Despite all the advancements in anti-spam technology spam continues to be a problem. This is not surprising since spammers also improve the techniques and technologies they use. As a blogger we need to know how to minimize the effects of spam. Here are some simple things you can do to lessen the spam you receive both in your blog comments and email. Use a separate email add for commenting on blogs – Unless you are sure that the blog you leave comments on obeys their “no spam†policy then it would be safer to use an email add other than your personal and/or work email. I find it useful to use gmail for commenting on blogs because of their address alias. According to gmail by using address aliases you can “set up filters to automatically direct these messages to Trash, apply a label or star, skip the inbox, or forward to another email account.†Use a different address alias for every blog you leave a comment on so that you will know which blog gave your email add away. For example use an email address alias such as [email protected]. Use anti-spam plugins – They really do work but some spam still make it through so make sure you still keep an eye on your comment section, especially if you do not moderate comments. Every now and then it is also a good idea to check the comments marked as spam because anti-spam plugins do get false positives, which can be irritating to valid readers. Use word verification – CAPTCHA is a very good way to keep automated spam out. However, you will still need to deal with people spammers. This can also be irritating to long time subscribers but they’ll understand.
Originally posted on October 28, 2009 @ 8:45 am
