Late last week, I quietly released my new WordPress plugin, Comment Warning. Over the weekend, I added some extra functionality and it’s now reached the point where I’m ready to announce it to the world. So here goes.

Who Is Comment Warning For?

Comment Warning is aimed at DoFollow and ex-DoFollow blogs that have become a target for comment spammers, including those running the CommentLuv and KeywordLuv plugins.

Background

Although DoFollow and related plugins can reward your commentators (and help increase traffic), it also attracts comment spammers. These spammers often hunt for blogs through DoFollow lists or Google searches for terms related to the CommentLuv and KeywordLuv plugins.

The level of comment spam I get on this blog has become untolerable. I turned off DoFollow, but the spammers keep coming.

Comment Warning helps deal with this problem. In the 7 days that I’ve been running the plugin on this blog, 113 visitors have triggered the warning. The number of borderline spam comments have dropped.

Of course this means that the total number of comments I’m getting has dropped as well, but I’ve decided I only want genuine comments at this stage.

Compatibility

The plugin has been tested on WordPress 2.7 and 2.8.

I suspect that this plugin will NOT be compatible with the WP Super Cache plugin. I will be doing some testing in the near future and, if necessary, changing the plugin so it does work with WP Super Cache.

How Does It Work?

Comment Warning checks where visitors come from. If there are certain terms in the referring URL that may indicate that the visitor is a potential comment spammer, they will be presented with a warning message, outlining your comment policy. The message is displayed via a JavaScript modal ‘popup’ (not a real popup).

Both the list of triggers and the message are customisable, allowing you to control who is shown the message and what they are shown. If you come across another site or term that should be added, please let me know.

It is possible to redirect potential spammers to a URL of your choice, either immediately (bypassing the warning) or after a certain number of visits from the same IP address. However, my own personal view is that redirecting visitors is harsh.

A log of visits that trigger the warning is kept. This allows you quickly jump to any comments left by these visitors. It also adds a message, letting you know that the commentator has been warned in the past, to all new comment email notifications and to comments appearing in the Admin area.

What It Doesn’t Do

Comment Warning won’t help if a comment spammer comes directly to your site, rather than from a search or a page with a URL that contains one of the trigger words.

However, if they have been warned previously, this will have been recorded in the log and a message indicating this will appear next to their comments in the Admin panel and in comment notification emails.

How Do I Get It?

You can read more about Comment Warning and download it on the plugin page. Alternatively, you can get it from the Official WordPress Plugin Directory (or search for Comment Warning in the install plugin page in the WordPress Admin area).

The Official WordPress Plugin Directory

This is the first time I’ve added a plugin to the official WordPress Plugin Directory (when did it change from Repository to Directory?). The process wasn’t too hard, but it would have been much harder without the excellent Listing Your Plugin at the WordPress.org Plugin Directory post by Ronald Huereca on WebLogToolsCollection.

Other WordPress Plugin Development News

It was with some surprise that I noticed that this is my first release for almost 18 months! Time flies…

I’m working on some other WordPress plugins in the background and I’m still holding to my statement that I’ll update my old plugins and move them into the official plugin directory. I’ve also started thinking that I should tidy up and release some of the custom plugins that I use on my sites.

Time will be an issue, but I’m hoping I can get most of this done.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been a big supporter of the DoFollow movement, but the time has come to say goodbye to DoFollow comments on this blog.

I’m not alone in this move. Several bloggers that I follow have also turned off their DoFollow plugins in recent months. First K-IntheHouse turned off DoFollow as part of a redesign of Shankrila, then RT turned off DoFollow as well. Sometime previously, Terence Chang also turned off DoFollow.

So why are people abandoning DoFollow? The answer is comment spam.

I still believe in the DoFollow concept, but there comes a point when the amount of spam comments outweighs the number of good comments. For me, I’ve reached this point. I need to spend 20 to 30 minutes each and every day, just moderating comments. If I miss a single day, it’s a major job to catch up. I just don’t have to time to do this anymore.

Note, I’m not talking about automated comment spam – my anti-spam plugins prevent that. I’m talking about real live people who have targeted my blog just so they can get a link.

Many of the comments I receive are worthwhile and I don’t mind giving a link to these people. However, for every two or three people who take the time to make a genuine comment, there’s someone who does one of the following:

• Leaves a trivial "nice post" comment
• Obviously hasn’t bothered to actually read the post
• Just copies the text of another comment
• Leaves a flat out spam comment (read about topic x here)
• Leaves spam comments on dozens of pages in one session
• Links to a dodgy website (ie adult or pharmaceutical)
• Doesn’t use the KeywordLuv functionality as required

I have to spend a lot of time cleaning all of these up. As a result, I have very limited time to actually respond to anyone who leaves a comment. As K-IntheHouse points out:

I often see that I had missed replying to a genuine question or concern from a reader whom I could have helped in a timely manner

My thoughts exactly!

I’m also going to be turning off KeywordLuv on this blog, except on the KeywordLuv home page. This will remain nofollow so commentators won’t get any link love (thereby inviting spammers), but it will allow prospective users of the plugin to try it out.

I remain convinced that KeywordLuv and a DoFollow plugin are worthwhile, especially when you are starting out, but there is no doubt that it makes you a target of the spammers. I get hit pretty badly because I rank no 1 for KeywordLuv, which is what a lot of spammers search for.

The KeywordLuv / DoFollow combination is great for newer blogs that want to get some traffic. Also, some commentators will stick around and become valuable members of your community. The question is whether the number of spam comments is manageable.

They no longer are for me. Bye bye DoFollow.

One side-effect of making your blog DoFollow is an increase in traffic. Unfortunately, it also leads to an increase in comment spam – and I’ve recently been spammed by Make Money Online Master.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, if you use WordPress, most comment spam can be stopped using plugins (I use a combination of Simple Trackback Validation, Math Comment Spam Protection and Askimet).

However there are always borderline spam cases: such as those that leave a good comment, but use keywords in the name field, or those that leave their name but link to commercial (non blog) sites.

There are many differing views on what’s acceptable. Each blogger must make their own decision, on what’s spam and what’s not, for their blog.

Personally, I don’t mind helping my commentators by letting them use their keywords in the name field, but I want to know their real name, so I feel like a real person is leaving the comment.

That’s why I created the KeywordLuv plugin for WordPress, which lets commentators enter both their name and their keywords. This rewards your commentators and should help increase traffic to your website as a result. However, I’ve noticed a sharp increase in borderline spam as well.

Spammed By A Make Money Master

Even though I no longer have time to answer all comments, I still read every comment and look for spam.

I recently noticed someone who was using one email address, but several different websites (no problem) and different names (problem). He left 20 comments, using 10 different names and linking to 6 different domains.

Crucially, he made multiple comments on the same post, using different names. His comments were fine and contributed to the conversation – it’s just he was having the conversation with himself!

I recognized one of the domains he linked to as belonging to a prominent Make Money Online blogger: a sometimes controversial, former blackhat, who tells it like it is and who has a very loyal fan-base. I won’t say who he is. There are a few bloggers who could fit that description.

This is someone I used to read a lot (before we moved and I ran out of time). He really knows what he’s doing and I’ve learnt a lot from him. He’s even left the occasional comment here, as himself.

The Take Aways

I got several take aways from this:

1. DoFollow comment links are worth pursuing (if you use your keywords): If this guy took the time to leave comments, you know that it works.

2. Borderline comment spam is indeed a confusing issue: I’ve learnt a lot from him and I don’t mind giving him the links, but I still feel spammed.

3. This ones just for me: I’ve been able to build a portfolio of his sites, so I can see some real life examples to go with the theory I’ve learnt from him!

New DoFollow Plugin Coming

As a direct result of being targeted by borderline comment spammers (not the Make Money Online Master in particular), I’m creating a new Dofollow plugin that will discourage borderline spammers and reward those who contribute quality comments.

It goes a step beyond what we’ve previously seen with plugins like Lucia’s Linky Love, which only makes comments dofollow after the user has left a certain number of comments on the site. That was a great innovation, but I’ve had some borderline spammers who leave 10 comments in a session.

As with any spam prevention mechanism, a small number of serious spammers will find away around it, but it should discourage most of them.

I’ve got a full load on right now, so it may take a couple of weeks to finish.

Final Thoughts

Borderline comment spam is inevitable on a DoFollow blog. However, annoying as it is, you’ll also get an increase in traffic: more people reading and commenting on your blog. For me, it’s worth it, on this blog.

Hopefully, I’ll soon have a DoFollow plugin that will keep the spammers honest and make them worth for their link.

This is just a quick post to warn the borderline spammers that leave comments here: If you just leave keywords in the name field, I’ll remove the link! You must use the KeywordLuv syntax: yourname@your keywords.

In the past, I’ve been pretty easy on people leaving keywords in the name field, but that ends now that I’ve provided the KeywordLuv functionality.

I have no problem with people leaving keywords in the name field, in fact you’re welcome to, but you must leave your name too. Don’t worry, you’ll get your link juice, as KeywordLuv will strip your name out of the anchor text.

If you don’t use the KeywordLuv syntax, I’ll remove the link and you’ll see something like this:

Note the link has been removed and a message added to the comment.

Oh, and of course, you have to leave a decent comment that adds value, or I’ll just remove the comment. The full comment policy is as follows:

Rules: Leave your name! Enter YourName@YourKeywords and KeywordLuv will use YourKeywords as the anchor text. No inappropriate or offensive comments. No links to inappropriate or offensive sites. Comments must contribute to the discussion.

I don’t think this is asking too much, do you?

This post was supposed to be titled All My Loving and announce the adoption of the CommentLuv plugin. In combination with my very own KeywordLuv plugin, I would have indeed been giving you all my loving. Unfortunately, I had a problem with CommentLuv and have deactivated it. For now…

The Bad – Huge Increase In Database Size

I first noticed the problem when my daily database backup was emailed to me. The size had increased by almost 50% compared yesterday’s backup. I tracked the problem down to CommentLuv 0.999.

It seems there is occasionally a problem where each and every feed is stored in the wp_options table in the database. That means the entire feed (all 10 posts), of everyone who leaves a comment, is being stored in my database! Not only that, it stores the entire feed for each comment you leave. RT from Untwisted Vortex left 8 comments, so I have 8 copies of his entire feed.

In the last few days, 58 comments invoked CommentLuv. The wp_options table grew from 0.5MB to 3.5MB. I couldn’t let that continue, so I deactivated the plugin and manually cleared out the stored feeds (they aren’t needed).

When I went to Andy Bailey’s site to report this, I found this is a known problem, which will be resolved in the next version. From his post discussing the upcoming CommentLuv upgrade:

** Currently, there are some cases of the default include of MAGPIE saving each and every feed cache to the WP database in WP_OPTIONS/OPTION_NAME which tends to make it grow quite large, also some users have reported it being set to “autoload on” which can have an effect on load times.

I wouldn’t expect this to affect many people, but if you’re worried it may be a good time to do a backup and see if its significantly larger than expected.

UPDATE: If you are affected, Andy has posted a way to clean the database.

The Good – Great New Features In Next Version

While at Andy’s site, I found that he is doing some really cool things with the next version of CommentLuv. These include:

1. ‘AJAX-ifying’ the plugin, so the commentator’s feed is parsed while they are writing the comment.
2. Removing the reliance on PHP and WordPress functions, so that potentially it can work on other blogging platforms such as Blogger.
3. My favourite: Adding a dropdown list of your last 5 posts, so you can choose which one you want CommentLuv to add to the comment.
4. And of course, resolving my problem!

Brilliant! You can try out a demo on Andy’s CommentLuv Ajax Preview post.

Final Thoughts

If you’re wondering why CommentLuv disappeared, that’s the story. I think CommentLuv is a great plugin and about to get better. I’m committed to running it on my site, but it will have to wait for the next version. In the meantime, at least you can get some KeywordLuv here.

I’d like to announce the release of KeywordLuv, my new WordPress plugin, but RT from Untwisted Vortex beat me to it, announcing it several days ago. I need to be quicker with this sort of thing! I don’t mind, as KeywordLuv was partially inspired by RT’s post on building backlinks via DoFollow blogs.

KeywordLuv helps you reward your commentators by separating their name from their keywords in the link to their site. This gives them improved anchor text, which can help their site rank higher in the search engine results.

Example Of KeywordLuv

If a commentator enters: "Stephen@Custom WordPress Plugins" in the Name field, their comment will have:

Stephen from Custom WordPress Plugins Says:

If they don’t enter the @ symbol, the anchor text will simply display as normal. For a live example, see the first comment below. Feel free to leave a comment to try it out!

What Are The Benefits?

Most commentators enter their name in the Name field. This helps them rank well for searches on their name, but little else!

Some commentators enter their chosen keywords instead of their name. This helps them rank well for searches on their keywords, but many blog owners will mark them as spam! Even if you don’t mark them as spam, you probably get a little tired of talking to Miami Hotels!

KeywordLuv lets them enter their name, so you can feel as though you are talking with a real person, while at the same time helping their blog rank well for their chosen keywords. It’s the best of both worlds!

The Fine Print

There are a couple of things you need to be aware of:

1. For your commentators to really benefit from this, you will need a separate Dofollow plugin, to remove the nofollow tag.
2. KeywordLuv may not work with all themes. For more information and workarounds, see KeywordLuv – Theme Compatibility Issue.

Where Do I Get KeywordLuv?

The plugin is available for download via the KeywordLuv plugin home page. More information about how KeywordLuv works and how to use it is also available on the plugin home page.

Many WordPress blogs are adopting the CommentLuv plugin, because it gives readers extra incentive to make a comment – it automatically adds a link to the commentator’s latest post at the end of their comment.

This is great for the commentator, for several reasons outlined below. However, some people are not taking full advantage of the benefits.

Benefits For The Commentator

Commenting on a blog using CommentLuv gives you two potential benefits:

1. Increased Traffic / Readership

As people read through the comments, they can see the titles of each person’s latest post. If the title of your latest post appeals to the reader, there’s a good chance they will follow the link to your site, to read the post.

If you have great post titles, you will get traffic from this source. Some of this traffic will convert to regular readers.

2. Benefits To PageRank / SERPs

If the blog running CommentLuv is a DoFollow blog, not only will it send visitors your way, it will also pass you a little bit of PageRank.

Of course, Dofollow blogs already give you one link. While this link helps a little with PageRank, it’s less useful for the SERPs because the Name field is used as the anchor text. This will really only help you on searches for your name. That’s why some people put keywords in the name field – to help on searches for those keywords – at the risk of being marked as spammers.

CommentLuv gives you a second link, which has a couple of advantages over the first:

1. It uses the post title as anchor text. If your keywords are in the post title, it will help you in the SERPs for those keywords.
2. It’s a deep link, pointing to a page on your blog rather than the home page.

These advantages really are extra incentive to make a comment.

DoFollow CommentLuv Stolen Away

Some people are not taking full advantage of the benefit provided by CommentLuv on DoFollow blogs. They could be improving their PageRank and their position in the SERPs, but instead this is being stolen away.

How? The link for their latest post points to a FeedBurner redirect URL, not to the original post on their site.

This doesn’t stop people getting to the post, as FeedBurner will redirect them to the site. However, it means that the PageRank / SERPs benefits are going to FeedBurner, instead of the commentator’s site. Some of this may be passed on by FeedBurner, or it may not be. It’s not worth the risk.

Next time you leave a comment on a CommentLuv blog, check the link to see whether it goes to a FeedBurner URL or to the original post on your site.

The Solution

CommentLuv uses your feed to create the link for your latest post. If you have the Item Link Clicks parameter turned on in your FeedBurner settings, your feed will use the FeedBurner URL and so will CommentLuv.

If you want to change this, see the Turn off FeedBurner Redirect in RSS Feeds post by K-IntheHouse at ShanKri-la.

There are other reasons to turn the Item Link Clicks parameters off, as outlined by K: it makes it harder for people to access the post’s original URL. Why make it harder for people to blog about you?

Add the loss of potential PageRank / SERPs benefits and this becomes a real issue. Unless you really need the extra stats, turn this off!

Final Thoughts

Commentators: CommentLuv gives you extra incentive to make a comment,  particularly if the blog is DoFollow. Make sure you take full advantage!

Blog Owners: CommentLuv can encourage comments and reward those who make the effort, but are you worried about being targeted by spammers?

I haven’t activated it on my blogs yet, but I probably will in the near future.

Dane Morgan recently tagged me with the The Controversial Marketer’s Blog Meme, started by Sam Freedom’s Controversy Meme post. As Dane correctly predicted, I’m going to write an UnMeme instead of participating, as I have very limited time at the moment.

I’m not sure that there is anything controversial (or even unusual) that I do anyway. I do most of the things that most bloggers do: ie spend a lot of time on my blog, reading other blogs, commenting, etc.

The only tip I’d have, that’s even slightly controversial, is that new bloggers should actively target DoFollow blogs to leave comments on (but no spam please). This is an easy way to build backlinks. I’d also recommend that they disable NoFollow on their own blogs, as this will help increase their traffic.

Hang on, this is an UnMeme, so I’m not supposed to answering! So I’ll leave it at that. Thanks for tagging me Dane – I do appreciate it, even if I am responding with an UnMeme.

Not sure what an UnMeme is? RT from Untwisted Vortex coined the phrase on his My First UnMeme post. I adopted the practice for the reasons explained on UnMeme – Media Snackers. I think it’s nicer than just ignoring meme’s that I choose not to participate in.

Yesterday I wrote about joining the Do Follow List. Today, it’s the D-List. I’ve been part of the Bumpzee No Nofollow community for some time now. So, do I have the full set of dofollow lists now?

I found out about the D-List and the Do Follow List from Zen Zoomie’s DoFollow vs NoFollow – We’re on the D-List and promptly signed up to both. I was added to the Do Follow List within two days. The D-List took almost a week.

I won’t go over my initial reaction to the Do Follow List, but I was a bit taken aback that I had to write the list up before getting a dofollow link (on a dofollow list). It was more the way this was presented than the situation itself – I understand this can help promote DoFollow.

The D-List seems work on the same principle. At least most of the links on the list are nofollow. I couldn’t find how to get it changed to a dofollow link, but I assume you need to write the list up. The initial contact was nicer, although it could have outlined how to get your link changed to dofollow.

At the end of the day, I’m not really worried about getting dofollow links on these lists. They are just two links in a sea of links. However, I do want to support DoFollow, so if you haven’t already, go and sign up to these lists!

If you know of any other lists, please let me know.

Nofollow has been disabled on my blog for more than a month now. I joined the Bumpzee No Nofollow community immediately, but I only recently learned of the Do Follow List. I signed up a few days ago, but I have mixed feelings about this list.

While I want to support anything that promotes DoFollow, something put me off the Do Follow List. What put me off specifically? The comment Nicusor left on my site saying a link back would get a do-follow link on the list.

My first reaction was “hang on isn’t this all about DoFollow – shouldn’t the list be DoFollow by default?” His comment on my site gets him a dofollow link to both his main site and to the list itself – but I have to write him up to get a dofollow link on the list?

After I settled down a bit, I realised that I overreacted.

The logic discussed in the comments of my last post about plugins promoting themselves can be applied here. If Nicusor is asking for the link back to help promote the list, so as to help promote DoFollow, then that is acceptable, perhaps even admirable.

Having checked out his site, I’m pretty sure he’s genuinely trying to promote DoFollow. I should also point out that I did get a dofollow link on the page where you comment to be added to the list.

So I do recommend you join this list, if you are not already on it. However, be ready for link back request and try not to react as I did.

Nicusor, if you’re reading this, maybe you should explain that you’re doing this to help promote DoFollow when you leave the comment. It was easy to misunderstand this as being a cynical attempt to get a link – In hindsight, I know that’s not what you meant.