If you have ever been reading your favorite blogs and wonder how their authors and commenters get those little square pictures to appear next to their comments, you should get yourself a Gravatar – (short for Globally Recognized Avatars).
Gravatars allow you to to link a little square image to your email address, so that whenever you post a comment to a blog post – using your email address – the picture automatically appears. The site you are posting the comment on must have Gravatars enabled for them to display. Most WordPress powered sites (like this one) are Gravatar-friendly. Gravatars are also “MPAA” rated, so site owners can screen out ones that aren’t suitable for their audiences.
So how do you get one? It’s really really easy to do! The hardest part is deciding what your image should be. Next, simply visit Gravatar.com and sign up with your email address. After verifying your address, you can log in and upload your image. The image doesn’t have to be presized or cropped – once you upload the picture there is a simple tool that makes cropping easy, and the sizing is done on their end… no image editing software needed.
If you comment on blogs frequently, this is a free, easy and fun way to reinforce your brand – or just add some visual pizazz to your comments! Comment here and take your new Gravatar for a spin!
There's good and there's great, it took me one time to realize that Mary of ProVirtual falls into the great category. If you are looking to hire a professional for web management or technical support, then I highly recommend Mary of ProVirtual Solutions. Before connecting with Mary, I was stuck trying to make changes to my website that other VA's and partners had created for me. I had limited knowledge and found myself highly co-dependent on my VA's service - even for the smallest changes. This cost me time and money. Right from the moment of hire, Mary walked me step by step on each of my projects. I walked away from each consultation feeling empowered and motivated to take on the next level of my projects. Mary is prompt, thorough and highly professional. Mary has been extremely patient with me and of all my appreciation for Mary, one thing that stands out the most is her ability to fully communicate her abilities, help me find resources if she's unable to do something and her communication around the project's management. This alone extends me the trust needed to know I'm not wasting money on unnecessary resources and that my projects will be taken care of; freeing me of time to do what I do best. Thank you Mary for everything!