Have a Blog? Then You Need a Gravatar
Grab your favorite picture, or you can even create a logo for yourself using software like Adobe Photoshop or one of the more affordable alternatives. Load the image on your computer as a .jpeg, .gif, or .png file and sign up for an account with Gravatar and upload the image. Ok, now you can relax.
Correction, make that – In Blogging and in Business, You need a Gravatar
Gravatar is a trusted site brought to you by Automattic, the same think-tank responsible for WordPress, WordPress.com, Intense Debate, Akismet and Poll Daddy just to name a few. However, the real reason I say you can relax is because now you have started to build your reputation on social networks and around the rest of the blogosphere. As a business owner, establishing an identity for your brand is imperative! Use your company logo or your personal photo to connect your brand with something tangible that will leave a lasting impression on potential clients and colleagues.
Building a Reputation is Good for Your Brand
If there were such a thing as “Blogging Police” then this would be the line-up of everyone suspected of crimes against the blogosphere!
Funny story – yesterday I left a comment on someone's blog and you can't imagine the guilt I felt when I showed up as Mystery Man. I instantly developed a migraine when I looked up and saw that grey silhouetted image next to a nice juicy comment I had just posted on a well respected blog. Well, maybe this is not such a funny story after all, but I did figure out what went wrong – I used a new email address.
Bad, bad blogger! Shame on me.
UPDATE: Here are detailed instructions on creating an account with Gravatar from Pete Carr over at BloggingGenius called Stop Hiding | Get a Gravatar and Reveal Yourself
In this video I introduce you to the Google Chrome extension for Gmail called socialGmail. This extension will display your Gravatar on Gmail in Chrome. When someone has installed the SocialGmail extension for Chrome your Gravatar will appear in the listing and when they open your email!
Your email address is always required when you leave a comment, and one of the advantages of you leaving a valid email address, by the way, the very same email address that is on your Gravatar account is so that you will be recognized by the system. Don't worry, you can add more than one email address to your account. So after today, if you ever appear as the Mystery Man or that darling little MonsterID at least you'll know why.
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You hit the nail on the head ileane having a gravatar is good i believe it not only build reputation but it also builds trust with it. valuable advice we must take note.
Gary, when I see your gravatar on various social sites I know it’s you so I had better pay close attention.
Gravatar helps alot in blogging promotion. You will get more hits on your blog link if the gravatar is looking cool one.
Similarly every one will know you when you post a comment in a blog.
Tech, you have a really awesome logo for your gravatar, do you mind saying who designed it for you?
The gravatar I use for this blog was designed by our friend Cindy from BloggerLuv. She did a great job of giving me just what I wanted.
hey Ileane, thanks for the mention… the logo looks great on you and it stands out 🙂
Its nice to see what people look like and its easy to remember them.
I agree completely! I know when I recognize someone’s gravatar as someone that I’ve seen blog or comment in a thoughtful manner, I immediately give more credence to the topic. I need to update mine, but I don’t want it to be so different that it’s not recognizable.
Hi Christine, first I’d like to say welcome to Basic Blog Tips! I think you could make the change in stages. Like start off with Twitter or other social networks one at a time and make sure you let your followers know that you have a new avatar. I just visited your blog and I’d say your pretty unforgettable either way 😉
Thanks for your visit.
Gravatars are a must if you are going to be doing a lot of commenting. It takes just a couple minutes to go get one. You are nuts if you don’t get one. Great advice.
I hope you like my ultra-fancy KB Gravatar….
Hey Kathy,
I met someone a couple of weeks ago that didn’t have one. Poor thing was pretty disappointed that he wasn’t getting any traffic to his blog so he asked for my advice. I suggested that he get a Gravatar and I would have dedicated this post to him but I haven’t noticed him online since. My guess is that he is re-branding his site and shopping around for a logo, or he just gave up. I’m really hoping that he didn’t give up.
You have to start somewhere and getting a Gravatar is a good first step.
Thanks for the visit – we really do have a lot in common don’t we?
No doubt, registering at Gravatar is a must. I had a similar situation once and wondered what had happened because I have always had an account there. Turns out I misspelled my email. LOL
I would also add that the photo or logo should be left in place to establish your brand, unlike some of the picture of the week types you see on Facebook. You want to become instantly recognizable which can be difficult with frequent changes of the image. The occasional upgrade is fine but again, this should not be a frequent occurrence.
LOL – This is unbelievable. Typo in my email. Goes to illustrate my point. 😉
Don’t worry brotha I got your back! I fixed the email and your original comment has appeared. 😉
Thanks!
Good lookin out. 🙂
Hi Jimi, welcome to my new domain! Preach on.
When I started with my WordPress blog, I was not aware that I was using different email ids for WP and Gravatar. So when I was commenting on other blogs, everything was fine. But when I was commenting as the admin on my blog, the Gravatar wasn’t showing. So I used to log out and comment…LOL.
I won’t say anything about the importance of Gravatar…the previous commenters have said it all.
Sourav, just remember you can add multiple emails to the same gravatar but if you have different gravatars (like I do now) then you’ll have to log out. I have to do the same thing here if I want my new Basic Blog Tips gravatar to appear on CommentLuv. Sometimes I respond to comments from the dashboard and skip CommentLuv 🙂
Yes, now I know. But at that time I was completely a newbie (tensed and lacking confidence). So I didn’t know so much about WordPress, Gravatar, CommentLuv and other things.
I am still a newbie, but I have learnt a lot…thanks to you and some other helpful bloggers. 🙂
Sourav, I’m glad you find some of the tips here helpful. Let me know if you have questions about other topics that you would like to see featured here. Thank you.
Gravatar is also my problem, my last one is really a big failure as many people don’t like it or don’t know what it is. Maybe this is the reason why my traffic from referring sites is very low.
Your new blog looks great, frankly I don’t like your old blogs on WordPress.com and blogspot. 🙂
Hi Tek3D, thanks for the comment and the candid feedback. I hope that my content continues to live up to the premise of the new blog. 🙂
Gravatars the the bomb! Gotta love them (except when we do silly things like change email addresses!) I gotta say that sometimes brands are okay but I’m really partial to personal image gravatars when I’m building a personal relationship with someone. We’re visual creatures and while we can blog “as our brand” it really can take some of the personal element out of it too. That may just be me though, LOL!
Kimberly
Hi Kim, that’s an interesting point of view. You’re right, everyone should think about their own goals and what they are trying to achieve to make the best use of the tools like Gravatar and Google Profiles.
Ileane i personally designed this logo. Thanks for liking it.
Agreed. Building a reputation or establishing a brand is by identifying yourself properly with a human image or a logo that reflects yourself and not one of those tiny little monsters up there (cute though, lol). Creating an avatar not only achieves that, it also ensures that you are a valid user and not just a spam bot, where in almost all cases never have a gravatar. Good reminder for those who for some reason are still not using this functionality.
Hi DiTesco, thanks for the good feedback.
Heya Ileane,
I’m really enjoying your virtual space. It has that minimalist vibe that I crave. I’ve always been a fan of Gravatar, and tend to use the same one, even when posting from my various sites. I’ve always been a fan of pictures since I enjoy connecting a “real person” to their virtual spots.
Gravatar will help you stand out of the crowd and it also help bring more traffic to your blog through commenting. Blog owners and readers will rather trust you than non-gravatar readers 🙂
Tinh, I like your gravatar. It’s really cute. I bet you’re not that innocent any more though. 🙂
One more thing which you can do is add default gravatar as your blog logo. So when a commentator who doesn’t have a gravatar, instead of that blank blue gravatar it will show your blog logo and it will increase more brand awareness….
Hey Harsh, thanks for that tip! Do you have a tutorial that shows us how to set that up? Please send me a link and I’ll update the post with it.
I do really like to use gravatar because it can make a comment to be well presented and it’s like having an identity. And also if you have a customize picture on your gravatar it can also add an aesthetic feature to a blog site. It’s more organize with a gravatar!
You’re absolutely right. Thanks for your input.
Thanks for the blog post, really loved the line up of “mystery men”. I’ve just blogged about the topic of Gravatars myself, to help spread the word – it’s amazing how many people still aren’t aware of this simple tool to increase your credibility.
Hi Matthew, welcome to Basic Blog Tips. I see we have a lot in common and I’ll be visiting your site soon to read some of your posts. Thanks!
Avatar is beneficial . If you dont have a gravatar , you surely might be considered as spammer 😛
But using your pic can be really risky in biosphere , it poses dangerous risk as someone can copy and use it anywhere . Not like facebook , where only your friends can see ! What say ? However a pic resembling you might just rock the blogosphere 😉
Branding is not about having your target market to decide on you over your competition, but it really is about getting your prospects to determine you as the only one that offers a solution to their problem. The outward expression of a brand, comprises its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance. Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects.
Branding is a lot more than a marketing desire. For me actually branding is an outcome of just good plain business common sense. Nonetheless, it is often seen as a driver rather than an outcome. The act of associating a product or service with a brand is part of pop culture. Most products have some kind of brand identity, from common table salt to designer jeans.
Additionally there is Attitude branding which is the choice to represent a larger feeling, which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption of the product at all.
It’s crucial you spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. All things considered your brand is the source of a guarantee to your consumer.
Gravatar do help in branding ones blog but at same time when number of comments increase it will increase the page load time. As each image will send separate request to server, if 30 comments then 30 request which is not good.
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Thanks for this. I really like what you’ve posted here and wish you the best of luck with this blog!
I suggest this site to my friends so it could be useful & informative for them also. Great effort.
I totally agree with you, Gravatar is play very crucial role for promoting blog and also help to introduce him self as a blogger. But for this promotion it requires regular commenting on different blogs.
Hi Jenny, thanks for the comment. I see that you are part of the CommentLuv community so you are getting the most out of CommentLuv enabled blogs that you visit. Good job!
I totally agree with you, unless some one is not commenting on regular basis he can’t take full advantage of Gravatar.
Usually I do not post comments on blogs, but I would like to say that this blog really forced me to do so! Thanks,for a really nice read.
Does that mean you’re going to sign up for a Gravatar? I hope so 🙂
By creating your Gravatar will have a consistent brand image next to your comments. This helps provide fast and professional recognition in these sites. It is a technique that allows your comments to highlight.
Now that’s the spirit Jessie! Thanks for chiming in. Your Gravatar looks pretty awesome!
Love the Gravatar. Easy to use and set up for all of your business accounts.
Thanks for the updates also.
If you have your Gravatar now, come back and leave another comment so we can see it 🙂
Ileane nice tutorial, i also agree that gravatar helps in the promotion of a blog.
Shubham, thanks for your comment. I love your Gravatar, although it’s just a little hard to read when it’s small like on comments. I need to visit your blog to see it full size.
I had never heard of gravatars, I am new to the blogosphere but this looks like something I am going to add today!
Thakns for the info
Kevin, I see you went back and added your Gravatar! Bravo!!
Well, I’m convinced. I need to get a gravatar! Thanks for helping.
Yes, it’s important to have some kind of brand and a gravitar is the first step
Hi Tom, did you get Gravatar yet? It’s not showing up – so please be sure to add all of your email addresses to your Gravatar account. Let me know if you need help.
Hi Ileane,
I agree that having an image instead of the mystery man show up is important. Otherwise it looks like you have something to hide.
Also, It is a good idea to use your real name when creating forum profiles as well. Your image and name are your brand so why hide them.
Hi Craig! Thanks for adding your feedback. I agree about using your real name – especially in forums. I’m not sure if people are hiding or if they just don’t know any better 🙂 I guess it’s a little of both right?
Chat soon Craig!
Tried for days to get an image connected with my profile, and was thinking it was OpenID. Then I remembered the “king” – who taught me this trick to begin with. Traffic-is-King to the rescue again! Thanks buddy – you saved me a lot of aggravation. (Should have come to you in the first place! LOL!)
Oki Thanks for the help! I will have to try this gravatar thing out. First step will be to choose a good picture… /Carlos
well after reading the post and all the comments that point to which i have reached is that one must use gravatar it really helps the profile.
I would say it also must for the writer to give his introduction and gravatar. A small photo of your do wonders.
I agree, a picture is great to put a face with the personality.
Sadly when internet is too slow the gravatar just doesn’t show. But the comluv plugin shows them with your comment history.
Thanks,for a really nice read.
I find it so useful to have the same picture as the profile picture on my social sites and my gravatar. All part of creating a cohesive brand.
Thought of using a logo for the gravatar while commenting on other blogs but finally thought that its better to have your own picture than having a picture of the brand.
Bishwajeet, the only time I really use the logo for my gravatar is when I’m commenting here on Basic Blog Tips. But it’s pretty hard for someone to miss that big pic of me over in the sidebar (unless they are on mobile). When I comment on other blogs I always use my photo as the Gravatar.
Ooh! I don’t know where would I be without Gravatar! I mean, it really is one of the best things a blogger could have! But Ileane, can you please tell me what did blogger do before the introduction of gravatar?
Mario,
Before Gravatar, people relied on Google, AOL and Yahoo! profile images.
Totally agree on the Gravatar. Make that personal connection and put on your real face! Many times my Gravatar doesnt show esp if I am writing on my ipad or iphone though. Ideas?
Hi Ileane, thanks for great piece of information, I just need this instruction for the guest blogging contest I’m writing.
Thanks – Ferb
Lol this post made me laugh because I totally did the exact same thing you did once.
I was so embarrassed but I was able to figure everything out eventually.
I would just recommend that those who have a paid web host that offers an email account associated with their domain, go ahead and register that email with gravatar.
This way you won’t forget which email to use when commenting like I did!
this was really helpful for establishing brands. thank you for sharing