About Me: 5 Tips to Spice it Up
It’s here, the 5 tips for your “about” page, as I promised sometime ago. I was just about to post this, but Andreas voiced his thoughts on the matter, which led me to discuss the pros and cons of shorter blurbs vs longer pages. Most of these tips apply to both of them.
Here are five things you can do to spice it up.
1. A Short blurb. Most blogs have this, with some written in the first-person voice while others are in the third. But most importantly, get straight to the point and tell the reader about yourself. No more, no less.
2. Pictures (of yourself). Not your cat. Perhaps yourself with your cat, if you’re really fond of it, but keep it simple. Don’t just snap a portrait. Go monochromatic, create a polaroid or produce an illustration. Be creative.
3. Include a Portfolio. A lot employers are now using the web to get the scoop on potential employees. Including links to some of your work would make it easier for them to find.
4. Reader Questions. During the earlier days of 50Volts (aka last month), I got an email from a reader who wanted to know more about me. Instead of just telling him, I decided to post the answers so everyone could see them.
5. Random Statistics. If you have an A-list blog, or have some awesome traffic stats to your blog, why not show it off? Something along the lines of “over 1 million pages served” or “I’m a top 100,000 blogger” will instill lots of trust in the reader.
That’s it. Now go and work on it, and let me know when you’re done. I’d love to check it out.
Conner Downey
Jun 09, 2007
Nice post, and some good tips. I just noticed that it seems easier to write an about page in third person, I don’t know why. I used to do it that way all the time, but now I go a bit more in depth and personal. I also use my about page as a place to show where you can find me around the web, e.g. Twitter, Flickr, Digg, etc.
I do have a picture of myself, but it’s old, and somewhat monochromatic. Monochrome looks professional, and often fits better with the design of the blog (such as mine and yours)
I don’t have a portfolio, nor do I have any reader questions, but those are also good tips.
I also don’t have many stats to share (not many good ones anyway), so I don’t mention them. I do, however, include a Feedburner image in my sidebar, but I put it up when I had more subscribers (I may take it down now, as I am ashamed of it, :P)
P.S.: I really like the design, it all flows perfectly. I may ask you for help one day, as I want to make my own (again, made a bad one before), if you are not too busy. Nice job with the blog overall, and congratulations on breaking into the top 100,000. Anyway, I apologize for the long comment.