6 Plugins For Killing Comment Spam And Improving Conversions

Over the past month I’ve been busy working my ass off to launch my new WordPress plugin. Ever since the beginning of development we’ve encountered many problems.

It’s not that we have an awful programmer, it’s just that our plugin is completely revolutionary and is going to change the game of link building forever.

Anyway as I made breakfast this morning and caught up on my reading, a few thoughts came to mind.

First, I really need to write a new blog post.

Second, my conversions are really kicking ass right now.

So I asked why and came to the conclusion that my conversions increased after I installed  a couple of plugins. A few plugins that help defeat comment spam and at the same time dramatically improve conversions if used correctly. Here they are:

1. Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin

This plugin has to be first on the list. It’s amazing that its taken this long to be created. It’s such a simple plugin that yields such amazing results. When you install GASP, it places a little checkbox after the WordPress comment submit button. Right next to the checkbox it displays a customizable line of text like “Confirm you are NOT a spammer”.

Basically the plugin will stop well over 90% of all comment spam, for free. It doesn’t allow visitors to leave comments unless they check the box.

The plugin is completely free and created by the nice people at Comment Luv. Check it out, download it, install it and watch what happens. I can guarantee you’ll see a massive decrease in the number of spam comments you receive.

2. Aweber Web Forms Plugin

This plugin is created by Aweber for Aweber users. Aweber if you don’t know, is a premium autoresponder service. Probably the best in the industry and I’ve been using it for a number of years. Aweber Web Forms allows you to display a little subscribe button for your blog commenters.

When visitors check the box and submit their comment, they’re automatically subscribed to your email list. Again a really simple, but powerful WordPress plugin. It doesn’t defeat spam, but it does a great job at increasing conversions.

3. Subscribe to Comments Plugin

This plugin will help start conversations. It basically allows visitors to subscribe to the comments of  any post they personally comment on. When they opt-in for future comments, they’ll be emailed whenever a follow-up comment is published. The plugin just keeps commenters coming back to engage in the conversation by replying to other comments.

I personally don’t use this plugin and I’ll explain why in a minute. However if you want to start 200+ comment conversations then install the plugin.

4. ReplyMe

This plugin is the reason why I don’t use the “Subscribe to Comments” plugin.  The above plugin will email you every time a follow-up comment is posted. And in my opinion that’s far too much if you’re getting dozens or more comments. This plugin is the better alternative. Both plugins are very similar, but serve different purposes.

ReplyMe automatically emails commenters whenever they get a reply. So if a new visitor lands on your blog blog, leaves a comment and you reply to it; the commenter will receive an email sending him/her back to your blog to read the reply. I noticed quite an increase in comments after installing ReplyME.

When commenters get a reply from you personally, they get excited. As to them you’re this alpha expert who knows their shit. So therefore commenters get somewhat overwhelmed when they get a reply from you.

5. Comment Luv

This plugin doesn’t so much stop spam, but increase the number of quality comments your posts receive. Comment Luv has been around for a while now and it allows commenters to leave a link back to their latest blog post. Like this…

Bloggers love Comment Luv. It gives them links back to their latest posts and drives far more traffic than the traditional WordPress comment system. It increases comment volume, replies and user engagement. It also looks nice.

6. Comment Redirect

I was excited about this plugin when I first read about it on Traffic Generation Cafe. Several coffees and one cappucino later, Comment Redirect was installed and configured. To my surprise it really made a difference. All this plugin does is redirect new commenters to the page of your choice.

The idea is to create a dedicated page for new commenters. New commenters are like red hot leads, apart from they’re not actually leads yet. More like red hot visitors who will happily join your list with a little a nudge. So take the time to setup a “thank you for commenting” page and use the plugin to redirect new commenters to it.

On your thank you page, add a few links to your other blog posts and more importantly, display an opt-in form. To checkout my thank you page, leave a comment on this post.

It may take a while to install and configure these plugins, but once you do you will have defeated over 90% of comment spam and dramatically increased your conversions.

Last updated by Jamie.

Tagged as: comment spam, improve conversions, improving conversions, wordpress comment spam

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About Jamie
I'm a teenage entrepreneur who's been marketing online since the age of 12. I love anything to do with business, marketing, psychology and traffic generation. I'm a blogger, copywriter, author, consultant, perpetual product launcher and proud owner of Conquered Riches. Add me on Google Plus here.

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