I hate writing About pages that feature me. For some reason, I end up just staring at the blank page, any and all ideas ringing false or stupid or just plain bad. And I offer, as proof of my shortcomings, the link to the empty “About” in the nav bar above.
So it was with great interest that I read a recent post of James Chartrand on the Write to Done blog.
Welcome to Generation X and Y, where millions of people crave personality, transparency and honesty. Gone are the days of About pages listing the year of company founding and boring credentials. Now people want to see who you are, how you came to be here and what your favorite color might be.
That doesn’t mean you should use your About page to tell your life story, reveal your deepest, darkest secrets or go on about unrelated traumatic events. Keep the content relevant and concise. Just add a personal touch and give people a taste of who you are. List a bit of ‘you’ trivia. Talk about how you got started. Show a little of the face behind the online mask.
I still haven’t composed a new About page, but armed with this collection of tips, I might stand more of a chance next time round.
Links
Five Tips (and a Bonus!) on How to Write a Fantastic About Page – writetodone.com
