For this installment of SocialSpark Saturdays I ‘m talking about your avatar. I’ve now looked at over 19,000 SocialSpark profiles and do you know what is a common denominator for all of the Premium Bloggers and more successful bloggers? Their avatars. Successful bloggers know that blogging is a personal endeavor and putting their own face up front is important.

I’m talking about a full on image of their face not just an eye, chin or some obscure part of the face. Blogging is a very visual medium where advertisers and other bloggers are drawn to your images immediately. Do you really want to represent yourself as a Simpsons or Southpark character? To me that shows a blogger who is not serious about their craft. It is sloppy so don’t do it.

When thinking about your avatar take a look at the premium bloggers, the izea insiders and then go to the networks area and take a look at bloggers in each network. You are going to see bloggers projecting strong confident images of themselves. They are also going to have well cropped images.

When you upload an image to SocialSpark you will have the option of cropping a large image and a small image. Take the time to do this properly so that your image appears the way that you want it to appear.

What not to use for an avatar:

• Default images that come with Windows.
• Cartoon Characters*
• Sparky or Leaving avatar blank
• Your 1985 prom picture
• Your kids*
• Your Dog*
• Your Cat*
• Any photo taken more than 2 years ago
• A cameraphone photo

  A blurry, dark or small photo blown up

• A Photo of you at the Grand Canyon… to scale

I put a few (*) up there because some people blog about their family so photos of their kids are fine, as long as the blogger is in the photo with their kids, dogs, and cats (unless the blogger is a cat, dog or kid). Cartoon characters are fine if they are custom characters of the blogger, not licensed characters. Your avatar represents who you are and they present you in the best possible light.

What you should use for your avatar.

• Have a friend help you or set up a tripod or use an Xshot to take a picture of yourself
• Dress for success
• Smile
• Get up close and personal
• A plain non distracting background

You want to make sure that the image you put out there for other bloggers and advertisers to see is an image that people want to see. Present an open friendly image and just see how many more people want to interact with you.

I am an IZEA Insider and my crew is called the “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” Crew and I want YOU to join me. Here are simple instructions on how exactly you can join my IZEA Insider Crew on SocialSpark.