A Gravatar (Globally Recognised Avatar) is an image attached to an email address (or multiple email addresses) that follows you around the web. The purpose of this is to easily identify you when you write comments on blogs, forums, social networks or anywhere else that supports the Gravatar icon. The most common usage is blog comments.
Gravatars are actually a really good way to get yourself known or build a brand on the web as people easily absorb images they repeatedly see. They work so much better than a signature.
How Gravatar works
You create an account with Gravatar using any email address and upload a photo/image to the account. Whenever you comment on a blog post using the email address registered with Gravatar, the image you uploaded at Gravatar is visible next to the comment.
The company behind Gravatar is Automattic. Automattic is also behind WordPress. The three companies go hand in hand and is the main reason why Gravatars are used so widely across all versions of WordPress blogs (self hosted, VIP and WordPress.com hosted)
How to set up and account and create a Gravatar
You can sign up here or read the rest of this post if you would like to view the process.
Step 1
The first thing to do is enter the email address you want to use. This will typically be the email address you use when you add comments, register for forums etc, but it doesn’t have to be, as you can add multiple email accounts to your Gravatar account.
When you have received the confirmation email and clicked the confirmation link, you will see this screen:
Step 2
Follow the on-screen instructions and choose your username carefully – you will not be able to change it later. Hit the check button to check the availability of the username you would like to use. Once you are happy with everything, enter your password and hit Signup.
If everything has gone according to plan you will see a screen like this:
Step 3
At this stage you can either 1) Add a new email address to your account or 2) Add the photo/image you would like to use for your Gravatar. For the sake of this tutorial I am going add an image.
Click on Add one by clicking here and you will see this:
Step 4
As this is the first image you can discount the last option. Choose from either of the first three, whichever best suits your setup, and follow the onscreen instructions. When your image is uploaded you’ll see this:
Step 5
At this stage you can crop the image if you wish too. I have used a random image from my hard drive for illustration purposes (I am going to delete this account later).
I’ve decided to crop it. This is what the page looks like before I confirm the crop:
Once cropped (or not) you will see something like this:
Step 6
On this page you can give your Gravatar a rating. I have to admit I am not sure how this is implemented across blogs and forums, but, for most people, it’s not really going to matter as their Gravatar is generally family friendly.
Once rated, you will see this:
That’s it. You now have a Gravatar that will appear whenever you comment on a blog and use your registered email address.
If you want to add additional email addresses to your account click on the add a new email link and enter the email address you would like to add.
The official Gravatar video:
