2 Plugins That I Activate on New Blogs: Akismet and WordPress Stats
So far it's been easy... now we'll increase the difficulty slightly...!
[This post is part of the Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog series.]
Now that you’ve got your new blog up and running it’s time to begin optimizing it as best as you can!
The next few posts in this series are going to require you to “get dirty” – you may have to insert a few lines of code here or there, explore some options for increasing your SEO, as well as think critically about what you’re adding (or subtracting) from your new blog.
But we’ll start off easy, ok?
For starters, there are two plugins that I install and activate on a new WordPress blog immediately. I’ll walk you through quickly why and how since there are a few steps for these two plugins:
Gotta kill that spam!
1. Akismet Spam Protection Plugin
Akismet is a spam filtering plugin for WordPress that automatically helps you deal with spam and all those annoying bots that attempt to leverage your new blog for their ill-desired goals (like traffic back to their sketchy websites).
You may have noticed that the installation of WordPress includes this plugin by default, which is great since there’s no need for you to download it! But, if you need to re-install it you can get it here.
Once you activate it you’ll see a screen like this:
Doh! You need that key!
But, you’ll have to activate it and it does require a WordPress.com / Akismet API Key. Here’s how to get your API Key:
1. Visit WordPress.com
First go to WordPress.com and hit “Sign up now” (on the right, orange button). You’ll walk through those simple steps and then activate your account.
Head back to WordPress.com, login, and you’ll see the next screen:
2. Grab Your API Key
You’ll want to click the link as highlighted above. You’ll then be directed to Akismet.com homepage to signup.
3. Sign Up for Akismet
Don’t worry, you won’t have to pay for anything (if you don’t want to):
Sign Up for Akismet.
And of course, you can set it to $0.00 for right now. If you like it you can come back and support them!
It's a great service and is worth supporting.
See that sad face? Sad.
After you sign up you’ll see the confirmation screen as well as receive an email with your new key:
Isn't that so satisfying?
Something like this should be in your email inbox.
Grab that key (Copy and Paste) because you’ll need it for the next step.
4. Insert API Key in Akismet Configuration Options:
Put your API Key Here!
This is easy. Just put your API Key that you just got via email into this box above!
You’re done! You’ll now have Akismet “battle” on your behalf to save you from all of that spam!
If you’re ever interested in seeing how Akismet is doing globally you can always take a look at their Global Dashboard as well:
It’s working world-wide!
2. WordPress.com Stats Plugin
Being aware of your traffic is very important.
***UPDATE***
I now use Jetpack which includes this plugin with advanced features found from WordPress.com. Check out this post for more information!
I’ve written an extensive post on the reasons why you want site analytics here so you’ll definitely want to check out that post. That post also includes 2 other analytic systems that I use as well.
You’ll have to download this plugin here and then upload it as you normally would.
Once you activate it you’ll see this screen:
You'll need that API Key again!
All you’ll have to do is use the same API Key that you just received and put it here:
Insert it here.
Then hit Save and you’re good to go! You’ll start tracking your visits in your new WordPress blog instantly.
Make sure to un-check mark the box that counts your visits since that’s not really as important as your visitors views:
Stats Settings
I also choose to have WordPress create some ‘shortlinks’ as well. I don’t necessarily use them but it’s a free service and you might want to use them.
3. Missing Your API Key?
A common issue is finding your API Key once you create it and sometimes you can’t find that email or you’re simply too lazy to go digging around for it (admit it…).
So, here’s a neat trick: Just head to https://apikey.wordpress.com/ and if you’re logged in to WordPress.com you’ll instantly see it:
That was easy.
Done!
Have any questions? Let me know how I can help!
Do you use these two WordPress Plugins?
[This post is part of the Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog series.]
Good tips John!
Do you have an opinion on the plugin Conditional CAPTCHA? I use it in conjunction with Akismet and found that it just takes care of all spam/false positive spam automatically.
Tim
I added the plugin at one stage, and it just added overhead to my blog that I didn’t really need. The success rate of Akismet makes me feel as though additional spam measures you install on your blog as overkill.
Wow John, you just saved me $70.
Now if you will just show me how to do a ping and backup my WordPress files, you will save me $125.
did you see my backup blog post yet? http://tentblogger.com/3-ways-to-backup-your-wordpress-blog/
That is a great post!
I don’t need a Kick Start, I just need a tentblogger Jump Start!
http://tentblogger.com/blog-post-jump-starter-1/
haha! nice!
Do you think WordPress Stats is as accurate as Google Analytics? In my experience…the numbers never match up…
i don’t feel any of them are 100% accurate and that’s why you have multiple systems.
My numbers never match up either, the biggest difference is that my visits are counted in Google Analytics, but they aren’t with WP states provided I am logged in to my admin panel.
I notice that the trends generally match, so I’m not really too concerned to be honest.
glad. great attitude to have, btw. you’re not married to them. WIN!
For anyone still on the fence, Akismet and WordPress Stats are two of the best plugins I have ever installed. I only have about 50 visitors to my site a day and I still get spam! So far Akismet has caught every single one. And WordPress Stats has made checking my site stats super easy.
Cannot recommend those two plugins enough. Thanks for the recommendations, John!
word up!
I used WordPress stats plugin for a while but it was not accurate enough. So I switched to open source and use Pikwi now.
Askimet is awesome though!
pikwi is pretty good. you like it?
Thanks so much for this!
I had the Akismet, but not the WordPress Sats.
Would you mind doing a feature on comment systems? (Intense Debate, Disqus, WordPress) Which is best?
sure! i’ll get a blog post for that.
Really timely. I was just adding WordPress Stats to my blog and got stuck. A few minutes later I looked at my RSS reader and up comes this post. Read about how to do it and now it is up. Thanks!
I don’t have a Plug-in menu on my dashboard – any idea why??
you’re using wordpress.com which doesn’t give you that option…!
I’ve been using the NoSpamNX plugin on all of my sites, and it works great for me. I’m sure I don’t get the volume that you do here, though. If it starts failing, I’ll have to check out Akismet.
ah. i’m going to check this out ben.
I used two different APIs. One from Akismet and one from wordpress.com for the stats.
Are there any problems with using two different APIs?
not really… but it’s better to have one from my POV. Easier to manage.
Thanks John, I’ve installed them.
What do you think of WPtouch mobile plugin?
it’s ok. lots of people use it. lots of problems with it.
i’ll go into more detail about this in a bit…
I completely agree. When I first setup http://tomjamieson.info and http://tomjamieson.com [still under construction], these were definitely the first two plugins I installed. Thanks for the reminder….
sweet!
Just purchased the Standard Theme, and am now working through all your posts so I set up this thing the RIGHT way.
Items on this post…done and done.
Thanks!
sweet, thanks for your support!
Very helpful post, I’m loving this whole series and the timing is incredible as I’m just starting up a third blog, this time on wordpress.org I do have a question about the API key, I already have two wordpress.com blogs, can I use the same API key for my third blog, the wordpress.org one? I still have to migrate the other two but I want to get the new one up and running first…
Absolutely. You can use the API keys as many times as you like.
Thanks Kevin, big help. I did use it and it worked just fine.
kevin is rather helpful, isn’t he?
thx for being awesome.
Loving this series! Uber helpful to the fledgling bloggers like myself!
you’ll be pro in no time!
I have google analytics running. Can I or should I also have the wp stats? or switch back?
why not have both? i do!