If you run a WordPress blog, you probably use Akismet to handle and manage comments left by readers. Akismet is the default plug-in and works very well.

Or does it?

While Akismet does an excellent job in weeding out the spam comments from the legitimate ones, it does have its flaws.

Akismet is Flawed

The problem with Akismet is that it allows blog owners to specify which comments are legitimate and which are spam. This is completely opinion based and differs for each blog owner. Because of this, blog owners could inadvertently mark legitimate comments as spam. Sometimes this happens by accident, and other times they truly think the comment is spam, even if it isn’t. Obviously, one’s opinion can differ from another’s.

Once a comment gets marked as spam, any new comments that reader makes will automatically get marked as such across all blogs that use Akismet to manage comments. This is done through tracking the IP address and email address.

The system is obviously flawed. Akismet allows users to request that they be white-listed again, but it’s no guarantee that will happen.

There are other problems I could get into, such as privacy issues, but I’ll leave that one alone. Here are my two gripes I have with Akismet and why I have found a better alternative to manage comments on this blog.

1. Marking Legitimate Comments As Spam

Most likely you’ve scoured the spam folder, looking for legitimate comments to un-mark as spam. I used to spend a lot of my time doing this, as legitimate comments would get filtered out and be marked as spam, even though they weren’t.

Not only is this annoying, but it wastes so much time – time I don’t have.

2. Not Allowing Legitimate Comments At All

This was the last straw for me. It’s one thing to prevent spam comments from getting through, but when legitimate comments from readers are being blocked entirely, it’s time to make a change. A blog isn’t a blog unless readers are able to comment on posts, and I wasn’t about to ignore this problem. I needed to make a change, FAST!

I don’t know how long this was going on for, but Ana from Traffic Generation Cafe made me aware that her comments weren’t getting through. It was apparent that Akismet was blocking her comments altogether. She advised me that I find an alternative comment management plug-in to handle comments, otherwise I could be losing out on other legitimate comments, and ultimately readers. Thanks, Ana!

So that’s exactly what I did.

Akismet Alternatives

There are quite a few alternatives to manage blog comments. Some paid, some free. If you’re like me, I’m a huge fan of free stuff. Let’s take a look at 5 of them.

5 Free Anti-Spam WordPress Plug-Ins

1. Bad Behavior – Bad Behavior is a PHP-based solution for blocking link spam and the robots which deliver it.

2. Sblam! – Stand-alone PHP script or WordPress plug-in, whichever you choose.

3. AntiSpamBee – Protects your blog from spam by replacing the comment field.

4. Defensio – Defensio is an advanced spam filtering web service that learns and adapts to your behaviors and those of your users.

5. G.A.S.P – This plugin will add a client side generated checkbox to your comment form asking users to confirm that they are not a spammer. It is a lot less trouble to click a box than it is to enter a captcha and because the box is genereated via client side javascript that bots cannot see, it should stop 99% of all automated spam bots.

My Anti-Spam Plug-In Recommendation

I am currently running G.A.S.P. on this blog, and I absolutely love it. If I had to recommend a plug-in to manage blog comments, it would be G.A.S.P. I also use a plug-in called Simple TB Validation. Simple TB Validation performs a simple but very effective test on all incoming trackbacks in order to stop trackback spam.

With both of these plug-ins combined, I get very little comment spam. I still get a small percentage that I just delete, but I don’t have to go sifting through the spam folder anymore. It has saved me a ton of time, and I know it will help you manage comments more effectively.

The best part is, you won’t be turning away readers due to them not being able to comment on your blog. I urge you, consider deleting Akismet and finding an alternative. You and your readers will benefit greatly.

What Do You Use?

What are you using to manage blog comments and combat spam? Let us know in the comments below. And while you’re there, see G.A.S.P. in action by checking the little box to confirm you’re not a spammer.

I follow quite a few blogs, and I like to comment on posts I find interesting. What irritates me, though, is that some blog owners don’t utilize any sort of “threading” within comments. No “@” replies utilized, either. This can be very annoying.

Not sure what I mean? Here’s an example:

Notice my reply is indented in and is contained within the original comment. This is considered a threaded comment, and any new replies act the same way, getting indented even further in. In this way, the replies are obvious and aren’t mistaken with new comments that aren’t a reply to a particular comment.

Also notice that my reply begins with “@author” and then my reply follows. This lets the commenter know that there is a new comment specifically in response to them. They also receive an email letting them know (more on this later).

What I see a lot on other blogs are new comments that are meant as replies to other people, but the reply is separate from the original comment, and no “@” is utilized. This can make it really, really difficult to determine if the comment is in reply to you, another commenter, or if it’s even a reply at all or a brand new comment from another reader.

Since I make sure I receive emails with any new comments on the posts I comment on, bloggers who don’t take advantage of any type of threaded system make it frustrating for me, and most likely others, as we don’t know if our comment is getting any replies. What this leads to is me having to go to the actual post and check my comment and any new comments to be sure I’m not missing any replies. It wastes time.

There is a much better way to manage comments and replies, both as a blog owner and as a blog commenter.

WP Thread Comment Plug-In

What I recommend doing is installing a very handy plug-in called WP Thread Comment. This WordPress plug-in will save you and your readers a ton of time by eliminating any confusion when it comes to replies and new comments left on your blog posts.

No coding required. No changes need made to your current theme. Just download, install, activate and adjust the settings as you see fit. That’s it. Your blog is then equipped with threaded comments.

Here’s what this powerful little plug-in can do:

• Edit Reply Text & Cancel Reply Text – This is for both you and your readers (Shouldn’t need to be changed)
• Edit Comment HTML – Only change if looks funny.
• Edit Comment CSS – Same as above.
• Edit maximum nest level – This is the amount of replies aloud for one comment thread. I have mine set to 15, although I doubt I’ll ever see it go that high for one comment thread.
• Email notify the parent commenter when there is a reply – This feature is HUGE. I would highly recommend choosing the “default checked” option, so this way, commenters will receive an email when there comment has a new reply, even if they would forget to check the box, as it’s checked by default.
• Edit the subject of notification email – I wouldn’t change this unless you want to.
• Edit Notification Message – Only change if you want to.
• Reply in WordPress Admin Panel – This feature saves me a ton of time. You can reply to comments directly from your Admin panel and automatically have them “nested.”
• Add author in reply comment – I highly recommend enabling this option, so that your replies begin with “@author”.

By now you should see just how vital this plug-in can be for your WordPress blog. If you’re not yet utilizing threaded comments, you should really start. A better way to manage comments will only benefit your blog and your readers.

If you have been doing affiliate marketing as long as I have, you’ll know that your blog is undeniably one of the most effective marketing tools you can use to promote affiliate products and services.

You can find a fair share of reviews and product recommendations on my blog, so I’m speaking from experience. Blogs are powerful, and they shouldn’t be underestimated as a promotional tool.

However, to ensure that you continue to use your blog effectively, you should always be aware of nifty WordPress  plug-ins to make your life easier as an affiliate marketer.

One plug-in I believe to be an essential tool and should be part of every affiliate’s arsenal is MaxBlogPress’s Ninja Affiliate.

MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate

I’ll be honest. I’m lazy. Not all the time, but the less work I have to do the better. Since I promote a wide range of programs and products on my blog, it can be tedious to go through posts and link certain keywords with relevant blog posts or even affiliate links.

Then on top of that, I have to track clicks and stats on those links I just created. I don’t want to have to use several tools to manage my links. If I can do everything and automate the process with just one single tool, I’d be stupid not to use it, right?

Well, that’s what the Ninja Affiliate Plug-in for WordPress does. Ninja Affiliate was created by MaxBlogPress. While it was created with the affiliate marketer in mind, essentially any blogger can use this plug-in who want to create links that can be tracked, easily and effortlessly through their WordPress blog.

Keywords/Affiliate Link Management

The most prominent use for Ninja Affiliate is the link management tool and the ability to define specific keywords in your posts that you want turned into affiliate links, or any type of link you want for that matter.

Here are some key features:

• Convert any of your chosen keywords inside any posts on your blog to anchor text affiliate links, or plain old regular links as well. Can be very useful for linking certain phrases to existing blog posts as well.
• Assign multiple keywords to the same link or the same keyword to multiple links.
• Set a maximum number of affiliate links on each page or for the whole blog so as to avoid making your blog looking like a spam site. For instance, say I want the words “ninja affiliate” to link to my affiliate link. If I used that phrase quite a few times throughout my blog post, I don’t want each instance being linked. It would turn people off pretty quickly. Instead, I could choose to have just the first two or three instances of that phrase linked to my affiliate link.
• Easily insert your links using a drop-down box in the write post page.
• Categorize and manage your links in separate groups, specified by you.
• Cloak  affiliate links  to prevent any affiliate sabotage and loss of your hard-earned affiliate commissions.
• Use the affiliate link URL on any web page you want. You’re not restricted to only using the generated links on the blog using the plug-in. Even use the links in your emails.
• Choose to put “no-follow” on your affiliate links. In some cases you may want to do this, so they give you the option.

The cool thing about Ninja affiliate is that it uses a smart caching feature that doesn’t slow down your blog, which I’m sure you know is a big issue with other plug-ins, especially ones of a similar nature.

Both Affiliate Marketers and “Regular” Bloggers Need This Plug-In

I’m sure you can see the benefits that can be obtained, whether you’re an affiliate marketer or just a “regular” blogger that wants an easy way to manage links on your blog.

Ninja Affiliate, as I briefly mentioned before, also provides stats monitoring. Basically what this means is that you’ll be able to track the stats for all of your links, on all of your blogs that you have this plug-in installed on.

And with that said, you only need one license. You can install Ninja Affiliate on as many blogs as you own, without the need to purchase separate licenses. So, buy the plug-in once, and you’re done.

One More Reason Why You Need This Plug-In

Think about this for a minute…

If you have an established blog that has A LOT of content with hundreds or even thousands of posts, then the keyword/link management feature alone is going to expedite your affiliate marketing, link setup work quite a bit. You cannot possibly go to all these pages to manually insert your links, can you?

That would just be crazy! Like I said, I’m lazy. I would have to be nuts to even think about doing such a thing. I have better things to do with my time, and I’m sure you do, too.

Spending a few minutes to setup your list of keywords and target URL’s is all it takes to convert phrases into text links for your entire blog. I have no problem taking the time do that, when the rest of the process will be automated. Seems like a sure winner to me.

Get Your Copy of Ninja Affiliate Today

Here is the link to get this amazing plug-in:

MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate

Yes, that’s my affiliate link, currently being tracked by Bit.ly. Sadly, I just found out about this plug-in, so I haven’t had time to get it on my blogs yet. I assure you I will, as I can’t imagine going any longer without it as it will save me a ton of time!

If you click that link you will be taken to a page where you can see all the features of the plug-in, including a video showing you how it works, screenshots and examples, and an order button to buy it.

The price of the plug-in is a one-time payment of $97. They offer a 60-day money-back guarantee if you’re not completely satisfied with how it works. I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be, though!

I think $97 is a good deal, especially since you should be able to make more money from using Ninja Affiliate. Afterall, affiliate marketing is all about tracking your links and seeing what works and what doesn’t. This plug-in takes care of that for you along with turning key phrases into money making links.

I can barely hold my excitement in as I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time now. For about the last week or so, I’ve been playing around with a new blog theme, completely in the background and undetectable to anyone.

Thanks to the plug-in Theme Test Drive, I’ve been able to install a new theme and customize a good portion of it behind the scenes. You’ve all been seeing the current theme while this was going on.

Missing the old theme already? Here’s a farewell snapshot…

In my excitement to roll out the new theme, I forgot to get the snapshot before enabling the new theme, so I had to find a cached version with the old theme… LOL.

As you may notice with the new theme, there is still a lot that needs to be done, most notably the footer area. I’ll get to that in a minute.

This new theme is a customized version of the FlexSqueeze WordPress Theme, which is a completely customizable theme that allows you to create your own unique blog theme. I bought this theme on a recommendation from Dennis Edell, and I couldn’t be happier.

This theme had everything I wanted, and then some. The main thing I wanted was better navigation, and if you’ll notice, the page links are now below the header and to the left, rather than above the header and to the right.

The next thing I wanted was a feature area, which is right below the navigation. I can add whatever I want here, and I may be changing some of the offers over time. The newsletter opt-in will most likely be permanent.

You’ll also notice I now only have one sidebar (a big one at that) on the right-hand side. I also have two sub-sidebars below the main sidebar to add additional content.

Within the next week you’ll see changes being made to the sidebar. I already have plans for it, and once I get everything finalized and the way I want it, it shouldn’t change much after that. So, don’t be alarmed if you see random stuff disappear or appear over the course of this week.

At some point, I’ll be adding a custom header to replace the plain, boring one you currently see. It’s okay as-is, but I think I can make something that stands out a little better.

I’ll also be adding additional pages to the blog as well. Not sure when this will happen, but I know for sure that I’ll be adding a Comment Policy, Disclaimer of some kind, a Write For Us page, and a Resources page that contains tools that I use and recommend.

I Need Your Help

As with any new theme installation, etc., there is always the chance for some bugs/errors to occur. I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary yet, but if you come across anything, please make me aware of it so that I can get it fixed.

And lastly, as mentioned above, there is a feature section at the footer. I had played around with this, but I couldn’t come to a conclusion as to exactly what I wanted there.

So, I’m asking for you to recommend what I should do with that space.

What should I include in the footer area? Should I remove it altogether? Should I add the newsletter opt-in form there also?

I’m open to any and all suggestions.

I’m very excited about the new theme, and I think it looks more professional than the old one. I look forward to the new changes to come, as I hope you are too.

I appreciate and thank you for sticking with me and helping to make this blog what it is. I couldn’t have done it without all of you!