What’s a Gravatar?

No, this isn’t a post about the movie Avatar (I haven’t even seen it).

This post is about how to add a picture/gravatar (globally recognized avatar) to your blog comments. Not sure if you’ve noticed when reading comments on a blog you love, but attached to each comment is either a randomly generated image or a picture of the person leaving the comment. When I first saw that I thought, “Hey, I want my photo next to my comments too! How do I do that?” When I learned they were called gravatars I must admit I rolled my eyes. I thought “comment picture” made more sense, but then again, what do I know.

If you’ve got 3 minutes you can set one up for yourself free here and then any time you leave a comment on anyone’s blog (including your own) you’re photo will go with it. Not only does this make the writer(s) for a blog cheerful to see the faces of their readers, but it’s also a way you can start becoming part of the blogging community. People will recognize you, and if you leave interesting comments, people will be more apt to check out what you’re working on by visiting your blog, Etsy shop, twitter account, etc.