I see that there are many people who comment on blogs without having an avatar displayed with their comments.

For those who do not know, an avatar is that small image displayed at each comment. This can be a picture of yourself or it can be any image you would like to use.

Adding an avatar is very easy and the good news is that you do not have to do it on each blog. You just upload one picture and it will be displayed on most of the blogs you comment on.

This is how you do it…..As I already said, you can use any image as an avatar. Some people prefer a photograph of themselves and others prever to add a picture of their favorite car, flower, etc. A picture of yourself is more personal and readers of your comments can relate to you much better.

You do not have to add your avatar to each blog you visit. Most blog software have a build in function where it will look for your avatar at gravatar.com . You will just add your details to gravatar.com once and your photograph will automaticaly be displayed on most blogs.

To add your photograph as an avatar go to http://www.gravatar.com

Step one
Click the sing up button

Step Two
Enter your email address. The blogs will display the avatar according to the email address you use to register with gravatar.com. So make sure you use the same email address to register here than what you normally enter when commenting on blogs.

Step Three
You will now get a message saying that gravatar.com sent you a confirmation email. It looks something like this

Confirmation email sent!
We’ve sent you an activation email. In the email you’ll find a link that when clicked on will bring you back to the site so you can set your password and create your gravatar.

Go to your email inbox and open the email you received from Gravatar.com

In the email look for a loooong link, click it.

Step Four

You will now be taken back to the gravatar site. Choose a username and password and click the “Sign Up” button.

Step Five
You will now go to the main admin page of Gravatar and you will see a message which says “Whoops, looks like you dont have any images yet! Add one by clicking here!”

Click that links.

Step Six
Now you must select an image. You can either select an image from your PC, image from the internet, from your webcam, etc. Select the option you want to use.

In this example we go for the “My computer’s hard drive” option (Click that link)

Step Seven

You will now be presented with a box with a “Browse” button next to it. Click the browse button to select a picture on your pc or laptop. If your pictures are very big and will take too long to upload, click here to read about an easy way to resize your pictures. When you selected the picture click the next button.

Step Eight

Now your picture has been uploaded and you can crop the picture. An avatar is always square so you have to crop it.

You will see the window below. If you click inside the block you can move it around, if you grab one of the corners and drag it, you can make the block bigger or smaller.

When you finished dragging the block to the desired size and poistion click the “Crop and finish” button.

Step Nine

Now  click the “rate of your picture” block on the next screen. The buttons explains itself, for most of us normal people it will be G-Rated which means that is for the eyes of anybody, children included.
Step Ten

Next you will get a screen asking you to confirm the picture, click the link as indicated in the picture below

Step Eleven
You are done. It will take a couple of minutes before it will work. As long as you use the same email you used to register with gravatar in your blog comments, your picture should show up in most blogs you comment on.

And that is it. Each time when you comment on a blog from now on your picture should show up next to your comment.

4 Responses to “How to Add an Avatar to Your Blog Comments”

1. How to Make Thousands of Dollars Posting Links on Google says:

   June 10, 2009 at 22:32

   Thanks for posting, I’ll definitely be subscribing to your blog.
2. admin says:

   June 9, 2009 at 20:00

   Joseph, above the message you pasted it also said “Please allow 5 to 10 minutes for avatar changes to take effect” I am sure it will show up now when you use it.
3. Joseph Strydom says:

   June 9, 2009 at 16:40

   Pieter I checked that i folowed all the instuctions and all seems to be fine, but still no picture

   I saw this message- What does it mean?
   (Have you cleared your cache?)
   Address: joseph@josephcanhelp.ws
   Hash: 388b69d18d3ce4273515dadf1a5a1ae1
   http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/388b69d18d3ce4273515dadf1a5a1ae1?s=80
4. Joseph Strydom says:

   June 9, 2009 at 16:32

   Hi Pieter
   I registed with http://www.gravatar.com but when i comment on your blog my picture does not show up. I wil try to register again according to your instuctions and try again. It may be the email adress you were aluding to. I have to check if i am using the same one