When you use a blog, it becomes more of an imperative that you let your readers comment on them. Obviously, you post for readers and it wouldn’t be a good idea not to allow comments in your blogs. It is a different question altogether if you really get in comments or not but readers must be able to voice their opinions and concerns about issues that you take up in your blog.

The problem that comes along with your comment section is the omnipresent spam – spammers do not work full time, they work over-time. That is precisely why the first comment that you should be expecting on your blog is a spam. It is a harsh reality that no matter how hard you try, spammers find their way through all your walls. There are always loop holes that are left unplugged. However, a few simple steps can do away with the majority of spamming in blogs.

Do not make your e-mail address public. Your e-mail address is your property and to display them to the world is to invite spam. Use forms instead to enable people to contact you. Your e-mail address remains secure behind the protection of forms.

You may try what is popularly known as CAPTCHA. That’s a technology that gives forth troublesome words that neither make sense nor are easy to spell. Readers who wish to comment would be asked to retype the words that are not machine-readable. In effect, automatic spam messages are filtered out.

A simple tool is to make comments subject to approval. That way, comments can’t find their way to your blog posts when they are entered but you would have to approve them. The catch? You would have to approve the comments manually after you have gone through them. That works when your blog does not receive comments in thousands on a daily basis. Increase in number of comments would mean you may have to appoint a full-time or at least a part-time employee just to approve comments.

WordPress users would have the comfort of the plug-in called Akismet that does away with most spam messages by flagging suspected spam down. The problem is, sometimes, the software could flag even legitimate comments down, suspecting them as spam. Again, your intervention and involvement is needed to take care of this plug-in.

Finally, you may ask your users to register before they comment. This may work if your site has much more to offer than just the blogs. However, this does lead to a drop in spam as well as legitimate comments.