Akismet is one of the plugins that comes bundled with self-hosted WordPress blogs. It's designed to stop spam comments from showing up on your blog, and though it won't be enough on its own once your blog gets properly indexed, for new bloggers it should do the trick.

In order for Akismet to work properly, you'll need to grab an API key from WordPress.com. That's right, from WordPress dot com, even though you have a self-hosted WP blog. Here's where to find it:

• You'll need to sign up for an account with WordPress.com first.
• You'll have the option to get a free WP blog, or just a user name; if you're only signing up to get the API key, then the latter will be fine.
• Once you've got your account, sign in,
• and navigate to My Account > Edit Profile (currently on a drop-down menu from the top left).
• Your API key is at the top of the profile page.
• Add it to your self-hosted WordPress blog under Plugins > Akismet Configuration.

What if you have more than one blog? WP API keys will work on as many blogs as you want them to. And if all this WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress stuff has you confused, this post should help.

Posted by Sue on September 17, 2009 in WordPress.