I spent a bit of time changing most of my avatars to a real picture of me instead of the sign language for the letter Z that i have been primarily using. 
Why? A few reasons i suppose. Having a picture of me instead of a graphic makes me feel like more of a person than a few pixels. I suspect that others feel the same. If you look at the collection of avatars below (my community members according to mybloglog.com) the graphic ones just scream spam. 
The ones of female scream fraud and the two pictures of guys are actually probably real people. I feel like i should give those two some link love. Thank you Erik and Shawn (spelled the right way i should add) for being real people!
It was nice to learn a lesson from watching the slow changes to the list of readers that have appeared on my list from mybloglog. If you want to grab some traffic have a good looking picture of yourself as your avatar. Sure, sex may sell - you might get one click from someone hoping that you’re a good looking woman but as soon as they see that your blog is about celebrity gossip (like “redonka”) or tech issues but no evidence that the avatar is you then you lose them for the long haul.
I am working on changing all of my avatars but one service makes it truly easy to change and i just wish it was more universal - Gravatar.
Lorenzo Reyes on 
Tiffany Borges on 
August 9th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I was tempted to use Gravatar. However, the last time I went to visit the site, the developers were having all sorts of buggy problems with their system, that I had a headache just looking at those complaints they made. I get a little phobic just hearing about Gravatars now.
Thanks for dropping by my blog by the way; your header is pretty cool.
August 12th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
[...] Choosing an avatar to represent you by Ryan McFarland [...]
August 12th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
If you want traffic at stumbleupon change your avatar to a good looking woman. lol
August 12th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
[...] Choosing an avatar to represent you by Ryan McFarland [...]
August 13th, 2007 at 7:28 am
So if a pic of a female screams fraud and a pic of yourself is what makes you real then only guys are real? What’s a gal to do?
August 13th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Hmm… I can see your point here. Photos are good for building up recognition of an individual blogger.
But what about that of a brand?
I don’t actually have any pictures of myself online, so I use my site’s logo as my avatar. It’s not as personal, but it is still unique to me. Do you think that that is enough?
August 21st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
[...] Choosing an avatar to represent you by Ryan McFarland [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
[...] Choosing an avatar to represent you by Ryan McFarland [...]