Here’s a little tiny lesson with big huge potential to save you from spam on your blog.  The plugin akismet comes pre-installed with your wordpress blog.  You just have to activate it.  Activating it is easier said than done though.  So take notes:

Akismet is a plugin that is automatically installed with wordpress. It’s that important. It’s your main line against spam. Spammers target your comments and can really clog things up. Not to mention a lot of comment spam is totally inappropriate. Viagra, anyone?

Until you give Askimet an API key, wp-admin will repeatedly remind you that you need to activate akismet.

1) Click the “activate akismet” link. You’ll see that it wants an API key.

2) You can pay for the commercial key or you can get one from a wordpress.com account (click HERE for info on the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org). If you want to get it from a wordpress.com account, create one & log in. Oh yeah, it’s a hassle but it’s totally necessary and worth it. Promise.

3) Go to “my account” and grab the API key.

4) Go back to your wp-admin and enter the key.