I was reading an article from Article City about useful online tools for bloggers and that article triggered me into writing this. It was a good article that the writer had written but I do have some things to add to his opinions.

I do agree on his opinion is adding videos to certain blog posts to make the post more interesting and getting about to learning how the traffic of a website works is a must if the blogger is heading into a full time blogging profession.

However the article has forgotten to input certain aspects like having the basic knowledge of picture editing and basic website designing. Picture editing is very important for all website owners since the pictures they post could be taken by other users and repost it under their name instead of the original graphic designer. Thus, adding in a watermark on all your pictures is a must to stop the pictures being recirculated for others usage. Adobe Photoshop is one of my favourite software to edit and create new designs.

Basic knowledge in website designing and programming is a must for bloggers. Ask any bloggers or website owners about debugging errors and they will sure to inform you that almost every month, there is bound to have some errors popping in on their website. I’ve had my fair share of my website creating errors especially every time my Wordpress platform upgraded itself. Editing the errors can be a chore and a lot of hassle so it is advisable for all website owners and blogs to learn a thing or two about HTML and PHP codes.

To make website programming editing easy, I have used a free software called Notepad ++. Sure you can always use the normal Notepad software found in your Accessories but Notepad ++ shows the line numbers, coding colors to make your debugging life more easier. You can easily get the free software from CNET.

Users especially Wordpress users surely would have come across with the plug in called Gravatar once in a while. Gravatar plug-in can usually be seen when the Wordpress users have activated it and is present when a visitor wishes to put in his/her comments.

Gravatar is a shorter name to its orignal, Globally Recognized Avatars. It conjures up an avatar/ icon/ picture of the user whenever the user has left a comment in a blog, website or community forums. It creates a more closer community to see an avatar of the user instead of just plain words. In fact, it distinguishes the user from others, making each user unique.

How to know if Gravatar is present in website I’m in?

It’s simple. Click on the comment link to leave a comment in the post/website. Just fill up the form you see there and leave your comments. Once your comment is approved by the admin, you can see the avatar/icon placed in the comment you had left. See below for sample.

If there are comments left by previous visitors, you can easily detect the Gravatar plug-in by looking at the icons given randomly on each comment user. If the user has an account with Gravatar, his own unique avatar/icon will pop up instead of the normal random icon. You can view it below.

How to get my Own Unique Gravatar?

Just visit www.gravatar.com and register yourself in. It only takes less than 5 minutes to register and upload your picture in. Simple!