Let’s talk about the ugly (and the inevitable) when it comes to Wordpress blogs and comments:  SPAM!  We talked about this a bit in the last post about Wordpress Comment Moderation.  But sometimes, moderation is not enough (well, it is enough, but SPAM can cause the simple task like comment moderation and change it into a full-time job).

I said this before, but comment SPAM is going to happen on your Wordpress Blog.  The amazing thing is how often this can happy.  Even a low (or NO) traffic website will receive SPAM commenting and anything bigger can result in dozens (if not HUNDREDS) of spammy comments per day.

Now simple moderation will clean this up, but having to go through dozens of comments per day and delete them is a big waste of time.  Of course, you can turn comments off altogether, but (like I mentioned in the past) that defeats the purpose behind why most of us create a blog in the first place.

There is a way to combat much of this comment SPAM and most of you already have it!

For most installations of Wordpress (and this includes a Wordpress.com account, too), there is a plug-in that is already uploaded called Akismet.  The Akismet plugin is a tool that analyzes all of the comments that are made on your blog and compares them with an ever-growing SPAM database.  This way, the tool is automatically moderating (and removing) known SPAM comments.

In most cases, the Akismet plugin will be able to identify and remove close to 90% of all comment SPAM.  This is awesome!  (and I know all of you current Wordpress users will be seeking for this type of SPAM-killing solution at some point!).

To activivate the Akismet plug-in, you need to do 2 things:

1)  In your dashboard, Go to Plug-ins and and select the “Activate” button beside the Akismet Plug-In.

2)  You will need to have a Wordpress.com account to get your activation key (You don’t necessarily need a Wordpress.com blog, but you do need to register with them to get the activation key.  This does not cost anything.

Once you get your activiation key, you will be able to turn on Akismet in your Akismet Configuration (which is will now be under the Plugin Menu). That is it!  You are done and you only need to set this up once.  Akismet will also give you statistics on the number of comments it is identifying and removing.

I literally save myself close to 15 minutes per day with comment moderation by simply turning on and activating this simple Akismet plug-in.  If you have a Wordpress blog and have not turned on Akismet, do it today (it is totally worth it!).

cheers…matt