Do you have a blog? Do you visit other blogs regularly, and make comments? Good! You’re being social and making friends and contacts.

But have you ever wondered why some commenters have nice little photos of themselves by their comments, but you’ve just got a generic image? It’s because you need to set it up.

The “Web 2.0” term for these photos is “avatar”. Your photo is your avatar. You’ll see them on Twitter, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr… the list goes on. Ideally, if you’re promoting yourself, this avatar should be the same across all your social networks. This helps people, particularly if they connect with you on more than one of the networks, to associate that photo with you. They’ll remember you more easily when they see you elsewhere.

On some networks, like Twitter for example, you just upload a photo of your choice. That becomes your avatar, and it’s as simple as that. However, when leaving comments across the web, it’s not that easy. That’s why you see so many generic images. But it’s very easy to set up so your image appears in these places.

Sign up for Gravatar. A “gravatar” is a globally recognized avatar, to quote their website. All you have to do is register an account – it’s free – upload your avatar and it’ll then follow you across the Internet to all compatible websites, which are many.

So what are you waiting for? Turn yourself from a generic image to you, in a few simple steps! Just go to http://en.gravatar.com/ and get signed up! Test it out here when you’re done, if you like!