Why Use Gravatar!

Gravatar, an abbreviation for Globally-Recognized Avatar, is a service created by Tom Werner that provides globally-unique avatars. You can register an account based on your email address and upload your avatar to be associated with your account. Whenever you post a comment on blogs that require your email, the blogging software checks whether that e-mail address has an associated avatar at Gravatar. If so, the Gravatar is shown along with the comment.

You can see Gravatar in action on my comments.

Why Use Gravatar

There’s a huge number of WordPress blog using Gravatar on their comments so if commenting is one of your strategies to draw more attention to your blog, then you’ve got to register an account with Gravatar. You sure don’t want a default image to show up right next to your comments. Believe me, it’s ugly and annoying.

1. Gravatar Draws Attention – Leads To More Traffic

Use an interesting Gravatar (humorous, interesting, intriguing or unique) and you might get people who see it become curious. And when they do, they might end up clicking on your link to find out more about you.

2. Gravatar Improves Brand Recognition

Use your own logo as your Gravatar and improve your brand recognition. The more comments you leave on blogs using Gravatar, the more attention is drawn to your logo.

3. Gravatar Makes You Famous

Use your best face pic as your Gravatar then comment to as many blogs as you can. This will help you get noticed. Believe me, people do click on links in comments with good looking Gravatar. It’s worked for me all the time (wink wink). And who knows, you might be discovered and be America’s next top model.

4. Gravatar Helps You Sell Your Product

Use a picture of your product as your Gravatar and build your product awareness. Work on designing your Gravatar to make it as appealing as possible then leave your comments to relevant blog posts and you’re on your way to boosting your income.

5. Gravatar Lets You Express Yourself

Use your dog’s picture as your Gravatar to tell the world you love dogs. Use Jennifer Alba’s photo to tell the world you love her… or you look alike. Use your girlfriend’s photo to show the world you’re a proud boyfriend. Or simply use the Marine Corps logo to tell the world you are one of them. But before you do so, make sure you check Gravatar’s terms of use.

As for myself, I’m using my website’s logo. This is suitable for several reasons, one being to promote my website and increase awareness of my brand.

What about you? Do you have a Gravatar? What image do you use?