Anyone who knows me, knows I love WordPress, especially if you can self-host your blog. It’s a simple yet powerful blogging platform. You can usually find a plugin to do whatever you need. One word of caution: don’t get too carried away with fun plugins, or your blog’s load time will slow.
One of the first things I activate on a new blog is the spam control. Akismet is a wonderful spam catcher. I’ve never had spam slip through while this is running. Take a minute to read 5 things every blogger should know about spam at the bottom of their How it works page – you might be surprised. Akismet ranges from free for personal use with the option to support them up to reasonable prices for businesses.
As much as I love Akismet, I found a couple of non-spam comments sent to the spam folder. Not many, but who wants to wade through spam to find the trapped good ones? Not me. Enter Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam plugin. I truly dislike the text spam control where you need a code breaker to figure it out. This plugin is easy for your visitors to read. Plus, you select the word list for it. Who wouldn’t smile when typing giggles into the spam control box? This plugin is also free, but you can give a small donation to support it. The button is on his sidebar at the bottom.
With both of these plugins, I rarely see spam pop up now. In fact, the ones I have seen are spam posts by people rather than spambots, but Akismet flagged those. No real comments have been snagged so far.
One note on comment moderation: my blog is set to only moderate the first comment. Once a person has an approved comment, their comment shows immediately. I don’t need to moderate all the posts thanks to my two spam plugins.
I have received no compensation for this post. I’m simply sharing two wordpress plugins I love, and recommend.
This book is $.99. It focus’ in on what God’s plan for your writing might be. 
This book is a collection of essays from various authors. I’m looking forward to gleaning from their collective wisdom, and it’s free as of this posting. 
Another free book as of this posting. It looks like a neat little resource for story development. 
This book has no reviews, but it’s free, and looks interesting. Seems to be a workshop in a book type format. 
This looks like a real quick read about details in your novel. It’s free as of now, and might have some gems in it. 
Now this book is a little pricier, but still cheaper then a the print version. It’s $4.99, but has great reviews, and I know enough about the author to believe this will be a great addition to my library. I’m waiting to buy the paperback version.
I’m currently taking an online course by Edie Melson which has been really good. I look forward to reading her book, too. I imagine the information will be worth more than the $.99 it costs.
