How do you control blog spam?

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In a couple of months we will be celebrating two years of Fashionizer blogging. It’s not been uniforms all the way; we’ve covered everything from film and TV, politics and ethics to football and the Norwegian curling team’s fabulous trousers. We’ve celebrated International Day of Happiness and commiserated when one of our clients’ businesses was devastated by flood.

The feedback to our musings about the hospitality and spa business has been positive and increasing, so we decided it was time to invite people to comment on our blog. It is part of our plan to share our experiences and engage with our clients through digital media. All good, but we weren’t quite prepared for the onslaught.

At first it was exciting to see that we had had 400 comments to a blog overnight, but, to our dismay, it was a bit like opening a large gift-wrapped box only to find a very small present inside. Yep, 99% of the comments are spam. Check out our picture… Most are meaningless or unrelated to our business, and some are from companies that are more concerned with removing clothes than putting them on. It’s certainly been an eye-opener for our brand new Marketing and PR intern Marion, who has had the dubious pleasure of attempting to moderate the comments.

So, the challenge facing us now is how to get this under control. As follows of various industry bloggers ourselves, we know that our experience cannot be unique, so we’re calling on our blog readers and followers to share their advice of managing the comment process. Is a plug-in the best way forward? Or is there a secret part of WordPress that will do this for us? Or is there another way of dissuading people who are not really interested in hotel uniforms?

We’re hoping that the advice will prove useful for everyone, so at the risk of sounding ironic, please feel free to comment here… it will make Marion’s day.

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