Have you decided to start a blog? Or do you already have one and you are wondering how to grow your audience and boost its engagement?
Then you have to take the time and polish the most important page of them all.
It can have different names. About Me or Us. About. Who is [name of the blog or your name]. Even the phrase which is getting more and more popular in the blogosphere – Start Here.
But this page has one purpose: to make your audience fall in love with you and your project.
Why “fall in love”? Because it will be either love from first sight or nothing.
I don’t want to scare you, but it’s crucial to understand why this page deserves your attention and effort.
People will either read it from the beginning to the end, follow you in their favourite social media channels, subscribe to your newsletter and (even!) read a couple of your articles…
OR
They will close the tab within the first 7 seconds and forget about you forever.
Do you understand now how important the About Me page is? Yep, that important.
It’s your only chance to attract your audience’s attention and to convince them how awesome your blog is. You can even look at it as the most effective advertisement for your project.
The About Me page is among the most visited pages of every blog.
There’s a reason for that: people would really like to know who they are interacting with. And whether the idea or the purpose of the project is worth a minute of their time.
Now you have the necessary mindset, let’s get to work. In this article, you will find useful tips on what to include in the About Me page of your blog so that it will steal people’s hearts.
This article may contain affiliate links, for more information, read the Disclaimer. If you click on any of them, I might get a tiny commission. I’ve tried all of the mentioned products and services, and my opinion is sincere.
Who are you talking to?
Think about your perfect user’s profile. What is their job? How do they spend their free time? What are their fears, hopes, struggles, dreams? And most important: what do they want to find in your blog?
The key to success is to know your people. Take the necessary time to build an image of your desired audience. Your About Me page should make them feel like you know who they are and what they need.
“What about the rest of the people who will visit this page?”, I hear you saying.
Well, yeah, what about them? The only way to build trust and engagement within your audience is to reach the right people – the target group that might potentially show interest in what you have to say.
You can’t make everybody happy, but you can try to make the important people very happy.
Related: The Biggest Mistakes You Can Make as a Freelancer
Don’t be afraid to describe your ideal reader. Whoever recognises themselves in this description, will be yours forever.
Keep in mind the vocabulary and the tone of voice you are using. This advice applies to any content related to your blog. The way you write depends on the people you would like to reach. That’s why you should be aware of your target audience before launching the project.
You can check the Nielsen’s list of 37 words describing the tone of voice that can be used to plan future or evaluate existing website content. Remember that you are aiming for consistency. The About Me page should correspond with the rest of the content you have or will publish.
There’s something else that deserves your attention: creating an error-free content. In the age of chat apps, the language is changing rapidly. Even expressions like “btw” and “omg” might be appropriate in a particular context. Anyway, sticking to the formal punctuation, grammar and spelling rules can be crucial for your business, whatever your niche is. Let me explain.
You know how the negative things stand out, right? For example, it’s annoying to have a broken nail, and your attention goes there again and again until you fix it. But in the rest of the time, you never say to yourself “Oh, today all of my nails are neat and healthy”, do you?
That’s why most of the people when reading an error-free article, won’t be impressed by the lack of mistakes. At the same time, they’ll be extremely disappointed if they find out that you’re illiterate or that you just don’t care about the grammar rules. In both of the cases, such an impression can ruin your connection with your audience forever.
Having errors in your content is a sign that you don’t pay enough attention to the details.
Maybe you’re too busy, or you’re not aware of them in the first place. But unfortunately, no one would believe that you’re good at what you’re doing if you’re so sloppy that you make mistakes in your own content. Even if your business has nothing in common with the art of writing, you still need words to make your potential clients familiar with its concept and values.
Ever since I started The Zen Freelancer, I’ve been using Grammarly. It’s free and it’s among the “must have” tools for any blogger. But why is it so special?
The free version of the app checks your content for a wide range of common grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. Grammarly shows the correct spelling of a word or phrase as well as a recommendation for improving the whole sentence. It also provides synonym suggestions in order to make your text easier and more pleasant to read.
See for yourself – sign up for the free version now! Click here to access Grammarly (affiliate link) and to discover an entire world of useful features which will help you create error-free and high-quality content.
Grammarly also has a browser extension – I use the one for Google Chrome – which makes the app ready to use whenever you need it. They’ve recently introduced the possibility to check your text while writing it in Google Docs and even in WordPress itself. How cool is that!
I recently upgraded to the paid subscription and I’m so happy that I finally did this! It saves me a lot of doubts and therefore – time. My articles look more professional than before, and I’m more confident about the quality of the content I provide to you, my zen readers.
You can also check out my article The Essential Guide to Editing and Proofreading Like a Pro. There you’ll find some tips which will help you spot grammar mistakes and create flawless texts.
Now, let’s see what else you should include in your perfect About Me page…
What is this blog about?
Write a catchy beginning – this is the crucial point where people decide whether they will spend some time reading further. Focus on the issues your blog solves or the value it will add to the readers’ lives. Emphasise how it will help them.
After you have already mentioned the main benefits of reading your blog, you can go further in telling what it is about. Make this part simple and easy to understand. You can use a couple of keywords related to your niche but don’t forget the user experience you are providing.
Emphasise the advantages of your blog.
This is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. Give examples but stick to the point.
Mention both the primary type of content that you are planning to create and the topics you will cover. Explain briefly why those topics are worth reading. If you have already published series that your readers should know about, you can list them here.
Don’t lose your focus only because you are afraid that you will miss something. Your blog will evolve and so should your About Me page, too. You can and you should keep on polishing it.
Don’t hesitate to remove things that are no longer relevant and to replace them with information or examples that will boost the audience’s engagement.
Related: How to Beat Procrastination Once and For All
Who are you?
Even though this page might be called “About Me”, only a small part of it is actually about you. A small but rather essential part!
Here comes the time to share your story. Now, don’t get overexcited – again, it’s not entirely about your story, it’s about the way your story led to creating the blog.
Why did you decide to blog? Did you do something beforehand so that you gained experience worth sharing? Tell people who you are and what you believe in.
Don’t stick to the chronological order of events because nobody cares about it. This is not your CV, this is the connection between your special, amazing and unique project and its potential followers.
Focus on telling a captivating, charming (and true!) story about you – the founder, the owner, the author – of this blog. Every detail you mention should refer to and support an aspect of it.
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There are two scenarios in which people will trust you.
Scenario №1: if they recognise themselves in your story or, scenario №2: if they believe you have been through a lot, so you know what you’re talking about.
It’s a great challenge to write about yourself. But you should remember that you are the only one who can do it right.
The reason is simple: you know yourself and you are aware of the purpose of your blog. Combining these two ingredients in the recipe “Be yourself and sell yourself” will guarantee that you are walking on the path to success.
Including random fun facts about you is a popular but completely useless approach. Unless the tone of voice in your blog is playful to an excessive degree, skip this part as it only distracts the audience’s attention without bringing any value.
Oh, I almost forgot:
How to choose the best picture for your About Me page?
Many bloggers advise that you invest in a pretty and professional photo shoot. I don’t agree entirely.
Every single visitor of your About Me page will be a real person. A human being. Just like you.
While it is important to show who you are, the type of picture you would use depends on the type of blog you have.
Most of the topics don’t require a shiny and unrealistic studio portrait. A candid photo of your smiling self will make miracles in creating the desired connection with your audience.
Show them that you are not pretentious but true. And that your values are not made up but reliable. The best way to achieve this is to keep it real.
Depending on your niche, you can also use a beautiful picture as an illustration of your blog’s topic. In this case, you should definitely check out these 20 Websites With Beautiful Free Stock Photos. Don’t forget to bookmark the link, so that you have access to this free database whenever you need captivating images for your blog.
What should people do now?
The last part of the perfect About Me page is the call to action (or the CAT, meaow!). Give your readers an idea of what to do next, after they have read your story. Because otherwise they will just close the tab and go somewhere else.
The easiest thing to do is to invite them to follow you on social media.
But I highly recommend that you use the excitement your About Me page has provoked for something more effective, like asking them to subscribe to your newsletter.
If you have prepared an opt-in incentive – even better! Use the opportunity to get your readers familiar with it. If they got all the way to the end of your story, they most probably have a genuine interest in what you have to offer or what you can teach them.
Another idea is to list some of your core content so that the visitors keep on reading your blog. For example, if you have written an article with tips on how to create a successful About Me page, this is the perfect moment to mention it.
What are some good examples?
I would like to show you some examples of amazing About Me pages. More or less they follow the structure I describe in the current article and give a useful overview of the desired end result.
Check them out but don’t copy them. Instead, use them for inspiration to show the best you are capable of. Adjusting the available ideas to your own style is the only way you can connect with your audience and make your blog successful.
Catherine from CatherineOneissy.com uses a catchy beginning and a unique sense of humour while talking to her target audience – work-at-home moms.
Both Melyssa from Melyssa Griffin.com and Alisson from Wonderlass.com address their perfect readers and form the expectations about what can be found in their blog. They are also using a tone of voice that is typical for the rest of the content they create.
Here are some more examples of captivating and effective About Me pages:
Andrea from HustleAndHearts.com shares her story in such a convincing and exciting way that it’s almost impossible not to spend half an hour exploring the “positive and encouraging space for women looking to start freedom based businesses without the overwhelm”.
Sara from GatheringDreams.com gets personal and reveals that she’s been through a lot before making the decision to follow her dreams. A good example of incorporating details of her life in creating the story of her blog.
Lidiya from LetsReachSuccess.com has one of the richest About Me pages I have ever seen. She is talking a lot about the concept behind the blog and the steps she took in order to get where she’s now. This approach helps her gain the trust of her audience – after reading all of this, they will inevitably feel like they already know her for a very long time.
Do you have any other ideas on what to include in the perfect About Me page? Don’t hesitate to share them with me!
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