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Eliminating Comment Spam

A common problem with blogs these days is the huge amount of blog comment spam.

Typically, comment spam promotes sex sites. There’s also a software application out there that automatically posts comments hoping to get backlinks for SEO purposes. An unprotected blog would be overwhelmed with comment spam in short order.

This post is designed to help new bloggers setup their blog so that comment spam is completely eliminated. I’m focusing on WordPress here, but similar techniques may work on other blogging platforms.

Activate Akismet

The first step, once you install your WordPress blog, is to head over to WordPress.com and signup. You don’t want to create a blog, you just want to get your API key for WordPress.com services. The main service being Akismet, their anti-spam plugin. Akismet comes with WordPress, but you can’t use it without an API key.

Once you get your API key, go into the plugins tab in your WordPress dashboard and activate Akismet. You should now see Akismet Configuration as a secondary option in the plugins tab. Click it and enter your API key and click Update Options.

Setup Comment Moderation

Akismet will do a great job of filtering out comment spam. It won’t completely eliminate it, though. To prevent the 1% or so of comment spam that Akismet doesn’t catch from hitting your blog, go into the Options tab of your WordPress dashboard and choose the Discussion sub item.

I recommend setting email notifications so you get email when comments are made or held for moderation.  At minimum, get email when comments are held for moderation.

The last settings provides great protection while minimizing your moderation duties.  You’ll need to moderate everyone’s first comment, but after they’ve shown they can be trusted to not spam your blog, their comments are moderated right away. 

That’s the setting that lets you catch any spam that Akismet doesn’t catch.  When you get an email about moderating a comment, and the comment is clearly spam, don’t hesitate to mark it as spam.  That allows Akismet to get better at recognizing spam.

In that same screen, I also recommend setting the number of links to 2 for holding comments for moderation.  Your regular commentors will often post comments with single links to related websites.  If they post 2 or more, the comment will be held for moderation so you can make sure it’s okay.

A No Spam Blog

These settings help you to run a no spam blog.  You’ll be amazed at the quantity of spam that Akismet catches for you, especially as your blog becomes more popular.  You’ll also be amazed at the extraordinary lack of creativity blog spammers have as you see comment after comment that is all the same.

How about those of you who aren’t using WordPress?  What do you do to avoid comment spam?

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No Post on the 4th?

Well, we’ve had our first day at Online Opportunity without a major post.

I’m still not quite sure what happened. I had a post on the essential features of an autoresponder scheduled to be published at about 11PM EST on the 4th. It never made it. I’ve rescheduled that one for the 7th at about the same time, we’ll see if it makes it then.

I’ll watch more carefully tonight, and if the scheduled post doesn’t go out I’ll publish it manually.

Sorry for the brief intermission!

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A First Look A Yuwie

Yuwie is a new social networking site.

The basic way you interact with others on Yuwie is through clubs. These are discussion boards where you can post messages. They’re intended to be used as a real club would be used, for discussions between members and announcements of club happenings.

You also have a blog inside Yuwie, which is just what you would expect out of a blog. You can post messages for others to read and comment upon.

What distinguishes Yuwie from other social networking sites is that they share ad revenue with the members, based on the number of page views you and your referrals generate in the month. The referral structure goes down 10 levels, so potentially you could have a lot of people generating page views that pay you. The amount of money you make per page view is a fraction of a cent, so you won’t get rich on your efforts alone.

Also, because Yuwie is focused on providing advertising, they have a no advertising policy on the clubs and blogs. You’re not allowed to post your own links to business opportunities. According to their FAQ, if you want to advertise on Yuwie, pay for it like everyone else.

I’m using Yuwie as I would any discussion forum, participating and including a link to this blog below my name as a signature. We’ll see if it generates much traffic, or any money. Since the service is only a month old at this point, it’s still a bit early to tell.

It’s free to join, so check out Yuwie if you’re interested in this sort of thing.

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Handling Duplicate Content in Your Blog

I had a fairly detailed post on how to handle the duplicate content issue in your blog, and then realized that I hadn’t plugged the Bloggeries Forum lately.

Bloggeries is a very nice blog directory, and the forum is a great place for new bloggers to get advice. Rob, the admin, does reviews of blogs that get posted on his forum, and the forum itself draws a good amount of search engine traffic.

When you register, be sure to specify your blog’s feed in the control panel, so that every post you make will also contain a link to your latest blog post.

So I wrote that detailed post about duplicate content, and put it on the forum as Duplicate Content 101.

Go there to read the full post, and while you’re there stick around and visit!

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The “Win Me As A Slave” Contest Scoreboard

I’m going to keep this post edited throughout the month, tracking how many entries each person has earned. Check back now and then to make sure I haven’t missed anything. If you’re reading this wondering why you’re listed in the table, it’s because you’re entered into the contest even if you didn’t know it (probably from having this blog marked as a favorite on Technorati, or from linking to one of my posts in a post of your own).

Note that while everyone who had already favorited the blog at Technorati is entered into the contest, I’m only entering those who Fame me and the blog and also post a comment letting me know that they’ve done so. The reason is that so much faming goes on at Blogging to Fame, it would dilute the number of entries for real contestants to automatically enter everyone who fames me.

If you’re here through Blogging to Fame and want to be entered into the contest, just leave a comment letting me know. Or, if you’re listed here and do not want to be considered as an entrant, just leave a comment letting me know and I’ll remove you.

For details on the August contest, see the Win Me As A Slave post.

This table was last updated August 2nd, at about 10:30pm. The numbers are the number of entries each person has earned.

Name Contest Review Links to Posts Technorati Fame Me Fame Blog Digg Contest Post Creative Total
Lori 5 3 1 1 1 1 2 14
Rosa 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 7
Kuanyin 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
MyBlogContest 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Tyson 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Enkay 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
Sean 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Julia 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Betshopboy 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1

Lori gets one creative entry for being the first to Digg the contest post. And I’ve added Digging the contest post as a way of getting an entry. I’m having trouble figuring out how to track Del.icio.us and Stumbling, so I’m not counting those as entries yet. If anyone knows how to track those, let me know.

Digging in general isn’t a way to get entries, since to be effective Diggs need to be concentrated. So we’ll leave it as Digging the contest post is the only way to get an entry through Digg.

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How to Not Make A Sale

This is a bit of a rant, but also has a point.

It seems like every sales page these days has a fly-in window that tries to get you to opt-in to their mailing list. On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with this. If they can’t make a sale, they try to get you on their list so they can make a sale later.

But their timing is all wrong. It’s like a teenage boy on a date who spends all his time getting up the courage to kiss the girl, and when he finally does he’s taken so long she’s yawning at the same time he tries to kiss her. It just doesn’t work.

On these sales pages, you start to read the headline, and before you can even fully parse what it says, a fly-in window comes on top of it asking you to opt-in to their list.

Excuse me, but I was trying to read there!

If they wanted me on their list, they should have put a form at the bottom of their sales page. Assuming I made it that far, that’s the point at which I’d be making a decision to buy or not buy. An opt-in form there would give me a third choice that’s in-between in terms of commitment. I’d be far more likely to opt-in even if I didn’t buy.

As it is, I just close the entire page whenever one of those fly-in windows gets in my face.

So, the point is this: respect your visitors, and be patient with them. They’ve just reached your page, give them time to digest what you have to offer. They have zero reason to trust you when they first arrive at your page, and trust is the only thing that will get them onto your list.

In-your-face marketing tactics might work face-to-face, where you can intimidate a person into doing what you want, but on the Internet relief is just one click away.

What’s Internet marketing tactic that annoys you the most?

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The August “Win Me As A Slave” Contest

I’m playing around with more attention catching post titles, can you tell?

The Prize

It’s true, though, in the August contest you can win my exclusive services for a few hours to do whatever you would like (provided it’s legal and ethical, or at least fun). Unless you live in Ohio, I probably won’t be willing to mow your lawn or take you to a movie, but pretty much anything else goes.

Here are some of the tasks I could do:

  • Setup a WordPress blog plus plugins on your host
  • Solve a technical problem that’s been bugging you about your blog
  • Make so many comments on your blog it’ll look like Carolyn and Rosa stopped by for a visit
  • Write an article and submit it to Ezine Articles for you
  • Write a short story that you can claim as your own
  • Create a Squidoo page for you under your account
  • Write a guest post or two on your blog

Or anything else you can think of. The sky really is the limit here, assuming the task can be done in a few hours and I have the skills to do it.

The Contest

The contest itself involves promoting this blog in various ways. You get one entry for each time you perform one of the following tasks. The winner is chosen randomly from all the entries at the end of the contest.

  • Promote the contest in a post on your own blog, linking to Online Opportunity and this post.
  • Link to one of my blog posts in one of your blog posts as a relevant example of the topic you’re discussing (even if it’s just, “This is not the way to do it”)
  • Fame me using the widget below
  • Fame the blog using the widget below
  • Mark the blog as a favorite at Technorati using the widget below
  • Whatever else you might think of that I’ve missed that can be tracked

Links from your blog will come in as trackbacks. If a link doesn’t show up as a trackback, email me with the link to your post so I can verify the entry. In fact, if you’re in doubt that I might have caught something you’ve done, email me to let me know.

The Fame widgets require that you be registered on Blogging to Fame. People who currently have the blog marked as a favorite at Technorati are automatically entered into the contest.

The purpose of all this, of course, is to help expose the blog to people who haven’t found it yet (so they can enter the September contest!)

There might be a special prize for the most creative way to promote the blog.

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Pay Per Post Update

I’m using my seldom updated personal blog as a test bed for PayPerPost.com, which I first mentioned exactly three months ago in one of my first posts, How to Make Money Blogging.

It’s taken that long to get my personal blog accepted by PayPerPost.

The first submission failed because the blog needed to be both at least 90 days old (it was), and have 20 posts in that 90 day period (it didn’t). It took them a week or so to notify me about the reason.

The second submission failed because I had Blogger setup to only display a single post on the home page, and apparently that’s against the PayPerPost rules. Again, it took a week or so for the notification.

The third submission worked after I changed a Blogger setting to show multiple posts on the home page. This time the approval happened in a day after submitting.

So, finally, three months after writing about it I’m ready to start testing PayPerPost. I’ll let you know how it goes.

As a bonus, though, once I complete ten offers on my personal blog, I’ll be able to add this blog to PayPerPost. I don’t intend to do paid posts here, but with the blog accepted I can participate in their get-paid-to-review-my-blog promotion, so you all could earn money for reviewing your favorite posts here.

First, though, I have to make it through ten offers.

Have you had any luck with paid offers on your blog, whether through PayPerPost.com or somewhere else?

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And the Winner Is…

The July comment contest is officially over!

I want to thank everyone who participated. The blog’s been a lot more fun to be around this month because of everyone commenting. The winner is Carolyn, from Juggling Frogs. In an amazing feat, she not only contributed over one hundred comments during the month, but managed to make each and every comment thoughtful, insightful, and generally long. Carolyn, apologize for me to your family for all the time you missed spending with them during the month!

I wanted to also recognize Rosa, from Gaje Master. Starting late, she made a valiant effort to catch up to the leader, but found that Carolyn had too much of a lead. At over 70 posts, all relevant and thoughtful, in just the past week or two, I thought Rosa deserved something for the huge effort and contribution she’s made to the blog. So I’m awarding an unannounced second place price of another custom article on a topic of her choosing.

The last part of the contest was an article for one of the blogs that promoted the contest. To qualify, they had to link to the contest page. The three entrants were Contest Blogger, Some Make Money, and Bohemian Bloggers.

Utilizing the ultra high-tech method of writing the blog names on pieces of paper and then drawing them randomly, the winner of the final article is…Bohemian Bloggers!

I’ll be in touch through email with all of you to discuss the articles you’ve won.

Thanks again to everyone again for your participation! The blog’s been more like a community during the contest, and I hope you stick around and continue commenting.

Plus, you have the August contest to look forward to. I’m still working out the details, but it involves getting me as a slave for an hour or two. Okay, I’m pretty sure the details of the prize won’t live up to whatever is going through your mind right now, but I wanted a good teaser to close on.

If you stayed up waiting for the contest results, get some sleep!

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Ways to Keep Blogging

When I talked about picking a blogging niche, one of the tips was to write an article a day about your niche before you even started your blog. This was to make sure you were interested enough in the topic to sustain daily articles.

Fast forward, your blog is now three or four months old. You have some readers, and if you’ve been keeping to a daily posting schedule you have over a hundred posts in your blog.

Is it still fun? Are you still excited about writing that daily post?

It’s easy to get burned out on the routine, especially after the initial glow has faded. Not only writing the posts, but networking on other blogs to keep yourself a part of the community. Here are some tips that have worked for me for keeping everything exciting and interesting in the long-term.

Join MyBlogLog.com

It’s a small thing, but having that widget in your sidebar that shows the MyBlogLog members who recently visited your blog is a great motivator. I like seeing the avatars people have chosen, and love it when a new one shows up. I immediately go out to their blog to take a look, and I leave a message in their MyBlogLog area thanking them for visiting.

While I use MyBlogLog.com, any social website that has a recent visitors widget would work.

Hold Contests

Contests help to break the routine for blog owners, and provide a great excuse to interact with readers in a different way than just writing posts. This latest comment contest has been great for all of that.

Remember Why You’re Blogging

Hopefully you have a reason why you’re blogging. When you start to feel your motivation dwindling, remember why you started blogging in the first place. For me, it was to help newcomers to Internet marketing avoid the typical traps and scams by providing honest reviews. While I’ve branched out into more than just reviews, it’s still the idea that the posts help people that keeps me motivated.

Keep a To Do List

This might sound odd, but I come up with ideas for posts all the time when I’m driving, when I’m in the shower, pretty much anytime I’m away from the computer. Then sometimes I sit down at the computer to write a post, and my mind is blank. So out comes the scrap of paper I’ve written the ideas on, and they go into an unpublished page in my blog that contains all my to do list ideas.

Any time I’m stuck for a post idea, I pull up that to do list page and write about one of the items on the list. The size of the list grows and shrinks, but there are always a good eight to ten items on the list.

Get Away from the Computer

I tend to spend late nights writing posts for the blog, and tweaking this and that. There comes a time when I’m much better off just going to bed and not trying to get that last bit done. When I stay beyond that point, I find myself staring at the screen for minutes at a time.

It’s far better to leave the computer and get some sleep, or relax, or have fun. Then come back to your blog re-energized.

Those are some of the things that work for me. How do you avoid blogging burnout?