Every day our blogs come under attack from various elements which are invisible to the eye. Just like protecting our families, pets, and anything else we value, we should also do all we can to protect our blogs from these threats.

Threats come in all sorts of forms, but there are a few simple steps you can put in place to keep your blog is safe.

Listed below are some measures I’ve put in place on my blog to help stop some of these threats from threatening me or my blog.

Comments

What do you do if some of the comments on your blog posts are not friendly or do not agree with what you have to say?

I’ve blogged for over six years, and, in that time, I have received a handful of comments that were not only very personal but were also rude, racist or homophobic.  

Because I moderate all comments before they are published on my blog, I was able to stop these comments in their tracks. They were of the nature that did not call for a reply, and I simply marked them as spam, sent them to my spam folder and then deleted them. 

I’ve often seen rude, unfriendly comments and spam appear on blogs that I follow. Not only can they be shocking in their nature, but in many cases, the very name of the commenter can also be very offensive. 

Unfortunately, Akismet, the WordPress software that blocks unwanted spam, doesn’t always catch all of it. So it’s worth considering monitoring all comments before they are published on your blog posts. 

Follow these steps to set up monitoring comments.

Open your WordPress Blog Dashboard

Click on Manage to open up a dropdown menu, and then click on Settings.

In the settings menu, click on Discussion.

Look for the ‘Before a comment appears’ box and slide open the button next to ‘Comment must be manually approved.’

Click on the ‘Save settings’ button. 

You may also have noticed an option to allow comments to be posted straight away from people who have previously had comments approved by you. 

For bloggers who are dealing with hundreds of comments daily, this is a great time-saving option as you don’t need to manually approve them. 

However, be wary. Somebody who may have left a perfectly friendly comment on an earlier post could well leave an unfriendly comment on a future post.

How to deal with people who don’t agree with you

Sometimes I receive comments from people who may not agree with what I have to say, but that’s a part of the whole blogging experience. 

However, I will approve their comments and respond to them if they have been written in a friendly and professional manner. 

Nobody should tolerate rudeness or bad manners, so don’t allow any of these kinds of comments to appear on your blog. 

If comments are unfriendly, rude or make you feel threatened, mark them as spam.

Look after your fellow bloggers

If you see a rude comment or one that obviously spams on a blog that you follow then make the blog’s owner aware of the problem. They’ll probably thank you for looking out for them.

How to block certain bloggers or readers from leaving comments

Further down the same page on your dashboard, you will also see a box entitled ‘Comment Blacklist‘.

This is where you can add certain words, the web address of a blog, email address or the internet protocol of a user you want to block. 

Any comments from these users will automatically be sent to your blog’s trash bin.

Internet trolls

If you are unlucky enough to find that an internet troll has decided to try and make your blog their new home, then just ignore it. 

Whatever you do, don’t engage in any conversations with the internet troll. Whether through comments or if they try to contact you through your ‘contact me‘ page, ignore them. 

Internet trolls will do all they can to get you to react to what they have said. They may even try and get some of your readers to engage with them by responding to comments they have left. 

Don’t give internet trolls the satisfaction of acknowledging them in any shape or form. 

Consider removing all their comments, and don’t allow them to upset you in any way. They’ll soon get the message and move on.

Back-Up

How would you feel if you woke up one morning and found that all the blog content had disappeared? 

It’s the stuff of nightmares, so be kind to your blog and make sure you back up its content regularly. 

Anti Virus Software

Ensure you protect your blog by having updated anti-virus software on your computer. 

If hackers can get access to well-known websites, then they may be able to get access to your computer.

Malware could allow cybercriminals to take control of your computer, log your keystrokes, or access your personal information and financial data, which could lead to identity theft. So, not only could your blog be at risk from hackers, but so could your bank details and other personal information.  

Click here for more details. Thanks to Debby Kaye for including a link to the information in one of her recent blog posts.

Remember to keep all other software on your computer up to date and use the latest versions of software of any website you visit regularly. 

This all may sound nightmarish, and you may ask yourself who would want to attack your blog, but it’s something every blogger should take seriously. Don’t become a victim. 

However, whatever you do, keep enjoying your blogging experience. 

Although attacks on our blogs are happening all the time, your anti-virus software (and the software used by WordPress) deals with most threats without you knowing about it.

What about you?

• Is there anything you’d like to share with us on how you protect your blog from unwanted attention and attacks?

Join the discussion by leaving a comment that I can respond to with more than just a ‘thank you.’

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