WordPress101: Using Your Own Custom Gravatar

Gravatar is your own internet identity. It is another great products by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com and many other great products such as VaultPress, VideoPress, Akismet etc. From WordPress Codex page, Gravatar can be defined as:

Gravatars are Globally Recognized Avatars. Integrated into WordPress, Gravatars are an avatar or gravatar is an icon, or representation, of a user in a shared virtual reality, such as a forum, chat, website, or any other form of online community in which the user(s) wish to have something to distinguish themselves from other users.

When you leave a comment on someone’s site, you’ll be inserting your email. When you associate that email with Gravatar, you Gravatar will be shown together with your comment (However the website must be supporting Gravatar). This is great in promoting yourself around the web to create brand awareness.

See on the picture just on left of my name above. That’s the Gravatar I’m currently using.

Today I’m going to show how easy to sign up with Gravatar and have your own custom Gravatar.

1. Sign up with Gravatar.

2. After you’ve done activating your account, click on the link that says “Add One by clicking here” as shown below:

3. Then, choose an image to be uploaded as Gravatar. You may choose from three different locations - Your computer’s hard driver, an image on the internet or use previously uploaded image. For first time users, ignore the last option.

4. Once uploaded, you can crop the image. The image must be cropped to be square in shape. So you might want to upload a square image or simply crop it using the crop feature.

5. Choose the right rating for your newly uploaded Gravatar.

6. Yay! Congrulations, now you’ve successfully registered for your own custom Gravatar. To use it, make sure whenever you want to leave comment on someone’s website, use the same email you use when sign up for Gravatar’s account.