What IS That Weird Picture Next to My Comment, Anyway?

You may have noticed when you comment on a blog, that a weird picture shows up next to your comment. But somehow other people get to have pretty pictures. I used to wonder why THEY got nice things and all I got was a weird monster that looked like this:

or a gray-out person like this

or maybe a pretty quilty design like these.

The answer is…. The Gravatar. The word Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatar. Your Gravatar is a picture that is linked to your email address. If you want a Gravatar, just go here and enter your email address. The Gravatar website will ask you to sign in with WordPress. You do not have to have a blog or even any desire to write a blog to do this. If you don’t have a blog, you WILL need to create a new WordPress account and get the email address verified through them. There will be links telling you where to go and what to do. It’s easy.

Once you have a Gravatar account, you can add an image. It can be something off your computer’s hard drive or something you find on the internet. Suddenly, you, too, will have a pretty graphic next to your comment! On your Gravatar account you can add as much or as little information as you want.

I just went through the steps using a throwaway email address and will add a comment with a butterfly Gravatar underneath this post. Try it! I think you’ll like it!

Get your Gravatar here.