I have created a number of websites for friends and family over the years using WordPress, and as these projects were all private websites I used Akismet to block spam. Akismet is without doubt the best comment spam prevention tool out there and I would really recommend it for any personal sites you may be building. Unfortunately Akismet carries a charge for commercial projects and not wanting to pass any additional cost on to my client I started to search for solutions.

I quickly discovered (and I must stress I am not an expert in this), that you can modify a servers .htaccess file to allow certain privileges dependant on IP address. Quite simply, if you are receiving WordPress spam you can take a note of the IP and deny it from hitting the server.

Here is how I am doing it…

<Limit GET POST PUT>
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from 69.197.28.105
</Limit>

So every time I get more spam, I add the IP, like this…

<Limit GET POST PUT>
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from 69.197.28.105
Deny from 65.55.3.211
</Limit>

Sounds pretty simply right! Well yeah it is, but be careful as the .htaccess controls the access to all parts of your website and one incorrect key-stroke could take a site down or parts of a site down completely. To be safe I would always take a copy of the original .htaccess and save it somewhere just in case!

Conclusion

I suppose there is always the potential that you could be blocking some legitimate users but so far I have only seen the spam to my sites improve while traffic stays the same, and hey it’s FREE!

A colleague of mine had worked with Jimmy Cricket filming a few of his shows. After a few months, the subject of his website came about, which at the time was very out-of-date and in need of some design updates, and I was asked if I would be interested in a small redesign and tech update using WordPress.

I opted for a quirky design to suit the clown style of comedy that Jimmy had always used in his shows, which made a pleasant change from the usual serious business work I was accustomed to. I developed it around the WordPress 2010 theme, which disappointingly for me was a little harder than expected, however both I and the client were happy with the end result.

You can visit the site at www.jimmycricket.co.uk/ – Let me know what you think

This one was a little side project for a friend

The client wasn’t looking for anything too complex, just the ability to add new or used products and as usual built using WordPress.

You can visit the site at www.metcalfstheatvcentre.co.uk/ – Let me know what you think