That question actually sparked this post, because although that one plugin does a fantastic job it takes more then 1 to tango! Today I will be listing some basic spam prevention techniques for comment spam!

The Plugins

SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam This is the plugin that puts the nice Captcha code on my comment section that MUST be filled out in order for a comment to get into my system. It works great and has eliminated about 90% of spam comments that I was getting! I highly recommend it! You can download the SI Captcha Anti-Spam plugin free of use!

Good Ol Akismet This is the old standard for WordPress blogs but it works wonders, already blocked over 4,000 spam comments for me! You can read all about it and get install instructions from this website.

AVH First Defense Against Spam Plugin This was an extra little plugin I installed just because it has proven to work for me and some friends since it came out. This plugin basically checks ips of spammers from the past and blocks them from commenting all on the fly. Worth installing! Checkout the download site and install it right away!

As with almost all the wordpress plugins out there, you can now install plugins on the fly from your wordpress admin panel. Read this post here that I wrote for a basic overview on doing that! Its under the “New Comment Protection (& Cleaned up Spam)” section of that post.

I will end this post with a video!

I hope you enjoyed learning how to prevent spam from getting onto your blog. Return the favor by signing up to my newsletter and be sure to tell your friends as well!

These spam comments can reach into the thousands and its time consuming to go through them all and delete by hand.

So today I am going to show you one quick simple method to delete all the comments currently in your pending section of wordpress comments!

Before I did this my database was upwards of 100mb which is very hard to keep track of if I ever need to move servers or anything like that. A large % of that mb was because of all these spam comments I had waiting in the moderation que.

Its vital for me to get rid of these so my database will work quicker, backup easier and overall be more efficient!

Step by step how to do it!

1. Open up your cpanel.

2. Open up MYSQL section.

3. Open PHPMyAdmin

3. Find your database and back it up. Here is a video tutorial on how to backup your database through PHPMYADMIN.  I will assume you can figure it out by following this tutorial but if you can’t just comment below or email me for further help and directions.

Video Tutorial – Backing Up Your Database

4. Now that your database is backed up, return to the main PHPMyAdmin page and open up your database.

5. From here select the wp_comments table.

6. Once in the table click the SQL button at the top of the screen.

7. You will be presented with a box and a “Go” button in the bottom right. Inside this box enter the code below that is green. Make sure to enter it into your SQL box exactly as shown so nothing gets messed up.

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved = 0

8. Make sure to enter it exactly as its shown above, this will select and delete all the pending comments in your que. Simply click the “Go” button to make it happen, after you do it will return results saying xxx number of comments deleted. (SUCCESS).

All you have left to do now is log into your wp-admin panel and see how clean and pretty it looks! My suggestion is to install some GOOD comment blocking plugins so you won’t have this problem again!

If you found this useful return the favor by commenting below and by joining my newsletter like tons of others. Enjoy your spam free day!

It has tons of features “To Many To Cover In One Post” so here are just a few of the key ones…

• 2.6.2 compatible
• widget-ready
• xhtml and css valid
• Perfect Cross Browser Compatibility In IE6, IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3 and Opera 9.
• Clean, Organized & Tagged Code For Easy Modification and Script Integration (If Desired).
• Fully Compatible & Built Around WordPress 2.5.1
• Security Enhancements – Special Lengths Taken To Ensure Protection Against Hacking Attempts.

Here is a screenshot of this awesome theme in action:

When I was first offered to plug this theme for Blog-Riffic I was a bit skeptical of whether or not the theme would be up-to par with what my readers expect. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it not only was but exceeds anything I thought was possible in a FREE WordPress Magazine Theme!

On that note you all can check out the demo and download it right here!

Enjoy!

Theme name : Golden Compasville

Features:
- Unique Design
- xHTML / CSS Valid
- Easy installation
- Ready to use
- Clean code
- Widget and adsense ready
- Compatible with WordPress Version 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3 and 2.5

Screenshot ( Low Resolution ):

Live Demo | Download Link

WordPress Sitewide Top Bar

If you hadn’t noticed ( you probably did ) I now have a site-wide Top Bar that allows me to list a link or two in. I can sell these or get my visitors attention to the new most important things.

I tried downloading various plug-ins to do this for me, but I decided to code one myself as they all had to have their link on it to use it ( how low pro ) but now things are looking good and work great.

Anyways, I thought I would freely share my code with you all so that you can have this on your own blog to, its easy html and css to implement so lets get started!

Alright, well first things first. Lets load up our header.php file and place the following code right after the tag in header.php. This is the actual link text and codes so be sure to change it to whatever you believe is most important on your blog.

<!– InfectedByBugs Top Code –>
<div class=”across-the-top”>
 <a class=”alink2″ href=”http://www.infectedbybugs.com/2008/03/04/make-an-easy-2500/”>Win$25.00, Just Subscriber To Our Feed!</a> – <a class=”alink2″ href=”mailto:support@infectedbybugs.com”>Advertise Here $25.00/mo</a></div>
 <!– InfectedByBugs Top Code –>

After that is placed you need to define the css within your css file called style.css. On the style.css file place this as the very top or very bottom for easy access to change colors and such later on.

/* *******************************
InfectedByBugs Top Bar CSS, feel free to change the colors!
* ****************************** */
.across-the-top { color: #fff; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; background-color: #6b6b6b; background-position: 0 top; text-align: center; width: 100%; height: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border-bottom: 2px solid #343434; }
.alink2 { color: #fff; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; }

/* *******************************
End InfectedByBugs Top Bar CSS
******************************* */

If you find this WP plugin helpful show your love by linking back to us somewhere on your blog! Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on this simple plugin as well!

This is a excellent question that I have seen raised before but I have never seen a really good response or blog post created about it and I think its about time we clear the air and get into the meat of it to know why we should or shouldn’t have our own domain named blog.

So without further adue lets get started and learn to ins and outs today!

To start off with it’s important to realize what you’re missing out on if you have a third-party blog over your own domain hosted blog. Here are a few things to keep in mind when making the right decision to switch to your own hosted blog!

The first point I would like to make is a simple one but it needs to be taken to heart, advertisements is what this blog is all about. Learning how to motenize your blog to make money is the bottom line, if you’re not on your own hosted blog you can’t do that as the third-party blogs don’t allow advertisements. But if you host your own blog with the WordPress Script you can easily add in any type of advertisement or any adsense, cost per click or in text advertising solution you want. You just need to know a bit of HTML and use the built-in widgets with WordPress to do this properly!

Secondly and the most important factor of having your own blog instead of a third party is the fact that the third-party blogs can be deleted if you disobey the TOS in any way!

They even have secret agents that scoured the internet looking for TOS offender blogs.

These people love to penalize blogs that disobey the TOS of the blog providers. I won’t go into detail about all the TOS details as you can read them on their sites in depth, however I do know one of the main points in their TOS is about selling advertisements which we already discussed above.

So that raises the question how do I get my own blog so I’m not on a third-party hosted blog like WordPress or Blogger? Also is having both an option and or is it beneficial to my websites and blogs?

To get your own blog all you need do download WordPress off of www.wordpress.com

If you’re using cpanel through your web host then you can use the fantastico panel to install WordPress for you. But if you’re not using cpanel then installing WordPress is still very simple and takes about two to five minutes depending on the speed of your Internet connection. The install instructions that WordPress comes with are very detailed and easy to follow, anybody with basic understanding of the Internet should have no problems installing. If you do feel free to drop me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to help you out!

As to having both a third-party and a own blog… Yes it has its advantages if you have some time on your hands, for instance you could put unique posts in the third-party blog that links to your owned blog which gives you a link power from the third-party blog.

However it’s only one link although completely relative in my opinion not worth the time and effort that you’ll need to put into a third-party blog by creating unique articles on a regular basis, article should be posted frequently to keep that link juice flowing.

Hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you’ll also let us know what you think about third-party blogs in the comments section below!

 [tags]wordpress blog, blogger, best blog, blogging software[/tags]

5 Must Have WordPress Plugins

WordPress plugins are the easiest way to improve your blog without needing any programming knowledge whatsoever. I’ve outlined 5 must have plugins for your blog below:

iDunzo Archives Plugin – iDunzo have come up with this fantastic free plugin that allows you to manage a clean and concise archives page. Readers can simply expand each month (or all months) to see the relevant posts for that time period. This saves scrolling through endless months of posts, and visitors will be able to find what they’re looking for more quickly.

WP Forum – This plugin is outstanding, and the first that I’d seen offering a full forum service for WordPress blogs. Sign up and administration can be easily handled through your existing WordPress account. The latest version even offers email notifications to topic replies!

WP Calendar – Yet another useful plugin to help with your organization. It can also let your visitors know what you’re up to, or alternatively be set to private. Very easy to use, and completely editable via the WordPress admin interface.

Akismet Anti-Spam Plugin – The Holy Grail of anti-spam plugins, Akismet must be doing something right having blocked 4,539,896,311 spams! The plugin was created by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, so you can trust the source.

WordPress Database Backup – We all know that WordPress isn’t security perfect, so do you really want to risk losing your valuable content to a hacker? WordPress Database Backup is a great tool for backing up your website daily and let you get on with blogging worry free.

I hope that these tools were helpful to you, and please feel free to list your own favorites in the comments to this post.

 [tags]wordpress, wordpress plugins, top wordpress plugins[/tags]

Its your chance to get a hold of an official InfectedByBugs.com WordPress theme! This is the first in many to come of free WP themes from the InfectedByBugs team!

Demo | Download

Check Out the latest free wordpress theme : Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace is a lightweight, super-optimized WordPress theme packed with features. It uses 3 column layout for maximum accessibility and small digital footprint for minimum bandwidth usage and loading times.

Demo | Download

Please do not remove the links from the footer of the theme.