That little profile pic that shows up when you comment on blogs – Gravatar How to

How to get an avatar or profile pic to show up when you comment on other people’s blogs

Darned if it didn’t take me some serious searching to figure out how to get the little avatar or profile picture of me to show up in that little box when I make a comment on someone’s blog. One thing you learn in Facebook is that the blank face is not welcome. The first rule on Facebook is to show people who you are. There are probably 300 Peter DeMotts out there and there is one in New York who is no longer for this world who has hundreds of articles and links about his anti war protests in New York. When I make a comment somewhere or if someone sees me on Facebook, I want them to know that I am the Peter DeMott that is still alive and living in Germantown, Ohio and who is a portrait and equine photographer. I want them to know that I love photography and do on location senior portraits all around the greater Dayton, Ohio area. I also want them to know that I am not the anti war protester from New York.

So, I wanted to figure out how to load up that little box with MY PICTURE. I searched WordPress several times. Then I searched the word avatar and looked around. Of course I had to sift through many blogs and web news items about the block buster movie Avatar.

Finally I saw a post by a business blog about the GRAVATAR web site. Gravatar stands for Globally Recognized Avatars. To my surprise, they did not list the web site URL or any instructions about it. It was just a short news item.

Here is what I found when I got there:

Gravatar.com and WordPress.com share the same user database. It’s possible that you registered a WordPress.com account (either for a blog or for an Akismet API key,) which automatically now gives you a Gravatar.com account. If you use your WordPress.com password to log in you should experience no problems using Gravatar. If you cannot remember that password you may use the forgotten password link on the login page to reset your password.

Akismet is a great plugin that eliminates 99.999% of spam comment posts on your blog. If you don’t have that you will be sorting through junk comment posts by the hundreds every day. I had already loaded up Akismet and had gotten an API key, but I never had heard anything about Gravatars. So, once I found this site and logged in, I was able to quickly uploaded a profile pic or avatar and now, where ever I post a comment instead of the blank face avatar, it shows me (not the fellow from New York) and I have a camera in my hands. It was easy once I got my password and logged on. It took a couple of hours for the Gravatar to load up throughout the internet, but when I came back from doing some work outside… I saw some of my comments with my gravatar showing.

You would think that there would be places that explains this stuff, but  there really isn’t. It’s stuff that you pick up little pieces at a time. The one business site that talked about it provided no links or instructions at all. It just explained that you could do it…..How? please. Anyway, if you are wondering where and how, hopefully this post will find you so you too can load up a Globally Recognized Avatar so you will no longer be that blank face thing staring out from your comments.

Here is the GRAVATAR web site: http://en.gravatar.com/

This is me: at http://www.photosbypdemott.com living in Germantown, Ohio

This is NOT me: at http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/21-5 no longer living in New York, but who has very many news stories posted throughout the internet about his anit war activities, arrest and trial, incarceration, and recent death (2009).

The power of pictures in advertising and networking

This morning I went to the AM Centerville Rainmakers business networking meeting. I had the privilege to invite Dave Herlihy to visit and find out more about this group. Dave is the owner of FLOORCO which is a flooring company in Miamisburg just down the road from Interstate Ford.

It was fun to introduce him around to various key contacts for him. A realtor, a builder, a remodeler and others. He left the meeting excited about the Rainmaker model of business oriented social networking.

Dave is well known in our church, Fairhaven here in the Dayton area and I was meeting with him later to discuss advertising in REACH magazine for his flooring company. As we discussed what his ad might look like, I suggested that it would be important to have his picture in the ad. The person who shared at the Rainmakers meeting talked about how she had lost business because people went with someone else saying, “I didn’t know that you did that, I would have called you if I had known.” She explained that she now has 30-40% of her business coming from networking. So in my discussion with Dave, I told him that we did not know (me and Patty, my wife) that his store was also retail flooring. We thought it was just direct to the trades. I suggested that the first thing he would want to do in his ad was to put his picture in it so that all the people who have the same misunderstanding that Patty and I had, would see his face and think of him when they had a flooring need. Many people at Fairhaven, for example, have the same misunderstanding about his business. By the way, Dave is coming to my home to measure our back porch and recommend flooring options for us. I trust Dave and know that as I do my barn studio build out that I will be calling him again.

In today’s business environment, more and more, people like doing business with people they know. Dave knows boatloads of people, but many don’t know they could go directly to him to purchase flooring. My feeling is that since Dave is such a well know and likable fellow, that as soon as we can “get the word out that he sells direct too” he will begin to gain business.

Leaving the Rainmakers meeting with a half dozen or more very good contacts, Dave decided to join Rainmakers on the spot and take advantage of special savings being offered that day. When I met with him to discuss REACH Magazine, the first half of our meeting was spent discussing the Rainmaker networking model. Then we talked about direct mail with REACH Magazine targeting the south part of the Dayton area market.

What does this all have to do with a photography blog? I have helped people in Rainmakers by improving their PROFILE picture on the business networking web sites like LINKEDIN and RAINOHIO. As I have met and gotten to know fellow Rainmakers, I startled one young lady by telling her that her profile picture did not do her any favors in promoting herself. I suggested that at the next meeting I would take a profile photo of her to use. She was a willing candidate, but seemed very skeptical that it would have any impact for her. I sent her several pictures to choose from and she uploaded one as her new profile portrait. The first thing that happened was that she got complements on her new profile portrait almost daily for several weeks. You will have to ask her yourself if it had direct impact on the number of appointments that she was having, but I suspect that it made a lot of difference. For anyone who is on FACEBOOK or LINKEDIN or RAINOHIO with a blank profile (No picture uploaded), you are severely cutting down your potential impact.

Does your profile portrait show you as relaxed, enjoyable, confident, outgoing, etc……?

This is Melody McCord’s new profile portrait. What do you think? What did her old profile picture look like..it was a picture of her at a resort and it was so far away that you could not make out her face. You can look her up at the Rainmakers web site for OHIO at RainOhio.com. You can also look at the EVENTS tab along the right of the page to see where the Rainmakers meeting will be. You are welcome to come and visit and, if I am there, please introduce yourself to me.