I receive more comments and compliments on my About page than any other single page on Feels Like Home, so I offered to share some information with you on creating a rocking About page.
Why You Need an About Page
Why should someone read your blog? If I’m new to your site, I want to learn about you. I want to know what your hook is. What makes you special?
Your existing readers want to know who you are. They are already reading your stories, and they want to know more about the person behind them.
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” only works for the Wizard of Oz. (Wait a minute. It didn’t really work for him, either, did it?)
Whether they’re established or new, your readers want to know the person who’s writing the posts. Whose stories are these, anyway?
6 Tips for a Fabulous About Page
- Include at least one photo. Include a few if you feel so moved. Let readers see who you are.
- Show off your voice. You write every day in your unique voice. Make sure your About page sounds like you wrote it, no matter what you decide to write.
- Be unique. This isn’t a resume; don’t just list what you do and what you have done. Tell about you – your soul, your passion, your favorite necklace. Talk about the essence of what makes you you.
- Write in first person. This isn’t a bio on the back of a book; it’s your introduction to current and future readers. Don’t write it in the third person.
- Tell a story. Your About page shouldn’t be a blog post, but it might be easier to talk about yourself if you frame it as a story. Is there a story that you always tell the first time you meet someone in person? That might be just the one for your About page.
- Explain why. Why do you write about whatever you write about? Why did you go bungee jumping in college? Why do you love jewelry so much? Explaining your motivation makes you much more real to your readers.
- Include a few links at the end. Do you have a certain tag that readers might like to explore? Link it at the end. Or are there posts that give a lot of information about you as a human being? Include them here.
© 2011 – 2018, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.
After going to the PSMM blog workshop in July, I’ve been trying to work on my About page. I know that it doesn’t have to be a novel, but it is definitely taking me awhile! The picture thing has me stuck, too, because I don’t have many great pictures of myself, let alone any pictures, since I’m the one always taking the pictures. Now, I’m feeling a bit inspired!
Terrific! At the very least, look at the About pages I’ve listed and use that for inspiration to write something. Something is better than nothing. 🙂 Good luck!
I’m working on it while at HomeHer11. What better use of my time today than to wallow in my blog?
You are so much better than that. Don’t wallow in anything. Work on your blog if you want to, but do it joyfully and be glad for the time. 🙂
You’re absolutely right! I was envisioning being like a pig and wallowing happily in the mud, and that just didn’t work did it. How about being a gardener puttering around my garden?
Thank you for this, I really need to step up my about page.
Thanks for this incredibly informative piece. I loved seeing the samples of other bloggers’ About Me pages. I’ve been thinking about exchanging my WordPress blog for a custom web site, so this piece got me thinking!
Thank you for a great post. I think I need to step up my about page too. Now I know how 🙂
Great tips!
LOVE. About page revamp is next on my list…. ours is pitiful.
This is such a great idea…I’ve always thought that my family blog didn’t need an about page…it’s all about us, but after reading this and your about page I can see some change is in order! Thanks for the tips!
Great advice, Tara. I’m still new in the blog world, I hadn’t considered putting links at the end of my about me page, so I need to work on that.
I wonder what your advice is about the mini-bio I’ve seen on some blogger’s home pages. Do you think this helps or do you think it is necessary? I presumed people are pulled to a blog for a specific reason, they read the first post (that brought them there) and if they are intrigued they click the ‘about,’ link. I’m trying to keep my home page pretty clean, but I’m interested in what you have to say. If you have time to check out my about page, I’d love feedback!
I just added a mini bio to my blog this morning! It’s down in the footer; did you notice it? Is that what you’re talking about? I think the idea is to give readers (especially new ones) a quick glimpse of the author without having to click at all.
I wanted to add one for a while, but I am stuck on sidebar space. Adding it my footer was a compromise I could live with. It’s there, but not taking up any sidebar real estate.
A few months ago, I had my blog critiqued at #blogchat. One of their big concerns was that there was nothing about me on my homepage; a reader would have to click at least once to see my photo or learn even the most basic information.
So that was a lot to say it depends, wasn’t it? I’ll check out your page when I get home tonight.
Definitely agree with writing in first person. By writing in third person I always get the feeling that they think they are more important than they really are.
This made me laugh out loud. Sometimes, it’s necessary (like when you’re writing a bio for a company, for example), but on your About page, it most definitely is not. Would you write your blog in the third person?
I’ve been meaning to revamp my About Page for a while. Your tips have me well on the way since I’ve been unsure about what to include. Sounds like it should be more about yourself but with a touch about your blog. I need to add some humor to mine to stay true to myself as well.
Thanks for sharing your process. I’ve been looking for a way to make some changes towards having more “personal flair” (for lack of a better description) in the pages of my blog, and these tips were definitely useful.