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Is Your Blog Under Attack?

Published on May 11, 2020August 13, 2022 by Hugh W. Roberts83 Comments

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.

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.’

Slide the button open to activate the setting

Click on the ‘Save settings’ button.

Don’t forget to save the changes you’ve made

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.

Has somebody left comments before? You may like to consider this option

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‘.

Don’t want to receive comments from certain bloggers or readers? Add them to your 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.

#night #photography #SundayStills — Trolls can come in all shapes and sizes

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.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

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.’

Blogging Awards: Do They Work?

Published on February 26, 2020June 12, 2022 by Hugh W. Roberts148 Comments

When WordPress first introduced a blogging award on one of its early online blogging courses, I thought it was one of the best ideas they’d come up with.

Not only was it a way of introducing student bloggers to each other, but also to the wider blogging community. For most of those who participated, they helped gain more followers, more ‘likes’ and more comments.

If like me you remember ‘chain letters’, blogging awards work in much the same manner.

Should we accept blogging awards if they come with demands?

I remember how delighted I was when I got a comment informing me that my blog had been nominated to receive an award.

Given that I’d only been blogging for a few months, that comment produced a big smile on my face. I spent the next few hours telling everyone I knew that my blog had already been nominated for a blogging award.

Now faced with a list of demands (as I saw it) of what I had to do if I wanted to accept the award, I duly wrote my post. This involved answering lots of questions, mentioning and linking back to the blogger who had nominated me, and nominating another 15 bloggers for the award.

Weeks after that first award post was published, I was delighted with the results it had produced. Not only had the award nomination gained my blog lots of new followers, but it had boosted my confidence in becoming a blogger.

The whole process had been fun to do. People got to know more about me from the questions being asked. My blog stats rocketed and, most importantly of all, I was able to pass on the good fortune of the award nomination to other bloggers.

The snowball effect

Of course, more followers meant more comments. More followers also meant more awards, but these were different from the first award I’d been nominated for.

I asked myself if bloggers were now making up their own awards and whether or not it was a good thing.

As the award nominations came in, my writing time started to get swallowed up with writing posts and answering questions about nothing else but accepting blogging awards.

New award nominations were popping up in my email box, daily. As the whole thing snowballed, they started to become more of a problem, rather than of help to me.

Please make no mistake about it, blogging awards are a great way to promote new bloggers and put them in touch with lots of other bloggers. They can help build up blogging communities and put you in front of brand new audiences, but they do come with a downside.

Should bloggers invent new blogging awards?

I even went as far as to invent my own award – ‘The Mildred Awards’ which, at the time, went on to become one of my most viewed and commented-on blog posts.

In the early days of blogging, these awards can propel both you and your blog, but be careful in allowing them to take over your blog.

Ask yourself if your readers are beginning to get fed up with reading post after post about awards you’ve been nominated for. Are the people you’re passing on the awards to getting fed up with being nominated by you all the time?

Are you passing on awards between each other by nominating the same bloggers all the time? Does that look good? Or do you do it because you don’t want to upset anybody?

When I started getting behind with accepting awards, I began to panic.

What would people think if I didn’t accept their award? Would I start to lose followers because I wasn’t passing the award on? Would people stop nominating my blog for awards?

How a milestone helped.

In February 2015 (on the first anniversary of my blog) I decided it was time for my blog to go award-free. I’d seen other bloggers do the same thing, and I knew it was time for me to accept that blogging awards had done their job for me and my blog. It was time for my blog to move on.

I wrote and published The ‘Mildred Awards’ post and made the announcement that my blog was now ‘award-free.’

I can’t tell you just how good that made me feel. I felt as if I’d taken a huge weight off my shoulders. After all, I had come to the world of blogging to write about anything I felt like writing about – not just about awards.

However, that did not stop the award nominations from coming in.

How to deal with bloggers who keep nominating you for awards when your blog is award-free.

Of course, I thanked people for nominating me and informed them that my blog had gone ‘award-free.’ Most were happy with my decision, but there were a few who saw it as a bit of an insult that I was not accepting their nomination. One blogger even went as far as to say that they were really disappointed that I was not taking the award and that they were unfollowing my blog!

That was a tough conversation, but I also saw that I was partly to blame. Why? Well, although I’d announced in February 2015 that my blog was now award-free, there was nothing else on my blog stating my decision.

How could I possibly expect anyone (having not read the ‘Mildred Awards. post) to know my blog was now award-free?

You’ll see it on my widget bar to the right of this post. (Scroll down to see it). It hasn’t stopped award nominations coming in, but it has drastically cut them.

Do blogging awards work?

Yes, they do. However, I believe they have their time and place in the blogging world, and my advice is to let them go once they have done their work in establishing both you and your blog. Do you agree?

How to award bloggers without nominating them for an award.

There are many other ways bloggers can reward each other. For example, visiting blogs and reading posts on a regular basis.

However, for me, the best award is leaving good meaningful comments on each other’s blog posts. You don’t need to do this on every single blog post you read. One good meaningful comment every once in a while is far better than no comments or lots of short comments that don’t really say much.

Instead of leaving comments such as ‘Great Post, ‘Great Tips’, ‘Great story’ or ‘Well done,’ write a few sentences saying why you thought it was a great post or such a good read.

What was it about the post that stood out for you?

What is it about the post that makes it such a ‘good post’?

Which tips did you enjoy the most, and why? Have you tried any of the tips out? Do you have any new ones you can add?

Leave a comment that gives the writer more reply options other than just being able to reply ‘Thank you.”

I believe this is one of the best awards you can give other bloggers. Do you agree?

The kind of comments you leave on other blog posts act as an indication of who you are, what kind of blogger you are, and whether or not your blog is worth checking out and following.
Hugh W. Roberts – February 2015

Is there anything you particularly like or dislike about blogging awards? Have they worked for you? Have you ever accepted them? If not, why not? Do you get fed up with seeing award after award posts on a blog? I’d love to know your thoughts. Join in the debate by leaving your comments in the comments section.

5 Easy Ways To Get Readers To Leave Comments On Your Blog

Published on November 20, 2019August 13, 2022 by Hugh W. Roberts199 Comments

“How do I get other bloggers and readers to leave comments on my blog?” This is a question I get asked a lot.

During the time I’ve been blogging, I’ve found many ways of getting readers to interact with me. Today, I’m going to share with you what I believe are the five most important and easiest ways of generating comments.

In one of her recent blog posts, blogging expert Janice Wald says that search engines such as Google and Bing are attracted to blog posts that contain at least 30 comments. Why? Because they show that the blog is active.

Janice goes on to say that value-added comments can bring in lots of extra traffic and boost the post’s SEO ranking too. Comments help lengthen a blog post, and search engines attract long posts rather than short ones.

Long posts Vs short posts. Which one is best?

Some readers shy away from reading long posts, saying they don’t have the time to read them. However, for me, it’s the content that counts, not the length of a post.

I’m more likely to read and leave a comment on a long post that grabs my attention than read lots of short posts that don’t motivate me to leave any comments.

The definition of a long post is anything that contains over 2,500 words.

Remember what Janice said? Short posts can be lengthened if they have lots of comments left on them. As bloggers, that tells us we should do all we can to encourage readers to leave comments.

To be beneficial, comments need to be at least a couple of sentences long, prove that the post’s content has been read, and helps if they contain keywords.

Short comments and those that include nothing but emojis are not ‘search engine’ friendly and are ranked lower. It’s one of the reasons why I do not approve of any comments that contain nothing but emojis.

I believe that on their own, emojis belong on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

I don’t mind the odd emoji in a value-added comment, but not when they are on their own. I either send the comment to the trash bin or edit the offending emoji out of a comment.

I think many bloggers will agree when I say that most of us want our readers to leave comments on our posts. It goes a long way in proving that our posts have been read and that we have an active blog.

Content will always be king.

Not only do successful bloggers believe that content is king, but there are other reasons why I’m mentioning it.

I come across many blog posts with little content to strike up a good, value-added comment or conversation, other than maybe a few dead comments such as ‘Thanks for sharing’ or ‘Great post!’ In fact. many of these posts either have no comments or are just full of dead comments.

Likewise, some posts have been so poorly put together and rushed into publication that they leave me wondering why they’ve been considered for publication in the first place. If only the author had spent a little more time on them.

Don’t publish a blog post just for the sake of publishing one. Make the content of the post work and bring you results.

Early on in my blogging journey, I was told something straightforward that every blogger should take on board –

‘The quality of blog posts is far more important than the number of blog posts you publish.’

It’s true. Those bloggers who care about content and quality soon reap the benefits of blogging.

If you’ve been following my blog for a long time, you may have noticed that many of my blog posts get lots of comments left on them.

According to WordPress, the average number of comments my blog posts have attracted so far this year is 64.

That’s a lot of comments to respond to, but remember that this number includes my comments when I’ve replied to those readers who have left them.

Of course, I’m delighted with the results because it’s precisely what I wanted to happen when I started blogging. Interacting with your audience is a key factor in blogging.

I like to think my blog is like wandering around a second-hand store. Why? Because you never know what you’ll come across around the next corner. Plus, when you do find something, you’ll hopefully want to ask me a question or leave a comment about what you have found.

Get your readers involved and ask them questions.

One of the easiest ways to get readers to leave a comment is to ensure you ask a question (or questions) in your post.

Ask them what they would have done or if they have any suggestions or tips about your writing. Likewise, encourage them to share with you if they’ve experienced something you’ve written about.

I’d recommend you leave questions towards the end of a post. That way, readers won’t forget what you have asked and always ensure questions relate to your written and published content.

Don’t make your blog a one-way street.

Once you get comments left on your posts, do everything you can to respond or acknowledge those comments as quickly as possible.

Never ignore comments, although there is nothing wrong with showing you’ve acknowledged a comment by ‘liking’ it. This is an especially good way to acknowledge comments you’re unsure how to respond to or don’t have the time to respond to.

Of course, we can always respond by saying ‘thank you’, but I think it is much better to respond to comments by saying more than just a simple ‘thank you.’

Getting into a conversation with your audience is better than cutting them off dead with something they can not respond to. And, when I say ‘conversation’, I don’t mean something that has nothing to do with the post’s contents. Take those types of conversations offline.

If somebody has taken the time to leave a comment, not responding or acknowledging them is a sure way to put them off from leaving any further comments. Nobody wants that, do they?

If my comments do not get a response or acknowledgement, I stop leaving comments on the blog I’ve left them on.

I much rather spend my time reading and leaving blogger comments where I see the blogger respond. After all, dialogue should never be a one-way street that leads to a dead-end, should it?

Reading other blogs and leaving comments.

As well as building your own blogging community and responding to comments left on your blog posts, you can also try and persuade other bloggers to leave comments on your posts by reading and commenting on their blogs.

This is probably why some bloggers fail to get any comments on their blog posts.

If you don’t visit, read and leave comments on other blogs, then you’re unlikely to get other bloggers to leave comments on your blog.

Being a part of other blogging communities is one of the best ways to get people to come and visit your blog.

Never be afraid to make the first move by leaving a comment on a blog you’ve never left a comment on before. The majority of bloggers are friendly and will give you a warm welcome.

However, never feel you have to read and leave a comment on every blog post somebody publishes.

If you don’t have time to read and comment on other blogs, make time.

I recently spoke with a blogger who told me she would ensure she spent at least 20 minutes a day reading and commenting on other blogs. Why had she told me that? Because nobody was leaving comments on her blog posts.

20 minutes is better than not visiting, reading and commenting on other blogs. Even if it’s only reading and leaving one comment daily, it’s better than not reading and leaving any comments.

I also promote these blog posts by sharing them on my social media accounts.

By leaving comments, you’ll soon become part of other blogging communities. In turn, this will help you build your blogging community.

However, remember only to leave value-added comments. And never be afraid of responding to comments from other bloggers and striking up conversations with them. Interaction with other bloggers is the name of the game.

Blogging challenges

One of the easiest ways to become a blogging community member is to participate in a blogging challenge.

Over the years I’ve been blogging, I’ve participated in hundreds of blogging challenges hosted by other bloggers. Not only were they fun to participate in, but they also brought lots of new visitors to my blog, some of whom left comments.

There are hundreds of challenges on WordPress.

#writephoto #writingprompt — Logo for the weekly #writephoto Photo Prompt challenge hosted by Sue Vincent
© Sue Vincent

#SundayStills #photography — Logo for the weekly Sunday Stills Photography challenge hosted by Terri Webster Schrandt
© Terri Webster Schrandt

#flashfiction — Logo for the weekly 99-word Flash Fiction challenge hosted by Charli Mills
© Charli Mills

Even if you only participate in one challenge a month, I can guarantee it will bring new visitors to your blog.

Likewise, seek out blog link parties where bloggers invite you to leave links to your blog posts. One blogger who hosts a weekly linky party is Esmé, at Esmé Salon.

Some of the new visitors to your blog will leave comments on the post you have published in response to a challenge or the invitation to leave a link. They may even start to follow your blog.

What about you? Do you have any suggestions, advice or tips on how to get readers to leave comments on your posts? Share them in the comments section at the bottom of this post.