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!