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End Comment Spam

endblogspam1

Akismet has protected your site from 14,476 spam comments already, but there’s nothing in your spam queue at the moment.

Don’t you love it when you see the above message. Nothing in your spam queue. No pages of links with descriptions that would make your grandmother blush. No more needing to weed through the spam looking for the errant comment or two that is not spam. I used to have hundreds of spam comments a day. Now I have none.

You see, very little spam is generated by new (or  not so new) webmasters trying to get a free link back to their site. Most of the comment spam I was getting was from automated spam bots. Askimet would send the comments to the spam folder, but I still needed to go through them to catch the errant real comment that had been flagged as spam.  I don’t have a lot of extra time to go through page after page of spam comments, so often I just had to hit the  “delete all spam” button and hope for the best.

WP-SpamFree has changed all that.  It is  a simple plugin for WordPress that is easy to install, easy to use, and doesn’t do anything to annoy my real-life commentors.  No  Captcha, no challenge questions.

Direct from the WP-SapmFree, here is the list of features:

Features

  1. Virtually eliminates automated comment spam from bots. It ensures that your commentors are in fact, human.
  2. A counter on your dashboard to keep track of all the spam it’s blocking. The numbers will show how effective this plugin is.
  3. No CAPTCHA’s, challenge questions or other inconvenience to site visitors – it just works.
  4. No false positives, which leads to fewer frustrated readers, and less work for you.
  5. You won’t have to waste valuable time sifting through your Akismet queue anymore, because there won’t be much there.
  6. Now with Trackback and Pingback spam protection.
  7. Easy to install – truly plug and play. Just upload and activate. (Installation Status on the plugin admin page to let you know if plugin is installed correctly.)
  8. The beauty of this plugin is the methods of blocking spam. It takes a different approach than most and stops spam at the door.
  9. The code is has an extremely low bandwidth overhead and won’t slow down your blog (very light database access), unlike some other anti-spam plugins.
  10. Completely compatible with all cache plugins, including WP Cache and WP Super Cache. Not all anti-spam plugins can say that.
  11. Options to completely disable trackbacks and/or pingbacks if they become an excessive nuisance. While doing so can reduce the connectivity and community feel of the blogosphere, it has been much requested since the glitch in 1.3 that inadvertently blocked trackbacks and pingbacks. Many people actually liked this. So, the choice has been given back to you.

The plugin uses a combination of java script and cookies to weed out automated spam comments.  It works quietly in the background and most of your readers will never know it is there.  For the few that do have java script or cookies turned off on their computer they will be prompted to turn them on to leave a comment.

I have been using this plugin for over a week now and I love it. You see, my grandmother wasn’t the only one blushing at the content of my comment spam!

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 4

Unfortunately, this is the final part of this series on domain name giveaways. But don’t be sad, my dear readers: before this article comes to an end, you’ll find some practical tips on how to get more comments from your visitors.

Site activity

If you own a blog—or a static site that includes comment forms—you know how important comments are. A lack of reader’s feedback can make your blog look “dead.”  This is where domain name giveaways come in handy.

  • See what Kat has been doing right here at The WebMaster Blog. It’s an excellent idea that you can adapt to your own sites.
  • Before you start giving domain names away to commenters, decide whether you’ll tolerate lame messages like “great post” or not. Make your comment policy clear and easily accessible.
  • If your blog or site displays a list of top commenters (many WordPress blogs do), you can choose to reward only those who make it into said list. Remind them that your comment policy still applies, no matter how many comments they post.

Readers’ attention

Are you a fiction writer, poet or artist looking for more feedback? Or do you have a special article you’d love to get more comments on? Yes, you guessed it: you can use free domain names to “bribe” your readers into paying attention to your pieces.

  • Do not aim at quantity. If you want true, valuable feedback, remember that quality always comes first.
  • Start a review contest. Explain exactly what reviewers should write about. For instance, if you want them to read your novel, have them analyse plot, character development and dialogues. The authors of the best reviews will get free domain names as prizes.
  • Decide whether you want both positive and negative feedback or only the former (or maybe only the latter, if you’re brave enough). In case negative reviews are allowed, make sure you’ll have the strength to recognise a  devastating comment as the best of all if it really is.
  • Some people have the ability to write convincing reviews on things they’ve just skimmed (yes, it is possible, believe it or not). To make sure your piece has been thoroughly read by those who claim to have done so, you can send them one or two very specific questions by email. Don’t make the questions public, otherwise someone could share the answers with people who may never read what you wrote.

And this is the end … of the “giving free domain names” series, not of The WebMaster Blog! Keep on checking back for more site promotion tips and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog now.

Karen Zara is a full-time writer and blogger. You can read more of her articles at Abaminds Entrepreneurs, a blog for business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurship enthusiasts.

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Final Domain Winners!

Dec. 16  AJ

Dec. 17 No Winner

Dec. 18  Mr. I

Dec. 19 No Winner

Dec.20 No Winner

Dec. 21 No winner

Dec. 22Twilla

Dec. 23 No winner

Dec. 24 No winner

Dec. 25  Grand Prize Winner! Escofiled

Thanks to everyone that commented.  Winners, check your email!

kat-sig

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New Forum

Yikes! The new theme doesn’t like the forum. I hope to have it fixed soon.

I have just found this new plugin that ads a forum to Word Press. It would be great if you could check it out and let me know what you think. It is certainly different than the Simple Machines Forums, VBulletin, or any others that you might be familar with.

Click here to visit the forum.

It is a work in progress, and I am just checking it out right now. So I welcome all your comments, critiques, and criticisms.

To register for the forum, you just need to register with the blog. Scroll down the page until you find the meta section in the sidebar. That is where you will find the link to register, both to this blog, and to the forum.

Thanks!

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 3

Today you’ll see that offering domain names for free is a good way to get more backlinks for your sites and/or make people subscribe to your content.

Link building

Since building links is a major concern for many webmasters nowadays, I chose to start with this topic. Here’s how you can use domain giveaways for link building purposes:

  • Create a contest (e. g., “write a blog post about my site”). Domain names will be the prizes.
  • Have contestants link to your site or blog. Make sure they use your desired anchor text. If I were you, I’d offer various anchor text options and let each contestant pick their favourite one.
  • It may be a good idea to limit participation to webmasters who own sites related to your niche.
  • If your contest is a one-shot event, those who don’t get any prizes may simply remove your links or add a no-follow tag to them afterwards. To avoid this, you could run periodic contests, so contestants feel encouraged to keep your links on their sites for longer.

Subscribers and members

Do you want to get more subscribers to your newsletter or RSS feed? Or more members for your forums and membership sites? Domain giveaways can help you a lot:

  • Offer free domain names to your most active forum members. Make it clear that only those who write quality posts will be awarded. Unless you really don’t mind having lots of “me too” messages on your boards.
  • Ask your blog readers to subscribe to your RSS feed by email. Then compile a subscriber email list and run a draw. The owner of the drawn address will be given a free domain.
  • The idea above also applies to newsletters. To ensure that your subscribers will actually open and read your emails, you could have them answer questions about each issue. Only those who sent you correct answers would be entered in your free domain draw.

These tips are enough to keep you busy until I publish the final post in this series. It will show you how free domain name offers can be used to generate more visitor activity on your site. Remember, you won’t miss my future suggestions if you subscribe to The WebMaster Blog.

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Free Domain Names: Give Them to Your Visitors and Reap the Rewards – Part 2

I’m finally back and resuming this series on domain name giveaways. As promised in the first part, today I’m going to offer some suggestions regarding niches to which this tactic would be appropriate.

Audiences interested in domain give aways

If you own a blog, website or forum in any of the niches below, you’re guaranteed to catch your visitors’ attention whenever you offer free domains:

  • General Internet marketing
  • Make money online
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Article marketing
  • Ebook writing and selling
  • Blogging
  • SEO and SEM
  • Web hosting
  • Domains (duh!)
  • Webmaster tips and resources

This should go without saying, but just in case you’re wondering, the reason why domain name giveaways are successful in such niches is the fact that their typical audience already knows the value of a good domain name. So you won’t have to educate anyone. You won’t have to explain why your visitors should care for your offer.

Audiences that may or may not be interested in free domain names

Here are niches whose typical audience isn’t always aware of the importance of domains:

  • Small business
  • Work-at-Home Moms/Dads
  • Anime/Manga

If your site belongs to any of these categories, should you offer free domain names to your visitors? It depends on how educated they are. For instance, some small business owners don’t even realise the importance of a website for their companies. Others are partially or fully engaged in online marketing practices such as SEO and social media. If your typical visitors fall into the latter group, your domain giveaway will likely be successful. So the first step you must take is knowing your audience, really.

Subscribe to The WebMaster Blog so you don’t miss the next post in this series. It will contain some concrete examples of benefits you can obtain when you distribute free domain names.

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Finding Content for Your Blog

Knowing that I really needed to get a post up that had nothing to do with my December giveaway, and actually had something to do with blogging, I went searching eZine Articles for something to put up here fast. When you are rushed for time it is an appealing idea, and I have to admit I have done it more than once. It is not hard to tell on my blogs, I follow the rules and leave all the links. Usually it is a simple task. Select an article, cut, paste, done.

It didn’t work that way today. First off, most of the articles on blogging were “How To Get Rich Blogging” articles. I don’t believe many of the authors have actually gotten rich from blogging, so I am not all that interested in whatever affiliate program they are pushing. The rest of the articles were just rehashes of the same old stuff. Anyone who has been blogging for more than a week probably knows to find a niche, write great content, and write often. If they have been blogging for a month they probably have guessed that SEO is important, (even if they don’t know what that is, or if like me, they would rather write for readers than search engines!), pictures make your posts pop (apparently pictures of scantily clad women are best, even if your post is about SEO). Then there is always the self hosted vs free hosting discussion. Go ahead and bash whatever you are not doing.

So, because I have no time, the best thing to do is waste time, I go blog hopping. Entrecard is good for this. I’ll just do a little widget surfing and maybe some blog out there will give me inspiration and help me to write the post that Diggers will Digg, Stumblers will Stumble, and the almighty Google will put in the #1 position of every search. In addition the readers of this remarkable post will click every sponsored link and buy every affiliate product, making me an overnight millionaire.

I know my standards were high and I was asking the impossible. But it is hard to be inspired by a post on “I’m sorry I haven’t been posting”. Or the, “I need original content so I will scrap this post and run it through Google translator a couple times and the resulting gibberish is sure to bring tons of readers and instant wealth” posts. And the inevitable “make money online” posts.

Of course, my favorite posts are the ones on mesotheliomia. Because when someone clicks on an ad for mesotheliomia it pays really well so even if my blog has nothing to do with mesotheliomia I will make sure that I use the word mesotheliomia lots, because using high paying keywords, like mesotheliomia, are the best way to instant riches. (Of course it might help if I knew how to spell mesotheliomia.)

So, my poor readers, still believing that any post is better than no post, I have subjected you to over 500 words of pretty useless ranting. But I know that I read somewhere that between 525 and 550 word posts are the best for SEO, keywords and instant riches, so I’ll just leave it at that!

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More Winners!

Dec. 9   BobbyT, the only commentator who hadn’t already won!

Dec. 10  No comments

Dec. 11 No comments

Dec.12 Bloggernoob

Dec.13  Only one comment, from someone who already won!

Dec.14  No comments

Dec.15 Escarlata

I haven’t been getting very many comments lately. That is bad for me, but good for you!  Your chances are pretty good to win a domain!  I’ll be contacting the winners by email to tell them how to claim their domain!

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I Feel The Need For Speed

The number one complaint that I hear about web pages is that they load too slow!  In fact, people have said that to me about this page.  (I’m working on that!)  But how do you know if your site is a turtle when it comes to loading.  You can’t always tell by your own experience.  Your website or blog is probably cached on your computer, making it load faster.  You may have a faster internet connection than most.

I have found  a useful tool that can tell you how fast your pages load, and even offers suggestions on how to speed up the load times.  Using the tool I have found that there is lots of room for improvement on The WebMaster Blog!

Run your site through  Web Page Analyzer and see how fast it loads.  Leave a comment here, and maybe the fastest blog will be the next domain winner!  We will use the speed your blog loads at 56K.  The home page of this blog loaded at 102.11 seconds. I am not too happy about that, but I will use the suggestions from Web Page Analyzer and see if I can improve that!

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Time For More Giveaways! Dec. 6, 7 & 8

It is time for me to catch up on my giveaways! The winners will be able to pick either a domain or a banner ad on TheWebmaster Blog!

The winners are:
Dec. 6 Hudpost
Dec. 7 Health Info
Dec. 8 Man In The Moon

Watch your email for details on how to claim your prize!

I have lots more domains to give away so keep commenting!