ID-100178921
Stuart Miles – freedigitalphotos.net

There are a few things that can drive me crazy and comment spam is one of them.  But if you’re going to have a blog then you are going to have spam.  You just have to figure out how to deal with it.

A few months ago I read about a product on a blog, http://www.wazzupyo.com, that could STOP SPAM COLD!  So I figured I’d give it a try since I was getting several spam comments a day.  The best part of this product is that it is FREE and is a WordPress plugin.  Excellent!

The plugin is called WP-Spamshield and you can get more information here  https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-spamshield/.  It eliminates not only spammy comments but spammy trackbacks which I was getting plenty of.

I basically added Spamshield through the new plugins feature in my WordPress blog.  There really wasn’t anything to configure.  I just downloaded, activated and good bye spam.

This spam guardian is also transparent to my visitors.  If they want to leave a comment, they don’t have to deal with a Captcha or answering anything.  They just leave a comment.

Since installing WP-Spamshield, I have had ZERO spammy comments or trackbacks to deal with.  It’s been great!  Celebrate the small victories…

Stop your spam and go install WP-Spamshield right now!

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    26 replies to "How To STOP Blog Comment Spam"

    • Dawn

      I tried WP Spamshield and it worked fine for a couple of days…absolutely zero spam. Then, I started having all kinds of issues.

      Either I had a plugin conflict or the Genesis theme framework was not compatible. After going through and deactivating each plugin on the blogs, it the issues were narrowed down to this plugin. Too bad really because it did exactly what it said.

      So I am back to Akismet. It does a decent job and rarely misses spam, so am okay with monitoring what is in the comment filters.

      • lesliez

        Thanks for that Dawn! I’m using Flexibility 3 and so far so good. I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks without issue.

        I don’t use a lot of plugins so not sure which ones you use that might have also been the culprit.

        I appreciate the feedback.

        LeslieZ

    • Jeannine

      Hey Leslie! Thanks for sharing this! I recently had a discussion with a friend about this. She has a ton of spam and I had none. However, she also had a ton of comments and I had none. It turns out the plugin I was using (Akismet) in conjunction with another plugin was completely blocking any comments. So I turned off/deleted those plugins and have been inundated with Spam messages. I really appreciate you taking the time to write this. I have just downloaded this plugin to try it out.

      Jeannine

      • lesliez

        Jeannine,
        I’m so glad this was helpful for you.

        It sounds like you and Dawn have had the opposite experience with Akismet.

        It just shows that you have to test because what works on your blog depends on your theme and the plugins you are using.

        I hope WP-Spamshield works for you!

        LeslieZ

    • Catherine

      I use WP Spamshield too. It works just fine on my blogs.

      I don’t have any spam problems, but I do have constant (unsuccessful) brute force attacks. I have no idea how to stop those!

      • lesliez

        Wow Catherine, that sounds pretty intense! Hopefully you keep regular backups just in case.

        So what are these attacks? How do you know they are occurring?

        It is insane to me that people spend so much time trying to harm other people. If they put the amount of effort they use on these attacks into something constructive, they’d probably be hugely successful.

        LeslieZ

    • Jeff Sollee

      Hey LeslieZ,

      This could be a cool little plug in that I should go out and look for. It sounds like for you it is working flawlessly and taking care of all that awful SPAM!

      I laugh now, but in the beginning I thought that I could just manually be able to take care and delete the spammy posts… NOPE! Not a chance!

      Thank you for sharing about this plug in.. I will have to give it a try!

      All the best,
      Jeff Sollee

    • lesliez

      Hey Jeff,

      Good to see you hear again! Yeah spam is a pain in the butt!

      I was so excited when I tried this plugin and it worked really well. Just one more admin type task I don’t have to waste my time on.

      It’s all about working smarter, right?

      LeslieZ

    • The Great Gordino

      Thanks for the tip- funnily enough I am still on manual mode!
      I just look through them and dont find it hard to spot the real ones, then I block the IPs of the other ones. I can see the time though, when I need to put something in place, so will bear this in mind!
      cheers,
      Gordon

      • lesliez

        It is a time saver Gordon.

        And it puts me in a better frame of mind when I know that I have comments and they are real…not spam.

        I would definitely consider adding it since it will take you less then 3 minutes to download the plugin and activate it.

        Something to think about.

        LeslieZ

    • Sandy Tan

      Hi Leslie, i do notice my blog is having more comment spams recently. have been doing the manual mode, meaning scan thru n delete. Mindful of this plugin n would instal if it gets too frequent.

      One question though Leslie, what does it mean by ‘trackback’ for the spammy comment u mentioned towards the end of the post? Thanks 🙂

      • lesliez

        Hey Sandy,
        A trackback is basically a link from another blog. It is great because you get a little link juice and you can do it without commenting.

        The downside side is if you get connected to a site you don’t want to be connected to….thus a spammy trackback.

        I hope this helps.

        LeslieZ

        • Sandy Tan

          Thanks Leslie. Will get clearer as I get more familiar with the game ;D

    • Boon

      Hi Leslie,
      I am using Askimet and so far it has been good at catching spam. Thanks for the tip. I will download and try it out.

      Cheers,
      Boon

      • lesliez

        Boon,
        If Askimet is working, you won’t need WP-spamshield. If you do plan to switch to it, make sure you test it.

        You want to make sure it will work on your site.

        And you’re welcome!

        LeslieZ

    • Steven Lucas

      Hi LeslieZ,
      I’m a happy Akismet user and I also have the other WordPress settings in place so that your comment appears instantly once you’ve had one post approved and WP rejects anything with 2 or more links, so spam comments get held back. This also catches the crafty ones who give one good comment and then try to spam after that.
      As for cutting down brute force attacks, the Wordfence plug in does a pretty good job for free. Start from level 4 though and ignore the first 3 levels, then set it up to block rather than throttle too many human or machine interactions.
      Hope this helps.
      Regards,

      Steven Lucas

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    • Christopher James

      So WP-Spamshield is better than Akismet?

      • lesliez

        Hey Christopher,
        I have not used Akismet. I can only comment on what I’ve used and the experiences of my friends.

        Have you used Akismet? What do you think of it?

        LeslieZ

    • Varija tripathi

      Hi,

      You share a good collection of information.I am new in this field and I face a same problem.I will use this plugin.Thank you so much.

    • Sonam Gupta

      Thank for sharing best plugin information by which I can protect spam comments, but These day I use akismat Plugin, I thinks this is also a good plugin for spam protection. Great and informative article.

      Regards
      Sonam Gupta

    • Carl Martin

      Hey Lesliez, Nice post really informative but only for the wordpress user. As i used blogger can you suggest me a blogger plugin to avoid spam commenting.
      Thankyou.

      • lesliez

        Unfortunately Carl, I don’t use Blogger so am not familiar with it. Maybe trying googling it. Thanks for stopping by.

        LeslieZ

    • davis watson

      i am using Akismet and its working is really good before using Akismet i was so upset because of comment spam but now i am happy with this plugin.

      • lesliez

        I agree Davis! The spam was making me nuts! Akismet saves a lot of time not having to wade through all the spam. Glad it is working for you also. I appreciate your comment.

        LeslieZ

    • Sonia Chauhan

      Hi,
      I’ve just installed Akismet plugin, what should I do? It doesn’t do anything.
      May you introduce more captcha plugins(easy for uneducated fools to fill)
      Thanks

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