Technical difficulties with Gravatars and what are they?

byJen101

158 followers

Updated 9 years ago

Earlier today Kyle posted this video:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-cr...

It was about the steps needed to create a "Globally Recognized Avatar" or a Gravatar for short.

Here is the link to get you to the website where you will be able to do this:

Gravatar.com

I was so pleased to see this tutorial once I began watching it and learned what it was about. I had been wondering ever since I began creating my word press web page how to do just this and thought to myself that exactly as Kyle had said it would help establish my authority or for that matter, anyone else's on whatever niche they may be in.

Finally! I was going to learn how to do this, something that I thought I should have learned right away! (yes, I realize this feature is new . . . I am simply expressing my feelings and excitement over this new feature.) After all, if you are trying to establish yourself as an authority on a subject, what person out there wants to visit a website that looks as though it is maintained by some big name company that perhaps operates behind the scenes?

To me this feels like I could be talking to a computer or a robot. If I am going to research a product by reading an article, I want to know that I can talk to a person who wrote it or the people who did. If I am going to consider buying or researching further by clicking an add or a link, if it appears there is a person somewhere associated with the site that I could possibly ask questions, that is preferrable,

I would much rather feel as though there is an actual person behind those web pages and not like I've been taken by some "copy writer" hired by some company to garner them sales! When it comes to your sites, being able to add the Gravatar helps to personalize it and makes you as the admin more approachable. So I was definitely sold on the idea of a Gravatar, long before Kyle's tutorial came to my attention.

Follow it exactly, pause it so you can do the steps along with Kyle in another tab if you're like me and that works best for you. Easy peasey, lemon squeasey? Right?

This was not the case for me. But do not worry, it is due to my own error.

Apparently I had already set up a wordpress.com account. So when it had told me I already had an account associated with that particular address, I was quite confused. I was thinking to myself, okay maybe I did? What now? There must be some sort of password reset.

Another member ( judebanks ) was quite kind and posted the following link for me:

https://en.gravatar.com/support/existing-account/

I jumped through all the hoops (really there weren't that many - just being a little dramatic - lol,) It gave me that all kinds of wonderful message that a reset email was sent. It did not send it until I requested it to be sent again. This is where I sometimes feel that it is necessary to keep a support tab open until I get the email they claim is headed my way.

When I finally got the email I went through and reset my password and then Yay! I was finally able to log in and create my Gravatar!

So you don't run into these problems like I had, I recommend you write down every password you ever create because you may not always remember it when you need it! I personally use a password safe.

Did everything I needed to there and luckily for my impatient self, I saw near the bottom of the page that it could take up to an hour for my gravatar to show up!

Based on the advice given in previous lessons here at WA I eventually set up a website related email forward.

For the gravatar, I used my account that emails are forwarded to and am hoping it shows up! But if it don't, I will go back and attempt to create one for the "forwarding address" I created. Either way it turns out I will update this blog to let you know how it turns out.

UPDATE: Created this address through the email platform here at W.A.: j.m.nail@beautysalonhub.com to forward to my personal e-mail address. When I set up the gravatar, I used my personal e-mail address and was not sure it it would work or not. I thought I would have to use the @beautysalonhub.com address in order for it to work. But it worked just fine using my personal address!

TIP: Getting the confirmation or password reset emails may take a while. Be patient and don't write off this important step for your website! Never underestimate the power of "People Power!"