Effectively stopping comment spam is right up there behind admin efficiency when it comes to effectively blogging for business. As spammers improve their ability to spam through comments, trackbacks, and pings, they will definitely be sucking up more of your time trying to stop them unless you take some serious steps.There are quite a few spam filtering plugins available for WordPress, but here we’re going to share the ones that have been tested and proven themsleves the most reliable and effective.

Each of these plugins has be tested for extended periods on multiple blogs, and they’ve all performed wonderfully. After the plugin list below, you’ll find a business blog coaching tip that will share how you can maximize spam filtering on WordPress with a simple little trick.

So here we go!

SPAM FILTERING FOR YOUR WORDPRESS BUSINESS BLOG

Spam Karma 2

Spam Karma 2 (SK2) is THE recommended anti-spam plugin for WordPress. It’s designed to help busy business owners stop most forms of manual and automated Blog spam painlessly. The good thing is, that compared to other spam filtering alternatives, SK2 remains virtually transparent to regular visitors who want to comment on your blog.

SK2 ‘intelligently’ steps up the level of protection it employs based on a number of factors it monitors. For instance, Captcha (which can slow down a legitimate commentor, and hence discourage their interacting) is not used unless a number of red flags, like a questionable IP address, are picked up.

Here’s the page for downloads and updated information on this WordPress plugin. http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/

Askismet

Akismet is a default plugin pre-packaged with WordPress 2.0 or higher. This plugin checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. All you need to run the service is a WordPress.com API key, which you can get for free over at WordPress.com.

No need to manually install this plugin with WordPress 2.0 or higher. It’s already pre-loaded when you do your install. To activate it, first go to WordPress.com to get your API key. Then just go to the plugin folder in the admin panel of your WordPress business blog and activate Askimet. It’s free hosted by WordPress.org’s sister site, WordPress.com.

Bad Behavior

Bad Behavior is recommended as the first line of defense. Michael Hampton (who wrote the code for Bad Behavior) told me it’s not designed not to stop all spam. It’s whole purpose is to cut large amounts of comment spam down to a more manageable level.

What Bad Behavior does do (and this is very important especially when blogging for business) is turn away the vast majority of spambots before they can scrape your site or attempt to send comments. It also turns away many poorly designed (slow moving/resource draining) search engine bots and system crackers. This not only helps with your blog admin, it keeps your server load and bandwidth utilization down. This is especially important if you are charged for either of those.

Here’s the page for downloads and updated information on this WordPress plugin.
http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/

Business Blog Coaching Tip:

Michael Hampton (who wrote Bad Behavior and contributed to Askismet) shared a great combination strategy with me. It involves combining Bad Behavior + Askismet, OR Bad Behavior + Spam Karma 2. By teaming up the strengths of Bad Behavior with either of these top spam stopper plugins, you can get maximum filtering efficiency.

We use Bad Behavior + SK2 on all our blogs, both business and personal, and we have had no spam bypass the dual filter setup. Plus, just as important when you’re busy running one or more businesses — the number of spam message requiring our review is minuscule. I mean we literally went from having to review 70-100 spam comments per day on one business blog — down to just one or two per day!

If you’d like to read more about the top five spam filtering plugins available for WordPress and how they ranked installed in a stand alone environment, see the article How Busy Business Bloggers Can Stop 99% of Comment Spam.

And if you have tested or developed any additional plugins for fighting comment spam that would be helpful for business owners blogging with WordPress — please share them below in the comments sections. Anything that can help busy business owners save time is a BIG plus! Copyright © RPM Success Group Inc. 2002-2006. Other bloggers and journalists are allowed to excerpt and link to posts (as is common with bloggers,) as full credit/attribution is given to AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com and RPM Success Group Inc.

Learn how to unleash the maximum marketing power of business blogs, podcasts, and RSS (in any industry, profession, or niche) with Marketing With Business Blogs™.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Communication Commando.” He and his partner Deborah have developed a simple scientific code for maximizing your persuasion, power, and influence in business. John-Paul is a published author and weekly columnist for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. As a Click-and-Mortar Business Coach he helps small business owners integrate offline and online marketing strategies for rapid, reliable business growth. You can reach J.P. directly via [communicationcommando@gmail.com].