Aha!

I’ve now added comment spam protection to this news area and enabled public commenting. Have at it!

The main method I used to eliminate comment spam was to simply rename my wp-comments-post.php and update any references to that page. Supposedly, this will stop almost all comment spam.

As an added measure, I installed the Math Comment Spam Protection Plugin. It’s simple enough in its usage and will add another layer of protection.

Finally, I enabled Akismet. That should do for now.

I also installed the Simple Trackback Validation Plugin to stop trackback abuses, and the fabulous Google Sitemaps Generator to keep Google (and friends) abreast of changes to my content.

If you are interested in other (free) webmaster tools, check out the actual Google Sitemaps toolset and Google Analytics. Nothing out there is comparable while still being this easy to use, as far as I know.