Are you like me and ever wondered how all those other bloggers, and the like, have their image on their posts? Have you spent hours trawling over a website looking for the magic button that will allow you to upload your image too, only to be disappointed when you just couldn’t find THAT MAGIC BUTTON! and ended up feeling downright frustrated with a headache to boot?
Well wonder no more my friends, because this is how you can have your image on your blog and forum posts too.
Gravatar.com is where you can access this great, free (Yippee!), online program that will allow you to do all of the above! Following is a short tutorial to help get you started.
1. Log on to https://en.gravatar.com/ where you’ll see the above page. Click on the drop down menu and go to Sign up.
2. Once you’re on the Sign up page it will ask you for an email address so that a confirmation email may be sent to. You’ll receive this email almost immediately. It will contain a link that will allow you to activate your account and to set your password.
3. The link will take you to this page where you can then select your Username and set your Password.
4. After you click “Signup,” the next page looks like this and it’s where you use the email address you’ve entered, or you may add a new one, and you will also see where you can add your image (YES!!!) by just Clicking Here!!! Yippeeeee again!!!
5. Here’s the page where you will be able to, at long last, upload your photo! Yes! Yes!
Click the Browse button to upload your photo.
6. This is the page where you can crop your photo using the buttons below the photo.
You can see a preview of the final result before clicking the ‘Crop & Save’ button at the bottom of the screen, so you won’t be left in any doubt as to how it will look on your posts etc..
If when you upload your photo your head is cut off at the top or you lose your chin just click on the back button next to the address bar at the top of your web page.
You will have a better result if you choose a photo that isn’t just a tight headshot. Use one if you can that has a bit more background and your facial image is a little smaller, because when you upload your picture you will be able to achieve a better result if you do. You can keep using the back button to re-upload an image until you get one that satisfies you.
7. Once you’ve clicked the ‘Crop and Finish’ button you will then go to this page to choose the rating for your photo.
8. Once you’ve done this you will then go to the Manage Gravatar page where you can access the Help Menu as well as edit and view your profile and perform any other tasks by clicking on the My Account tab.
And you’re done! Yippeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Note from the editor: A special thanks to Zoë for solving this riddle that plagues many. Now that you know how to find that magic button, if you need tips for getting the right photo, see our tutorial on headshots here.]
Zoë Lake is a professional actress, classically trained as a dancer and singer, and enjoyed a long career in the professional theatre; she is also a jazz singer and toured extensively throughout Australia and the United States. Currently living in Tasmania, Australia with her husband, author T.D.McKinnon, Zoë works as a freelance book editor, instructional designer and remedial massage and Bowen therapist. She also rescues abandoned and abused cats.
Very enlightening!
I always assumed Gravatar was some cartoon villain and steered clear. 🙂
Greetings from Tasmania, Australia. Being so far away I wasn’t aware of a cartoon villain named Gravatar lurking about, but thanks for the tip. It takes a while for information to filter down this far and, being upside down and all, sometimes things get lost in translation, but I’ll keep a look out from now on. Ta.
I am having issues with my Gravatar on some sites…I sent this email to the lovely folks at Gravatar.com and no response.
Hi
Why does my Gravatar suddenly not work? And I am trying to log in with [email protected] and it says there is no email like that registered, but I have been using this same email for my Gravatar for over a year. Can you help? I tried to re-register but of course the name I want is taken…BY ME!! And I cannot access it.
Ugh.
Appreciate your help
Hi Trininista,
I’m new to Gravatar and so far I haven’t had any problems, but I do know that the rating that is used for an image can mean it won’t be accepted by every site. So if you don’t have a ‘G’ rated image that could be the reason that it’s not being accepted by some sites.
I’ve just had a look at the Gravatar help menu to see if there is something there to help you with the logging in problem you have, but all I could find was the support email address, which is [email protected], but that’s most likely the one you’ve already used.
Sorry I can’t be of any more help to you with this. I know how frustrating it can be when you can't contact a site for help. I find that FAQ's usually don't have an answer for whatever it is I'm trying to fix. As you say UGH!
Good luck
Zoë
Cool, and easy! Thanks again. Always such fun here.
Yes it is fun here. Thanks for the feedback.
Zoë
I've wondered how that works on these IU threads, thanks!
My pleasure Jaq.
Aha! Mystery solved! Thank you. I feel more internet-savvy already!
Yes I did too. Good luck with it.