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There is NOTHING i hate more than comment spam. E-mail spam is a pain in the ass but comment spam I just find stupid and intrusive.

So, here are my suggestions.

There are sooooooooo many ways to deal with spam with wordpress — you can install plugins, you can use broad spectrum spam eliminators after you have too many comments to deal with AND — MY FAVORITE — you can blacklist.

Since I have never and will never be blogging about prescription drugs and all the other RETARDED things that are constantly spammed — I pick those words to blacklist. Careful with blacklisting everything because if you blacklisted say BLACK — you would get rid of everything like blackjack and blackboard and blacklist…. etc. I have blacklisted blackjack because again, I won’t be blogging about gambling so it should never come up in a comment other than spam.

You will find you blacklist at the bottom of the SETTINGS — DISCUSSION section and trust me — it is WORTH IT. DO it once a week for a month or so and watch your comment spam take a nosedive.

YAY for KILLING STUPID SPAM — If only there was a way to send the spammer a little zap through the keyboard — lol

Well I have been a loyal Wordpress user for YEARS. I simply love how simple it is. Want a link, press link. Want to put a pic, press IMG.

Things that they have had since the beginning. And while I loved the additions of tags and a few of the niceties — well it was classic wordpress that I loved.

Well so nice to see that Wordpress 2.5 has so many cool things to offer. For the new or novice user, it eliminates a lot of the “well what is that for” questions by simplifying the menu to 4 things, write, manage, design and comments. Since writing, editing and addressing comments are sort of the “day to day” things — that is kinda nice.

But what I LOVE — is the simple way to add tags (like they added with 2.3.3), simple ways to address things like settings such as permalinks and plugins . They did not piss off the long time user by trying to make it attractive for the new user.

If you are not familiar with wordpress — it is the GOLD STANDARD of blogging software and it is FREE. You can download it from Wordpress.org or you can most likely get it on your hosting account under the control panel as every hosting from small comprehensive hosts like PqHost have it as do big hosting companies like godaddy and dreamhost so if you have any interest in blogging or think of the MILLION reasons a blog can be awesome for your business – then you will go get it

A great addition to your website is a blog — like this one

My personal favorite for blogging software is wordpress. It is quick, easy, user friendly and OH YA, IT IS FREE!!!!

Wordpress is HANDS DOWN the gold standard for blogging.

I bet your host already offers wordpress as an option! It will be on your CPanel (or in the case of Go Daddy, it is in your options but you have to dig a bit. It is there in your control panel)

Wordpress is a one-click install if your host has it. SUPER EASY — POOF ! Then you can start blogging and changing the design and adding all the little goodies that wordpress has. I will have several wordpress tutorials here such as how to modify the design, how to customize the header, how to customize the blogroll with links you love, how to SEO your blog, how to put pictures in your blog, and much more! Wordpress will allow you to do almost anything and it is very easy so don’t worry, you will be a blogging pro in a matter of hours!

Once your wordpress is installed, you simply login and click on the tab that says WRITE or the link that says write a new post and type in the box like you are writing a paragraph. If you want, you can write in HTML but there is no need. Wordpress is great at taking your plain text and converting it so if you don’t know HTML at all, no worries, just type and when you are done, press PUBLISH and there it is!!!

More on wordpress coming soon. If you do not have your own site and still want a blog, you can do one on wordpress.com or on blogger.com. Neither have the same options as having your own blog and wordpress.com restricts commercial content, but they are both a good option if you do not have your own site.