Did you ever feel the need to make the internet a less anonymous place.

That is what avatars, often referred to as gravatars, are for.
Your avatar is your profile picture only that is not limited to a single account at a forum, a blog, a social networking platform or alike. Your avatar follows you on the internet. It can be recognized by others at all places where you actively participated by leaving a comment, making an entry, posting an article etc.

There are only two major requirements.
The first being that you have to create such an avatar image and publish it on the net.
The second requirement is that the platforms and websites you choose to participate on need to have avatars or gravatars enabled.

If that is the case you can start making the net a bit less anonymous.

Being a regular participant on the net you should have your own avatar image. You leave your footprints on the interet and make it easier for user sharing your interests to follow your lead.
More importantly, adding your profil picture to your content, be it an article, a blog post, a comment etc. reminds you and others that the internet and the quality material found on websites is created by humans for other humans. The purpose of the internet is not to create value for machines.

Did you ever wonder what the difference between avatars and gravatars is? Which one should you use and why?

Avatars and gravatars are the same thing. An avatar is an icon or a symbol. It is used to make the recognition of youself, your company, your group etc. easier.
A gravatar is an avatar created by setting up an account at gravatar.com and uploading an image to it. Gravatar.com is a service provided by Automattic the company that is also responsible for the creation of Wordpress.

Setting up your account at gravatar.com couldn’t be easier.
All You need to do is to visit gravatar’s website and click the Sign up now! link.
You don’t even have to be afraid of wasting a lot of time filling out forms and providing your personal data. All gravatar asks from you is your email address and there is a good reason for it.

Gravatar images are linked to your email address. Whenever you use the address you provided at gravatar.com posting a comment to an article, your email address will be recognized and your avatar will be displayed.

After gravatar’s relaunch even the use of multiple email addresses and gravatar images is possible. That gives you the freedom to use a specific image for one of your interests and other ones for other topics. You don’t have to work with more than one account.

How do you create an appropriate avatar image?

Avatars have a standardized size. The default setting is at 80×80 pixels. The largest version you should optimize your image for is 128×128pixels.
Keep in mind that it always causes better results to provide a larger image that is downsized than a small image that is enlarged.
This graphic shows you the different sizes most commonly used for avatars. They are 128×128, 80×80, 48×48, 40×40, 32×32, and 16×16 pixels.

The sizes 80×80 pixels (gravatars default size) and 40×40 pixels are the most common avatar sizes among Wordpress blogs.

After you have decided which image to use you should open the image file with photoshop or any other image editor software for resizing. Cut your image to be a square and resize it to 128×128 pixels. Store the image and go to gravatar.com to create an account or login to your already existing account.

All you need to do now is to upload the image and activate it for an email address. You will find all the options in the dropdown menu.

A nice feature is that gravatar.com allows you to rate your profil image. That way you can assure that your chosen images is only seen by a suitable audience. It is up to the website’s owner / admin to allow avatars of specific ratings.

Why isn’t your newly created avatar image displayed?

So far I have not encountered many problems with this service. Yet, there are some reasons why your image might not displayed next to the entry you just made at a blog or any other platform.

One reason could be that you were simply a bit too fast and the gravatar server is not ready with processing your account information. Normally this only takes seconds but you should allow it some minutes to complete its tasks. Simply reload the website where your avatar should be published after a few minutes.

If your avatar still isn’t visible you should check that you used the same email address for your entry as you did for your gravatar.com account. If you don’t, gravatar can’t establish the connection between your entry and your account.

A third reason for your avatar not to show up is that images with your chosen rating aren’t allowed by the website’s owner. You can’t influence this. The only way to work around it would be to use a second email address linked with an appropriate avatar image.

If you double checked that all of the above was done correctly but your image still isn’t there it might be time to find out whether the website you want to leave your footprint on actually has gravatars enabled. A lot of Wordpress themes have gravatars enabled by default but this is not mandatory.

I set up my own gravatar image and tend to change it from time to time. I recommend that you do the same and go to gravatar.com to create your avatar image. It is fun to see the people you connect with over the internet.

I’d like to start a little experiment with this article. If were inspired to create an avatar or were a gravatar user already I’d like to motivate you to leave a comment to this post to let me see who you are and start am avatar collection.

You’ll help making the internet a less anonymous place.

The last weeks have been incredibly busy. I’ve been working on multiple projects almost simultaneously. Take a look at the references section at the sidebar. You’ll find a list of websites I created or have worked on during the last weeks.

On 21st of July I opened a blog contest. The prize was and still is a complete business website set up by me. The initial idea was to keep that blog contest open until my RSS-FEED-subscription-counter would hit the 100 mark. You can find all the information about the contest as it was originally published here.

I lacked the time to really get into promoting my contest they way I probably should have. Therefore I’ve not reached that mark, yet. Since there have been people subscribing to my feed to enter this contest, who have been waiting for a while now I thought about an update to this contest. I feel that this would only be fair for the ones that have entered the contest already.

Here is the Update:

Instead of waiting until 100 of my readers and visitors have actually subscribed to my feed I will set a deadline for this contest.
This prize competition will officially end by the 31st of October 2008. No matter how many people have subscribed by then.

On the 1st of November all subscribers will be added to a database and I will have a php-script randomly pic a winner. The database will be deleted right after the winner has been picked. You needn’t worry about your personal data being stored anywhere without your notice.

The contest-winner will receive a confirmation email on the 1st. of November and there will also be a post about this at my blog.

I’m excited about finding a winner and starting to work on the webdesign project to follow.
If you haven’t entered the contest already make sure you do so before the deadline. Simply subscribing to my RSS FEED by email to participate.

This article is to tell you about a Fast Cash Strategy that I recently found on the net.

Well, the net is full of scam offers promising success within minutes, wealth, freedom to work from home, to make a living by simply switching on your PC for thirty minutes a day and so on.

You will not find a way to make a fortune within minutes reading this article. And there is not even a place to sign up for any program here at my site.
What I can do is present this neat e-book I purchased out of curiosity. Being a part of the online world and trying to make a living by working on the net I, perhaps just like you, am always interested in finding new ways to make money online. That being the case this article is for you.

The Easy 7-Step Fast Cash Strategy, written by Lynn Terry, promises to teach you what it takes to generate a regular income, online, without being a programmer, without having to spend years to prove yourself as a successful blogger or without spending even more time to build all kinds of email lists.
 
 
The promise is as follows:

All you need is an email account and a valid PayPal account to have the money you will be making sent to! Now that sounds great, doesn’t it?

So what is that strategy all about? Has Lynn come up with an ultimate solution for all your funding problems? Will you never have get back to your corporate job again?

Unfortunately it does not work just like that. Tomorrow you will still have to get up and go to work. But, done right, the Fast Cash Strategy has the potential to surprise you just on how fast you can make real money online. The purpose of this strategy is to teach you how to build a steady stream of income.
 
 
What does the Fast Cash Strategy focus on?

Lynn Terry outlines a way everyone can make money online without the need of prior online experience. Experience is never in your way, but in this case you are quite nicely guided through the whole money making process.

In her report Lynn teaches exactly how to start selling products online.
She uses the example of info-products. Info-products being all the e-books, self help guides, platinum CD-packages and whatever else you can find on the net. Because of a price transition those products are booming. Quality content used to be sold for around $100 or even more. Sellers have drastically dropped the prices, selling thousands of copies of their work for a couple of dollars instead of selling only a couple of copies for $100 dollars.
 
 
Can you see where this is going?

The Fast Cash Strategy is all about spending a little time on the creation of authentic quality content and then selling your new product to thousands of customers.
It would not be called The Easy 7-Step Fast Cash Strategy if you weren’t presented clear steps you only need to follow.
 
 
Here is the trick.

Instead of building up a whole system from scratch you use the power your competition already has. You don’t build your own mailing list before you get started. You get started before even thinking about a mailing list or your own website. Those are steps you can take later on, at a time when you will already be making money with your product. Setting up your own website, e-commerce, mailing list etc. will only add to your success.

Lynn shows you exactly what to do step by step.
The concept is very simple, can be adjusted to all fields of business and you can simply repeat the seven steps over and over again.

Don’t even worry if you do not have a product, yet. You will find useful resources in this report, teaching you how to produce quality content your customers will gladly spend some dollars on.

If you are looking for ways to make money online check out that report. I have been online for years now still I was surprised by how easy this approach to making fast money online is. The report is available for only $10 dollars but will most likely help you generate a steady stream of income.
 
 
Note: I am not recommending The Easy 7-Step Fast Cash Strategy as an affiliate. I don’t get paid for my referral.
 
 
If you found that article to be useful consider subscribing to my RSS FEED by email using the subscription form on the sidebar of my website. You will automatically participate in my blog contest.

Online forums, user generated discussion groups and all the other forms of social networking have become a huge part of the internet.

Open source software allows everyone to setup a special interest forum within minutes. There are great forums to be found on almost every possible topics that you could wish to share your views on.

If your dog is sick and you don’t know what to do - post a question at a dog-lovers-forum.
You are looking for a romantic hideaway for your honeymoon - ask around in forums.
If you need advice on how to market your business, google for business forums and post a new threat.
In all of these cases you are only clicks away from the answers you where looking for.

Visiting an online forum, dedicated to a special topic, you will most likely get in contact with people that share your interest, are passionate about what they are doing and have the experience to give great advice. If you prove to be a valuable member of your chosen online community people will be glad to share their opinions with you and point you into the right direction.

I became aware of the real power of online forums when brushing my teeth one late evening, only a couple of days ago, after having spent hours on the net. Standing in my bathroom I was caught up in my thoughts about articles and posts I had just read.

Dale King, who had published articles that I enjoyed reading, among them a success poem, popped into my mind. I still don’t know whether Dale King is his real name, a real name at all or just a screen name. The picture he uses as his avatar could be him. Perhaps it is what he looked like 20 years ago. It could be a picture of who he wanted to be or just a face he found on the net. How should I know? I did not do any research on that matter and I’m not planning to do so.

Dale was on my mind just like a real person. Just like a friend of mine whom I might have had a discussion with that evening. To me Dale King was real!

That is the power of online forums.

Even though Dale King had been there before I entered the forum, I did not know he existed.
Now, having read his words and gotten direct replies from him he entered my life. He is now someone I can relate to, ask questions or give replies to. By being present on that particular forum he left traces in my life. Even if our paths never cross again I will think about him and my experience in this forum from time to time.

Wanting to or not Dale has interfered with my life. That interference did not set my life upside down but it certainly added another piece to the puzzle as does everything we experience throughout our lifetime.

The question is how all this affects Dale King himself?

Does his life change because I have read his poem? He doesn’t know I have.
What becomes of us, the participants of online forums, knowing that we are not only present to the people around us but also to people of all different origins, counties and continents?
Does the fact that people from China, India, Australia, Brasilia etc. now know my name, have read what I have posted and probably think of me from time to time change who I am. Have I grown? How does the awareness of others change the real me?

There is a huge responsibility that comes from replying to questions, from giving advice and from pointing the way. We are not only typing letters that form words into our computers and make them visible to users around the world.

We actively participate in the lives of the people around us in a forum. We are part of their lives. But, do we share responsibility?
 
 

If you found that article to be useful consider subscribing to my RSS FEED by email using the subscription form on the sidebar of my website. You will automatically participate in my blog contest.

Making money online is widely discussed in almost every online business forum. The approach I have made my own is to start by giving.

This is not only a path that I believe will lead to success. It is also very rewarding to see your work and the value you create for the benefit of others being really appreciated.

Too many people focus on what they wish to receive in return for all the effort put into their projects, even before they have actually started doing business.
Receiving a reward for you efforts is the last thing you should concentrate on. Once you manage to come up with real value for others the receiving will eventually start all by itself.

Your success is a matter of whether you have something to give that will be appreciated. If what you do it actually contributing to the lives of others they will gladly give something back to you. You will not even have to ask for it. It may be money as a sign of appreciation or they will simple start promoting you be letting other people know about your offers.

A couple of days ago I found an online tool making it really easy for your website visitors to show their appreciation for what you do and reward you. This tool is all about appreciating the small signs instead of making money on the large scale.

ScratchBack simple allows your visitors to tip you if they like what you have to offer. It only takes a couple of clicks to tip you some dollars. What they get in return is a link from
ScratchBack’s TopSpot widget at your site to any other web-destination they wish to share or promote.

On the right side you can see this tool in action. If you decide to test it right here at my site I’d be glad to have your links in my TopSpots.

If you are looking for a way to make a lot of money on the net in not time, ScratchBack is not what you are looking for. It is a nice tool to make some dollars by letting people show that they value your work and wish to support you.

All you need to do to get started is to sign up for a free account at ScratchBack. Once you have it verified and are logged in you can simply click the ‘Create new Scratch/Back widget’ link. You will be asked to complete a form and choose one of the existing designs. At the end of this procedure you will be given some lines of code to include into your websites source code.

Upload your modified source code and reload your website. Your TopSpot widget will already be there for your visitors to start giving back. They can do so by following the link at the bottom of the widget. After setting the link they wish to place among your TopSpots they can tip you with a preset amount using PayPal.

The money made through the
ScratchBack service will not pay for your house or car.
It will make you feel good by letting you know that your doing is appreciated. If you wish to share that feeling you can also reinvest into tipping someone else.
 
 
If you found that article to be useful consider subscribing to my RSS FEED by email using the subscription form on the sidebar of my website. You will automatically participate in my blog contest.