3 Ways to Prevent Spammers on Your Blog
If you’re a blogger, and you should be if you sell online, then there is one thing that is going to plague you forever…
It’s blog comment spam!
It’s really very annoying, but it’s also a sign you’re succeeding with your blog. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? How can spam be a good sign?
I’m not going to answer that yet, because I get to do my ranting first. You see, I started writing this because two things about blogging annoy me.
Let’s start with the beginning. I love blogging, and I love writing, and I love that so many people come here to this blog. As of this writing, there are between 2,000 to 2,200 visitors a day. I really enjoy knowing that so many people keep coming, as I write new and different things.
I know I don’t write the same things or the same way as anyone else. I try hard to put a new twist on everything. It’s a challenge. All my life is a challenge. I love a good challenge.
On top of that, just by posting content that people want gets me more and more targeted traffic. I’ve told you this before. Many of you ignore me. Give me the ..pooh.. …pooh… response, but keep coming back anyhow. That’s great. I love it, but you really should take action to get ahead.
So this brings me to the first thing that can annoy you or me as a blogger…
Tons of Visitors to my House
In many ways to me, when you come to my blog, you are visiting my house. I love having visitors at my house. But what is shocking to me, is when so many people visit my house, and they don’t say a thing. When I visit someone, I always greet them, and never leave without speaking.
Now I don’t think that everyone is going to have chance to greet me when there are 2,000 people clogging the doors. However, where I grew up, it was rude not to say something and join in the conversation when you visited someone’s home.
When I visit blogs with real, original content, I almost always leave a comment. That’s my way of saying “hi” when I visit a quality blog that isn’t full of stolen material, or ripped off RSS, or the sort. So I constantly wonder, where are your comments?
I know you don’t agree with everything I say. I also write things that really piss you off – sometimes I even do it on purpose! (don’t tell anyone). When someone says something to me that I don’t agree with, I can’t help but make a comment. It’s shocking how many of you don’t say a word!
So enough about that — say hello when you visit. You’re welcome in my house, and I want to hear from you. Use my name, call me names, agree or disagree… I love it.
The Blog Spam Machine
Getting back to where I started… the blog comment spam. Like everything, when people are told something CAN help them, they start to abuse it.
You know the theory… take one aspirin and the pain will go away. So why not take 2. Two worked great so 4 has to be twice as good.
What people forget is there is a limit to the value. That’s why drugs and alcohol are so powerful. You just keep doing more and more to get what you THINK is the desired effect.
So it goes with blog spammers. They were told to make comments on blogs, and leave their links.
They found an automated program to send comments all over the web, actually believing that real bloggers would post their comments. They don’t even know that 99.9% of their spam comments are trashed. So they think if they double their efforts with more automation, it will help.
But it doesn’t. If you are a blog comment spammer, you need to wake up and know that your comments all go in the trash. No blog that counts, automatically accepts comments. Only junk blogs do that, and that’s where your spam comments are posted.
What’s a Spam Comment?
It’s so easy to detect, that I’m not going to waste your time. If you get enough traffic to your blog, you already know the answer.
If you’re a comment spammer, figure it out yourself.
It’s easy to get your comment posted in my blog. All you have to do is mention my name, and something specific about my blog content, and your in. I’ll even reply to you personally. I read every comment on this blog, spam or not spam… I even visit the web page links before I accept the post!
Automation to Control Blog and Comment Spam
There are three simple things I do to control blog and comment spam. I have 3 plug ins that pretty much guarantee that your spam won’t be on my blog. Here they are…
1. Akismet. It comes with every WordPress blog installation. You need to turn it on. It works for 20 additional platforms as well (not just WordPress).
2. WP HashCash. This adds another barrier to catch almost anything that Akismet might miss.
3. WP reCaptcha. This is the CAPTCHA system that most pro sites use. It literally chases blog comment spammers away. Only the most determined comment spammer get by.
Who is the most determined? Well, there are actually people so determined to put a spam comment on your blog, that they will sit there and hand right it, and fill in the CAPTCHA in order to try to post it. They haven’t caught on that any blog worth the time, moderates the comments — and their useless comment will never get posted.
That’s my Sunday rantings. I hope I didn’t drive you crazy. Let me hear from you. I love real input and comments.
