc and activated the license on that one AND you installed the exact same plugin on site xyz.

Now you run into a problem on site abc and you can ask the dev for help.

On the other hand the exact same problem on site xyz will not be “supported” by the dev, because you did not activate a valid license for that one.

Now there a few exceptions with regards to the GPL and other licenses. You run into these mostly on Theme Forest Fire, where most of the themes are dual licensed.

The parts that do not fall under the GPL could be considered as “proprietary” and concern most of the time the JavaScript, images, and brand names used in the theme or plugin.

So, could you use a premium theme with a (dual) license without “paying”? Yes.

Should you? That’s up to you to decide.

Do you get into legal trouble with a dual licensed theme? Possible, but I dont have any recollection of a recent case where somebody got sued over installing a premium theme.

Are you (the author of this answer) a lawyer? No. Not even close and I urge you to not make any decision based on only my answer to your question.

As allway; do your own due-dilligence.

Sources:

https://wordpress.org/news/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/

https://ma.tt/2015/07/licenses-going-dutch/

https://coenjacobs.me/2013/06/06/dont-buy-bundled-premium-plugins/

https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/getting-started/wordpress-licensing-the-gpl/

https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/202501194-Theme-Plugin-Licensing-Options

 

[Jordi]

In answer to your question; you can install themes and plugins on as much sites as you like. Even premium ones.

What a perfect answer to my question. This is welcome news!

 

[Mainak Halder]

Hi there -

I'm about to launch my first Wordpress blog/news site in my niche, and I just have a few questions:

Themes:

I'm all for purchasing a great theme, and I've identified one that I really like. While I don't mind at all purchasing it the first time, the license agreement says its only for one website. If I decide in future to work on another niche, can I use the same theme and same license with the confidence that I won't get caught? Or do most of you just pirate it from the get-go?

I'll be developing this site with the idea of monetising through Adsense and CPA offers. I plan to keep the site mostly white hat with quality content that I am interested in writing myself. Is this a solid approach, or is there some key black hat services you would recommend? (I want the site to be as white hat as possible, as it is something I am interested in maintaining for a number of years to come, although I don't mind employing black hat methods outside of my site).

I plan to create an Instagram account to link with my niche and drive some traffic there. I have seen a plethora of different Instagram bots, but no two people seem to have recommended the same one. What's your go-to bot for IG followers?

Is there any advice you can give me before I start this venture based off what I've posted?

If you took the time to read this, thank you. I will be making a journey and sharing my experience!

If the agreement says you can use it on one website, use it on one only. Not two. And if you have to activate the theme with an API key, you won't be able to install on more than one website.

Deploying white hat methods on your site is great but to give it a kick, you can get some links and signals to the site. It's not a black hat approach but calculative approach.

 

[blogzandstuff]

If the agreement says you can use it on one website, use it on one only. Not two. And if you have to activate the theme with an API key, you won't be able to install on more than one website.

Deploying white hat methods on your site is great but to give it a kick, you can get some links and signals to the site. It's not a black hat approach but calculative approach.

this is a better answer, activation code will only work on one site. Other answer was all wrong

 

[Assistant]

Don't just rely on IG. I recommend to use most of the other social media sources too .

 

[RankBoss]

You can't use one license code for all sites. You need an enterprise account or membership to generate many API key and use it on many sites.

The difference between premium and free theme is that
Premium themes get regular updates and one year support which is not available for a free theme.