Imagine that you’ve met a friend on the Internet. Let’s call him John. He’s invited you to stay at his beach house in Hawaii. You’ve never seen John face to face. Would you trust him blindly, or would you want to check him out before staying with him? You’d probably want to check him out – I would. Why? Because I would need to trust a person I’m going to spend time with, and knowing more about someone is a way to build that trust. We learn to trust someone as we get to know them. Trust grows through knowing a person. That’s why the About page is important. People who consider becoming a subscriber want to know whom they are following. They want to be able to trust you. And they need to like you. After all, you wouldn’t hang out with someone you don’t like, would you?

What should a basic About page include?

1. A picture of yourself – Put up an image of yourself. People like it. You don’t have to look like a film star! Even better, you might want to publish a video of yourself.

2. An overview of what your blog is about – Share your elevator pitch (the short explanation of what your blog is about) and then expand the explanation. This is the perfect opportunity for you to explain why you’re different from the other bloggers who write in your niche. What makes you special?

3. Your contact information – It’s always nice to include your contact information at the “About” page, especially so if you do not have a contact page. If you’re worried about bots harvesting your e-mail and using it for spamming purposes you can make it harder for those bots by using a modified version of it (e.g., me[at]blogging[dot]com).

4. Share interesting information about yourself – Maybe you like old music? Perhaps you’re good at tennis? This is the time to introduce yourself to the world. Make sure to not only include why people should read your blog. Have something to share that others might find interesting as well.

5. Write in first person – I know there are some well known bloggers who writes in third person for their introduction in the “About” page. Personally, I would not recommend new bloggers to write in third person. This is because unless you’re already well known, it’s obvious you wrote it yourself. If you must write in third person, you can always wait till your blog grows bigger.

6. Share your goals -So you want to conquer the world. Share it to your readers. If you have a goal which is related to your blog or what your blog is about, make sure to share it with them as well.

“A frequent offense we witness with bloggers is an outdated, useless, lame or ugly “about” page. When people visit websites, a shortcut for their getting to know you is to click on your “about” button, so this is your opportunity to capture them. Your about page needs to be catchy and capture the essence of who you or your company is, it should contain some sort of contact information and it should be like a handshake at a party with a quick introduction as to who you are and what you do.

Nik Imran is the writer for IMakeABlog, A blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. Besides blogging tips, he also provide blogging tool reviews. You can check out his thesis review to learn more.

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