If you spend time on blogs, you might have noticed that some people have their own photos as their avatar next to posts and comments.  This is more apparent on WordPress based blogs and generally those that aren’t using the Disqus commenting system plug-in (those using Disqus require people to setup accounts and individuals can attach their photos in their Disqus accounts).

However, if you’ve ever seen a blog post like this (borrowing from our client, Stacy Karacostas’ The Unchained Entrepreneur – we’ve added her photo since this screenshot but grabbed it as an example before we did!) you might have noticed that your photo did not appear but rather the lovely default avatar that WordPress assigns:

To prevent your comments and posts from being tagged with the anonymous grey figure, here’s what you’ll want to do:

1. Go to Gravatar.com.
2. Sign up for a new account here using the e-mail address you use when commenting / posting on blogs.
3. Once your account is setup, upload a photo you would like to use and create your avatar.

Now, when you post on blogs around the Internet, including your own, using that e-mail address, your avatar will pop up instead of the grey anonymous one!

I received a question on my Formspring account, which you can reach at www.formspring.me/erinblaskie, which asked, “How long should my blog posts be and how many posts per week should you be creating to drive the maximum number of visits to your site?”

Let me preface this conversation by saying that like all things that can be done for your business, the way that you blog is often defined by your preferences and the time you have available for this tactic. For every single entrepreneur, this is going to be different. However, there are a few things that we can discuss here that will help you formulate a plan around blogging.

The first thing that I always tell people when it comes to blogging is that consistency really is key. Your readers won’t care if you have one post a week or five posts a week so long as you are consistent with your material. Set a goal for the number of new blog posts you want to publish per week and stick to it.

The second thing is that there is no magic length for your blog posts. Everyone always asks me about the length of a blog post and the length is less important than the content inside of the blog post. If you are writing a blog for search engine optimization reasons, you want to ensure that your blogs are keyword rich and on target with your blog’s topic. If you are simply writing because that is what you do – share via a blog – the keywords and length are less important. The best piece of advice I have is to just write naturally and let the length naturally fall where it may.

The third thing has to do with the format of your blog posts. There is a common misperception that all blog posts must be text-based. That isn’t true. A good blog will have a combination of text, images, audio and video so that the readers of that blog can consume the information in a variety of formats. Not everyone is going to want to sit and read a blog post but they may very well tune into a podcast or watch a video. Share across all mediums for maximum exposure.

Finally, look at setting up an editorial calendar for yourself. Write your blog posts when you are inspired to do so and when you have a moment to yourself and pre-schedule those posts into the future based on your editorial calendar. The editorial calendar will also help you with consistency as you will be forced to have your blog posts spread out.