1. Akismet
Akismet is the most popular anit-spam plugin and for good reason. It’s free for individual users, but requires a license for commercial use.
2. Anti-Spam Bee
Anti-Spam Bee is a a great tool fro blocking spam. It uses Fail2Ban to block ip addresses of potential spammers and it is free personal and commercial use.
3. WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam
Users both javascript/cookie anti-spam methods as well as algorithmic filters.
While some of the spam has been coming from bots, it’s clear that a good majority of it is human-based. Most spam is simply deleted on the spot, and the IP of the spammer banned. This not only takes up a few minutes of my time, but also wastes your time. To prevent this from happening in the future, please take a few minutes out of your spamming rampage and read the following guide.
If you do choose to put a link in your post, do not give it ridiculous anchor text and take a minute or two to write a decent comment.
I do not mind it if people link to their own sites in their comments. Just do so in an appropriate manner. Most people know that whatever you enter as your name when commenting becomes the title text for your link. While there are many people who enter real names, there are others who seem to think their names are “slot machines” or “lawn mowers.” No matter how good your comment is, I will not approve it if you use keyword-rich anchor text instead of an actual name in the “Name” box, which leads to…
All links in blog comments are nofollow.
Yes guys, I’m super-serial about this. No matter what title you give your link in a blog comment, it will always have the “nofollow” attribute attached to it, meaning it will not pass any link juice or authority to your site. Besides that, for several years now Google has been putting less weight on comment links anyway. If you really want to get more traffic from Google, go get traditional links from websites.
I do not mind if you promote your site in comments.
In an Internet where more and more websites are linking less and less, blog comments are a good way to get the word out about a new site. I don’t mind if you make a comment simply to promote your site, but follow the said rules above. Do not use keyword-rich anchor text as your name, and write an actual comment. If you do these things, I will not only approve your comment happily, but may even check out your site. If I really like it, I may even offer to do a link exchange.
If you still insist of spamming…
Please only make one or two spam comments. No matter how many comments you make, I will delete them all, but making twelve or twenty will just aggravate me. Besides, why even put in the effort to write twelve comments when the first two were never even approved?