This post was written by Rob Canyon and as I thought it was a useful post I have reproduced it here.

This is how to add your picture to other people’s WordPress blogs… ‘Automatically”

Before we begin, lets just say for the sake of simplicity…  *** You can’t add your picture to other people’s blogs…  only Gravatar.com can ***  let me elaborate…

When you set up a free account at Gravatar.com (see below), upload a picture of yourself (they call it a Gravatar) and attach that picture to a preferred email address of yours (see below)… every time you place a comment on someone else’s blog using that same preferred email address, your picture will be displayed there too.

Some blog owners also like to list Top Commentors in their blog sidebars and so if you’ve set up your free account with Gravatar.com like I’ll show you below… presto your picture (Gravatar) will be displayed in their sidebars too.

The Top Commentor pictures shown at these blog websites are of comment authors that have set up their free Gravatar.com accounts.  Missing pictures indicate only one thing… these comment authors free Gravatar.com accounts have not been set up.

This is how to set up your free Gravatar account so that blogs everywhere will show your picture (Gravatar) automatically… every time you make comments that is.

step #1 go to http://en.gravatar.com/ then locate the ‘Log in to, or Sign up for, Gravatar’ or the ‘Sign up Now!’ hyperlink and click it.

NOTE: If you have a WordPress.com account you automatically have a Gravatar.com account as well. So instead of following all the steps below you just log in to your existing account and upload a picture as from step 6 below.

step #2 enter the email address you’d like to use when creating comments on other people’s blogs and click ‘Sign Up’

step #3 ’support@gravatar.com’ will automatically send you a confirmation email, so go to your email and check for it.

step #4 click on the confirmation link in that email…  then you will be automatically redirected to gravitar.com again

Gravatar.com may ask you for such things as a nickname and probably to double enter a preferred password before your free account gets instantly and automatically set up.

step #5 by now, you should have been redirected to your personal account at gravitar.com, if not go there and log in again with the same user ids and passwords you’ve just set up.

step #6 now… hover your cursor over ‘My Account’ and then click on ‘Add an Image’

step #7 click on ‘My Computer’s Hard Drive’ to upload your picture…for the purpose of this example (other options are also available to source your picture).

step #8 click ‘Browse’ and immediately a ‘File Upload’ window will appear.  Find your picture file (a small square one is preferred, 80 pixels x 80 pixels is best) and click on it.

step #9 click on ‘Open’ and you’ll immediately see the ‘File Upload’ window disappear.  And now you’ll see the box to the left of the word ‘Browse’ fill up with words (basically the location of your picture).

step #10 click ‘Next’.  You should be immediately re-directed to the picture finishing area.  By holding down your left click and mouse you should be able to stretch and adjust what is about to become your WordPress Gravatar. Click ‘Crop and Finish!’ when your satisfied with the preview picture.

step #11 if you’re prompted click on the ‘G’ rating for your picture…. and presto you’re good to go,

You’ll notice that you’re picture has now been added to your Gravatar account.

Next…  I’ll walk you through turning on pictures (Gravatars or in WordPress they call these Avatars) in your own blogs.  Don’t worry, its an easy couple steps and steps that can be reversed anytime you want.  Here goes…

step #12 login to your blog at http://yourblogsite.com/wp-admin, p.s. for those that don’t know how to do this just call or email your web hosting service provider and they’ll show you exactly what to do…

step #13 next, scan your eyes down the left side column to where you see the tab ‘Settings’ and click it,

step #14 then, go down below the ‘Settings’ tab to where you see the ‘Discussion’ tab and click it,

step #15 now scroll down to the bottom of this page until you see the heading that says ‘Avatars’, then click the radio button beside ‘Show Avatars’.  Its just to the right of ‘Avatar Display’.

step #16 click on the blue ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom and you’re good to go.

NOTE You’ve got some options with respect to ‘Default Avatars’.  This just allows you to tell your blog what to display if and when anybody comments and doesn’t have a picture set up at gravatar.com.

If you’re blog is brand new and you want to check your picture/gravatar/avatar just add a comment any post on your own blog then approve your comment and you’ll see exactly what you’ve done.

Approving Comments is easy.  If you’ve never done this before here are the steps…

step #18 next, scan your eyes down the left side column to where you see the tab ‘Comments’ and click it,

step # 19 when you hover your cursor over any comment you’ll notice the words ‘Approve’, ‘Spam’, ‘Delete’, ‘Edit’, ‘Quick Edit’ and ‘Reply’ will show up at the bottom.  Click on ‘Approve’ and presto your comment is approved and now shows under its respective blog post… with your picture.

If this information was helpful to you, a few kind words in a comment on this blog post would be greatly appreciated.

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Rob Canyon, Other People’s WordPress Blogs”>Adding Your Picture to Other People’s WordPress Blogs