Whether we like to admit it or not, communication really is a two-way street. People don’t browse the web just to get information (a popular case for selling ebooks), but they want to get information from people. Successful people, smart people, people who are “in the loop”, people who can help them make their lives better.
One of the best ways to increase your sales and the number of people who actively seek you out to do business with you, is to put a “human twist” to your marketing through Gravatar.
What’s Gravatar?
Technically, it stands for Globally Recognized Avatar (an avatar being a person or character that represents “you” online). A Gravatar, then, is a sort of icon that follows you from blog to blog, branding you as you leave comments. The more informative and helpful your posts, the more people will begin to associate that “Gravatar” with you, and the more inclined they’ll be to check out your own site.
The fact is, nobody likes a faceless commenter. There’s something about anonymity and a shadowy icon that makes it seem like the poster is trying to “hid” something. Blog marketing with a recognizable icon is a fast, easy way to build up your own brand “name” – if even on a small scale.
Signing up for a Gravatar is fast, free and automatic. Once you’ve got yours set up (you can change it at any time, although it’s not recommended to do this too much in keeping with an image people can see again and again and identify with), that’s all you have to do. Each time you comment on a blog that has Gravatars enabled (most do), you’ll see your new icon appear beside each post you make.
Tips for Creating a Gravatar
• Don’t use your company logo. This goes against all modern branding sense, I know. But it’s no better than using a faceless, shadowy image. Nobody wants to interact with a logo – they want to interact with a person.
• Use your own photo or company mascot. I do a bit of both. My Twitter account has my photo, as do many of the forums I participate on. My Gravatar is of Sparkie, the iElectrify mascot cat that appears on several pages here.
• Don’t want to use your own photo? You can always turn yourself into a mascot using a free service like the Portrait Illustration Maker or Face Your Manga (popular on Twitter)
Any of these options will help you get started creating an easy recognizable image for your blog and the blogs that you post to. As a side note, you can also use your newly created image on forums and Twitter as well.
For more information on creating a Gravatar – see: How to Create a Gravatar Account
Tags: blog marketing, gravatar
Nice tip!