Profile Pictures and Web Traffic

You may not care very much about profile pictures.

After all, a profile picture is just an image that appears next to your fake online name. Rather than fretting about profile pictures, you are probably more interested in getting web traffic and earning money.

It turns out, however, that profile pictures can have a significant impact on web traffic and earnings potential. Think of it this way, your profile picture is your brand logo, and your profile name is your brand name. Companies pay millions of dollars to come up with a brand name and logo. Then, they pay many millions more to market that brand name, and logo.

While you may not have millions to sink into the creation of a profile picture, you do have the time to carefully consider which profile picture would be most effective for marketing your online writing and products.

1. Trust

Trust is crucial. Before someone will click on your online product, or even read your second paragraph, they must have some trust that they are going to get something useful from you in the end.

If there is a lack of trust, readers will quickly move-on to the next search engine link.

2. Popularity 

Some brand names and logos (e.g. Disney and Mickey Mouse) have excellent name recognition that is the result of many years of careful marketing. When you are starting out with a new profile name and a new profile picture, you must put in a lot of work to self-promote your brand.

This process of self-promotion will be easier and more effective if you choose a profile picture that resonates well with your readers, and that carry natural positive associations.

3. Originality

You are trying to make money online through affiliate links and online advertising. Guess what? So are millions of other people. To stand out you need to produce original content, and that starts by picking an original brand logo, or profile picture.

4. Consistency

To get the most out of your self-promotion efforts, it is important to keep your profile picture constant or at least consistent. You do not see large companies changing their brand logos every other day, and you should not do that either.

When it comes to profile pictures, a common question is,

"Should I use my own face as a profile picture?".

My gut reaction is -- Heck no!

Even if you are extremely attractive, it would be difficult to compete with the looks and popularity of Jack Sparrow and Angelina Jolie.

On the other hand, if you use your own face, it is easier to earn the trust of your readers. In addition, excepting the small portion of the population that truly looks like a famous celebrity, you probably have a very unique face, which will help you establish a very original brand.

Perhaps, then, a photograph of yourself is a good choice. If you do go this route, stay away from passport photographs.

A head-shot often looks goofy because it puts everything out there; zits, yellow teeth, and receding hairline. Instead of a passport head shot, use an angle shot; with interesting lighting and shadows. This says that you are artistic, mysterious, and creative. And for those of you who are hairline challenged, make good use of the shadows.

a) Eyes

There are many body parts to choose from. The most common, are eyes. A good set of eyes can be very sexy and mysterious at the same time. Eyes are, after all, the windows into our soul, so a profile picture of eyes indicates that you are a very trustworthy person.

However, eyes are also very commonly used as profile pictures, so you will lose much in terms of originality. Unless you have on amazing and artistic eye makeup, or are selling eye products, you may want to skip this picture profile option. After all, you do not want to be dismissed as just another pair of eyes.

b) Boobs

The second most popular body part is probably a show of cleavage.

Personally, I do not think that there is anything wrong with cleavage. If you have it, there is nothing wrong with flaunting it, ... sometimes.

However, flaunting it all the time, as you would in a profile picture not only nullifies its effects, but may also bring with it a whole set of negative associations and assumptions about your character. At the very least you may alienate a large segment of readers who prefer to get quality content from something other than a pair of boobs.

c) Other

In addition to eyes and boobs, there are many other body parts to choose from for your profile picture.

By using some other random body part, you may win some small number of points on originality; but from a trust standpoint it is difficult to compete with eyes, and from a popularity standpoint, it is difficult to compete with boobs.

Perhaps if you can tastefully integrate eyes and cleavage, you would really have a winning profile picture. After many experiments however, I have yet to come up with a "tasteful" combination.

Using a hot celebrity as your profile picture has many advantages.

First of all, hotness always wins you many popularity points. Second of all, celebrities have their own multi-million dollar marketing machine, so you get to ride on the coat tails of their money and success.

If you choose to use a celebrity picture as your profile, pick a popular, well-liked, character rather than just a generic photograph of a celebrity. For example, instead of being plain-old Johnny Depp, be Jack Sparrow!

Unlike Johnny Depp, the reality; Jack Sparrow, the fantasy, is just as famous, has funky eye-makeup, is roguishly charming, can sword-fight inside and on top of a very large wheel, and occasionally, even cheats death. Truly, there is no reason to be "just Johnny Depp", when you can be Captain Jack Sparrow.

Note: badcompany99 is currently using a Jack Sparrow profile picture on HubPages. For purposes of originality, and non-dickishness, pick a different profile-character, savvy?

While picking a character, choose one that you can effectively role-play online. If your profile picture says Jack Sparrow but your articles and online postings say Hannibal Lecter or Lois Lane, then there is a real problem.

There are many compelling, memorable, and lovable, television and movie characters; so pick one that is not overly used (e.g. all versions of Brad Pitt) and that helps to enhance the products and articles that you are marketing. However, be aware that you always run the risk of someone else coming along and using the same celebrity profile picture.

Another alternative is to morph your own picture with the picture of a celebrity. Social psychology studies show that people are more likely to trust faces that they are familiar with. By combining your own face with a well-known and trustworthy face; you get to stay original, and still tap into the trust and positive personality already established by somebody else.

However, as was pointed out by droj, in the comments section, this may risk your readers' trust. Using a not-well-known or morphed celebrity profile picture may be seen as trying to pass yourself off as something which you are not. When that gets revealed, all that you say, and all that you do, may become suspect. Whether that was your original intent or not, does not matter, as long as your audience perceives it to be true.

Therefore, make all this clear in your profile page. Better yet, write an article about the origins of your profile picture and profile name. I always enjoy such articles because it reveals the writer in a very personal way and establishes a special bond.

After talking about hot celebrities, cats and dogs seem to be somewhat of a let down.

But wait a minute, shibashake the self-proclaimed expert on profile pictures and web traffic uses a dog profile picture, so perhaps there is something more to this cats and dogs business?

Well, I must confess that I did not put much thought into my profile picture when I first joined the HubPages community. I was a young and foolish pup then, and did not know a lot about writing online, seo, affiliate programs, Google AdSense, or web traffic analysis.

I just wanted to shock and awe everyone on HubPages with my brilliant dog articles on Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. In my haste, I slapped on a goofy picture of my dog, and put down the first name that came to mind; which was thankfully, the name of my website.

Even though there was a lot less shock and awe than I expected; I was very lucky in two respects. First of all, I used my website name as my profile name.

In this way, there is greater continuity of experience, for my readers, across my own website, HubPages, eZine, Squidoo, and other online writing and social networking sites. Although not by design, shibashake, became my brand name, and my goofy dog became my brand logo.

Second of all, the goofy dog picture worked out pretty well for promoting my many dog related articles. The dog profile picture appeals to many of my readers who are dog lovers themselves. The dog profile picture also integrates well with my dog website which has many other related pictures, of my four-legged brand logo.

There are, however, also some rather large disadvantages. A dog profile picture will not appeal much to non-dog people. In fact, it may even turn away some readers who dislike or fear dogs.

Also, a dog profile picture does not showcase my non-animal articles well. After all, why would you want to learn about online communities, social networking, and positive communication from a dog?!

Before using a picture of your pet as your profile picture, make sure that it does not overly limit your target content or readers.

By abstract pictures, I pretty much mean everything else. An abstract profile picture could depict scenery, objects, or more complex scenes with multiple people and animals.

Unlike pictures of you, or your pet; abstract pictures are less personal. Because of this. there is less risk of alienating anyone. It would be pretty unusual for someone to get angry over a picture of a flight of stairs.

An abstract profile picture is also less topic specific. As a result, you could use the same profile to promote a wider variety of subject matter.

However, the strength of abstract profile pictures, is also its weakness. It is difficult to become friends with scenery or a flight of stairs. Because abstract pictures are less personal, it is more difficult to establish trust with your readers. An abstract picture encourages identification with larger things such as the environment, patriotism, or peace; rather than with the individual. Therefore, more work may be needed to establish your personality and individuality, while promoting your brand.

When choosing an abstract profile picture, find one that has many positive associations, and few or no negative ones. For example, choose something that represents positive qualities, that will help in your self-promotion campaign, such as vision, endurance, or trust.

Which is the best profile picture for me to use to get the most web traffic?

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. Each class of profile pictures have their own strengths and weaknesses. Carefully consider your content, target audience, and online goals, before choosing a profile picture.

Once you have picked a profile picture, it is best to stick to it so that you are always accumulating goodwill on that same brand name, and brand logo. If you find that to be too tedious, some picture tweaking is acceptable, but always keep the visual subject (e.g. you, your dog, Jack Sparrow, the abstract representation of vision) constant.