Every three or four months, I take a look at my About page and ask myself two questions:
- What are my business goals for this page? In my case, I do strategy consulting and build what I call “social web systems” for small businesses and non-profits. I want this page to help visitors imagine getting results by working with me.
- Is this page a true reflection of myself? This is a hard one because, like you, I am constantly evolving – and evolutions resist being bound by words.
The answers help me to start breathing new life into my About page. Below are a few things I’ve picked up along the way, either from other About pages and/or through trial and error. 
The obvious
- It’s not about you. It’s about the visitor. Speak to them – as if they’re sitting across from you at a coffee shop.
- Answer questions. This person sitting across from you – what questions will they have about who you are and what you do?
- Open your door. Put links to your about page in a few places. I have mine in my footer, my nav bar and sprinkled throughout posts.
- Testimonials. Still the quickest way to establish confidence with potential clients.
- Have a photo. The quickest (and oldest) way of reading someone is through their face. And for God’s sake, smile!
- Keep it simple. Depending upon your strategy, less can be much more. Danny Brown teases visitors with an outline of services and provides a link to contact form at the bottom of the page. Beth keeps things short and sweet too.
- Make it interactive. If you have a lot of information that people need to know, break it up into sub-pages, like Epic Change did.
- Page Directory. Lots of info still? Try putting a table of contents at the top, just like Alltop does.
- Have a phone number. I can count on one hand the number of times new clients have introduced themselves with a paypal payment. Most of the time, we talk a few times -through email and on the phone.
- Tell your story. Why are you doing what you do? How did you get here? Debra Askanase’s About page is an excellent example of story telling.
- Share a like. What do you like about what you do? What do you like that has nothing to do with what you do? Michael Martine loves the misty woods, and the air of Montpelier, Vermont, where he lives.
- Disclosures. I don’t include these on my About page, but maybe I should. Chris Brogan provides great detail about his disclosures and relationships.
- First person. In his Authority Blogger course, Chris Garrett recommends writing your About page in the first person to establish a personal connection with the reader. (Authority Blogger teaches how to establishing authority online. Highly recommended!
) - Decked out. Create a snazzy powerpoint (less than 10 slides, please) and use SlideShare to embed into your page.
- Widgetize. Social business cards like Retaggr allow you to aggregate your social streams into a single sexy widget.
- Downloadify. Services like Scribd allow you to embed interactive PDF files. Designers: Let visitors download your portfolio.
- Nav bar vs. Page title. Some themes allow you to create a page title that’s different from the text in your navigation bar, like on my About page.
- The menu. Make sure your About page lists your services, like Chris Garrett does. Some Worpress themes, like Headway, allow you to configure a unique content blocks for lists like services.
- Fries with that. Why are people on your About page? Is there something else they might be interested in? If you’re a non-profit, make sure they can find that donate button!
- Cred. If you have an MBA, PhD or have played for the NBA, mention it but don’t flaunt it.
- Speaking engagements? Yup – put those on there too, but if you get asked to speak a lot like Chris does, just put a link.
- Client list. You don’t have to mention all of your clients (for competition reasons) – just enough so that prospects don’t wonder if they’re your first.
- Ask probing questions. Try asking questions that identify a problem you can solve.
- Link it. Use internal links to your About page whenever you’ve mentioned your work. Michael Martine is a master at doing this. See “Hiring Help for Your Blog”.
- Promote your other social media sites too. Like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and Youtube.
- Post it. Write a post about your “About” page, like GlendaWH did when she got stuck.
- Guest posts. When you do guest posts on other blogs, make sure your intro links back to your about page.
Sex it up
Cha ching
Promotion, promotion, promotion
Freshness is key
Who knows what you’ll be discovering about yourself and the work you’ll be doing in three months. You’ll have more testimonials. You’ll be more refined. Like the rest of your life, your About page is a perpetual draft.
What did I miss?
Photo by Cappry Leiva
