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Take a look at this screen capture. What you‘re seeing below is an image of our recent comments. Notice anything different between my comments and Amie and Pierre’s?

Whenever I post a comment here, or on almost any other blog for that matter, you’ll be able to see a picture of the guys and me. If you don’t already know, this is called a Gravatar (or globally recognized avatar). Avatars allow you to take on a persona, brand your band or business, share a laugh, or express pretty much anything you want with a picture. They are your public face on the web.

Another thing you might notice is that Pierre’s name is highlighted in blue. This means that it is a link so you can click it to check out the website he chose to type in our comment box. In this case, Pierre entered his Myspace page. But he could have just as easily chosen to add a link to his band, The Final Year’s Myspace page or blog. I know this because he has commented several times in the past so I’ve had the chance to learn about what he’s doing. I hope you’ll leave me a comment too so I can get to know you! You don’t have to add a link and you don’t have to create a Gravatar either. But I hope you will If you don’t have a personal or business website, you can share one of your favorite comedian’s (or anything else for that matter). You can also create a Gravatar in seconds by clicking here. This video explains how it works:

Just so you know: If you choose to upload an R or X-rated “potty mouth sexy-violent action” Avatar I have blocked those images from appearing on this blog. Feel free to use those Gravatars on other sites if that’s your thing, but please keep things G or PG here. I want this to be a place where everyone can feel comfortable learning from one another so if you enjoy this post or dig someone else’s comment (or new gravatar?!) let us know!

Your curator,

-Mason

P.S. Thanks to Ari Herzog from ariwriter.com for inspiring this post with his ‘How to Enhance Your Blog’ series. If you are a blogger, I’d highly recommend checking out what he’s doing.