Ever wonder why some people’s profile pictures show up alongside comments they leave on other blogs?
Those folks are using a free service called Gravatar — which simply means “Globally Recognized Avatar.”
Gravatar associates your email address with your profile pic. Other sites (such as WordPress blogs) can then query the Gravatar service and say, “Hey, I have this email address…you got a picture to go with it?” Some WordPress themes and plugins, such as many of the ones from WooThemes, use them, too.
Setting this up takes just a couple of minutes, so head on over to Gravatar and create a free account. (If you already have a WordPress.com account, you can use that to log in). Then follow the steps to specify an email address and a profile pic to go with it. You can set up multiple email accounts (each with a different picture, if you want), so you only have to create one Gravatar account. Nice.
Even if your own site doesn’t use Gravatars (I’m looking at you, Blogger), it’s still a good idea to set this up for yourself — so when you leave comments on other blogs, your smiling mug will show up right along with them.
Testing to see if my effort to secure a gravitar worked…
Hmm… Not yet… 🙁
It may take a few minutes for it to show up. Did you just set it up?
No and I tried again with choosing the photo from my file. Not sure what to do next – but you know me. I will struggle with it. Yes, I have Word Press…
Wrong email selected – let’s try this…
Whaddya know, it woiked!
Blog tutoring advice: releasing a blog about blogging and opening it to the world before you have a good amount of quality posts = bad idea. I found you through PGEW
Nice gravatar.
Do you have an opinion about a gravitar that is an icon or graphic symbol over a human face. I (obviously) chose an icon for my blog because I don’t feel my face is “iconic”! HA! That’s funny! Merry Christmas and I’ll see you in the new year. GREG
Hey Greg! I think your (smiling) face is the best way to go (same for a twitter profile pic). My reasoning is that people respond better to faces (even if they’re not all that iconic) than to icons or graphics, and if your blog is really about your voice and your story, then people want to see who’s behind all the writing.
Happy holidays to you, too, and hope to see you in January! 🙂