If you want to strengthen your personal brand through blogging, it’s important to remember that you’re not only building your reputation by what you post on your blog, but by the comments you post on other blogs as well. You want people to be able to connect with you even in the comments section, which is why it’s so important to have a good avatar. Most savvy bloggers know how important it is to use their picture when they comment on a site, but some folks have not yet caught on. With so many people using their face as their avatar on social media websites, it’s really noticeable (and off-putting) when you see someone with a shady photo or worse, no avatar at all. A quick and easy remedy for this is to get a “gravatar,” which is simply a globally recognized avatar that shows up long with your comment on blog sites. According to the official Gravatar site:
Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site?
Today’s assignment
If you haven’t already, sign up with Gravatar to get a free account where you can upload your avatar to show up when you post blog comments. Showing your picture is a great way to build recognition and interest for what you have to say. Need more proof of why you should have one? Hivelogic offers a fantastic discussion on why your avatar matters.
Let us know about your Gravatar experience in the comments. How did you choose which photo to use for your avatar?
Done and so easy! Very happy I'll have a face next to all my comments now
right.. avatars and good comments is really matters!
test 2
testing
I signed up but I guess it depends on where I am signing in. I hate creating new accounts. Discus links with Yahoo so even though I changed my avatar on yahoo, it's still using an old one. I added my main yahoo email as well don't know if that will change things.
Woo done! Meant to do this for a while, so thanks for the little nudge in this direction!
I am just like ArtDeal. I've been using a Gravatar since I started my blog. As “Elle” is my “alter ego”, I'm not using my actual picture, but a cartoon. I have the same avatar on my Twitter account as well. Maybe one day I'll let people see me, but I like the idea of no one “knowing” who I am…unless you know me personally!
You have to make sure you sign in with the same email that you used to set up your gravatar account. I have two emails and I have to be careful to use the right one or else my gravatar won't show up.
I think I will just stick to the signing into my Twitter account to comment which works on most blogs/sites. I don't like the idea of signing up with so many different accounts/services that I will never remember.
You may also need to sign up for a Disqus Profile if your blog isn't using Disqus commenting system.
Argh, but it didn't show up! Am I doing something wrong?
Just added one to my profile. I'm glad I did it– it gives a visual image to my name.
I love using avatars. I agree that I tend to give shady pics (or pic at all) the side-eye. Even if you're afraid to show your face, put something there so that folks don't think you're a spammer.
It seems depending on how I sign in a different name (Twitter or full name) and avatar will show up. Every blog uses different comment applications so I'm not sure if that helps recognition. Somenone on twitter asked me to change my avatar back, after a recent change. Because he said that avatars for him were like visual cues as to who the person was. When I changed mine it threw him off and it took him a moment to figure out how he knew me.
It seems depending on how I sign in a different name (Twitter or full name) and avatar will show up. Every blog uses different comment applications so I'm not sure if that helps recognition. Somenone on twitter asked me to change my avatar back, after a recent change. Because he said that avatars for him were like visual cues as to who the person was. When I changed mine it threw him off and it took him a moment to figure out how he knew me.
I am glad to see I am ahead on this assignment, been using Gravatar for a while now. I also sign up for a Disqus profile so I can have the same image attachment to my comment until I move my blog comment system to Disqus.
I am glad to see I am ahead on this assignment, been using Gravatar for a while now. I also sign up for a Disqus profile so I can have the same image attachment to my comment until I move my blog comment system to Disqus.