When you do the same thing everyone else is doing, you can hardly expect to get better results than everyone else, can you? What’s the “autopilot” way of creating an About page? It’s biographical and you talk about yourself, maybe include a picture and…
That’s it.
Pretty lame, and it does nothing to get you leads. Which is a shame when you consider how often your About page is visited. And that it factors into a prospect’s decision to hire you… or not.
On September 23rd, I gave this presentation for the free annual International Freelancers Day online conference, which was attended by over 4,000 people and chock full of freelancery goodness. Now I’m sharing it with you. It’s about 17 minutes long. Check it out below. If you can’t see it in your email or reader, visit the blog post and watch it there.
What About Pictures?
Should your About page have a picture of you? Almost without exception the answer is “Hell yes!” Remember I focus on business blogs, not bloggers who may have a (very good) reason to protect their real identity. So yeah, have a picture of yourself. Preferably smiling. Don’t worry about being photogenic. The point of this presentation is to make your About page sell you. There has to be a “you” there to sell! People don’t care about whether you’re good-looking as much as they care that you’re real.
Having said that, Instagram can work wonders on self-portraits.
What About 3rd Person and SEO?
I unabashedly make no bones about writing your About page in the 1st person instead of the 3rd person. Chris Garrett mentioned to me on Twitter he wrote his in the 3rd person for SEO reasons. When I Google his name, his About page shows up second, after his site’s home page (on Bing, his About page is #4, while his site’s home page is #1). And the factors which are taken into account by Google are not related to whether the content is written in 1st or 3rd person. I can just as easily have a heading that says “About Michael Martine” for example and have other quite natural ways of including my name while writing in the 1st person. Like saying, “Hi, my name is Michael Martine,” (which, in fact, I do). Now, of course if Chris is happy with that and it’s working for him I have nothing to say against that at all. Somehow I don’t think he’s hurting for business.
Also, consider this: if most of your business comes via word of mouth and not search, then any supposed advantages from writing your About page in the 3rd person are a moot point.
Examples
So what are some great About pages that follow the precepts of this presentation? Here are a few:
- Mine (well, duh)
- Jennifer Bones
- Catherine Caine
- Alison Cummings
- Clay Collins
Thanks for the examples. I find writing an About page very difficult because I don’t know what to write about but your tips have helped me greatly.
Great post!
Thank You.
I know how to add an ABOUT off my homepage and I am going to do it today.
BUT how do you add it to a Blog if you are using Blogger?
I’m not familiar with Blogger anymore, it’s been forever since I’ve used it and they’ve changed it. I believe you can have pages now, so maybe see if you can Google that.
You can add pages and call them whatever you’d like. It’s in your dashboard under “posting”. Instead of writing a new post, you can “edit pages”. That’s where you can add them as well. Hope that helps
Cheryl Pickett recently posted..3 Ways Blogs Help You Stay In Touch with Current Customers
Thought I had a pretty good About page, but lo and behold, I learned something new and headed straight over to my blog to fixy, fixy
I learn something every single time I read your blog. Amazing!
Thanks, Sandi. Lookin’ good. Was there a defining moment when the coach in you was “born?” When you realized what you needed to do, for whom and why? If so, consider including that.
Fixy fixing. This is awesome. Glad I was doing some small pieces right! Oh, but oh-so-wrong in others. Feh.
Blogs are a work-in-progress. They’re always evolving, so it’s not really helpful to think in terms of “right” or “wrong,” but rather “more effective” and “less effective.” Effective meaning conversion rates go up instead of down, bounce rates go down instead of up, etc.
Wow…I’m humbled to be included in this list of pure awesome. Thank you Michael!
I must admit I had help and inspiration…from you and this site…when constructing my page and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
I’m kinda put off by the third person thing too although I never thought about the SEO implications. Then again, me and SEO *coughs* I’ll just keep mine as-is in first
Yep I recall that conversation. You really took it and ran with it, too, creating something worthy of being included in a list of good examples.
I have 2 blogs, WordPress and Blogger. I am going to go right now and put a picture on the “about” page. Blogger may be more of a challenge
Thank you.
Karen, you’re welcome. I believe you can include your profile as part of the Blogger design and their About thingy (gadget?) includes a picture if you have one for the Google account behind the blog.
Do you think it makes a difference if the photo is ‘professional’ or not? I chose one that looked friendly, happy and wasn’t humiliating (I hope). But I sometimes wonder if it seems too ‘real life’ and not professional enough. It’s the same pic I use for my Gravatar. Would love your thoughts!
Ruth, do a test and see which picture converts better. I’d try at least 4 different pictures cause you never know what your audience will respond to.
Just recently revamped my about page, now you’ve given me even more to think about! sheesh..a woman’s work is never done.
I suppose its about getting that right balance of information and being objective about that can be difficult.
Maybe I should tweet out “rate my about page” for feedback, then again maybe my ego wouldn’t like that
Thanks for the info Michael
BTW that beard is taking on a life of its own!
Jackie recently posted..I Don’t Click Because You’re Boring
Fixy fixy I have to do. Am working on it now. I was very taken with the different styles your examples have, and hope that I can fixy fixy mine to my satisfaction.
Great information, and thank you for posting it!
You’re welcome, Andrea. Good luck with your new About page.
[...] to the recent guest post I had here about cold calling by volume cold-caller Sarah Maurer.Create an About Page for Your Blog That’s a Secret Freelance Sales Weapon — by Michael Martine of Remarkablogger. Most writer website About pages truly suck. They [...]
Good Article, just realized I don’t have an about page. :/
US SEO recently posted..The Truth About Backlinks
That was an amazing presentation
Woo! Awesome presentation, in-depth and concise! I also love Jenny`+ Clay`s about pages, I think it’s time to re-write my about page.
I`m not sure if you`re familiar with Nancy Juetten, but she specializes in about pages / bios, and I could see the two of you connecting. She runs… http://www.mainstreetmediasavvy.com/
Jason Fonceca recently posted..Does Your Art Influence People To Support You Or Leave?
Thanks Jason, I appreciate your helpfulness.
I’m just setting up my own blog, and you’ve provided me with a lot of helpful advise. Now, I will be able to tackle my About page with more confidence. Thanks!
Awesome, Jackie. You may want to consider a maintenance page plugin that lets visitors sign up or subscribe so when your blog goes live they can be notified. Meantime, the building of the site will be hidden from the public.
The examples of good About pages helps a lot. I never know what to do with mine. The About page does turn up on a google search, and it is important to use it to sell your brand.
Glad you like the examples. Use them to model your own page.
I’ve been re-thinking my About page as of late. Right now, it converts new subscribers at a decent enough rate (a big change from before). And it’s the most visited page on my site.
I’m not comfortable with how it reads – it’s too wordy. So I need to trim that down. And frankly, I like the way I wrote about me on the footer of my site more anyway.
What I want my About page to communicate is:
- Why your here and/or how this site will help you,
- What others are saying (social proof),
- Who I am (and why you should care)
Anyway, off to re-write!
Ricardo Bueno recently posted..Keep It Simple
Remember to connect the “why you should care” with “why you’re here.” Because that’s why you matter more to them than anyone else who does what you do. It’s not just your skills and services, but why you do what you in the first place.
Thanks man!
Oh Mic, absolutely. About page is a secret weapon indeed. More than 70% of my freelance clients find me through my About page.
And one thing I don’t like about certain (even popular and well established) blogs is that, they use “us” while wrapping up an about page or on sidebars. For instance,
“Email us…..”
“Find us on Twitter…”
Sounds as if it is a company but it is a single author blog. I don’t know why!
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Yeah I don’t get that one, either. Go figure… Thanks for sharing how many of your clients come by way of your About page. It’s great to hear others’ experiences validating this information.
I don’t actually sell anything but I think even in the mommy blogger arena people want to know who you are. And I totally agree – am not a fan of writing in the 3rd person. Or using the royal “we” or “us” on a blog (who do you think you’re kidding? seriously?).
My own about page is pretty musty so this is a good reminder to go over and spruce it up a bit.
Alexis recently posted..Mommy Loves You Best. Not You, the Other One.
You may not be selling anything but there’s so much free advice online (much of it terrible) that anything you can do prove yourself to your readers helps.
I have a new company, new site and new blog. Guess what I didn’t have? Yep, an About page. When I read, “fixy fixy,” I wrote one for my site. I’m sure I’ll tweak it a lot as I go along, and I’ll add one to my blog soon, too. Thank you for the impetus. You provided some outstanding information and examples, Michael!
And it looks great! Glad you dove right in and made it happen.
P.S. – If you plan on commenting on other blogs from time to time, you will want to go to http://gravatar.com and get a free account. Gravatars are the portraits which appear by your comment on WordPress blogs.
Michael Martine recently posted..17 Ways to Turn Your Blog Readers into Loyal Fans
Great post! I have seen a lot of traffic to my About Page since I have created it. It really helps to make things personal.
your article helpful for those person whose start learn seo.because your share some seo important tips..
Oh, but oh-so-wrong in others. Thanks, Sandi. Good luck with your new About page. It really helps to make things personal.
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Hi Michael,
I’m so glad I came across your blog. I like your style and your straight to the point advice. After reading this particular post about the About page I spent every free moment I had this weekend (not easy with a 2 year old but I have a very supportive husband) rewriting it. I knew from the beginning it wasn’t exactly what I wanted but I just recently entered the world of blogging. Anyhow thank you, thank you for your advice. I’m now following your blog and look forward to reading more posts.
Cheers!
Nareen