Before I go on with this post, I want to again thank Joe Siegler for the incredible amount of help he’s given me in setting up this WordPress website. Please click on the highlighted link to see just one of the sites he’s put together. He has the patience of a saint when it comes to dealing with a newbie like myself.

That said, I did go out and find a few things on my own. One is an anti-spam program called CleanTalk. If you scroll down and look on the right side of the page, you’ll see a stat counter showing how many spam contacts it has blocked since installation. It doesn’t look like many, I know, but what goes on behind the scenes is what has me convinced that CleanTalk is a worthwhile investment.

First, it’s constantly being updated (as far as I’ve seen). The developer stays on top of issues and corrects any that pop up as soon as he can. Good maintenance usually equals good software, and in this case it’s true.

Second, it doesn’t rely on Captcha codes. You’ve seen them—the things at the bottom of a comment, contact, or sign-up form that force you to read goofy-looking letters or decipher bad photos of street numbers on houses. I’m not 100% sure how he does it, but the author of CleanTalk has managed to do away with these.

Finally, it has a wonderful feature called a SpamFireWall. This uses outside information to keep potential spammers from even getting close to your site. You wouldn’t believe the number of hits I’ve had from China.

If you’re asking, “Why not use Akismet? It comes with WordPress, and it’s free.” Well, I would (and in fact you can use both if you’re really going on a security jag), but I find CleanTalk easier to deal with. It’s truly plug & play.

“But what about the cost?” You’re right, it’s not free, but it’s so inexpensive that a delivered pizza almost costs twice as much. I’m paying $8 a year to have access to their security cloud. Money well spent, I say.

When you get a minute, go over to the CleanTalk website and look around. I think you’ll like what you see.