Blog views and other obsessions – keep your blog secure!

~ Book Club Mom

Please forgive me! I promised I would not talk about my spam comments any more, but I have a few tips that might help other bloggers who are struggling with this same problem. A special shout-out to Hugh’s Views & News for offering moral support and tips. He’s an expert blogger and very willing to help so be sure to pay him a visit!

First of all, to clarify, these comments never make it into my comments. That would be a disaster! They go right to spam, but I can barely keep up with deleting my spam folder. Why do I bother? I let it go for a while, but I’m uncomfortable with all those questionable sites and links connected in any way to my blog. I just finished deleting 40,000 comments. It took me a week. I got 1200 more overnight so there was more work for me this morning!

Here are some tips that can help keep your blog secure:

  • First, reach out to WordPress. I got a response within an hour. The advice was pretty general. They didn’t address why I was getting so many spam comments, just steps to block spam. But it’s an open conversation, so I’ll continue to ask questions.
  • Change your password. Always good advice for all we do.
  • Change your settings so that you have to approve all comments. This could help my problem, but I’ll have to wait and see.
  • Activate Two-Step Authentication. This will give you an extra layer of security. You probably already do that with your online bank accounts. You can read how to do that here.

Some bloggers close comments after a certain period of time or don’t allow comments at all. I’ll never do that. I mean, comments are the heart of the blogging community!

So I hope these tips are helpful to you. Maybe you think these steps aren’t necessary because it’s just your personal blog, but I’m not going to take any chances.

Thanks for visiting – come back soon!

53 thoughts on “Blog views and other obsessions – keep your blog secure!”

    1. Hi Jacqui – yes, very slow – I deleted them while I was making dinner – so I didn’t have to stare at the screen while WP took its time. Thanks for stopping by. Good luck with your spam!

  2. Thanks so much for the mention, Barbara.

    As I mentioned in my post, rather than close comments and admit defeat to all the spam a post gets, bloggers can always reschedule the post to publish again. When republishing, none of the existing comments or likes are lost, but because a new URL address is created, it fools the spambots attacking the post.

    Well done on getting rid of that spam that was piling up on your blog, too.

    Thanks for the tips on keeping our blogs secure. I use all of them.

      1. Don’t give in to the spam and allow it to win by closing off comments, Barbara. While posts remain live on the internet, search engines can send new visitors to them. Can you imagine finding that you can’t engage on a post with the author because comments have closed? I wouldn’t come back if I found the author of the post didn’t want to engage.

      2. I know what you mean, Hugh. I’m okay if sometimes blogs close comments. There’s often a good reason, such as promoting another blogger and wanting the comments to go there instead. But I’m disappointed if I want to leave a comment and I can’t. Situation seems to be improving after the changes I’ve made, but I won’t know for sure until later. Thanks, Hugh!

  3. As you know of late I’ve had my issues with spammers and photo thefts, but I keep on blogging in spite of them. I change my password often. WP gave me the bum’s rush when I reached out to them, so that suggestion seems like the luck of the Happiness Engineer draw. I don’t approve all comments individually, only ones from new-to-me people. As for Two-Step Authentication, maybe it helps, maybe it’s a shame. Can’t decide.

    1. I made all these changes – I’m sorry WP didn’t help you – I’ll see if they have a more substantial tip than the basic ones. I wonder if they thought the spam was going into my regular comments…Ah well, like you I will keep on blogging 🙂 Thanks for reading and commenting, Ally.

  4. Yeah, closing comment defeats the purpose of blogging. I’m happy to say I’ve had zero issues since leaving WP. I hope you get things straightened out, Barbara.

    1. Hi Rosaliene – oh I like that term “flood level” – I’m definitely at that stage, although I think the waters may be receeding a bit. Thanks for reading and commenting!

  8. I’m sorry for your problem, Barbara. Yes, I would change your password. Also, go to My Sites and make sure no one has somehow launched another blog on you.

  11. Hi – good tips here – and like your hospitality with not wanting to close comments – but if you have them close after 60 days it likely wouldn’t feel that bad for a reader who wants to chime in (IMO)- I do think folks who close comments after a week are missing out on interaction – and it feels like s slammed door!
    –
    But if I see a post with closed comments and the post is older – I consider that and if I really want to comment on it – I will mention it in a newer post (if that makes sense)
    –
    So you might want to consider having comments close after 30 or 60 days or else is acts like this open port for spam.
    One more little thing that helped me
    –
    I realized certain posts had the spam coming in and so I actually Unpublished two of them-
    Whew – that helped –
    So not sure if you Want to do this – but next time try and see if a handful of posts are the main culprits.
    Then you could tweak those posts ?
    😉

    1. Hi Yvette – that’s a good option. If things get really rough, I may do that, although because my posts are book reviews, I’d like the comments to always be open. Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

    1. Hi Bernadette – yes Askimet keeps them going to my regular comments, but the spam still sits in a separate section. A nuisance, but there are so many bots out there, it’s better to give them a fight! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

  14. Hi. I’ve just blogged about the same thing and Geoff Le Pard pointed me in your direction. I don’t get quite as high a quantity but I’m getting between 30 and 50 a day which still seems pretty excessive (when it used to only be a handful). I’ll try some of the steps mentioned. Thanks KL ❤

    1. Hi KL, thanks for stopping by and commenting here. I’ve made all the changes I’ve mentioned and the situation seems to be improving, but it could just be a lull. Thanks for the follow, too!

  15. Like others have commented, I’ve never given much thought to the spam folder on my blog. I know it’s there, but I didn’t think there was a reason to actually look at it. Hmmm…. now I have something new to worry about!

  16. I do have closed comments after about six or 12 months, I’m not sure what I set up originally. Otherwise, I have to approve a comment the first time someone makes one, but not after that. But I do have the right to delete any comment if I needed to. I haven’t found the word press help center to be very helpful lately, but so far, my spam comments haven’t been too bad.

    1. Hi Ann – I’m glad you don’t have the same problem. Since I’ve made these changes, my spam is now under control. The spammers are always looking for an “in” but we have to close the door!

  18. Hi Barbara, you do get an extraordinarily high number of spam comments. I wonder why. I checked the other day and I had about 50. Not to bad at all. I have to approve first time commenters. After that they are automatically approved, but I generally read all of them so I would pick up anything untoward.

    1. Hi Robbie – things are better now that I’ve changed my password and other settings. Fingers crossed! Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

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