By Princess Jones
An avatar is how the world sees you when you’re traversing the Internet. Whether it’s a headshot or a logo, you want to brand yourself through an image. But with so many outlets, it can be a hassle to manage your online image in so many places.
The solution is Gravatar, a long standing avatar hosting service. It gets its name from the idea of a “globally recognized avatar.” Since the Automattic acquisition in 2007, Gravatar has been a part of the WordPress family. Nearly a decade later, Gravatar still remains the best way to control your avatar image across several platforms, including blog authorship, comment sections, and email messages.
How to Manage Your Gravatar
Start by heading over to www.gravatar.com. If you already have a WordPress.com account, sign into it. If not, register your email with the site. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the main dashboard. The top section is a list of all of the emails you are managing with Gravatar. The bottom section is all of the avatars you have uploaded to the site.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to create a new Gravatar account for each email address you want to set up with an avatar. Many of us have different email addresses for different roles. Just add the new email address to your main account. You can use the same photo as your other addresses or upload a new one.
To add a new account, click “Add email address.” The next screen will have a field for you to input your email address. Click “Add” when you’re done. Gravatar will send a confirmation email to your inbox. When you get it, click the link in the message to confirm the addition.
Now it’s time to add your photo. Go to the bottom section and click “Add a new image.” You’ll have the choice to upload it through various methods. Once you have the picture up, you should choose the rating for your Gravatar. You’ll have the choice from G, PG, R, and X.
To associate a photo with an email address, click the email address in the top section of the dashboard. Now that you’ve got it highlighted, click a photo from the second section. Finally, click “Confirm” in the pop-up that appears. You’ll see that the photo now appears next to the email address at the top of the screen.
