Sometimes the universe nudges you to write about a specific topic, and that is what happened to me today. I had several people ask me how to get their avatar to show up next to the comments they write on this blog. Then, my dear friend @krystynchong sent me a direct message on Twitter specifically suggesting that I write about this since so many people just don’t know. So, here we are.
There are several different ways that blogs recognize avatars. The most popular one and the one that is considered to be the standard is Gravatar. In order to get your avatar to show up, you’ve got to “Go get yourself a Gravatar!”
This process is very simple and very easy. It takes less than five minutes. Just go to http://en.gravatar.com and click on the button that says, “Get your Gravatar today”. This next step is very important. It will ask you to enter your email address, but you must be sure to enter the same email address that you use when making blog comments. This part of the process is critical. Then you’ll simply upload the avatar you’d like to use. It will let you crop it and size it as you see necessary so it looks good in that little square.
Next is when the magic happens and I can’t even pretend to understand how it works. From now on, when you leave a blog comment, your Gravatar image will automatically follow you there and post a picture next to your comment. How does it do that? How does it know? I have no idea, I just know it is super cool and it works.
I recommend using the same avatar that you use on Twitter and your other social media sites since your blog comments are an extension of your personal brand.
If you leave comments regularly on blog articles and you have a Gravatar combined with your Twitter username in the text, I promise you will notice an increase in followers. That is how a lot of us find fun and interesting people that we’d like to get to know.
Every once in a while, and it doesn’t happen often, but Gravatar will not include your photo. If that happens, just know it is a glitch with Gravatar and you may want to upload your photo again to fix it.
Good luck and I hope this information is helpful!
Thank you to http://www.flickr.com/photos/13772049@N05/1415288390 for the creative avatar main photo in this article!
