This post is part of a series on That INDIE Dude called “Uber-YOU” - all about using web 2.0 and other connected technologies for the greatest impact and productivity possible!

Ever complete that perfect comment on a controversial news story or blog entry, only to see your comment popup with this little nondescript icon next to it?

It can be a frustrating thing, especially when others in the same comment block have their own pictures.  How did they get them?!!  The comment entry didn’t ask for a picture!!! 

Well, here’s the secret: Gravatars.

Step-by-step instructions on never going faceless again after the “read more”.

It definitely makes an impact to have a nice color picture of YOU next to your posts, and I’ve had countless people asking me how.  Now, instead of sending them instructions, I’m just going to send them to this post.

First things first: this isn’t universal.

There are other servers of “virtual avatars”, but Gravatar is the most popular, and totally free.

Also, while nearly all popular blogging platforms either come with built-in support for gravatars (Wordpress) or plug-in support (Joomla, Expression Engine, Drupal, MovableType, TextPattern, Blogger, etc), some websites choose to not take advantage of the feature.  They might have their own avatar hosting (in which you’ll have to sign up for an account with them and submit your pic there), or they might just not display avatars at all.

But, for the MILLIONS of blogs, online magazines, and news sites that do support gravatars (including That INDIE Dude) here’s the 5 minute identity fix:

1) Scoot on over to http://en.gravatar.com .

2) Click sign-up and fill in your e-mail address.  Note:  This is the e-mail address that you’ll have to use for your comments if you want your avatar to show up!  Don’t worry though : you can add more e-mail addresses later.

3) Find your confirmation e-mail — click the link!

4) Fill in the info to create your account.

5) Add a new picture!
 

6) You can add multiple pictures (avatars) AND multiple e-mails to associate those avatars with.

 

7) Congrats!  Now when you leave a comment on a Gravatar enabled site with an e-mail address from your gravatar account, you’ll BE SEEN!  The awesome thing about Gravatar is you NEVER have to touch that account login again if you don’t want to change your picture.  Just set it, and forget it.

Want to test out your new gravatar?  No prob — just leave a comment below.  Let’s get as many gravatars down there as we can!

If you have any questions, hit the comments or drop me a line.

Tags: gravatars, productivity, uber-you, web 2.0

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Indie Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.