One of my readers emailed me to ask how some people’s pictures show up next to their comments on my blog, as well as others. Since I’d just love to see more of your pictures, I thought I’d answer here. It’s really pretty simple.
Sign up for a free account at www.gravatar.com. (Gravatar is short for Globally Recognized Avatar, which is an image that follows you around when you post on sites that are gravatar-enabled.- Add any email addresses that you use when commenting on blogs. A confirmation email will be sent to each account, with a link to activate it on your Gravatar account.
- Upload images from your hard drive, or enter the image URLs if they already appear on a website.
- Choose a rating for your image (G, PG, R or X). Hopefully any photo you’re using professionally will be G-rated, but if for any reason it is not, this will prevent your naughty picture from showing up on a family-friendly blog.
- Assign an image to each email address. Whenever you post to a gravatar-enabled blog using that email address, your picture will magically appear next to your comment.
The process is even easier if you’re using only one email address and one picture.
Go ahead, try it, then leave a comment here so we can all see what you look like!
By the way, if you’re interested in having gravatars show up in your own blog comments, the process depends on what platform you’re using, but you should be able to find all the information you need at http://en.gravatar.com/site/implement.
Janet, on windy or humid days, I can’t say any photo of my hair would be G-rated. On bad-weather days, my hair is a horror movie of epic proportions.
But thanks for this. I’ll go wander off to Gravatar with the one photo of perfectly (if momentarily) coifed hair, and see how it works.
And now…let’s see if it works!
There’s Julie – yay!
Ahhhhh; I’ve always wondered about this . Great info Janet.
I’m about to find out if it works.
Drum roll please.
Yup! It does.
Lookin’ good!
Janet, thanks for the heads up about Gravatar! COOL! I am now officially GRAVATIZED!
~Monica
Trying out your instructions for creating an avatar for comments.
OK…2nd attempt
Janet,
Have account at gravator. Not sure why image doesn’t display.
Katrina, that’s too bad.
Is it possible your gravatar account is connected to a different email address than you used here?
Way to go Monica! Always happy when I can teach a pro something!
I don’t mind gravatars – as long as I don’t have to show my entire face
LOL Melodee – you and my sister Kathy make a good pair (she didn’t comment here, but you’ve probably seen her on other posts).