One thing I'm finding that a lot of people "don't" have has to do with the following list of things needed in order for your profile pic to work with the Google Plus authorship in search results. You need 3 things:

1. A website or blog that you own
2. A Google Plus Account
3. An About Me page on your blog. If you don’t have an about page then you must create one now.

If you have met the above three conditions then you may continue to the following steps:

1) On your website sidebar or header or footer add this link,

<a href="https://plus.google.com/GOOGLE+ ID"
  rel="author" target="_blank"> Join me on Google+</a>

Do not remove rel="author" else the trick wont work!

Replace GOOGLE+ ID with your Google profile link id. You can get your Google Plus ID by going to your Google Plus profile page and then copy the digital code from your browser address bar.

You can edit the text Join me on Google+ if you wish.

2) Next go to your About Me page and add this link anywhere you want,

<a href="https://plus.google.com/GOOGLE+ ID"
  rel="me" target="_blank"> My Google Profile</a>

Again replace the Google+ ID with your Profile ID. You can edit the text My Google Profile if you wish.

3) Now go to your Google+ profile and click the “Edit Profile” button - Then click on the "LINKS" area as shown below,



Add your Blog/site homepage URL and also the URL of your About page. You can also add your Facebook and twitter links if you wish.

Go to Profile Plus Ones. Click Edit Profile. Check the Show this tab on my profile checkbox.

Next Upload a quality Profile Pic of yourself (yes, even I had to upload an actual photo of myself - hope Google's happy!!!). Your image will look best if it is 150px by 150px in size.

Finally Save your profile and you are almost done.

Test How your profile photo will appear on SERPs...

Now you need to see how your image will appear. Click here and submit your homepage link in the search box and hit preview as shown below (and don't forget your URL might "not" contain the "www" like mine does...this is usually the case when hosted with GoDaddy!)



Note: It will take time (usually after the next index of your site) for your photo to appear globally on Google results pages. Even my photo thumbnail has not yet appeared on Google.com so it will take some time til Google will display it. Be patient.