Trackback spam

One of the nasty things that can happen to you if you have a Wordpress blog and don’t have some safeguards in place is getting spam. Comments spam as well as trackback spam.

But what is trackback spam? This kind of spam is generated by pings sent by spam blogs (those nice auto-blogs that blackhat folks so much love using), and if you are not careful, you’ll spend more time wading through and deleting this spam than actually blogging. From my side, I don’t have a problem getting backlinks from any blogs as a link is a link is a link, even if it  includes spam blogs (Google can’t punish me for somebody else linking to me, since it’s out of my own power), but I hate getting spam like anybody else.

If you see getting a lot of this trackback spam, there is a way to stop receiving them. Use Akismet, the best plugin there is to safeguard you against it. It is a free plugin, which you need to install just like any other plugins you are using, but there is a tiny twist to it. To be able to use Akismet, you need to an API key from Google to activate the plugin. Don’t worry, it’s quite easy to get one of these keys. All you need to do is register for a free Wordpress.com account and in your registration email you will have your API key. Keep that key in a safeplace, as you will need to install it on all the blogs you have (if you’re going the niche blogging route, for example).

Trust me, having Akismet is really worth it. How do I know that? Well, through my own fault, really. I have Akismet on all my other blogs, except…here. When I installed this blog, I forgot to install the plugin, and today was the first day that I started getting these spammy trackbacks. They all came from the same IP address. Of course, you can also block the IP, but problem is, there are thousands of autoblogs and blog farms out there that once they have your blog in their ‘collection’, you’ll keep getting their trackbacks forever. Banning hundreds of IP addresses is just not worth it in the long run, trust me on this. Install the free Akismet and forget this crap exists on the blogosphere.