Before I get to in depth I would like to quickly revise what I will be getting into. There are three main things your users need for your community go grow. The first and foremost is allowing your users to contribute, the second is community rank and social status. The third and final topic is generating something to get their attention.
contribution
Allowing users to contribute is really needed, not only does it increase the amount of data in your site but it will give your users more things to do and or read when they are visiting your site. The more content that your site consists of will increase your page rank on larger search engines. User contributions also adds to another main point which is user rank and social status and it does this by giving you (the admin) the ability to decide who is a good enough poster for a promotion, the ability to write a blog post or become a moderator etc.. One of the biggest reasons to allow user contributions is that it gives potential users something to go through and the possibility to become a part of something.
Social status and rank
So now that your users are given the ability to contribute you may now proceed to social status and member rank. Everyone wants to feel important and this is your way to give something to the community. Whether you name the points cookies or Kudos (Reference to Dream.In.Code) you should have it originally named or based on the theme of your site. How you base the point system is entirely up to you but keep in mind that you will be receiving some rather large numbers if you decide to hand out 5 points per post. The method that I prefer to give out is 0.1 per post and 1 point for something larger. (ie. Discussion starter, Tutorial, Popular Blog Post) Rewards and bonus’ are a nice way to reward members also try giving out ranks and titles to the members of your community, they love that kind of thing. As users progress through the ranks they should be able to progress through the community and unlock new abilities such as moderate posts, mark as spam, rate content and try making a verified quality post area on the main page or a spotlight post section where top contributors that deliver quality posts have a place to shine.
Quality of content
The final thing needed to create a community is something to catch new users attention. This can be anything from quality posts to contests to freebies/giveaways. Another thing that gets new users attention are some sleek looking graphics and a well thought out layout. For example one of the highest density click populations on a blog is the top of the right side bar. This is a good place to place internal site links to catch the eyes of people that are interested in similar topics. It is better to promote your own site and your own content rather then to have space wasted for advertisements, especially if your site doesn’t have a lot of visitors.
Now that you know the basic concepts of how to draw in users, get them to stay and support your community, there are only a few more things needed. The first is user input, this can drastically change the way you think about layouts and the content that your site provides. The second is search engine optimization, this will actually bring people into your site from the search engines. The final thing needed is a good idea. Your site isn’t going to get off the ground if it doesn’t have a good idea and motivated people behind it.
Caleb Jonasson
Stop Spammers From Attacking Your WP Blog
Introduction
More and more users on WordPress are getting spammed and now I have a few tips on how to prevent this from happening to you. There are two general ways that people have their blogs set up one is more reliable then the other. the first setup is where users don’t need to log in and all that is provided is a username, email and a website is optional. The second setup requires the reader to register prior to submitting a comment on anything. This is the more secure method to choose from.
Setup Number One
The first setup has some flaws but the spammers can be prevented. WordPress is setup so that once a poster has been approved through its IP address they will be accepted in the system. When they are accepted the users can post without being manually accepted. Because of this you should hold the comments for moderation for up to two days. There are some signs as to suspicious user activity these signs consist of posts that have a site end with anything other then the regular .com, .org etc. Also if the email has a lot of one letter repeating then it is most likely a spammer. The reason you want to wait multiple days before accepting posts from a user is so you can check the IP address coming from multiple posters. Generally if someone posts multiple times on the same blog post and they are not contributing anything to a discussion they are spammers who picked up on a permanent link and are monitoring the posts to see if they have gotten through just by posting and being accepted into the system.
The Second Setup
In this setup your users must register to your blog and fill out their username and password. It is much more secure because the spammers are more likely going to just find another blog rather then waste their time trying to get a post worthy account. I recommend going with this setup if you have something to offer regular users, However it may be best to keep the first setup until your community begins to grow. Without a community you are just going to have a blog with no discussions and/or comments.
Stop The Spam
There are some methods that you can use to prevent spam from happening. The first best thing that you can do is install Akismet. This is a WordPress plugin that checks your comments against the Akismet web service. This will check to see if the comment is spam or not. The only downfall is that you will require a WordPress API key. These are easy enough to get your hands, you just need to visit the WordPress site. Another method is to open up your admin page, locate the settings area on the left sidebar, click discussion. Now fill in the comment moderation as you see fit. On blacklist I have set the yandex.ru mail service because the only page requests from Russia are all spam related. Within the moderation section you should enter in all of the bad words you can think of. Another way to stop spam is to install yet another plugin. Math Comment Spam is a plugin that requires the user to answer a simple math equation before posting a comment. This stops a lot of spammers in their tracks but there are some that do get by. This plugin is a little annoying to install because it requires that you modify the comment or post page within your theme. There are step by step instructions on achieving this. The final thing that you can do to prevent spam is moderate the comments properly and use your best judgement. Don’t immediately accept positive feedback just because it is there. This is how spammers work. They gain your trust and then fill your database up with spam.