Protecting your blog from comment spam

Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 10:36 am

Yesterday we discussed 3 ways to get more comments and today we need to talk about the flip side – Protecting your blog from comment spam.

The first step in this process for me is to use two plugins to help with this.

Askimet – comes with the WordPress installation
WP Spam Free

Now there are numerous others and I have not tested them all for sure but these two eliminate the vast majority of spam.

Set up both of these (you will need to register for a code for Askimet) and you will be well on your way. These will virtually eliminate the automated spam.

On my blogs I set them up that all comments are moderated. It takes a bit of effort but becomes a habit.

There was a time when I was allowing automatic approval from people who already had an approved comment but that went by the way side.

I was getting manual comments and the first time someone would leave a quality comment and from then on would just add the usual garbage like “I really enjoyed your blog.” or “Thanks for the great information”.

That is spam the same as the automated commenter that leaves me 20 links to a variety of Viagra and breast enhancement products. That caused me to go back to all comments being moderated.

On a side note I always wondered about the latter as I have never figured out why if I would be interested in Viagra I would also be interested in breast enhancements. Of course no one ever said all spammers were smart.

There is a way to eliminate those what I call “good job” commenters. If they do it once I just spam it. Do it a second time I will ban the ip.

Go to settings – discussion and scroll down towards the bottom and add their ip number (One per line), click save and you won’t hear from them again.

That is how I combat the slime that want to spam my blog while still making it easy for those that want to participate to do so.

Finally I was a bit surprised yesterday. A few people commented but nobody had another way to get more blog comments. There are many more than 3 ways. I have a few more but won’t release them unless others are willing to share their ideas too.

So tell me what other ways you can generate more blog comments by leaving your comment below. (yes I am tryinmg to not only get you to comment but add value to my blog. Imagine that

Have a great weekend.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.

After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.

If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.