Nowadays Spams are not only an automated process anymore.These New world Spammers depends more than a machine,Yes they employ humans to spam your blog.
Mostly Low wage workers and students are recruited by these people to spread spam promoting their product and website.

Why spammers spam ?
Spammers spreads spams through various techniques like blog commenting,forum posting and even by Guest blogging.
Their ultimate target is your readers…Yes your own blog readers.
Their aim is to sell their products by leaving spam comments in your posts.Ultimately Its not you..Its your readers who fall prey to them.
So in order to maintain your authority you need to dedicate some time to fight spams.
Getting backlink is a another reason to target bloggers like you and me,Since some of the blogs still support dofollow links in comments.
How to fight back ?
It is simple,just follow these four steps and your blog will be immune to 99.99% of web spams.
Believe me it only takes 10 minutes.
First I am starting with steps to fight spam comments
Lets fight back spam comments
Akismet is the best(ever) plugin available to fight spam comments.Infact my first action after installing my blog is to configure Akismet WordPress plugin which comes preinstalled with WordPress installation.
I am damn sure that,after installing Akismet your blog will be safe from 90% of the spam comments.
below you can see the Akismet stats for Techiestuffs blog.

Read this is a detailed Guide to configure Akismet plugin.
Okay..90% of spams are gone now but How to tackle the remaining 10% ?
You need to add additional layer of security,That is done by the plugin called GASP(Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin).
GASP adds a checkbox below the comment box and user is required to confirm it before leaving comment.In some rare cases the spam bots might be able to bypass the check but in such case this plugin provides a option to generate new id for checkbox.
GASP stops almost 99% of the automated comment spams but it will only work on javascript enabled browsers(Enabled by default in most modern browsers)

GASP Plugin adds a checkbox
The last step is to Install a Plugin called Bad Behavior.This is an optional step,go for it if you receive spam even after implementing previous two steps.
This plugin will block spam ip address from accessing your contents.It also generate the stats about number of blocked attempts by spammers.

Lets fight back spam registrations
Spam user registrations are much annoying and also difficult to cleanup than spam comments.First step is to Switch it off user registration if you are not running membership based blog.
To reduce spam registration you need to install a plugin called SABRE.
SABRE is a acronym for Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine,by this plugin you can add Captcha to WordPress registration form.It also provides various other features like registration through Invitation,Banning users from Infected IP’s etc.
Below you can checkout the blocked user registrations for Techiestuffs blog.
Check the site security
It is very essential to check your site security periodically in order to avoid hacker attacks.There are some premium plugins available for this task but I prefer Free plugins such as WP Security Scan.
Just activate the Plugin and initiate a security checkup.By doing so you will get a report mentioning the area where your website is weak interms of security.
Just Google about the problem reported in above step.You can also comment below this post about your problem to get solutions from our readers.
Once you complete this step, just disable the Plugin.
Update your blog regularly
Finally the most important step.
Update the WordPress and other plugins regularly,since latest update comes with security enhancements and additional features.
It is also recommended to uninstall the old plugins and Themes that you are not using anymore.This step will also account for a increase in your blog speed.
Are you ready to take these actions ?
Already you might have been implemented some of the above steps but make sure that you complete other steps too to build a spam free blog.If you are facing any difficulties or If you have something to share with us,Feel free to Use the comment box below.
If you found this post useful Please use social buttons below to share this content.You can also subscribe our Newsletter to stay updated with our posts.
They way you designed the image for this post is awesome. Almost many of your images contain the same WordPress logo! Do you like the logo so much? BTW nice article to fight back spam.
Vijesh recently posted…Interview of Narender Chopra: Guy who made a difference in the blogosphere with his techno updates
Thanks Vijesh.
Yes I love this logo very much,this wordpress logo is edited from pumpkin WordPress art by Eric martin – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericmmartin/sets/72157608499192623/
Thanks for introducing SABRE. I need a plugin to avoid spam registering on my blog. This plugin looks nice. I’ll try it.
By the way, do you have any suggestion for “human spamming” comments? I keep receiving this kind of comments and have to delete them manually.
Ngo Khong recently posted…Video Booth – Quay video qua webcam
Hi Ngo
You can easily pick out genuine commentators by checking their Gravatar.Mostly Geneuine commentators use Gravatar but do it at your own risk.
Here is article by my friend Vijesh to identify human spammers – http://www.blogingrace.com/how-to-identify-spam-comments/
Vivek R recently posted…10 Rocking WordPress Plugins that you might have missed
Vivek,
I was intrigued by your starting when you mentioned about spamming by hiring low wage workers to spam wordpress blogs.
However, you didn’t cover how to fight that spamming technique in detail. Perhaps that might be a topic by itself. I think I will be interested in learning what is your strategy to fight that.
Thanks for these plugin recommendations. I am sure a lot of people will benefit from these.
Regards,
Kumar
Kumar Gauraw recently posted…Schools Kill Creativity – TED Talk By Sir Ken Robinson
Yep..I didn’t cover much about how spams are generated but I gave detailed steps to reduce spams on WordPress blog.Hope I will post some detailed guide to fightback spams in upcoming days.
Thanks for dropping by kumar.
Vivek R recently posted…Adding simple codes to .htaccess can prevent your WordPress blog from hackers
Akismet is the best for its amazing security protection. Also others are good that you have shared here. I appreciate this great post.
Dipankar Mondal recently posted…Best Android Apps For Bloggers!
Yep..Akismet was one of my favorite plugin but now it is not,Since it filtering out some genuine comments also.For instance one of the most famous blogger Mrs.Ileane (Basicblogtips.com) comment has been filtered as spam comment.So I took a decision to use onl GASP.
Vivek R recently posted…How to set Maximum number of Post Revisions without using a Plugin
Building a spam free site is really difficult.
GASP is my favourite tool fighting it.
Now GASP is my favorite too..After installing it I hardly get spam comments.
Hi Vivek.
Well put man!
And thanks for sharing about SABRE. I was really fed up with all those spam registrations. I was even to disable registrations and planning to accept guest posting in some other way.
You really made it informative and simple enough.
Hi zion..Thanks for checking out my blog.
Agreed. Akismat is also working for me. Its a must have plugin
Mubashir recently posted…Best SEO Rules for Single Post and Single Page Optimization
When it comes to spam , I only recommend Akismet , it is the number one anti spam plugin. WordPress even include it with the package.
Beside Akismet using CAPTCHA is little boring and people find it hard to comment on your site. So I would not recommend anybody to use captcha . For registration it is good. But when it comes on comments section Captcha is not a wise choice.
Thanks Vivek R for sharing this beautiful Information.
ashish recently posted…Top 10 iOS Apps You Don’t Want to Miss
Currently I dont use Akismet since it is blocking many legitimate comments.GASP plugin is really doing fine job now,Spam comments almost zero now.
i have used this plugin in my website http://www.finetechcode.com , but i am facing the same problem still right now.i have also installed Akismet api key in addition to it.Is there any confliction in them.please help me
vikas saini recently posted…Social Networking Site Project for College Students
Which Plugin you are referring Vikas ?
Vivek R recently posted…Google Plus Comments for WordPress and many more #FreeFriday
very nice blog .this plugin really help me detect and remove spam.Thanks again
vikas saini recently posted…Social Networking Site Project for College Students