Every blogger knows that the worst thing that could ever come upon their blog is comment spam. Why? It’s just so annoying and such a hassle to get rid of. There’s also the potential of a virus, but that’s another story.
What is spam? Well, spam is overcrowding websites with numerous copies of a single message in order to enforce the message on those who would not, under other conditions, choose to accept it on their webpage. Most spam is just advertising a product or a service that enable the creator to become rich if people fall for it or if the message is clicked on.
Many bloggers can tell you horror stories of how they get around 30-50 spam posts on their blogs daily. It’s such a pain to go through and delete them all or find ways to block them. Spam of blogs and public/private discussion forums is nauseating because of irrelevant comments and posts. Some blogs are set up with a spam firewall to block spam, but if you don’t have this luxury, you may end up having to manually delete them yourself. There are some software programs out there that can stop certain words (like those located in spam comments) from being posted.
Besides manually deleting comments or installing software, there’s five other ways to prevent spam comments on your blog:
1. Rename the default name file of comments. Spam comments can easily kill your reputation of blogging, and by simply switching the name of the comment file, you can prevent 100% of spam on your blog in just seconds.
2. Blacklist spammers’ IP address by editing your .htaccess file. Of course, if coding isn’t your thing, you can move on to number three.
3. Delete or stop comments from older blog posts. Spammers often attack older posts because they know there’s a chance you won’t check them. In order to do this, you can manually disallow blog comment posts after a said amount of days.
4. Block people who read your blog anonymously. This will cut back on around 50-75% of comment spam. If people want to read your blog that badly, they’ll sign up or ask for permission.
5. Don’t automatically approve all comments.
Even if you’re not familiar with computers, you’ve probably been exposed to spam at some point while surfing the net. Businesses who’ve employed hosted exchange providers never have to worry about little annoyances like these. Avid Internet users, like bloggers, deal with the frustration of comment spam on a daily basis. By adjusting minor settings on your blog or installing software on your computer, you will be able to completely stop, or at least downsize, the high volume of spam on your blog.
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