Gravatar: What it is, why you want one & how to get it
What the heck’s a gravatar? And why do you want one?
You know those little images you see next to some people’s comments on blogs? Those are called “avatars.” (Yep, just like the blockbuster 3D movie from this past year.) A Gravatar is a name for
Globally Recognized Avatars. While Gravatars aren’t really quite “globally” recognized yet, they are used by WordPress sites, so they’re handy to have so that your face shows up when you leave comments instead of just a generic symbol.
The video below shows you how to get set up with Gravatar.
If you like a typed-up list, here are your steps:
Step 1: Surf over to http://gravatar.com
Step 2: Point your mouse to the spot on the upper toolbar that says “Log in/Sign up.” In the drop-down menu that appears, click on “Sign up.”
Step 3: Enter your email address in the spot provided. Click “Signup.”
Step 4: Head over to your email inbox. Gravatar will send you a confirmation email with a link in it that you’ll need to click in order to activate your account. Watch for that email and then go ahead and click that link.
Step 5: Choose a “Nickname.” This is your screenname for Gravatar, and you can’t change it, so make sure it’s one you like and will remember. If you use Twitter, you might try using your Twitter name as your Gravatar nickname. Or use your real name (e.g., davidcaruso) as your nickname, or your website title (e.g., haveasmoothie). Also choose a password, and enter that in both blanks provided.
Step 6: You’ll next go to a page that shows you the email address you just set up, and it will give you a message that says “Whoops, looks like you don’t have any images yet!” Click where it says “Add one by clicking here!” You’ll have the option of choosing an image from your computer, from somewhere on the web, or by using your computer’s webcam. You’ll want an image that shows your face–it’s going to get trimmed down to be a small square, so don’t worry about trying to find a head-to-toe shot of yourself looking glamorous. And also don’t worry if you need to crop your photo. You get to do that in the next step.
Step 7: Once you’ve chosen an image, you’ll be able to crop it so that only the part of the image you want for your Gravatar will be displayed.
Step 8: Next choose a rating for your Gravatar. You can choose G, PG, R or X (just like movie ratings). If you’re just uploading a basic profile picture, you can choose G. Some websites will be configured to not allow Gravatars with higher ratings (no R-rated photos or X-rated photos, for instance), so rating your photo appropriately makes sure it will be displayed on the right sites.
Step 9: And that’s it–you’ve got a Gravatar! Now when you leave comments on WordPress blogs using the email address you used when you signed up for Gravatar, the image you selected will be displayed, so people will know who you are. Nice!
5 Steps to Start Building a Great Blog
If you are a small business owner and not a writer, starting and maintaining a blog can seem like a daunting task.
It doesn’t have to be. How do I know this? Because I’m not a writer either, I’m a small business owner who writes.
I admit that when you first get started you may feel overwhelmed and your blog will feel foreign to you, but as you settle in and keep at it, you’ll one day realize that it has become an extension of you and your business.
So how do you beat the overwhelm, find good topics, engage your readers and make it all a profitable extension of your business?
Distinctly West Coast goes far with a Smoothie
I’m excited to watch the Distinctly West Coast team really rock their new Smoothie website. It’s a wonderful example of what you can do with a strong concept, style and content.
There’s a ton of travel ideas on this site, yet it’s all easy to find because the Smoothie automatically adds newly-built pages to the drop down menus.
Each of the West Coast Hosts has it’s own pages (great for inbound links and search engine optimization), but they’re also grouped into summary pages like this one listing tours for Adrenaline Junkies. These summaries are automatically built out of individual pages for each tour operator so the DWC team only needs to maintain the content in one place.
The team is adding new partners and blog posts frequently so if you’re interested in traveling the West Coast of B.C. you should definitely check it out.
How accessible is your website?
The web is a complex place to navigate at the best of times, no? Poorly written or outdated content, flashing ads trying to get your attention, cryptic links that don’t tell you what’s after the click (fondly known as “mystery meat navigation” in my house). Then there’s even more to learn if you decide to contribute content on the web through blogging, commenting or otherwise. It’s a wonder we all get the hang of it.
Now imagine all that effort you put into this stuff, but doing it with impaired vision. Or, as Glenda Watson Hyatt does it: with only your left thumb to navigate. It boggles the mind and puts things in perspective.
Just as in the physical world, the online world has ways of making things more or less accessible for people with some kinds of disabilities. Websites can have varying degrees of readability (by screen readers, or by users who need to zoom in to read content), navigability, and so on.
What you might not know is that there are things you can do as a blogger to improve the accessibility of the content you create. If you want to learn more about this subject, you might start with Glenda’s Do It Myself blog or the free ebook she’s currently offering at BlogAccessibility.com. She asks: how POUR is your blog? I love this acronym she uses for the attributes that make up an accessible site:
- Perceivable – can people hear or touch the content if they cannot see it? (Yes, I said touch. Did you know there were braille devices that communicate web content?)
- Operable – can you operate your website by keyboard only, no mouse?
- Understandable – is the language and navigation easy to understand?
- Robust – does it work in various device setups? This one is becoming even more important with the proliferation of mobile devices.
Suffice to say I haven’t even finished reading her e-book and I’ve learned some new things about web accessibility. I encourage you to take a look and see what you can do to make your website more accessible. I know I am.
P.S. My aim in this blog is to share resources which will help you make the most of your website. What would you like to learn about? I’d love to hear your burning questions or comments below.
What should you write about in your blog?
Figuring out what to write about at your blog can be tricky. You might have so many ideas that you don’t know where to start. Or you might feel like you have no ideas at all. Lots of us fall into that category. You stare at your computer screen and think, “I have nothing to say that anyone else would want to read.”
Here’s the good news
You probably have a lot of great stuff to write about… you just don’t realize it. We often overlook the subjects that we’re best-suited to write about because we’re so used to thinking about them. We assume everyone knows about them and thinks about them like we do.
For example, suppose you’re an avid birdwatcher, and you just set up a website about birdhouses. You might suppose that anyone buying a birdhouse knows about the kinds of birds they’re likely to see. After all, identifying birds is second nature to you–it probably seems like it’s second nature to everyone else, right?
How do you find a good website address (domain name)?
I’m working with a Smoothie client who hasn’t got his domain name yet. (a.k.a. his “dot com”, his URL, or his thisguyrocks.com address.) And he mentioned he’s trying to figure out what it should be. I thought some of you might be going through the same thing so I’d offer some of my ideas and tools.
How do you choose a good domain name?
The aspects that make a domain name great for you might vary. But these are some good questions to ask when you’re trying to decide.
- Is it memorable and easily understood? …if you overhear the domain name at the grocery store, are you going to have a pretty good idea how to spell it, and have a good chance of remembering it? Would you understand what it means, or get some ideas about what the website is for?
- Does it contain some of the keywords you think people will use when searching for you? …if your specialty is costumes and you’re in the Portland area, then www.portlandcostumes.com would give you an extra edge in showing up when someone Googles “portland costumes”. If you think people will Google for your (company) name because they are looking for you specifically, then the same logic applies. And regardless, it’s always a good idea to snag yourcomanyname.com and/or yourname.com if you can. You can always register more than one and “point” the others to your main site even if you don’t have a full site at each one.
- How long is it? …it used to be that we tried to keep them really short, but it’s tough to find a short .com name that’s good and available these days. Luckily if it’s memorable the long ones aren’t much of a problem.
- Is it available? …oh yeah, that. It may be a great idea but until you own it you gotta keep on looking. More on checking availability below.
Brainstorming your domain name
When I went through the process of branding my web design services, I took forever to come up with a name. I did a lot of brainstorming for the business name and also checking if a good domain name was available. I spent hours switching between thesaurus.com and other sites checking if the ones I wanted were available.
Then I found Bust A Name. You enter a few words and get back various combinations of those words as well as suggestions from a thesaurus. You can also select a few prefixes or suffixes to throw into the mix. Handy and fun.
How do you know if it’s available?
The first thing most people do is try to visit the new URL they’ve dreamed up to see what’s there. If nothing turns up that’s a good start, but not the end of the story.
Regardless of whether a website exists or not you must check if the name has been registered. You can do this with any company that registers domain names (a.k.a. a “registrar”), or at the Bust A Name site which also includes an availability check.
Where should I buy my Domain name?
My favourite registrar is Netfirms.ca/Netfirms.com. They have reasonable prices, great service, and minimal upsell. Meaning: you don’t have to click 1000 things to say “Just give me the darn name for $10 thankyouverymuch”. And, their website is user friendly so it’s easy to then redirect the domain to wherever you actually host your website.
The anti-favourite loathed by every web designer I know is GoDaddy. We generally want to throw things through the intertubes at their website out of sheer frustration. So I would say avoid that one if you can.
So those are some of my thoughts on the exciting journey of finding yourself a good domain name. Have you got any you’d like to share?
Google Analytics: How to get signed up
The video below does a nice job of explaining the basics of getting started with Google Analytics. Note that if we’re building your site, you only have to worry about the first part–just getting signed up. Your Smoothie Mixmasters will take care of the rest (copying the code and putting it where it belongs). Feel free to watch the whole video if you’d like, but you only have to do the steps up to about the 2 minute mark.
For those of you who like a step-by-step list, here’s what to do:
Step 1: Surf over to http://www.google.com/analytics
Step 2: You’ll see a big blue button on the right-hand side of the page that says “Access Analytics.” Look for the link just underneath that button that says “Sign up now” and click that.
Step 3: On the next page, you’ll have the option of signing in to Analytics with an existing Google account or setting up a new one. If you already use Gmail, Google Calendar, or Google Reader, you’ve got a Google account, and you can sign in to Analytics using the same email address and password that you use to log in to your gmail, calendar, or reader. If you don’t already have a Google account, or if you want to access your Analytics from a different account, then click the link that says “Don’t have a Google account? Sign up now.”
Step 4: After you’ve signed in to your Google account, you’ll be on the “Getting Started” page of Analytics. There’s a box on that page that says “Sign Up for Google Analytics.” Click the button in that box that says “Sign up.”
Step 5: Fill in the information requested on the next page:
- Your website’s URL (e.g., yourwebsitename.com)
- Account name: Whatever you want to name this account. The title of your website is usually a good choice.
- Time zone country
- Time zone
Then hit “Continue.”
Step 6: Fill in the next set of information:
- Your last name
- Your first name
- Your phone number
- Your country
Then click “Continue.”
Step 7: Agree to the terms of service. (You can’t use the Analytics service until you do.) So click the checkbox next to “Yes, I agree to the above terms and conditions” and then click the “Create new account” button.
Step 8: Next you’ll see a box with some code in it. Don’t worry about most of that. Just look for a part of the code that says something like ._getTracker(“UA-1234567-1″). It will be about three lines up from the bottom of the code. Jot down or copy the the UA-1234567-1 part (replacing 1234567-1 with whatever numbers show up in your code). That’s the info you’ll send to your Mixmasters so they can work their magic on getting the rest of Analytics set up for you.
Step 9: You’re done! Send an email to Tzaddi or Dave with you UA code from step 8, and then kick back and relax… you’re on your way to an Analytics-enabled website!
Stop the epic time suck that is stock photo searching
A fuzzy pink poodle! Photo by Kind of Bruin
If you’ve spent any time searching online for a photo for your website, you know that it’s a deep, dark cave of wonders. Before you know it, you’re looking at alien autopsy photos when you really should be looking for a simple image of a teapot. I could spend all day browsing images online and sadly, I have.
Even when I’m not getting distracted by the Roswell Incident, sometimes it still takes hours to find the right picture. This gets frustrating because I really just want to get back to the designing part.
It’s like shopping when you’re hungry. After a while, even SPAM starts to look appetizing. Just grab the frikkin’ can and let’s eat.
Unfortunately that’s not the best way to satisfy my hunger. Likewise, slapping any old picture onto your project isn’t going to solve anything, either. In fact, it can be harmful.
So after a sensible SPAM-free meal, I did some research and found a few ways to make choosing stock photos a little easier.
Speed up your search already
A narrow street in Malta, by Foxypar4
Narrow your search terms
This might sound obvious, but sometimes I catch myself using vague keywords in an online search. Like “dog” for example. That’s a lazy search term. When I see 163,000,000 images come up, I wake from my dream world and actually get to work.
Even when I narrow it down, “frizzy pink poodle” turns up 19,800 images – and not all of them are porn.
Consider your audience
This one isn’t so obvious. If you’re writing a blog post about the recent knitting craze, you might use a photo of well, someone knitting. If your audience is hip moms who wear their daughter’s clothes and drive Hummers, you might want to steer clear of photos of grandma and opt for something fun instead.
This actually speeds up your search because you won’t waste time looking at 70,000 fascinating flickr photos of grandma’s summer visit. Skip over, skip over, skip…
Consider the source
We like Google for searching, yes we do. Even though it will bring you the most results, we’ve already determined that you’re not interested in large numbers here. Better to have a smaller pond with more of the fish you want than an ocean with everything plus mammals. Just like marketing. But you knew that, right?
A few alternate sources to try:
iStockphoto.com: Yes, you have to purchase the image. This has advantages that we’ll get to in a minute, but you can do a better targeted search here.
Search.CreativeCommons.org: This one actually uses other search engines to show results, but you can narrow your search considerably based on usage rights selections (more on that in a minute).
stock.xchng: This is sort of like a free iStockphoto. It’s pretty easy to search. It actually uses some of the iStockphoto collection in its results.
Don’t Get Sued
I’ve never been sued before, but from all those movies I’ve seen it doesn’t appear to be a treat. I try to avoid it. There’s a simple way to figure out if an image is legal for you to use. Ask. If you find the creator of the image and get written approval, you’re covered. However, most of us don’t have time for that. Fish sticks. So here are your alternatives:
iStockphoto
Yes, you have to buy the images. Sometimes you can get a photo for $1. So skip Starbucks for a day. Besides, it explains in detail exactly what rights you have to use the image. I would venture to say that any image you find there is suitable for a blog post. Don’t take it on my word, though. Find an image, read, and get clear on your rights. Then relax.
Creative Commons
It’s not only a great way to search for images, they tell you how the images can be used. Just read their disclaimer first:
Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link.
Some of this legal stuff can sound scary. If you err on the side of not using an image because the rights aren’t clear, you’ll sleep just fine. There are plenty of other fish. In fact, there are at least 19,800 if you’re looking for a fuzzy pink poodle fish.
stock.xchng
From what I’ve seen, the images are all free of charge and free to use. However, you can’t use them in logos or on products for sale without contacting the artist. When in doubt, ask. Play it safe.
Alien Incubator by Jurvetson
Distractions
I have not found a solution for this. I start at “teapot” and before long I’m zooming in on an operating table to see if there are seams on an alien.
I’ll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, don’t let this image-selection process bog you down and stress you out. Consider (gasp!) not using an image at all. Focus on creating useful and interesting content. That’s what people really need, anyway.
Go on a wilderness trip to help your business?
One of the things that clients often don’t put enough attention or resources into is what they’re going to say. You know, the words on the site that tell people what you’re all about and why they should care and what to do next. Or the pictures that support your content. Figuring out your key messages and getting them across as effectively as possible.
I totally understand this. I’ve been the one stuck, staring at that bleeping blinking cursor and a mess of words that just don’t flow. Or staring at a blank Photoshop canvas too long because I didn’t figure out what kind of picture I need to paint before I started.
I know for me, that stuck-with-no-flow situation is really about deeper things like not knowing what your audience needs to hear. It’s from not having those key messages figured out.
That’s why I was super excited when I met Kelly Parkinson and learned about her Wilderness Concierge service. It’s an idea-generating, message-honing session with Kelly who is both a copywriter and a “collaborative marketing guide”. That sounds to me like a great way to get a fresh, genius perspective on what your website business needs to be saying, so you can get on with saying it loud and clear.
Website Envy: How to get your visuals to look like those sites you lust after
When I was a kid, my parents used to drag us through model homes on the weekends. They weren’t looking to move, they just wanted to see what was new and fabulous.
I used to get kid’s room envy. Big time.
The rooms were always immaculate, with the coolest beds. A pirate ship? They have pirate ship beds? Can I have one?
This was the ’80s, so there was usually a fake Apple IIe juxtaposed with a huge, Captain-themed desk. Rope ladders that disappeared into a ceiling mural of a crow’s nest, pointing toward a hurricane sky. Awesome.
Mom, can we live here?
When you see really gorgeous, art-driven sites with lots of eye candy, it’s kind of like browsing model homes. You want to move your content in and put your own books on the shelves. Mine.
Think about this: what will you really do with that rope ladder?
We love to look at pretty web sites and we all want our own to inspire eye drool (if we’re being honest with ourselves). They can. We just have to be smart about it.
Damn. I know how you feel. I hate being “smart” about creative stuff, too.
Purpose-driven visuals
Imagine if you filled every blog post, your about page, and your sales pages with random, pretty words? It might look like this:
Serendipity swimming gorgeous lily onomatopoeia banana nostril silvery flicker…
You get the point. Those words may be lovely to read, but they don’t tell us anything about what we’re doing on the site. While we’re at it, those words aren’t equally lovely to everyone. It’s a pretty subjective thing.
Ask yourself if the graphics on your site are like this. Are they a hodge-podge of different styles and randomly selected bits of fluff?
The reason we admire the “pretty” sites aren’t simply because they have great graphics. It’s because the graphic elements they use have a purpose.
The graphics support the content.
Figuring out the best visuals for your site is hard. It takes time. There are a bazillion choices possible and by the way – it’s hard for me, too.
But there is a way to help narrow down the choices and at least get some clarity and a sense of direction. You even have some of the answers already waiting for you, right inside your content.
Sometimes it’s obvious. If you bake squirrel pies, putting a photo of a gorgeous bayou sunset will throw people off. Even if it’s the sunset you see out your kitchen window while you skin squirrels, not many folks are gonna get that unless you spell it out.
On a web site, you have a very short time to communicate an idea with only visuals. In this case I would suggest a photo of you smiling, in front of the gorgeous bayou sunset, holding a dead squirrel. No explanation required.
Hopefully if you’re running a business site you’ve already got a logo that works. Put it in your header. If your logo looks as out of place as squirrel pie at a State dinner, you need to either rethink your logo or your web site.
What if you sell products? Putting an image next to the product name can really help fix that product in the viewer’s mind. If you’re with me so far, you’ll understand why I would suggest putting some sort of iconic audio-based graphic next to an audio recording.
But what should it be?
Before you just grab the closest piece of clipart, think about this. It may seem obvious that the best graphic to represent an mp3 download would be something digitally-themed, like the iTunes icon or equalizer bars. Remember:
The graphics support the content.
If your site is about making squirrel pies, think about the fact that it’s not immediately seen as an ultra-modern activity. Skinning critters is kinda folksy.
How about an old Victrola? Or one of those humongous retro mics?
The Reason You Love that Site
The object of your web site envy may have beautiful imagery. That can be enough to make you swoon, but think about what you do on the site. Do you spend time there or just admire the scenery? Could you describe something you learned from the site or point someone there to make a purchase?
The thing is, the great site designs use nice imagery with a purpose. The main purpose is to draw you in, sure. The secondary purpose is to guide you to the content.
If you see a gorgeous site and you click away without participating in the content (reading a blog post, learning a new skill, finding out about a product), then the site has failed.
When you’re planning visuals to use on your site, start with your content. It’s a lot harder than picking out the prettiest pictures, but it could be the difference between visitors who just envy and visitors who stick around to find out more.
