Akismet is a plugin which protects your blog from spam. It’s apparently the best, and every book I read recommended it. Urgently. So I found and activated it right away.
Not that I have any spammy comments to worry about. Nobody even knows I’m here. At the moment, this blog is just me, talking to myself, in a big empty echoing space.
But the books say there are nasty spambots roaming the internet, ready to dump thousands of spammy comments on any unprotected blog they come across. So I figured, better safe than sorry, and I put up safeguards first thing.
There are a few steps to activating Akismet — for details, check your how-to book, web host, WordPress plugin directory or the Akismet home page. For personal websites (like our author websites) you can get Akismet for free, or choose to pay $0 to $120 for it. I chose to pay a small amount. I may be frugal, but I also try to be fair, and if the writers and developers of this plugin are providing a vital service, then I figure they deserve some payback. As writers, we know the value of intellectual property.
Follow-up, 10 months later:
I made my first post in late October. Akismet caught 37 (!) spam comments over the next 2 months, despite the fact that I did nothing, nada, zip to bring this website to the attention of search engines.
Since then, it’s caught 4 or 5 each month. And again, the website and blog were inactive much of that time, and totally unadvertised.
I did check my spam folder each day, and the flagged comments were indeed spam. Although some were cleverly disguised as compliments about my post — “I am glad to be one of many visitants on this great site (:, appreciate it for putting up..” Aw, shucks…
Bottom line — based on my experience, I definitely advise getting Akismet immediately.
I do think it’s good to check the spam folder daily, to make sure Akismet hasn’t intercepted any legitimate comments. It never has for me — but of course, I haven’t had any legitimate comments yet… When I do, I’ll report back whether false positives are a problem.