The Best WordPress Anti Spam Plugin
The question that has been plaguing bloggers since the dawn of time.
How Can I Stop Spam Comments On My WordPress Blog?
Thankfully, there is a dead simple way to stop 99% of all spam comments. I’ve used it on my blog since I launched back in June 2006 and since then I’ve only had to remove a tiny amount of spam comments that made their way past my “Spam Defences”.
At the time of writing this post, my anti-spam plugin has stopped “11,527 Spam Comments.”
I’m sure you’ll agree that’s enough Viagra Spam to…..I’ll leave you to insert your own pun here.
Can you imagine what would have happened if I didn’t have my anti-spam plugin installed? I would have to go through and delete those 11,500+ comments manually.
It also gives me the freedom to leave my comments open, and un-moderated. This let’s me sit back and watch everyone of you comment away in “real time” without you having to wait for me to manually approve your comments.
So now you know how good it is, let me show you how to install it on your own wordpress blog.
First of all you need to know what the plugin is called. It will come as no great surprise for a lot of you, to find out I’m using the “Akismet” plugin. It’s the default anti-spam plugin that comes with all WordPress downloads. (So why don’t you use it!)
I think the thing that puts a lot of people off Akismet is the API key that you need to activate the plugin, but this isn’t nearly as complicated as it sounds. Following the step by step instructions below and spam comments will be a thing of the past!
1. Log into your WordPress admin dashboard and click on “Plugins”.
2. Aksimet comes pre-uploaded with all new WordPress installations so you don’t need to upload anything. Just look down the plugins list, find Aksimet and click on the “Activate” button.
3. You will then see a message like the one in the screen shot below asking you to enter your API key. You probably don’t already have one, so you need to click on the link that takes you to the WordPress.com Sign up page.
4. Fill out the sign up form, and in the last radio button select “Just a username please”. When done click on the “Next” button.
5. You then need to confirm your email address, when you have done that your account has been created and you can log into your WordPress.com dashboard.
6. Once logged in, click on the “Profile” link to the right of the page. You’ll then be shown your WordPress API key.
7. Now you just need to go back into your own blogs dashboard, click on Plugins > Aksimet and enter your API key in the space provided.
If you have entered the key correctly, you’ll get a nice green success message and the plugin will now be working on your blog. You don’t need to do anything else, you can now sleep easy at night knowing your blog will no longer be subjected to comment spam!
Thanks for reading, and let me know if you have any question.
Regards,
Dan
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A great guide there Dan, when I first started using that plugin, I too was a little confused with that API key thingy!
I still have my comments moderated for the simple fact that I’ve still had quite a number of ‘spam’ comments left, that the plugin hasn’t actually picked up! (I did report them as spam, so they should have been added into the Akismet database for future!)
…I may still change that, but for now I don’t mind the moderation of comments! 😀
Plus I’d love the day when I could tell you I had over 11,000 spam comments! You’d be lucky if I’m at 1000!
Thanks for the post Dan, I’m sure it will help out a number of people when they are setting up their blog, or even cleaning up their comments!
Thanks
Mark
Nice little blg post.
I use this plugin too but I still moderate m comment because there are always dumb people trying to posts on blogs because they think they are smart.
Whats even funnier when theres no substance to the post and all it is, is a bunch of links which make me laugh even harder
Thanks Dan, this is very useful to me as I have just entered the wonderful world of WordPress.
Colin
p.s. Nice new blog theme!
I’ve been using this plugin ever since….
Well ever since Dan installed it for me…lol
So far it’s cuaght around 6500 spam posts!
I love it – it even catched the ones that say
“Great Blog – I found you while searching for V iagra & P orn – or C asino’s… I’ll be sure to come back soon”
Or better still
“I read a similar article on ‘New Blog Design (Not suitable for people with a Blue allergy)’ but it didn’t explain it as well as you did”
hehe
Seriously though – great plugin (and thanx for setting it up for me Dan 😉
Randy
http://www.MoreMonthly.com
I tend to get lots of jewellery spam comments for some strange reason!
Nice post though thanks Dan 🙂
Great post – I’ve sweated blood trying to install this plug-in
No way – it is the worst plugin and it takes weeks to try what is suggested here. lol
Just kidding!
Seriously, a better alternative is Wp-SPAM FREE – do a Google search and you’ll find it.
Yes, I use this myself on all my blogs.
Thanks Dan, I’ll use that when i get my Blog(s) going……… SOON, SOON!!!
John