BloggerStop.Net: 7 Ways to Reduce Blog Spam

7 Ways to Reduce Blog Spam

A guest post by James Adams, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

Bloggers know that dealing with spam cannot be avoided. Every day spammers find new ways to automatically post comments to blogs, and some can even create blog posts. The technology in use by blog spammers slows your blog to a crawl, as links for all sorts of crazy things are plastered into comments all over your blog. Here are 7 ways to reduce blog spam that can help you reclaim your time and your blog’s performance.

NOTE: Most of the methods discussed here will work only on WordPress based blogs. Albeit Blogger too has recently introduced its own SPAM fighting tool, but it is still in its infancy and so I have mentioned some of the alternative tools/strategies along with the points discussed below.

1. Install and enable Akismet: The first line of spam defense for your blog is a plugin that comes with WordPress. Akismet also has an API that can be adapted to a variety of Web applications. Once this plugin is in place and active on your site, the majority comment spam will be sent directly to your comment spam folder and will never be displayed to visitors on your site. Akismet alone however won’t stop spam: some spam will get through and spammers will still be able to overload your site with their bots.
Blogger Strategy: You can use Akismet in Blogger/BlogSpot blogs, by installing alternate comment-forms (Disqus or IntenseDebate).

2. Blog comment settings: Change the number of links allowed in comments. Because comment spammers are notorious for their links, be sure that you set your blog to a low number of allowed links in comments. In WordPress, the recommended level is “1,” unless you want to have every comment go into moderation. This technique is effective in reducing the number of spam comments that are displayed on your blog, but it does not prevent access to your site by spammers. Another setting you can use to combat spam is the “Spam words” list. By creating a list of words you consider spam, you redirect all comments with those words to your comment moderation queue. In WordPress, these settings are found in the “Settings,” “Discussion,” “Comment Moderation” section of your dashboard.
In Blogger: The exact spam detection checks employed by Blogger are not known, but it does filter out some comments as SPAM with 2 or 3 active links in them. As of now, there is no publicly available list of 'Spam words' and there's no option to create one yourself for your blog. You can recommend these features to Blogger over here: Blogger Help Forum.

3. reCAPTCHA: This plugin works like the CAPTCHA images you type in all across the Internet. These things are annoying to many users because of the difficulty associated with figuring out what each image is. Still, requiring random human input before accepting a comment will stop automated spammers in their tracks.
In Blogger: You can activate CAPTCHA (word verification) at Blogger Dashboard -> Settings -> Comments.

4. Stop comments without referrers: If you are experienced at Web programming, you can modify your .htaccess file to block comments that are received from users with no referrers. There are several ways to do this and you can disable your blog if you do something wrong, so be sure to back up your original .htaccess file and only follow directions from a reputable source. You can also use a custom WordPress function to make this happen. Search the WordPress site and Google to find out all your options.
In Blogger, adding or editing htaccess files is not possible, so this is limited to WP users.

5. Close comments on old posts: In your WordPress dashboard you can go to the “Discussion” section of your “Settings” area and define the age at which posts close to comments. This reduces the amount of spam that comes to your blog and also helps keep your online community fresh.
In Blogger, you cannot completely close comments for older posts (you CAN do it manually by editing each and every post), but you can activate and limit comment moderation only for your older posts. Go to Dashboard -> Settings -> Comments and against Comment moderation select the number of days.

6. Wp-Ban will do a lot for you in the fight against spam: Rather than just routing spam comments to your spam folder, Wp-Ban actually prevents spammers from gaining access to your site. Every comment in WordPress is stamped with the user’s IP address, so all you have to do is populate a list with the addresses or domains of all your site’s spammers. This makes a huge difference in the volume of spam you get delivered to your blog: just remember however, it is not foolproof.
Again, for Blogger/BlogSpot blogs, this can be done only via Disqus or IntenseDebate.

7. Change the name of your comment file: In WordPress, almost everyone’s comment entry file is called “wp-comments-post.php.” Rename the file something different such as “wpcom.php” and then go into your WordPress dashboard to edit your theme to include the new name. Because the one file spammers look for isn’t there, they will not be able to leave spam.

Blog spam is a nuisance that rarely goes away by itself. In fact, the longer your blog is operational, the more spammers will attack your site. Use these 7 ways to reduce blog spam and get some relief. Be sure to try more than one of these methods to maximize the amount of spam you block.
If you are working on Blogger/BlogSpot platform and comments-SPAM is a serious problem on your blog, then I would advise you to switch to either of the freely available alternate comment-forms (Disqus or IntenseDebate). You can read more about their SPAM-fighting strategies here: Disqus & IntenseDebate.

James Adams covers developments in tech for a leading online ink cartridges specialist where he writes reviews of newly released hardware such as the HP 350XL.

Blog Admin : Divya Sai

ProBlogger - Inspiring Others Realize Their Dreams!

Google Facebook Twitter More

26 comments

Write comments

Woozgulf @ Fresh History Articles

September 04, 2010 6:38 PM delete

Mr. Sai,

Can you post an article on how to make the credits span te width of the browser like yours please?

Sai - Blogger Widgets

September 05, 2010 12:27 PM delete

Well, just find this line in your blog's template:
</body>

and just above that, paste your "credits" code. That's it.

September 05, 2010 2:39 PM delete

Well, I tried that, but it didn't work. I purposely left it that way so that you can see it.

Sai - Blogger Help

September 05, 2010 2:47 PM delete

Ok...the width of your body-area is limited to 980px, make it 100%

So change this:

body {
background:...
background-attachment:...
width: 980px;

to this:

body {
background:...
background-attachment:...
width: 100%;

September 05, 2010 10:02 PM delete

Thank you so much!

One last thing,

Can you tell me why my google font isn't working in post titles and in my latest post?

Thanks.

September 07, 2010 11:28 AM delete

In your H3 tag, you have use that "+" sign in between the name of the font. So, remove that.

Instead of this code:

style='font-family: Reenie+Beanie;....

use this:

style='font-family: Reenie Beanie;....

September 07, 2010 6:18 PM delete

Thank you so much! My blog feels complete now. You have yourself a new subscriber and daily visitor!;)

Short Sms

September 11, 2010 1:26 AM delete

nice tips...
My blog is not much operational but still I got 100 of spam comments... as I activated akismat earlier.. so I dont have to deal with those comments...

the renaming of comments post page is seems interesting.. but dont know how to implement this

TheSecretOfMillion

September 15, 2010 11:59 AM delete

Great post and nice tips
I'll follow the tips into my blog

Thanks

Reza Winandar

September 18, 2010 10:02 PM delete

Yes, but I do moderating comments myself.

Siva

October 20, 2010 10:54 AM delete

Thanks for sharing. I also use Wp-comment plugin which is quite good.

Divya Sai

January 21, 2011 9:59 PM delete

Hacker Hacker!!!!!!
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
=)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))

January 21, 2011 11:29 PM delete

Nah that's not hacking.....

January 21, 2011 11:31 PM delete

In fact link doesn't even matter, it's just the name that matters.

viagra online

July 15, 2011 12:47 PM delete

Wonderful post! This is very useful to many readers like me. Being a computing student , I am requiring myself to read articles more often and your writing just caught my interest. Thank you so much!

pharmacy

August 24, 2011 3:42 PM delete

Excellent ideas to reduce it, but I think you can use those ideas in order to create other ways to avoid other things instead of blocking the permission to that those people.

xlpharmacy

October 18, 2011 11:21 AM delete

These are special techniques in order to reduce spam actually there are people who use to put in blogs things that aren't adequate and really annoying things, I think that people should care about things and words they use.

Web Filter

November 05, 2011 4:22 AM delete

Your tips is really useful and helpful to reduce spam on blogs and websites....

Indian Pharmacy

November 15, 2011 2:45 PM delete

thanks a lot, in some way spaming is annoying and also sometimes you can find some interesting comments, but well thanks a lot for the tips, i hope i will stop it soon xD!

buy lipitor online

November 16, 2011 6:52 AM delete

It's great to see a blog of this quality. I learned a lot of new things and I'm looking forward to see more like this. Thank you.

cheap ink cartridges

December 24, 2011 5:23 PM delete

nice ways you share here,nice idea to save from spamming

NiceSlide

April 19, 2012 9:52 PM delete

i also suck with spam, but Akismet not free

moving companies bethesda md

October 20, 2012 8:09 AM delete

Thanks for the great info! I'm trying to watch what I ingest as my body attempts to properly digest it, then I learn that I'm being bamboozled the whole damn time!

pioneer

October 20, 2012 9:06 AM delete

Nice to be visiting your blog again, it has been months for me. Well this article that I've been waited for so long.
lewisville towing

October 21, 2012 3:44 AM delete

Thank you for for sharing so great thing to us. I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post nice post, thanks for sharing.
dallas towing